Shawn Strawser on Why Salespeople Should Understand Marketing — and Marketers Should Understand Sales
For most of my career, I have worked somewhere between sales and marketing.
I started in advertising, moved into high-volume new account development, transitioned into outside sales, and eventually expanded into digital marketing and broader marketing strategy.
That experience has convinced me of something I believe strongly today:
Salespeople should understand marketing, and marketers should understand sales.
The two functions are often treated like completely separate departments.
Marketing generates awareness and leads.
Sales closes business.
On paper, that sounds simple.
In reality, the two are connected at nearly every stage of the customer journey.
When sales and marketing understand each other, both usually perform better.
Marketing Creates Opportunity. Sales Develops It.
Marketing has an important job.
It helps a business get discovered.
- Search engines
- Websites
- Advertising
- Social media
- Content
- Referrals
- Partnerships
- Local visibility
- Brand recognition
But visibility by itself is not the final objective.
Eventually, someone has to take action.
They call.
They fill out a form.
They request information.
They schedule a meeting.
They visit a location.
They make a purchase.
That is where marketing begins handing the opportunity to sales.
If the transition between those two functions is weak, a business can spend a lot of money generating attention that never becomes revenue.
Salespeople Need to Understand Where Leads Come From
A salesperson should not look at a lead as simply a name and phone number.
How did the person find the company?
What did they search for?
What page did they visit?
What message caused them to respond?
What problem were they trying to solve?
That context can completely change the sales conversation.
Someone who found the company by searching for a specific service may already have significant intent.
Someone responding to a broad awareness campaign may need more education.
Someone referred by a current customer may already have a level of trust.
Understanding the marketing source helps the salesperson understand the prospect.
Marketers Need to Know What Happens After the Lead
This works both ways.
Marketers should not stop paying attention once a form submission occurs.
A marketing dashboard may show:
100 leads generated.
That sounds great.
But what happened to them?
Were they qualified?
Did someone respond quickly?
How many became real opportunities?
How many converted?
What objections came up?
Why did people decide not to move forward?
Without that information, marketing is only seeing half of the picture.
A campaign can generate a lot of leads and still create very little business value.
It can also generate fewer leads but produce a much higher percentage of strong opportunities.
The sales team often has the information necessary to explain the difference.
Sales Conversations Are Marketing Research
One of the most valuable sources of marketing insight is the sales conversation.
Salespeople hear things that analytics platforms cannot.
They hear how customers describe their problems.
They hear the questions customers ask repeatedly.
They hear objections.
They hear confusion.
They hear which benefits actually matter.
They hear the words customers use when describing what they want.
That information should make its way back into marketing.
If prospects repeatedly ask the same question, that may need to be answered on the website.
If customers consistently misunderstand a service, the messaging may need to change.
If one benefit keeps getting a strong reaction during sales conversations, marketing may need to emphasize it more.
Sales is constantly collecting customer intelligence.
Good marketing teams use it.
Marketing Can Make Sales Easier
Strong marketing does more than generate leads.
It can make the sales conversation easier before it even starts.
A good website can establish credibility.
Helpful content can answer common questions.
Case studies can demonstrate results.
Reviews can reduce uncertainty.
Clear pricing or process information can remove friction.
Strong branding can make a company feel familiar before a salesperson ever speaks with the prospect.
That means the sales conversation does not have to begin from zero.
Marketing has already done part of the work.
My Sales Background Changed the Way I Approach Marketing
My career in sales heavily influences how I think about marketing today.
When I look at a website, I naturally think:
What happens after someone reads this?
When I look at a campaign, I ask:
What action are we trying to create?
When I look at traffic numbers, I want to know:
What did those visitors eventually do?
That comes from years of working in environments where results were measurable.
During one inside-sales role, I brought in more than 300 new accounts within six months.
Later, during my time with SEPI, I became the only Marketing Consultant in more than 40 years to exceed $500,000 in annual sales.
Those experiences taught me to think beyond activity.
Activity matters.
But activity has to lead somewhere.
Sales Teams Should Understand Basic Marketing Metrics
Salespeople do not need to become full-time digital marketers.
