If you’re a small business owner who’s finally reached the stage of expanding your team, there’s a good chance this question has crossed your mind: Do I really need both sales and customer service reps? After all, in the whole sales vs customer support debate, the lines sometimes feel blurry; they both talk to customers, solve problems, and represent your brand.
But here’s the thing: Both teams help your business grow, just in different ways.
So… is it really necessary to hire for both? Or can one person or one team handle it all, at least for now?
Does this post sound relatable? Nodded yes? Then, this one’s for you.
Let’s break down what these roles really do, where they overlap, and whether it actually makes sense to invest in both.
Table of Contents
What Is Sales?
Sales is all about turning customers’ “maybe” into money by closing deals.
It starts when a potential customer shows interest or when a sales rep finds one (that’s what we call a lead). From there, it’s about having the right conversation and showing how your product or service actually solves a problem for them.
Sales professionals don’t just push a pitch. They listen, understand what the customer really needs, and then make a deal that works for both sides. It’s part persuasion, part problem-solving, and a whole lot of trust-building.
And let’s be honest, doing this at scale can get messy. That’s where tools like EngageBay CRM come in. They help you track leads, follow up on time, and make sure no opportunity falls through the cracks.
What Is Customer Service?
It’s the post-purchase phase, but frankly, everyone remembers that part.
The goal of customer service reps is to make your existing customers happy, answer their questions, resolve their problems, and ensure they don’t regret picking you.
You might be thinking, “Well, revenue growth comes from sales. Isn’t that more important?”
Fair enough. But ask yourself this: Have you ever considered sticking with a company that has no or poor customer service?
Didn’t think so.
According to one study, 78% of consumers stop buying from a brand if the customer service is poor or takes a long time.
Well, so there it is. Yes, sales bring in customers, but only great customer service keeps them.
But the real challenge is keeping both sides of the customer journey connected. For example, EngageBay can let you keep both teams under one roof. So your team isn’t scrambling between tools or losing track of conversations.
Whether you’re a growing business or just starting to scale, that alignment can save time, retain customers, and drive more revenue.
But what are the core differences, and why do you need both teams or one, depending on your business model? Let’s find out.
Sales vs customer service: A simple breakdown
Now, let’s see the key differences between sales and customer service.
| Aspect | Sales Representatives | Customer Service Representatives |
| Main goal | Sales focus on getting people to buy (converting leads) | Customer service roles are about helping customers after they’ve bought |
| Focus area | New customers | Existing customers |
| Approach | Pitch, persuade, and close deals | Listening, solving problems, and building relationships and trust |
| Working style | Fast-paced and number-driven (number of leads and number of conversions) | Solution-oriented and quality-driven (quality of the service and customer satisfaction rates) |
| Measurement of success | Number of deals closed | Customer satisfaction rate and customer retention |
| Type of win | A new customer signs up | A customer stays and says, “I’m happy.” |
| Skillset | Strong communication skills; good at convincing, following up, and handling objections | Good at handling pressure, staying calm, and being genuinely helpful |
| Communication style | Talks more (explains and convinces) | Listens more (understands the customer needs and pain points and resolves them) |
| Trust building | Earns trust upfront | Maintains trust over time |
Now that you understand the difference between sales and customer service, one thing’s obvious: you probably need both if you want to grow and retain your customer base.
Sales brings people in. Customer service ensures that they don’t leave by maintaining good customer relationships.
But the interesting part is, as different as these two teams seem, sales and customer service roles actually share a lot of common ground.
Let’s look at what connects them.
5 Things Sales Agents And Customer Service Agents Have In Common
Let’s take a look at 5 things sales agents and customer service agents have in common.
1. They’re both in the business of trust
Sales build trust, and support protects it. How? Sales professionals need to earn trust from potential customers. Customer service reps need to keep that trust alive, especially when things go wrong.
Tesla’s a good example here. People trust the brand. They see the ads, the cool features, and the simple buying process. So yeah, they trust the sales experience. But once the car is delivered, that’s when things start to shift.
There are Reddit threads full of people talking about how they faced a lot of issues with Tesla’s customer support. And these people love the product. They’re just mad at how the company treated them after the sale.
So yeah, the trust sales teams build can disappear fast if support doesn’t back it up with positive customer experience.
2. They’re the frontline of your brand
Forget about your homepage; your sales and customer service representatives are the ones people will remember.
For a new customer or potential customer, your sales team is the company. And, for an existing one, it’s your customer support team. The way they talk, their tone, response time, and attitude shape the picture of your company in people’s minds. Having a good tagline is definitely great. But having a good sales process and an exceptional customer service team is way better.
For example, remember “United Break Guitars” by Dave Carroll? Once, while Dave Carroll was traveling with United Airlines, his guitar got damaged because of the airline’s poor handling and under-maintenance of its luggage compartments.
