Engineering vs Sales and Marketing

When I worked at Grass Valley Group (a major broadcast equipment manufacturer located here in Grass Valley, California) I used to hear how the engineering department butted heads with the sales and marketing departments. Engineers would complain that the salespeople "sold" features that hadn't yet been developed. Sales and Marketing complained because the engineers fought them and didn't seem to "want" to create these added features they just sold their biggest customer (never thinking that maybe what they've promised was impossible to design). There was a huge disconnect between engineering and sales/marketing.

After I left GVG, I spent a few years marketing consumer electronics products, and I witnessed the same engineering/marketing disconnect. So I learned it wasn't just the broadcast industry where this "phenomenon" occurred--it seemed to happen anywhere you had "Engineers vs Sales and Marketing."

Now that I am the VP of Marketing here at TechniQuest Associates, I am once again aware of the engineering/marketing "tension" that can occur, especially if projects are running a little behind schedule, or there aren't quite enough projects in the pipeline. But this time, I'm ready for it and I won't let it divide us. Being married to an engineer has given me the ability to see both sides. We are one big happy team, and as long as I am here, we will all continue the quest to understand the "other" side.

But I must admit those "engineering types" can be a little different.....do you agree or disagree? I'd like to hear from you.