VPs of Marketing and Sales should “have a pint”

People who work to generate revenue for companies understand the long-standing friction between marketing and sales departments. Often the relationship is at best cordial, at worst outright subversive. But the growing consensus, at least among top management, is that the two should be inextricably linked to the same accountability, metrics, and goals. 

A few years back I ran a US company that we moved to Dublin, Ireland lock, stock and barrel. We were a brazen Internet start-up with the requisite start-uppity employees; young, smart and passionate. Work was everything to us and, as Americans do, we personalized and internalized our work life.

Our approach to work puzzled our new Irish employees. They did not understand the heated debates and arguments among our American group. I remember hearing ”Why don’t they just go to the pub and have a pint?”

“Having a pint” as communications platform has stuck with me as a great solution to aligning goals and teams. Regular  off-campus one-on-ones do wonders for relationships and results.

Grab a pint and get over it, as they would tell us in Dublin. Perhaps you’ll forge closer relationships with those whose fortunes are so closely linked to your own.