Paper info

Relationships Between Marketing & Sales: The Role of Power and Influence

Graham Massey and Philip Dawes

The paper was published at the 17th IMP-conference in Oslo, Norway in 2001.

Gaining a better understanding of marketing's cross-functional relationships (CFRs)has considerable importance for both academics and practitioners. The purpose ofthis paper is to explore the nature of one of the least understood of marketing's CFRsviz., that with sales. Focusing on the key outcome variable of relationshipeffectiveness, we develop and test a model to provide insights into the factors whicheither increase or decrease the effectiveness of the marketing/sales workingrelationship. Our proposed model hypothesizes that the power of the marketingdepartment and the stakeholding of the marketing manager, affect perceivedrelationship effectiveness through the mediating variables of interdependence,influence strategies, manifest influence, and interpersonal trust.