But I believe they should understand some basic concepts.
They should know the difference between traffic and leads.
They should understand conversion rates.
They should understand where prospects come from.
They should have a basic understanding of SEO, paid advertising, email marketing, and website conversion.
Why?
Because marketing affects the quality and quantity of opportunities entering the pipeline.
The more a salesperson understands that process, the more effectively they can contribute to improving it.
Marketers Should Spend Time With Salespeople
Marketers can gain enormous insight by simply listening to sales calls or speaking with people who interact directly with customers.
Ask the sales team:
What are prospects asking?
What are they confused about?
What do they care about most?
Why are we losing deals?
What causes people to say yes?
Which customers tend to be the best fit?
Those answers can influence:
- Website copy
- Landing pages
- Email campaigns
- Blog content
- Advertising
- FAQs
- Sales materials
- Lead qualification
That is why communication between the two teams matters.
The Customer Does Not Care Which Department Owns the Process
From the customer’s perspective, there is no marketing department and sales department.
There is simply the company.
If the advertisement says one thing and the salesperson says another, that creates confusion.
If the website promises a simple process but the sales experience is difficult, that creates friction.
If sales is hearing something repeatedly but marketing never adjusts, the experience becomes disconnected.
Customers experience the entire organization as one brand.
Sales and marketing should operate with that same understanding.
Shared Goals Create Better Alignment
One of the simplest ways to improve alignment is to give sales and marketing shared business goals.
Instead of marketing only focusing on lead volume and sales only focusing on closed revenue, look at the entire funnel.
How many qualified opportunities are being created?
What percentage convert?
Where are prospects being lost?
What sources produce the strongest customers?
What can marketing do to improve lead quality?
What can sales do to improve conversion?
Those are shared growth questions.
Sales Can Improve Marketing Messaging
Marketing teams sometimes write messaging based on how the company describes itself.
Customers often describe the same service very differently.
That difference matters.
A business may use industry terminology.
Customers may use simple language.
A company may emphasize features.
Customers may care about the outcome.
Salespeople hear that language every day.
That makes them incredibly useful when refining marketing messages.
Marketing Can Improve Sales Follow-Up
The connection also extends into follow-up.
Marketing teams can create:
- Educational emails
- Case studies
- FAQs
- Guides
- Videos
- Testimonials
- Relevant articles
Salespeople can then use those materials when following up with prospects.
Instead of sending another generic “checking in” message, the salesperson can send something useful.
That creates better conversations.
Businesses Grow Faster When Information Flows Both Ways
Sales knows things marketing needs to hear.
Marketing knows things sales needs to understand.
The strongest organizations create a way for that information to move in both directions.
It does not require endless meetings.
It requires communication.
What are we learning?
What is working?
What are customers telling us?
Where are opportunities being lost?
What should we adjust?
Those conversations can have a direct impact on growth.
What Shawn Strawser Has Learned From Working on Both Sides
Having spent much of my career in sales before moving deeper into marketing strategy, I see both disciplines as parts of the same system.
Marketing creates interest.
Sales develops relationships.
Marketing builds visibility.
Sales turns that visibility into conversations.
Marketing communicates value at scale.
Sales communicates value one conversation at a time.
Neither should exist in isolation.
The Bottom Line
Salespeople become better when they understand how marketing creates opportunities.
Marketers become better when they understand what happens once those opportunities reach sales.
And businesses become stronger when both sides are working toward the same objective.
Not more clicks.
Not more calls.
Not more activity for the sake of activity.
Growth.
That is the outcome that should connect the entire process.
About Shawn Strawser
Shawn Strawser is a marketing strategist and sales professional with more than 20 years of experience in advertising, business development, new account acquisition, outside sales, digital marketing, and growth strategy.
His career includes bringing in more than 300 new accounts within six months and becoming the only Marketing Consultant at SEPI in more than 40 years to exceed $500,000 in annual sales.
Today, Shawn Strawser focuses on marketing strategy, digital growth, business development, and building systems that connect marketing activity to measurable business results.