Hassan Sherwani ROLE OF SALES AND MARKETING IN ... - Oulu

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Marketing is responsible for devising the sales material and generating leads for the
sales. Both marketing and sales stress the consultative and educating approach towards
dealing with their customers and this is seen as a major part in the customer value
creation. For example, the focus of sales is not to sell the technical specifications, but
rather to highlight the value that comes in the form of saved time, resources and money.
Both functions seem to bear the responsibility for their own specific areas.
When asked how they personally perceive the distinctive roles between marketing and
sales, the interviewees saw the functions as having their own specific strengths that they
should focus on, but they also noted the overlapping in the work of the functions and
recognized the need for cross-functional collaboration. They regard the sales function as
being a bit more dominating, while the marketing function has more of a supporting role
within the company. They say this as they perceive the goal of the collaboration between
marketing and sales to be: “to generate more leads and opportunities for sales in order to
execute as leading function” ( Tuomi and Lehto ,2013). If the sales function is valued to
a much greater extent within the organization, then perhaps the opinions of the
marketing personnel might have brought up any potential discord between the functions
better. Moreover, it is safe at a local level however; if company would operate as an
international organization then there might be serious consensus.
Perhaps the main coordination methods of marketing and sales in Oulun Sähkönmyynti
are the meetings between the representatives of both functions. There are weekly
meetings in which the marketing persons operating within the business units, who
coordinate the marketing activities. There are also meetings once a quarter, where
representatives of the marketing function, i.e. Project manager and his team to analyze
the performance of company. These meetings have a more long-term agenda, while the
weekly meetings may concern smaller matters such as small exhibitions or seminars, and
other ongoing sales and marketing activities. During budget planning rough estimations
for that particular year are devised, and decisions regarding attendance in larger
exhibitions are also made, as the preparations for such an event may last a whole year.
Marketing and sales share mutual IT-systems, such the company intranet and other
platforms for sharing data, sales material and leads gathered from sales/marketing