I just came across an article written on BNET’s blog about the organisational conflicts that may arise between sales and marketing. As both services are in fact made to work closely together, this issue seemed rather interesting to me and I thought about sharing it with you.
Conflicts are not to be considered normal
Whereas Steve Tobak, the author, gives word to the most common thoughts that this animosity is inevitable, he claims that on the contrary this is not inevitable" and should not be considered normal. He clearly points out the type of organisational conflict he stresses on: "about organizational conflict — the seemingly endless animosity, finger-pointing, and disruptive churn that plagues most companies."
Facing the conflict may offer ways to solve it
When acknowledging the problem it provides you the possibility to approach it in a more rational way, thus being able to suggest different solutions. Let’s face it, any organisational conflict jeopardises the company’s results. Whether the CEO may or may not be aware of it, sometimes these conflicts are very delicately hidden but very persistent; he (or she) wants results in the end.
Steve Tobak suggests some guidelines on how to overcome this conflict situation, and moreover with some rational ideas such like different measurement types: they can share certain success metrics and goals for example.
Read more
If you want to read more about Steve Tobak’s article: Steve Tobak at BNET on sales vs marketing conflicts