When he contacted their customer support, he got nothing helpful out of it; it was just a cold shoulder. That’s when he released a song on his YouTube channel called “United Breaks Guitars.” Today, that video has over 26 million views, and reportedly, it even caused a 10% drop in United’s stock price.
Now, that’s what it costs a business with poor customer service.
3. They need to know your product inside out
Product knowledge isn’t just for sales or support teams; it’s definitely for everyone. But when it comes to these teams, they’ve got to be sharp. Like, there is no room for “Umm… let me check and get back to you.”
For example, imagine you’re on a call with a sales rep, and they say, “Let me confirm this with my team.” Doesn’t that throw you off a little?
The same goes for support. If they’re fumbling around or don’t seem confident about the product, trust takes a hit. It’s hard to win it back.
For example, in this review, the staff didn’t even have basic product knowledge, and the customer called the service “diabolical.” If you’re looking for an easy way to push customers away, this is it.
4. They both deal with objections
Customer service and sales both deal with objections but with different goals.
Sales professionals have to get past the doubts of potential customers and close the deal. They have to listen, empathize, and reframe concerns to show why the product is worth it.
In fact, top-performing reps ask questions during objections 54% of the time, while average reps only do it 31% of the time. It’s not just about handling pushback; it’s about digging into it.
And customer service people have to deal with questions like “Why isn’t it working?” or “This is not what I expected.” They have to listen, solve problems, say sorry when needed, collect customer insights, and do what it takes to keep the customer around.
And that matters a lot. 67% of churn can be avoided if the issue is resolved during the first two customer interactions.
One pushes through the doubt. The other pulls customers back from the frustration. Different goals, but same mission: customer satisfaction and nurturing relationships with them.
5. They both drive revenue
Salespeople obviously drive revenue and company growth; they’re the ones bringing in leads and converting them into paying customers.
But as we’ve already discussed, no one’s paying you again if your customer service interactions are slow or if people are just not paying attention. In fact, a study shows that 78% of customers have backed out of a purchase due to a poor customer experience.
Delayed responses = frustrated customers = lost revenue.
So yeah, sales get the money in. Support makes sure it doesn’t walk out.
Alright, by now, it’s clear that sales and customer service are both essential. But here’s the catch: just having both teams isn’t enough.
If they’re not talking to each other, if they’re working in silos, it can actually do more harm than good. So, let’s talk about why sales and customer service need to collaborate for business growth and what goes wrong when they don’t.
Why Should Sales And Customer Service Work Together?
Well, if you don’t want your customer service agents feeling this way about your sales team…
And if you don’t want your sales team venting like this about your customer service agents…
Then, do one thing that most small businesses ignore: Get them to actually talk, work together, and share context.
Let’s dig into more reasons why good collaboration between sales and customer service really matters.
5 Reasons why good collaboration between sales and customer service really matters
When sales and customer service teams work together, great things happen for your business and your customers. Here’s why it matters.
1. It ensures customer satisfaction
Here’s the thing: when sales and customer service actually talk to each other, the customer doesn’t have to chase anyone or repeat their story. According to research by Renascence.io, companies where sales and CX teams work together see a 25% jump in customer satisfaction.
Why? Because the customer isn’t dealing with two separate teams. They’re just getting one smooth customer journey.
2. It improves customer retention
Customer retention is all about trust, and trust is built (or broken) between what is promised and what is delivered. That only happens when both sales and customer service teams communicate and collect valuable insights.
Collaboration also creates opportunities to catch churn risks early. If support sees a customer growing frustrated, they can pass the information on to sales before it’s too late.
If sales hears about a product gap, they can provide feedback to support. When done right, this loop turns one-time buyers into long-term customers.
So, the truth is that sales performance depends on support just as much as support success depends on sales.
3. They can use shared insights to close better deals
Sales and customer service have distinct functions; sales know what makes people buy, while support knows what makes people leave.
Now, combining both insights gives you a clear picture of customer preferences, what went wrong, or what needs to be done and helps you close deals faster and better.
By addressing customers’ issues and providing assistance day in and day out, support uncovers recurring friction points that customers rarely say out loud.
For example, if support notices that many customers churn because a feature feels too hard to use, sales can include that in their pitch, or the product team can make it easier. On the flip side, if sales keep hearing “We picked you because of X” and support had no idea X mattered that much, they’re now in the loop.
They’re the first to hear complaints and resolve issues that could otherwise turn into lost deals. This is where feedback loops turn into strategy. Effective communication is all it takes.
4. It reduces conflict
Like those Reddit threads, sales and customer support conflicts usually happen because they don’t communicate. But when both teams are in the loop, there’s way less blaming and frustration, and things get done faster (and better).
5. It increases sales opportunities
We saved the best for last because when sales and customer service teams truly collaborate, the potential for boosting sales is remarkable.
When sales and support share what they’re hearing, it becomes much easier to identify upselling or cross-selling opportunities.
Support often picks up on things like, “Do you also offer this?” or “Can I do more with my plan?” They are gold mines for future sales if passed to the sales teams.
