Abstract
The firm’s quest to create customer value is dependent on the synergistic coordination of many parts of the organization, wherein internal resources and capabilities are effectively harnessed to create a competitive advantage. The often suboptimal relationship between marketing and sales acts as an inhibitor to success in this regard and has been the subject of much attention in both the academic literature and popular press. The authors offer new insights into this issue by examining how the marketing–sales interface affects, and is affected by, other functional areas in the development of key organizational capabilities. They introduce a holistic framework that identifies key levers that must be integrated through cross-functional coordination and cooperation to achieve superior market-based capabilities that in turn enable the firm to create lasting customer value. Propositions linking the levers to market-based capabilities are offered to shape new research opportunities in the domain of the marketing and sales interface.