Article: Monday, 23 June 2025
Surprisingly, the internal relationship between purchasing and sales – the two outward-facing functions in a business that create end-to-end value – is often weak says Juergen Scherer, lecturer at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM), an academic-practitioner and business consultant. As a result, businesses miss out on important value generation. To address this, Juergen has co-written research that concludes with a step-by-step implementation plan for integrating the functions of purchasing and sales. Co-researcher is Wim Biemans of the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Groningen. Their paper, Unite and conquer – End-to-end value creation through intra-organizational purchasing-sales integration has been published in the journal Industrial Marketing Management.
The researchers identified that it often appears easier to build relationships externally with suppliers and customers than it is to build them internally. The lack of an internal relationship means business organisations lose momentum and miss out on important end-to-end value generation. They say that business schools also have a role to play in spreading the practice of collaboration between purchasing and sales.
“Both functions have lost sight of each other,” says Juergen, explaining that although the issue has been the subject of research, the approach often isn’t addressed in business practice or in management education, and neither students nor executives are advised about implementing it.
They say that the internal relationship can be strengthened based on the similarities in the way both functions develop their go-to-market approach and manage their relationships. Introducing stronger alignment in these areas would bring sales and purchasing closer together internally.
Scherer and Biemans identified touch points and looked for where the two roles added value to strategic marketing processes. They found direct connections and instances of co-creation between the roles of purchasing and sales, like bridging IT systems, sharing tools and methods, joining resources for developing skills and competences, and aligning how they measure performance.
They used these examples to scope out a framework for integrating purchasing and sales, and illustrated it using examples from real business practices. The result is a step-by-step guide for organisations to overcome the virtual internal wall.
Managers can use several concepts and tools to improve purchasing-sales integration, they say. Their stepwise plan uses the strategic marketing process of analyse, plan, execute and control to allow integration to happen at a range of intensities, from simple connecting to co-creating. This is the kind of thinking that should be taught in business schools; the researchers recommend a change in curricula that presents the relationship between business functions from a vertical, functional view to a horizontal, cross-functional view that supports intra-organisational integration.
“Our stepwise implementation process starts with determining the current state of integration and the desired state, and moves on to creating the organisational infrastructure. For people, we suggest how to eliminate stereotypical thinking, and how to develop individual’s skills. And we explain how to regularly monitor, assess and improve the ongoing change process.”
The researchers say that creating end-to-end value requires seamless flows of information and goods and services. “Efficient and effective use of all resources – including human resources – in extended value chains is critical for creating value generally. The beneficiaries are the partners in the value chain that are directly involved, but equally, all other value chain constituents in the context of corporate social responsibility (CSR) will benefit,” says Scherer.
Their research included reviews of the sales-purchasing relationships in organisations including Cognis (now part of BASF) and Mauser Packaging. They have observed how purchasing-sales integration has been strengthened and supported by:
by using the same reporting lines and mirroring programmes
Read the full research paper Unite and conquer – End-to-end value creation through intra-organizational purchasing-sales integration in Industrial Marketing Management.
Science Communication and Media Officer
Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) is one of Europe’s top-ranked business schools. RSM provides ground-breaking research and education furthering excellence in all aspects of management and is based in the international port city of Rotterdam – a vital nexus of business, logistics and trade. RSM’s primary focus is on developing business leaders with international careers who can become a force for positive change by carrying their innovative mindset into a sustainable future. Our first-class range of bachelor, master, MBA, PhD and executive programmes encourage them to become to become critical, creative, caring and collaborative thinkers and doers.
