Consolidating sales and marketing at the top

Should sales and marketing be one single department led by the CRO?

I know there is controversy around this and it tickles the “fear” button in both sales and marketing leaders, but here it goes 🥁…:

“Sales and marketing should be in one department.”

Why?

Because I love love love what happens when one gal is responsible* for brand AND demand AND money in the bank at the end of the day.

*And they (have no choice but) care about each one equally.

That last notion is muy importante. Why?

Bc what ends up happening in growth/revenue departments (and it’s a real threat to this model) is that the chief revenue officer (CRO) is – – someone with – a sales background who
– doesn’t get and doesn’t want to get progressive B2B demand generation, so

marketing ends up back in stage 3 (see video).

The positive scenario…:

What ends up happening at a few progressive companies is that the CRO is an ex-sales person who is invested in/believes in demand generation and branding.

And cares about them just as much as leads and revenue.

Of course, if the organization is large enough, they’ll have a separate marketing and sales dept led by respective heads… but the CRO will consolidate things at the top.

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