Is it Sales and/or Marketing??

Someone has ignited a fuse.... MY fuse ... I have been following Twitter and the tweets from @MarketingWeekEd and with that many of the comments about Sales and Marketing as separate entities. Some I just couldn't. I was on the verge of tipping myself over the edge.

I know they are only commenting ... and everyone only sees things from their own point of view .... but what a bucket of generalism!

• On one side there is: Remembering Ritson's view Know When to Shut the Door on a Customer.

• One the other side there is apparently 'controversially' the CIM suggesting sales & marketing merge  Marketing needs to Merge with Sales to Safeguard its Future 

PURLEEZ!! First and foremost it depends on what the business is trying to achieve... It is then up to Marketing to make that happen or at very least influence results enough to make it easier for the rest of the business to make that happen....

... And given that there are a lot of businesses out there, that are more focused on working to get and keep paying customers, most marketing people couldn't function if they didn't understand sales... and when I say 'sales' I mean .... to be a quality that makes people want to buy, have, to do or not do something.

Its all very well sitting there in a Marketing tower, talking.

Marketing - like Sales, should, and in the main is, measured on results. And Marketing should be lead by what the business for which/whom it is fulfilling its role actually wants - ie The Marketing function understands their own clients needs and works to get them what they want.... It's not rocket science and it astounds me every time when people try to make it complicated!!!