Sales and Marketing Should be Separate Functions in Startups

Sales and marketing are tightly linked, complementary disciplines. Too often in startups I hear that the one sales guy also does the marketing. Now, if the startup can’t afford to separate the functions that’s one thing, but sales and marketing are two distinct functions. When I see a single person with the title VP of Sales and Marketing it often means the company takes a German approach — beat down the door with sales people and don’t bother with marketing.

Here are a few reasons sales and marketing should be separate functions in startups:

• Lead lifecycles are so complicated with visitor, prospect, marketing qualified lead, sales qualified lead, opportunity, and closed deal stages that it requires specialized knowledge to optimize each one
• Marketing is often more measured in their approach which provides a nice yin to the yang of sales people that tend to embellish what can be done
• Sales managers tend to be more sports-coach-like with an emphasis on motivating sales people while marketing managers tend to be more creative with an emphasis on project management
• Marketing should be charge of messaging, content, events, positioning, etc while sales should be in charge of helping leads through the sales process

Historically marketing was viewed as a sales support function, but with the advent of marketing automation, marketing has all the accountability and credibility of other major departments. Sales and marketing should be separate functions in startups.

What else? What are some other reasons sales and marketing should be separate functions in startups?