Marketing and sales both want to grow. So why does it stall?
Marketing points to the number of enquiries. Sales says the enquiries aren't good enough. Meanwhile, the customer hears different stories, and it stays unclear where an opportunity is being lost.
You could try to resolve the discussion with a shared goal. But "more revenue" still doesn't say which customer gets priority, when an enquiry is followed up, or what you need from each other.
So examine the agreements around a real customer journey. One concrete handover reveals more than a general discussion about collaboration.
Do you mean the same thing by a good enquiry?
An enquiry may be relevant to marketing because someone holds the right job title and shows interest. Sales might look at budget, timing and the likelihood of winning the business. Service already looks ahead to whether the organisation can deliver on the promise.
None of these perspectives needs to be wrong. The problem arises when they are not explicitly combined. Then a team can hit its own target while the shared result disappoints.
Describe what information is needed at the first enquiry and what only becomes available later. Also make room for different kinds of opportunities: someone with a concrete purchase question needs something different from someone who is still exploring.
Follow one enquiry from start to finish
Choose a recent enquiry that is subject to discussion. Look at what the customer saw, what expectation was created, what the customer filled in, who responded and what happened afterwards.
Was the enquiry a poor fit from the start? Was the follow-up too slow? Was a service promised that wasn't available? Or was the reason the customer dropped out missing? These are different problems with different follow-up steps.
Make the information available jointly without turning it into an assessment of individual employees. The goal is to understand which agreement or information is missing.
Four agreements to make explicit
The customer. Which target audience are both teams currently working for? Which enquiries fit that and which don't, and why?
The promise. What may someone expect after an advert, a form or a first conversation? Does that match what sales and service can actually deliver?
The handover. Which information travels with the enquiry, who is the point of contact, and what happens if something is missing?
The feedback. How does information about won, lost and postponed opportunities make its way back to marketing? Who uses that information for the next decision?
These are working questions, not a universal step-by-step model. Use only what helps improve the concrete collaboration.
What does a constellation add to this?
A marketing constellation can be an additional method when those involved, despite having the same information, still hold different pictures of the situation. You might, for example, give marketing, sales, service, the customer and the shared assignment a place.
From that constellation you can explore which perspectives get attention and which questions are missing. Does a team feel responsible for a result it has little influence over? Is it unclear who keeps following up with the customer after the handover? These are possible topics for further research.
What participants experience is not a judgement of how another department truly functions. Check interpretations against conversations, agreements and customer information.
A working agreement you can test
Suppose enquiries regularly disappear from view after handover. Agree that every handed-over enquiry gets an owner and a visible status. Agree together which statuses are useful and when a follow-up action is needed.
Then periodically discuss a few concrete examples. Was the owner clear? Was a next step agreed? What reason did the customer give for not continuing? And did marketing use that information?
Don't just look at the number of enquiries. Also look at the quality of the follow-up and the eventual customer contact. More activity in one department is not yet proof of better collaboration.
When is a session not the first step?
If customer information is missing, or the system doesn't route enquiries properly, start there. If target audiences and responsibilities have not been recorded, make those discussable first. A constellation is not a substitute for information that can simply be gathered.
If the same discussion keeps recurring while the basics are known, it can be worthwhile to also examine the undercurrent in the collaboration. Always with the shared work and the customer as the starting point.