Correspondence: Laura Patterson, Vision Edge Marketing, PO Box 342546, Austin, TX 78734, USA. Tel: +1 512 681 8800 E-mail: laurap@visionedgemarketing.com

¹is a 25 plus year marketing and sales veteran having worked for both large public companies such as State Farm and Motorola and as well as start ups. In her career she has only worked for two types of people, engineers and accountants, both care deeply about data and numbers and so her passion for metrics was really based on career survival. In 1999 she co-founded VisionEdge Marketing (www.visionedgemarketing.com), a data-driven metrics-based strategic and product marketing company that specializes in improving marketing performance and helping organizations create a competitive advantage designed to attract, secure and retain profitable customers. Author of dozens of published marketing and branding articles and the books Gone Fishin' and Measure What Matters, Laura has served on several nonprofit boards, provided programming for professional organizations such as the ANA and BMA and has served as a guest lecturer at various universities, including the University of Texas at Austin, Stanford University, and Purdue University. Laura earned her BA from Truman State University and her Master's at the University of South Florida.

Abstract

Marketing and Sales are both responsible for generating revenue for the company. Regardless of various approaches taken by companies to address this issue, the lack of alignment and collaboration between marketing and sales persists. Both organizations need to change for the organization to succeed. This paper suggests how moving Marketing and Sales from a transactional approach to a customer-centric approach and using the customer buying process aligns the organizations and improves both organizations' effectiveness at growing the top line.