The joint contribution of marketing and sales to the creation of superior customer value

Academic research has demonstrated that sound marketing capabilities allow a firm to create superior customer value. Moreover, academic research and business practice have shown that Marketing and Sales departments are jointly responsible for marketing activities. Although scholars have devoted very limited attention to the relationship between these two departments, overlooking the role that poor alignment between the two has on the firm's capacity to generate superior customer value would be an error. The present paper proposes a model of antecedents to superior customer value creation elaborating on literature that deals with marketing capabilities and Marketing–Sales relationship. More specifically, the authors hypothesize that a firm's long-term strategic orientation, effective Marketing–Sales relationship, the use of a direct sales force and customer-oriented salespeople positively affect superior customer value creation and market performance. The empirical research confirms all hypotheses with the exception of the impact of a direct sales force.