Research reveals that in large companies, the highest inter-departmental friction exists between marketing and procurement. However, with emerging tools and strategic alignment, some teams are discovering sustainable ways to streamline their processes, share knowledge, and achieve transformative transparency.
The Tug-of-War: Marketing vs. Procurement
In the bustling corridors and virtual meetings of Fortune 500 companies, an unspoken tension persists between marketing and procurement teams. This friction, while not new, has become increasingly significant as organizations strive to balance creative innovation with financial accountability..
Having worked with some of the world’s most renowned companies, I’ve seen firsthand how this divide manifests—and why bridging it is critical for business success. This very challenge inspired the creation of SpotSource.
Have you experienced marketing-procurement tension within your organization? Are your CMO and CFO aligned in their vision?
Contrasting Perspectives
At the core of this tension lies a fundamental difference in priorities. Marketing teams focus on building brand equity and driving growth through bold, creative campaigns. Meanwhile, procurement, reporting up to the CFO, is tasked with ensuring fiscal discipline, mitigating risks, and securing maximum value for every dollar spent.
“Marketing lives in a world of gray, while procurement sees things in black and white,” remarked a former Microsoft marketing executive. When success metrics differ so drastically, conflict is inevitable.
Research Confirms the Divide
A deeper dive into recent studies underscores the challenges:
- Stifled Innovation: A McKinsey & Company and CMO Council joint survey revealed that 58% of CMOs believe procurement’s cost-focused approach stifles creativity.
- Communication Delays: According to a 2023 Forrester study, 72% of marketers reported that procurement’s lengthy response times delayed critical campaigns. This led 45% of marketers to bypass procurement entirely, as highlighted in a 2022 Gartner report.
- Compromised Creativity: A Deloitte survey found that 54% of CMOs believe aggressive cost-cutting negatively impacts creativity, often compromising campaign quality.
- Supplier Challenges: A 2023 ANA report noted that 60% of procurement leaders found marketing’s vendor selection approach inefficient and misaligned with company goals.
- Resource Allocation Disagreements: According to a 2023 ANA study, 64% of marketing professionals at large companies frequently disagree with procurement on resource allocation.
Procurement’s role is not inherently adversarial, but the way these departments have been set up to interact at many companies creates both real and perceived roadblocks.
Real-World Consequences
These conflicts carry tangible costs:
- Sacrificed Speed: Marketers relying on approved agency lists often wait for procurement to verify contracts, risk assessments, and payment readiness.
- Talent Wastage: Procurement professionals spend excessive time on manual checks, undermining their strategic contributions.
- Agency Roster Inefficiencies: Lack of transparency leads to an expanding roster of single-use agencies, slowing processes and increasing costs.
- Weakened Relationships: Agencies become disillusioned due to unmet promises of long-term opportunities.
- Higher Risks: Expanding the number of agencies increases the likelihood of compliance breaches, including handling sensitive data or legal violations.
Tools and Strategies for Alignment
Despite the challenges, some organizations have managed to transform this tension into productive collaboration. To maximize this collaboration, companies need to both change how marketing and procurement work together and have a tool in place that helps reinforce the desired ways of working and shared goals.
Major companies that use tools like SpotSource to run their own private agency marketplace have seen how it empowers both marketers and procurement. At a minimum, what you should look for in a tool:
- The ability to store more data about the agencies and what they are good at.
- An easy way for agency users to keep their information up to date.
- The ability for the tool to pull data from other enterprise systems so that it is always accurate regarding contracts, risk assessments, and other supplier data.
- An excellent user experience so marketers will want to self-service and use all the new information about the agencies to empower data-driven decision making on the best fit agency for their next campaign or project.
- When work is complete, an easy way for marketers to review the agency.
- Bonus: If marketers can run a project or bid from the tool, this connects everyone to next level data. Now you know the team members on the agency and company side, who has worked with whom, and you know what they have worked on for which parts of your business.
On the process improvement side of things, many companies start to find success by using a collaborative approach between marketing and procurement to arrive at shared goals. Often, it isn’t that marketing doesn’t understand cost constraints. It is more likely that they don’t have a way to work with procurement to help them know when they should be pushing on cost or when they should be pushing on some other factor like improved communication and timing. Working together, these initiatives can foster new innovation while meeting both departments’ goals.
Unity and Alignment on the Road Ahead
As technology reshapes the competitive landscape, marketing and procurement must evolve into partners rather than adversaries. Transparency, mutual respect, and aligned incentives are key to bridging the divide. Tools like SpotSource provide a foundation for this transformation, enabling marketing and procurement to unlock their full potential together.
By harmonizing their efforts, companies can foster innovation, drive efficiency, and secure lasting success.
If you are looking to address this at your company and would like to learn more about how SpotSource is working with marketing and procurement teams, please reach out to me, Brian Regienczuk 🏳️🌈, on LinkedIn or via our website at SpotSource. Our platform can also benefit mid-sized organizations and works across service areas like R&D, Innovation, IT, Facilities, Capital Expenditures, and more.
References:
- Forrester Research (2023 Study on Procurement Delays)
- Gartner (2022 Report on Marketing and Procurement Bypassing)
- Deloitte Survey (Impact of Cost-Cutting on Creativity)
- Association of National Advertisers (ANA Report on Procurement and Vendor Selection)
- McKinsey & Company & CMO Council Joint Survey (Impact of Procurement on Creativity)
- American Marketing Association (AMA)