The biggest factor is the way the sales and marketing teams work together

When the Sales and Marketing team work together, a lot can get done, which can work in harmony with the company.

The selling function is an important element of the overall marketing process. Many organizations establish a separate sales function, apart from other elements of the marketing process. This is often a sound business strategy but can lead to a chasm between Sales and the other marketing elements. Even when both are contained within a unified Marketing Department, separate sales and marketing groups often create the situation where they have competing views of the marketplace, competing objectives and competing priorities (e.g., budget, prestige).

One area that often creates the opportunity for jurisdictional disputes and other serious problems is lead generation. In many instances, some component of the Marketing Department is responsible for developing leads and then turns them over to the Sales Department. "Discussions" over the timing and quality of leads are a top topic at almost all Sales-Marketing joint meetings.

Make sure that planning and executions of plans are always coordinated, and that all programs are integrated across both marketing and sales efforts

A good team of professionals focused on proactively doing actions and investing resources that concerns the customers (keeping in mind these factors):

1. No Customers = No Business
2. Every Customer has UNMET needs.
3. The Customer Base must be dynamic and plans must exist to successfully:

ACQUIRE NEW CUSTOMERS
RETAIN PRESENT CUSTOMERS
REGAIN FORMER CUSTOMERS

And most importantly, the term CUSTOMER SATISFACTION must be defined from the customer's perspective. Analogy: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.......therefore CUSTOMER SATISFACTION is in the eye of the CUSTOMER. (Too often many companies define customer satisfaction in their own terms and expect it to apply to ALL the customers)

Priya Mishra