'Off-the-peg' or custom? Surely a good mix always works best.

It always fascinates me how many sales-oriented businesses believe there is no place in their organisation for 'marketing', be that people or programmes. Yet on they struggle to unlock the 'closed doors' that bar them from opening a sales conversation.

Effective marketing can help identify 'soft landings' - those chances for Sales to push on a door that's already ajar. And there is a clear point where one function ends and the other begins.

I like to think in terms of who should drive the 'one to many' sales conversation and who owns the 'one to one'. As a general rule, good Marketing takes a series of value-driven messages to the targeted masses they've identified will be open to them; any conversation emanating as a result - when it becomes a two-way dialogue rather than one-way communication - is best executed by Sales.

So inasmuch as you wouldn't expect a chain-store to sell you a hand-made suit, why would you expect those adept at shaping 'off-the-peg' communications to be effective in tailoring a very personal solution...or vice versa?

If the High Street relies on a good mix of both, shouldn't you?