Know: ‘timing is everything.’

arketing
Department Interfaces
Each company department carries images or stereotypes of the other
departments. Most often they are not flattering. Furthermore, the
departments compete for the available resources, each making the
case that it can spend the money better. All this interferes with har-
monious working relations between departments.
Some members of other departments will stereotype the mar-
keting department as consisting of fast-talking salespeople who cajole
a large budget from management without providing any evidence of
its impact, as con men who snare customers with a dishonest pitch,
or as hucksters pressing R&D for new bells and whistles rather than
for real product improvements.
One engineer complained that the salespeople are “always pro-
tecting the customer and not thinking of the company’s interest!”
He also blasted customers for “asking for too much.”