One of the key concepts of "lean manufacturing" was to create teams of workers where before only an end-to-end production line had existed.  In the production line each worker would hand off their work product and pass it on to the worker next along the line.  They held responsibility only for their individual automotive part.

A key insight from Toyota was that workers lost sight of the "bigger picture" of how their work fit in to the quality of the final automobile.  Toyota changed to a system of teams working together on complete systems - rather than individual parts.  The end result was not only higher production but much higher quality and more motivated workers.

What's this all got to do with sales and marketing?

One of the key problems with many sales and marketing operations today is that 70-80% of leads are being lost.  Sales and marketing departments are set up like production lines.  The flow of work is from "left to right".  Marketing produces leads and "throws them over the wall" to sales.  Marketing departments do not care enough about the quality of the leads (i.e. how likely are they to become a deal).  Sales departments are unhappy about the "low quality" of the leads being sent to them by marketing.

This “production line” problem does not occur in very small or start-up companies where there are no formal sales and marketing departments.  Everyone works together in a team to close whatever business they can.  They are highly motivated by the need to survive.  As companies grow sales and marketing departments are introduced and the “production line” problem starts to arise.

So how about a world where sales and marketing personnel work together in teams to generate and close business?