Why do sales and marketing teams see the same customer differently?

In many organisations, sales and marketing teams talk about the same customer, but see them from different places. Marketing says, “We brought in leads”; sales says, “They weren’t the right people.” Each team is right from its own point of view.

Different timeframes, different scales

The marketing team looks at a longer timeframe and a broader audience: the market, segments, brand perception. The sales team looks at today and the customer in front of them: this proposal, this meeting. This difference is natural. The problem begins when the two views are unaware of each other.

A shared journey, shared definitions

One effective way to bring the two teams together is to map the customer journey together: How does the customer get to know us? Where do they hesitate? When do they make their decision? This exercise also gives shared definitions to concepts such as “qualified lead” or “handover to sales”. Otherwise, the two teams keep meaning different things by the same words.

Insight from the field

The sales team hears the customer’s real objections and language. When this insight reaches marketing regularly, messages come closer to reality; and the content marketing produces becomes, in the hands of sales, a tool that makes conversations with customers easier.

A good place to start might be to bring both teams to the same table to talk about one recently won and one recently lost customer. Seeing the same customer together through two windows often changes more than long meetings do.

Related page: Marketing consulting