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Sales Kool-Aid

Steve Johnson writes:
"Marketing should strategically define the key steps of the sales cycle, and the tools that support each step, giving sales people a roadmap to move clients from leads to close and beyond. Working closely with sales management, we can identify the necessary tools and techniques. Then sales people and their sales engineers can customize these materials for each deal, if it's even necessary; marketing should never create one-time use materials for a single client."
If you are a CEO or other executive and aren't sure about the line between sales and marketing, keep Steve's observation in mind. Marketing has more of a strategic role in the sales process; sales people make individual sales.

That said, it may be worthwhile for your product manager to "test", by going on one or two sales calls, the sales process he prescribes.

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