Like when a customer asks support about a feature, that’s usually a sign they might be ready for an upgrade.
According to research, companies with aligned customer experience (CX) and sales strategies experience 19% faster revenue growth compared to those without such alignment.
Tips for Collaboration
Now, let’s move on to the great stuff: how to maintain the collaboration between these teams.
1. Do not force hand-offs; instead, make them a tag-team
Almost every business treats sales and customer service teams like a relay race; once a deal is closed, sales teams are completely out and don’t even mind what customers face. But that’s exactly why customers feel abandoned.
A quick fix:
Ask your sales teams to introduce newly acquired customers to the CS team in a success call and let the customers know that they can rely on the CS team. This will make the transition personal and avoid any post-sale confusion.
2. Use sales calls as crystal balls for support teams
In any business, customer service should never just react to problems; they must be able to predict them, and the best source for that is sales calls.
For instance, if a customer is repeatedly asking, “Will this integrate smoothly with my existing CRM because I have no technical knowledge?”
And if the CS agents aren’t aware that the customer lacks technical knowledge, there’s a good chance they’ll respond with something like, “You’ll need to set up the integration and configure the API keys manually.”
Wouldn’t that be frustrating?
A quick fix:
Get support agents to actively listen in on real sales calls (even just once a week). They’ll hear: What features excite customers (so they know what to highlight in onboarding). What concerns make them hesitant (so they can address them proactively).
3. Create customer playbooks
We all know that sales teams have pitch decks and customer service teams have FAQs and support guides. All you have to do is ask them to share the documents to understand what customers want exactly.
A quick fix:
Build a customer playbook where both the teams log insights like:
- Frequent and biggest pain points from the support tickets
- Feature requests that keep coming
- Common objectives from sales calls
This playbook can help the sales team avoid overpromising and allow the customer service team to solve customer problems proactively.
4. Use customer complaints as sales funnels
Customer complaints are always a support problem, right? If you nodded yes, that is where you are doing it wrong. If you use these problems correctly, they can turn into sales gold mines. How?
A quick fix:
- Track recurring customer issues and have sales address them before they become deal-breakers.
- If a common complaint is “This feature is too limited,” sales should frame it upfront as: “The basic plan has this feature, but if you need [X], I’d recommend our Pro plan; it’s designed for businesses at your stage.” This reduces frustration, sets honest expectations, and makes customers feel informed instead of misled.
5. Make data work for both the teams
Support track resolutions and sales track conversions, but when these two data sets don’t talk to each other, you lose a lot of opportunities.
A quick fix:
- Create a shared “Churn Tracker” that flags why customers leave so sales know which objections to tackle better.
- Build an “Expansion Watchlist” for customers who are using more features than expected. These are prime upsell targets.
Wait, we are not done yet. One more important tip is to maintain the collaboration of sales and support teams. And that is.
6. Handle feedback together
When sales and support share feedback, everything clicks. Sales knows what customers ask for, and support sees what happens after they buy.
Put those insights together, and suddenly, upsell opportunities are easier to spot, sales pitches get sharper, and product tweaks actually make sense. It’s not just about fixing problems; it’s about making the whole customer experience smoother and smarter.
Use The Right Tools For Collaboration Between Sales and Support
Though there are a lot of tips and tricks for fostering collaboration between the sales and support teams, this is our favorite tip because you really don’t need to do much about it, but the results are great.
Use the same CRM, yes, that’s it. Using the same CRM can act as a playbook, a crystal ball, and lets the data from both teams talk.
Using the same CRM means sales and support aren’t playing a game of broken telephones. Sales know what issues a customer had before pitching, and support sees what they bought without asking a million questions.
It keeps everything in one place, including notes, updates, and conversations, so handoffs feel smooth and not messy. Customers never have to repeat themselves, and both teams work like a real duo instead of two separate islands.
Let’s take an example of how an all-in-one CRM, EngageBay, can help:
- Sales: EngageBay keeps everything in one place, so you never scramble for details before a call. You can see past conversations, track every deal, and know exactly what a customer needs before pitching. No more guessing or sifting through emails. Follow-ups happen on time, and no lead falls through the cracks.
- Customer service: No more asking, “Can you tell me your issue again?” EngageBay gives you the full picture of what the customer bought, what they’ve struggled with, and every past conversation. That means faster replies, fewer headaches, and a more personal touch. Automated ticketing and real-time updates ensure that nothing slips through the cracks.
Sales and support don’t have to work in their own bubbles. Sales can give support a heads-up on tricky customers, and support can spot upgrade opportunities without making it awkward. It’s a smooth handoff that keeps everyone on the same page and customers feeling taken care of.
Let’s Wrap It Up
Great things happen when sales and service teams work together: revenue increases, brand loyalty skyrockets, the business’s bottom line improves, and, more importantly, both teams believe they can rely on each other.
Just don’t let the marketing team get jealous!
