Sales VP’s and Marketing VP’s – Combine Them or Not?

Pete Caputa pointed me to an article on the Revenue Journal Blog about why you should combine the VP of Marketing and VP of Sales Roles and what the sales part of that role should be.

Zhivago says that the position should be a VP of Sales and Marketing, the individual should be a marketing person and goes on to explain why.  Well, in my opinion, she’s wrong!

Marketing people can’t manage salespeople because they don’t have the expertise or credibility to coach them, and they don’t have the kahunas to hold them accountable.

Most Sales VP’s can’t perform the marketing function either.  They know what they need – leads, visibility, positioning, messaging, etc., but don’t know how to effectively get what they need.

Two positions. Two roles. Two people. Two skill sets. Real World.  One of my clients learned this the hard way. Their last VP of Sales and Marketing was a marketing person and didn’t really get the sales side of it. They lost 18 months because of this mistake. Today this individual is the VP of Marketing.  A real Sales VP has been hired.

(c) Copyright 2009 Dave Kurlan