Is your business led by sales or marketing?

Some companies are led by sales, whereas others are led by marketing. Sales are the lifeline of any business. Other parts of a business are important, but there is no business without sales. On the other hand, selling without marketing is very difficult. Marketing enables selling through strategic focus and tactical support. In a perfect world, sales and marketing should balance one another, adjusting to market changes.

Your org chart can say a lot about your company. Does marketing report to sales, or vice versa? Are your sales and marketing leaders peers? It’s common for many B2B companies to be more sales-led, where the marketing leader works for the sales leader, on paper or otherwise. In these situations, there is a risk of marketing becoming sales support, which isn’t marketing at all.

Sales can feel like swimming upstream—whether a lack of customer love or other market forces are holding you back. The best salespeople are great swimmers who learn to cut through the current. Many CEOs achieve that position by creating or growing businesses and often remain the highest-level salesperson in the organization. You could surmise that sales lead all companies, which is true to some degree.

For many forward-looking companies, this is becoming less true. Sales are always at risk of being overly short-term: Always be closing. It’s about this year, this quarter, this month. Sales are about today, which ensures tomorrow, but leadership in a changing market requires looking farther ahead.

Marketing should make sales easier. Too often, marketing dollars seem like a gamble—expenses without a known outcome. All rewards come with risk, but if done well, marketing can be like flippers (or better yet, a speedboat) pushing you faster upriver. If it’s not working, something should change. A tighter, more meaningful value proposition can help you be more effective.

Marketing should make sales easier.

In the commercial furniture industry, there is dealer-led business and designer-led business. Often, furniture dealers are more focused on selling, and A&D (architects and designers) are more responsive to marketing. We might imagine the market as two halves on a bell curve, with most of the business in the middle. Each domain is seeking the approval of the other.

Historically, dealer-led businesses have been more transactional, down-market, and focused on price and operational efficiency. Manufacturers oriented toward dealer-led business are highly focused on sales, viewing dealers as their primary customers. They seek good enough approval from designers as they approach the middle of the market or risk hitting a ceiling for their growth.

Designers have more influence at the top of the market. Unlike dealers, they don’t process transactions and can be viewed as unbiased third parties. They focus on translating a client’s vision through the user of space, product function, and aesthetics. Manufacturers oriented toward designer-led business focus on their brand and marketing, viewing end clients as their primary customers. They seek "good enough" approval from dealers or risk not being specified based on price and dependability.

Dealer business is often sales-led, and designer business is often marketing-led. Sales and marketing need to work together for the greatest effect.

Dealer-oriented sales-led manufacturers attempt to become acceptable functional and stylistic options for designers, who view product specification as a reflection of their own taste and identity. They need to make better brand promises.

Designer-oriented marketing-led manufacturers attempt to become viable specification alternatives for dealers who value efficient transactions as their core competencies. They need to improve their ability to deliver value through their brand promises.

Reinvention begins with awareness.

It’s not really that simple. Trends, market consolidation, and technology are changing the game. Work is evolving rapidly to become more hybrid, remote, asynchronous, and global. Bigger, more sophisticated dealers are acting as much like design firms as historical dealers. The emergence of marketing automation, CRM systems, and other digital transactions is reshaping the role of both sales and marketing. These things muddy the picture, but historical patterns remain, and the opportunity for reinvention begins with awareness.

Sales and marketing must work together for smooth sailing. Sales are about moving upstream, but remember that a blue ocean of opportunity lies ahead at the mouth of the river.