I think I'd have agreed with that statement a few years ago but my reluctant belief now is that marketing is the key to business success. I say reluctant because I don't really like marketing services and I'm not that fond of marketing professionals, by and large, although I now have a couple of people who are doing what needs to be done.
Sales and marketing in smaller companies tends to be carried out by the same people and I'm not sure that the two functions require the same skill set. A good salesperson understands pricing, operations, likes people, enjoys variety and being away from the office. A good marketing person, in the techno age, will be fully conversant with SEO optimisation, keyword advantages, competitor activity, market analysis and, ideally, economic efficiency. In short, someone who's good at marketing is generally going to be someone who quite likes the office, enjoys routine, understands numbers and the business model without necessarily understanding the business as a whole.
The last time I checked the Keynote and Mint reports, the commercial cleaning market had an approximate UK value of £6.5bn - there are tens of thousands of companies making up that number and it's very, very difficult for a small company to distinguish itself from those round about it. A good marketing campaign will generate enquiries, and enquiries are vital to feed the sales machine.
Interestingly (or perhaps not), the ready reckoner for marketing puts conversion from enquiry ratios at about 5% - it's typically vague, but the trickle down works along the principles as below:
Enquiry to sales lead conversion - 40%
Lead to prospect conversion - 38%
Prospect to sale conversion - 35%
As a rough maths guide, 1000 enquiries generates 400 leads, creating 150 prospects, creating 45 sales.
All that by saying that my company money is best spent on marketing if I'm going to give the sales people a decent amount of material to work with.