Thomas Ligor of New York is a marketing and sales executive at the Chelsea Market. In the following article, Mr. Ligor explains how these two areas of a company’s operations cooperate to generate more prospects, leads, and ultimately customers.

Business can often feel like a web of interconnected yet rarely collaborative departments that somehow make a company run. On the one hand, there’s marketing with its flashy campaigns and eye-catching visuals. On the other, there’s sales with its quotas and numbers. Thomas Ligor explains that these two responsibilities often have different goals and operate using specialized strategies, so it’s no wonder that they can feel like they’re working in opposition at times.

Yet, viewing them as separate entities ignores the fact that they are inextricably linked. Marketing may be responsible for creating awareness and demand for a company’s products or services, but it’s the sales team that closes the final deal. One without the other simply wouldn’t work. To better understand how they do work together, Thomas Ligor reviews more below about their joint duties.

Marketing and Sales Work with Overlapping Goals and Metrics

Even though marketing and sales may have different strategies for achieving their goals, the goals themselves are often very similar. For example, both departments may be trying to increase brand awareness or grow revenue. Thomas Ligor says that the main difference is that marketing is focused on the long term while sales is more concerned with the short term.

Marketing may be working on a campaign that won’t show any results for months, but sales needs to close deals now in order to hit their quotas. This overlap in goals and metrics is important to keep in mind because it means that the two departments need to be in constant communication with each other.

Thomas Ligor says that marketing should keep sales updated on any new campaigns or initiatives so that they can adjust their sales pitch accordingly. Similarly, sales should share any feedback they receive from customers so that marketing can use it to improve their strategy.

Marketing Creates the Foundation for Sales

If marketing is responsible for creating awareness and demand, then it’s safe to say that they lay the groundwork for sales. Thomas Ligor says that it’s up to marketing to generate leads and get potential customers interested in a company’s products or services. They do this through a variety of channels including advertising, public relations, content marketing, and social media.

Once a lead has been generated, the sales team needs to close the deal. This is why it’s so important for marketing and sales to work together. If marketing is generating leads that sales can’t close, then the entire process falls apart. Similarly, if sales is closing deals but marketing isn’t generating any leads, then the company will eventually run out of customers.

Thomas Ligor explains that it’s only by working together that they can ensure that the leads generated are high quality and that the deals closed are profitable.

Sales Provides Valuable Feedback to Marketing

As Thomas Ligor mentions above, sales provides valuable feedback to marketing. This feedback can take many different forms, but it all comes down to understanding how customers interact with a company’s products or services. Sales teams have a front-row seat to this interaction, which gives them a unique perspective that marketing can use to improve their strategy.

For example, sales teams may notice that certain products are being sold more frequently than others. This information can be used by marketing to create targeted campaigns for these products. Or, sales teams may notice that customers are having trouble understanding a certain aspect of a product. This feedback can be used by marketing to create better educational materials or make changes to the product itself.

Both Sales and Marketing are Integral to Customer Relations

While marketing is responsible for creating awareness and demand, and sales is responsible for closing deals, it’s important to remember that both departments are integral to the customer relationship. Thomas Ligor explains that this is because the customer journey doesn’t end once a deal is closed. In fact, it’s only just beginning.

It’s up to both marketing and sales to ensure that customers are satisfied with their purchase and that they continue to do business with the company in the future. This can be done in a number of ways, but it often involves working together to create targeted campaigns and initiatives.

The Bottom Line

Sales and marketing may often seem like they’re working in different directions, but the truth is that they’re both working towards the same goal: growing a company’s revenue. This is only possible by working together and sharing information and feedback. Only then can they ensure that the leads generated are high quality and that the deals closed are profitable.