So much of what’s out there today is old thinking. Not old marketing or old sales thinking. But rather, the “silo” approach which separates these functions as if they existed independent of one another.

The fact is that they are as dependent on one another as nutrition and exercise are for improving someone’s overall health. In companies looking to achieve revenue and market share goals, overall company health is simply the ability to impact a specific market – as close to plan as possible.

When Marketing “bakes” the big ideas of positioning, pricing and placement, Sales has to face off with real people who say “yes” or “no“.

…and yet, in company after company, sales execs and sales management are to be “seen and not heard”, like little children at a long-ago Thanksgiving gathering.

So who knows what works with real prospects and customers? Who can shape the message to yield “yes”? Direct Sales is across the table from the very people Marketing wants to reach. So why not just let sales decide the message, pricing and positioning strategy? Well, because it would be like lettting the kids cook Thanksgiving dinner – you’d get chocolate turkeys and ice cream salads – in other words, you’d get the opposite problem: a myopic, current view of reality vs. a longer term vision of the reality you want to create.

The answer then is KISS simple: talk to one another; test the ideas you have with the people who have to deliver the message; and then, respect the strategic view and toolset of those who craft messages, etc.

In short: recognize that your company’s “Revenue Health” is dependent on “Nutrition” (Marketing) and “Exercise” (Sales) working together on the same plan.

Enjoy dinner.