Strategic sales organizations: transformation challenges and facilitators within the sales–marketing interface

Abstract

As business firms embrace the emerging strategic sales organizations, they need to be mindful of the intra-organizational factors that may facilitate or challenge this transformation and its related strategic imperatives. Using depth-interview data collected from 38 sales and marketing executives, this study highlights the similarities and differences in sales and marketing personnel's perceptions about the role they and their counterparts may play in the strategic process. Drawing on these insights, it then brings forth the ‘role-related’ and ‘process-related’ factors that may facilitate and challenge strategic imperatives associated with the new sales paradigm. This paper thus highlights the nuances of the role expectations within the sales–marketing interface, and its impact on strategic imperatives that may determine the firm's movement toward a strategic customer management philosophy.

Keywords:

• sales-marketing interface
• qualitative
• transformation
• challenges
• facilitators

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to acknowledge two grants for providing support for this research: Research Assistance Grant from the Faculty Development Center, and Dean's Summer Research Grant from the Opus College of Business; both at the University of St Thomas.