The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines marketing in this manner:

1a: the act or process of selling or purchasing in a market

1b: the process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service

2: an aggregate of functions involved in moving goods from producer to consumer

Some companies have an individual in charge of sale and marketing although this is a somewhat ridiculous title as sales is a function of marketing, at least the two supposedly independent functions reside under one individual.  However, other companies will have a manager in charge of sales and a manager in charge of marketing, which really means you have two managers who are responsible for sales. 

If marketing is truly “an aggregate of functions involved in moving goods from producer to consumer” and I believe it is, then the proper structure would be to have any sales management reporting to the marketing management.

Selling is definitely a sub function of marketing and companies that attempt to separate the two are making a serious strategic business error.  If marketing, which most companies believe to be only the functions of advertising, promotion, public relations and communication is not driving sales then you will have a dysfunctional sales department and an ineffective marketing department because sales won’t have the tools and support necessary to prospect and close new business and marketing will be creating programs that are not customer driven.

What makes the whole scenario even more convoluted is that sales mangers no longer manage salesmen, or salespeople, to be politically correct, they manage marketing representatives, directors of business development, sales engineers (another oxymoron) or some other meaningless nomenclature. Salespeople just don’t exist anymore, they have gone the way of the dinosaur, however sales managers still expect these individuals to provide sales reports and are graded on their ability to sell the product or service in question, just don’t call them salespeople.

Does any of this make any sense? It certainly does not make any sense to me.

I am proud to say that over the years I have successfully marketed products to more than 60 countries on six continents. A major part of that marketing included being a salesman, I prospected, and then I closed business. In other words I sold products and services. Being successful, my career expanded into management, but to this day I have refused the combined position that was “sales and marketing”. Hence I have been a VP of Marketing and had sales managers reporting to me and made sure that they had “salespeople” reporting to them. Since then I have grown into loftier and more senior positions and I now have senior marketing people reporting to me – not sales.

But I am getting old and will end up going the way of the dinosaur and my replacements will implement “sales and marketing” management and departments.

If it was not for the customers, this would be a great place to work!