A CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) is the C-Level responsible for marketing activities in a corporation.
Typically, the CMO leads everything around marketing including brand management, marketing communications, sales management, product development, distribution channel management, pricing, and customer service to name a few things. Sometimes it can be more and sometimes it can be less but it’s a lot.
As salespeople, we are managing a lot as well as we are essentially running their own franchises.
One of the reasons I love this metaphor is because in franchises, marketing is done at the Corporate level while the franchises are responsible for local marketing activities. But local marketing activities have to meet the guidelines of Corporate.
Having worked for large companies for most of my career, I know first hand the relationship (and disconnect) between Field Marketing and sales. I have not come across many people in Field Marketing that have also been successful salespeople and truly understand the needs of territories.
That said, they don’t have to because they are enabling us as salespeople with the tools to apply to the needs of our territory.
So salespeople need to get in the mindset that they are CMO’s of their territories and book of business because marketing plays a key component of creating new relationships and developing them.