The most successful marketers are those who have a deep understanding of sales. They comprehend what sales people are doing, what their challenges are and even more important what’s going on in the buyer’s mind.
Marketing is good at being creative and brilliant, but it’s often not insightful, because most of the people who are working in the marketing department ignore the sales process, consequently they don’t know what are the prospective clients’ hesitations and where the frictions are for the users.
In the worst-case scenario, they start producing self-referential content, from marketing to marketing, without the ability to generate value for any other team in the Company and for prospective clients.
And working in a vacuum for a long time generate a credibility issue and a doesn’t lead to success.
On the other side, sales often don’t understand that marketing can be helpful to set the stage to close bigger, better and faster deals.
But when you are a smart marketer and you find that sales rep. who is willing to align and cooperate, try to spend at least one day a month with them, serve them, because it can open a completely new perspective and array of opportunity. It is the knowledge of sales that is turning marketers into better professionals.