IndianaShep

Director of Sales and Marketing

Who else runs sales and marketing?

I work for a smaller org and pulling $2m in sales a year. 3 years ago my board thought "he's good at sales so let's give him marketing, too." It's been a hell of a lot more work for not much more pay. Naturally my quota didn't go down at all. I hit a breaking point this last week and am now on the job-hunt warpath.

Anyone else have a hand in both the pots? how is it for you? Any thoughts on if I should just call myself "director of sales" instead of "director of sales and marketing" - as in, does it pollute my value as a sales hire for a new org?

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23 comments

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Gasty

Notable Contributor

War Room Community Manager

My first boss said this to me:

𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐟𝐢𝐱 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨.

I don't think it matters if you remove / don't remove the marketing part.

Just ensure you stick to Sales only in the next gig. Good luck!

IndianaShep

Politicker

Director of Sales and Marketing

Yeah, I have a dangerous thirst for problem fixing. Not in a people pleasing way - f$&k that noise - but in an intellectually curious way. It leads me to be taken advantage of and I am learning to set better professional boundaries.

Also, since I’m a decade in in sales I have a god complex, so that doesn’t help. ;)

Thanks for the reply. Appreciate the thoughts.

Filth

Politicker

Live Filthy or Die Clean

It sucks being a control freak sometimes lol.

IndianaShep

Politicker

Director of Sales and Marketing

I am not sure I said it was ok to post that comment. ;)

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Start secretly applying for other jobs and see what you get offered with a title like that. Also make a jobs profile and see who you get matched up with. I'm very curious to see what you get offered 🤔

IndianaShep

Politicker

Director of Sales and Marketing

I have been popping out and got two interview so far (schedules for this upcoming week) and one Bravado text request for a manager role. I think something will happen.

After all, my wife says I’m special.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

I think you are special bb. Keep us posted. I haven't filled out a jobs profile yet so I am waiting to see what happens with your journey. 🦊

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

I did that at my last job, it's best to have someone dedicated to marketing handle that.

Though I did enjoy it and find it quire interesting.

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

Sales Rep

Interesting spot

IndianaShep

Politicker

Director of Sales and Marketing

I’m taking that as a compliment. :)

adrienmc

Good Citizen

Founder @LaGrowthMachine

It’s a very good idea to have someone from sales contribute heavily to the marketing strategy. What the board did wrong was the incentive.

First of all, quota means individual contribution. Whereas marketing (and even VPish work) is global contribution.

You can’t expect someone to attain quota and contribute elsewhere, you are not the founder of the company and it shouldn’t be expected of you to be involved that much.

For the move to be successful, you should have been put to a full management position with clear KPIs related to it, no more individual quota

IndianaShep

Politicker

Director of Sales and Marketing

Thanks bud. I have enjoyed it, but the moving goalposts is really, really difficult. Also I’m the sole sales and marketing person so sadly in my case individual quota = global contribution. We have grown 16% average YoY for the last five years. I’m exhausted.

SalesMama

Executive

Senior Account Executive

Don’t put marketing in your title if you don’t want to do marketing going forward…

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Probably a good call 🤔

LordOfWar

Tycoon

Blow it up

Yes and although I hate the extra work for no comp and it takes away from my time selling, I do like being in control of our messaging. No shitty leads from marketing, since I can target exactly what I want when I put content out there. The problem is when I'm busy on actual sales I don't have time to put anything out and so it grinds to a halt. We're also a heavy B2B/B2G company so I'm at odds with the boss on if marketing will ever lead to real leads or just enhance our brand image.

I'm looking to hire a marketing person but the boss is having a bit of a disconnect on what people are expecting these days.

As for titles, I'm titled Sales Director but I'm both sales and marketing director. I lean towards the more encompassing title but that's because I think titles should actually matter. Title inflation is unfortunately too real and there is a risk that being too broad signals expertise in nothing.

CRO may not be a bad title. Or Director of Revenue Ops maybe.

Filth

Politicker

Live Filthy or Die Clean

At my last role I was put in charge of both marketing and sales and goddamn did it suck. For me as a salesperson, the marketing was soooo much more work for what I got out of it. I'd have rather outsourced the whole thing. It's better to get it done right and if you use a 3rd party, you can hold them accountable to goals/leads/market awareness.

"Don't half ass two things, whole ass one thing" - Ron Swanson

sketchysales

Politicker

Sales Manager

Know many who have carried both batons and I have to say, one or the other takes precedence and the other falls behind. A strategy I saw well implemented was there was a sales and marketing manager but that manager effectively hired himself a sub manager and focused on the sales side and everyone was happy

Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

You should tailor your resume for the job you’re applying for. Change your title appropriately.

IndianaShep

Politicker

Director of Sales and Marketing

Isn’t this job search 101? Apologies if I was not clear but I am more looking for some deeper level analysis here. My bigger question is how is this perceived externally.

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

yeah i am glad to see you moving on. marketing is its own beast and needs a dedicated person to run that function. not the director of sales.

I would just call your self Director of Sales. I DO think saying director of sales and marketing dilutes your value.

you think taking on more would increase your value but i think many ppl think if your doing both you might not be GREAT at ether you know?

Keep us posted on this journey im interested to see how it goes

GDO

Politicker

BDM

If you can make marketing work and help the sales team. Why not? Seems awesome to get value out of them

antiASKHOLE

Tycoon

Bravado's Resident Asshole

I would rather keep it separate. That way we have someone to blame when it comes to shit marketing and not get shit on in sales when it doesn't work.

Skynyrd

Personal Narrative

National Sales Director

Yes, but marketing is another animal. You need two strong people under you, a traffic coordinator and a visionary, or it will just not work.

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IndianaShep

Who else runs sales and marketing?

23 comments

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