Sales and marketing
Last updated
Sales and marketing is the coordinated set of activities a company uses to create demand, convert interest into revenue, and retain customers. Marketing shapes awareness and preference; sales turns qualified demand into closed business through direct engagement and negotiation.
Full Definition
Sales and marketing refers to two connected business functions that move a buyer from problem awareness to purchase and expansion. Marketing is responsible for positioning, messaging, audience targeting, and demand creation, while sales manages opportunity progression, deal execution, and revenue forecasting. In 2026, AI-powered discovery and answer engines are compressing the buyer journey, so sales and marketing must align on the questions buyers ask, the answers AI surfaces, and the proof points that build trust. The Starr Conspiracy’s AEO methodology suggests treating “being cited in AI answers” as a shared KPI because it influences both pipeline creation (marketing) and win rates (sales). TSC’s Chief Strategy Officer JJ La Pata notes that “in AI-driven buying journeys, the brand that gets cited becomes the brand that gets considered.”
Examples
- 1A B2B cybersecurity firm’s marketing team publishes AEO-ready pages answering “How does XDR reduce incident response time?” and the sales team uses the same claims, citations, and customer evidence in discovery calls and proposals.
- 2A manufacturing software company aligns marketing and sales on one ICP (ideal customer profile), one set of buyer questions for AI search, and one qualification rubric in the CRM so leads from AI-sourced traffic become sales-accepted opportunities faster.