Interfacing and customer-facing: Sales and marketing selling centers

Abstract

Organizations are turning to the collective knowledge of selling teams in order to manage increasingly complex customers and solutions. One specific cross-functional unit that organizations are commonly using when selling to business-to-business customers is a team of sales and marketing personnel. While the interface between sales and marketing has received attention in the literature, which notes the inherent advantages and challenges of incorporating both roles on a team, opportunities remain to examine sales and marketing selling centers (SMSCs): instances where sales and marketing jointly and directly interact on a relatively temporary basis in customer-facing situations. The authors utilize a discovery-oriented, theories-in-use inquiry to better understand customer-facing SMSC processes, facilitators, and outcomes. Based on insights captured from 29 in-depth interviews with informants who each served on SMSCs in both sales and marketing roles, this study extends sales research by providing a dual perspective of those working on SMSCs, thus enhancing the utility of such malleable selling teams.