What is interesting is the conflict of interest that can lead to. A sales leader who is responsible for both sales and marketing might have a vested interest in tossing marketing under the bus if they can't get traction or close.
It also makes it hard to get projects off the ground that can have a long-term payoff since Sales tends to be very focused on the short-term tangibles, even if the former are critical to healthy growth in the big picture (think SEO, branding, laying the infrastructure for automation, etc.).
Having marketing as a distinct group can help make sure there is a healthy conversation between the various priorities, and also make sure there's a voice that is empowered to say "look, we mutually agreed on these lead scoring criteria, and fact of the matter is you're not following up on all leads within 24hrs, that's not marketing's fault."
I actually had that conversation once before when the sales lead also owned marketing. This was also an individual who ignored my need to have all sales conversations logged and categorized correctly in our CRM, so there were other issues.
What happens when you do it the other way around: having salespeople work for your marketing team, essentially being their "finishers"? It seems like you'd get not-necessarily-good-or-bad effects like marketing feeling empowered to offer discounts and bundles through "their" sales force.
You might get that, or you might get undo blame on the sales team if lead quality is an issue. Of course, that's why it is critical to understand what a quality lead is, and have objective criteria for it.
Ultimately, I think the two disciplines, while related and needing to work together, are relatively separate. Their incentives should be aligned, and that is not always possible to implement in some sales organizations.
It also makes it hard to get projects off the ground that can have a long-term payoff since Sales tends to be very focused on the short-term tangibles, even if the former are critical to healthy growth in the big picture (think SEO, branding, laying the infrastructure for automation, etc.).
Having marketing as a distinct group can help make sure there is a healthy conversation between the various priorities, and also make sure there's a voice that is empowered to say "look, we mutually agreed on these lead scoring criteria, and fact of the matter is you're not following up on all leads within 24hrs, that's not marketing's fault."
I actually had that conversation once before when the sales lead also owned marketing. This was also an individual who ignored my need to have all sales conversations logged and categorized correctly in our CRM, so there were other issues.