Why don't they play nicely together?

Forrester Research published a survey in October called Improving B2B Lead Management. The core of the research is that Marketing and Sales aren't working closely together. I'm afraid that isn't newsworthy. Sales Director congratulates Marketing Director for quality of sales leads ... now that is a headline in the 'man bites dog' category.

The core of the problem is that often the two functions are simply targeted to do different things in different ways and very few organisations look on their Marketing investments as being the first stage of a Sales ROI. Until the whole process becomes significantly more joined up and both functions are measured by metrics which have real relevance for the organisation it is unlikely that the situation will change.