Heinz Marketing Argues Sales Should Report to Marketing in B2B
Heinz Marketing post makes the case for marketing ownership of go-to-market strategy with sales reporting into the function.
A Heinz Marketing article maintains that sales should report into marketing when companies execute go-to-market correctly. The post responds to a livestream comment from Sangram Vajre disagreeing with the author's earlier statement on marketing ownership of GTM.
Core Premise from the Post
According to Heinz Marketing, marketing functions as a verb defined as activating a market rather than solely producing materials. The article states that the function designing the commercial motion must remain accountable for its results. It references CPG brand management as a model where one leader owns overall go-to-market strategy.
Limitations of the CPG Analogy
The post identifies specific issues with applying the CPG model directly. P&G brand and sales responsibilities remain separate and distinct, with trade spend, shelf placement, distribution, and retailer pricing handled by sales. In the late 1980s P&G restructured its sales department into Customer Business Development, incorporating logistics, finance, IT, and marketing while removing sales quotas. Chief Growth Officer roles at Coca-Cola, Mondelez, Colgate, Coty, and Kellogg’s placed marketing near the center of commercial operations, yet Coca-Cola eliminated its global CMO role before restoring it two years later.
Survey Data on Current B2B Structures
According to Heinz Marketing, the CMO Survey from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business polled 308 marketing leaders, 97 percent at VP level or above and roughly two-thirds from B2B companies. Results showed brand responsibility at 94 percent, digital at 93 percent, advertising at 87 percent, pricing at 28 percent, and sales at 19 percent. Forrester analysis found executive-level CMO presence at B2B companies declining from 48 percent to 42 percent in one year. Spencer Stuart data indicated 31 percent of S&P 500 companies lack a chief marketing officer, with software firms increasingly appointing chief revenue officers instead. Anteriad’s survey of 631 B2B marketing decision-makers found 36 percent reporting to the CEO and 33 percent reporting to a sales leader.
B2B Structural Differences
The article notes that the Duke survey recorded the highest collaboration score between marketing and sales at 5.79 out of 7. Heinz Marketing concludes that B2B organizations face a single customer rather than separate consumer and retailer entities, removing the structural barrier present in CPG.
