Why Sales & Marketing Aren’t a Trade-Off

Why cutting marketing first is short-sighted, and what CEOs should really expect instead

Every time business gets tough, the same debate re-emerges in boardrooms: “Do we prioritise sales or marketing?” But this is the wrong question. Sales and marketing are not a trade-off — they are complementary. One builds demand, the other converts it. Together, they form the commercial engine that powers growth.

Why Sales Needs Marketing (and Marketing Needs Sales)

In both B2C and B2B, sales plays an important role when human connection is needed: to explain, de-risk, and close. But let’s be honest — the conversation is a lot easier when the prospect has already heard of your brand, understands what you do, and has some sense of why you matter.

That is what marketing does. It warms the ground, builds awareness, sparks interest, and makes your sales team’s job a hundred times easier. Done well, marketing ensures conversion feels natural — not forced.

Cut marketing, and you’re asking sales to climb a hill without oxygen.

Do Companies Invest Enough?

There’s data to guide this:

• Most B2B organisations invest around 2–5% of revenue in marketing; B2C firms typically sit higher, around 5–10%.
• Forrester’s 2024 data shows the average B2B firm invests 8% of annual revenue in marketing.
• Larger, brand-driven companies can go higher. For example, e.l.f. Beauty allocated 25% of net sales to marketing in 2024, with strong growth to show for it.

Yet, many companies invest far less—then expect miracles. Growth doesn’t come from hope; it comes from balance and persistence.

The new CEO Laurent Freixe of Nestlé admitted that underinvestment had hurt sales growth and market share. He recently made headlines by re-committing to increasing advertising and marketing spend to 9% of total sales by 2025, as he said:

“For our brands to win in the market, we need to invest.”

(Source: Reuters) Reuters

The Myth of “Magic in Three Months”

Here’s where many CEOs trip up: expecting marketing to turn results from 0 to 100 in a matter of months. Marketing doesn’t work like that. It compounds over time. Yes, performance channels like search or paid social can deliver a burst of leads, but they eventually plateau — more money in doesn’t mean more results out.

Without brand-building, awareness, and demand creation, even the most “efficient” sales channel will hit diminishing returns. That’s why you see CPA (cost per acquisition) rising but volume flatlining, no matter how much more budget you pour in.

Marketing is not a light switch. It’s a flywheel.

Short-Term vs Long-Term — Stop Choosing One

Too often, leaders frame growth as binary:

• Sales vs marketing
• Short-term vs long-term
• Performance vs brand

But growth is never one or the other. It’s both.

Performance activity (SEM, paid social, email) is great for capturing demand that already exists. Brand activity (advertising, PR, thought leadership, sponsorships) builds the mental availability that makes people remember you when they’re finally ready to buy.

Ignore brand and you’ll eventually exhaust your performance channels. Ignore performance and you’ll waste brand investment without capturing the upside. The art is in the balance — not the trade-off.

What CEOs Should Really Expect from Marketing

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: if you measure everything by immediate leads or revenue, you will always undervalue marketing. The right KPIs depend on your stage and strategy:

• Early stage: reach, awareness, share of voice, website traffic, branded search
• Mid stage: engagement, trial requests, pipeline velocity
• Later stage: revenue, CAC/LTV, retention, expansion

Expecting the same KPI at every stage is like asking a toddler to sprint before they can walk.

And let’s not forget budget. Businesses are advised to invest around 3–5% of revenue in marketing. Yet too many cut first, ask questions later. Marketing is treated as a cost, when in reality it’s an investment in future growth.

The CEO’s Responsibility

Ultimately, the CEO sets the tone. If you pit sales and marketing against each other for budget, you’ve already lost. The two functions are meant to complement one another, not compete.

Your job as a leader is to:

• Back your marketing team with sustained investment.
• Create realistic expectations for results.
• Foster cooperation between sales and marketing, not rivalry.
• Judge success by stage-appropriate KPIs.

Cutting marketing in tough times might make a P&L look better for a quarter. But it starves the very demand that sales depends on. And when growth slows, the cost of restarting the engine is far higher.

Growth is not about choosing one.

It’s about funding both, in harmony, with patience and vision.

Sales and marketing shouldn't be a trade off.

What CEOs Should Look For

1. Sustain the investment — Don’t cut marketing as the first cost-saving measure; it’s the pipeline for tomorrow’s sales.
2. Set realistic KPIs by stage — Awareness, engagement, trial, pipeline, revenue. Don’t treat them all the same.
3. Balance brand & performance — Build both long-term mental availability and short-term funnel movement.
4. Encourage close collaboration — Marketing and sales must co-own the customer journey—from first touch to renewal.
5. Align spend to ambition — If revenue growth is a priority, your marketing budget needs to reflect it. Allocate 3–10% or more, depending on scale, ambition, and competition.

Final Thought

Cutting marketing in a downturn may save costs in the short term, but starves your business’s future.

Marketing fuels the demand engine; sales drives the conversion. Each needs the other, and only together do they power sustained, growing business.

Follow us for more insights — and speak to us if you’re ready to align sales and marketing into a growth engine that lasts.