Marketing, Get in the car with Sales!

Too many marketers haven’t spoken to a customer in years. Some never have. That’s not a judgment, it’s just a structural problem. Marketing has become more abstract, more digital, more removed. But the further we drift from real buyer conversations, the more we risk missing what actually drives decisions.

For perspective: the first half of my marketing career was rooted in B2C. I was deep in the data - clustering behaviors, mapping personas, and building strategic plans off consumer insights. It was rigorous but exciting work, and it still is. Yes, I’m a data and buyer psychology nerd at heart. But I also realized that a lot of that work happens far from the actual moment of purchase.

That changed in 2012, when I moved deeper into B2B. Suddenly, alignment with sales wasn’t optional -  it was a critical element of the job. I was still living in the data weeds, but it became clear that I needed to ride along on cold calls, sit in on renewal conversations, and show up for high-stakes account meetings. At first, I found myself thinking, “This is a sales job. I’m in marketing.” But the more I listened, the more I learned — not just about the customer, but about the real disconnect between what marketing builds and what sales actually needs. It shaped the way I think about marketing to this day.

This isn’t just a B2B insight. That disconnect exists across the board, including in B2C. Because the truth is, no matter what you sell, you can’t create meaningful marketing in a vacuum. The real intelligence lives on the front lines. And that’s why, to this day, I jump at the chance to be in the room, on a call, or in the car - where it happens.

You hear the objections. You see what materials actually get used. You realize how complex, and often messy, the customer journey really is. It’s not a clean funnel. It’s not a straight path. And it’s never as logical as a slide deck makes it seem.

This is why marketers need to get closer to the field.

Because the truth is: no dashboard, attribution model, or CRM data point will ever replace what you learn from listening in real-time. It’s not just about empathy. It’s about intelligence. Message intelligence. Channel intelligence. Emotional intelligence.

Why This Matters More Now Than Ever

In a world of remote work, automated dashboards, and outsourced insights, it’s easier than ever for marketing to operate in a vacuum. Campaigns are built on personas that no one’s validated. Messaging is shaped in brainstorms, not real conversations. Teams optimize for metrics that may not reflect the full buyer journey.

But marketing only works when it’s grounded in reality.

That’s why getting in the car with sales isn’t just a nostalgic anecdote — it’s a still-relevant method for building smarter strategies. The field is where theory meets truth. And if you're not occasionally stepping into that reality, you’re missing something crucial.

What You Learn from the Field That You Won’t Find in a Report

  • Unfiltered objections: Not the ones in your CRM notes, but the ones that come out in the moment when trust is still being built.

  • The real buyer environment: From cluttered stores to quiet boardrooms, seeing how your product lives in their world is eye-opening.

  • Emotional drivers: You hear urgency. You feel hesitation. You recognize where the real value lies, and it’s often not where the PowerPoint says it is.

  • What gets used (and what doesn’t): That 20-page PDF? Left in the trunk. The 1-page leave-behind? Gold. That insight alone is worth the ride.

Bridging the Gap Between Sales and Marketing

When marketers sit in on sales calls or field visits, something subtle but powerful happens:

  • We stop thinking of Sales as the end of the funnel, and start seeing it as a partner in strategy.

  • We develop empathy for the challenges sales teams face: long cycles, stalled decisions, pricing pressure, competitive confusion.

  • We identify where our messaging fails - not because it’s wrong, but because it’s missing something real.

And when sales sees that marketing is willing to listen, learn, and adjust, they become more willing to collaborate. Trust builds. Feedback flows.

Marketing becomes not just a content machine, but a strategic ally.

A Call to Marketing Leaders

·         If you're leading a marketing team, or building one from scratch, make field exposure a habit, not a one-off. 

·         Set up shadowing opportunities. Include sales in messaging reviews. Incentivize cross-functional curiosity. 

·         Because the closer you are to the customer conversation, the more credible your strategy becomes.

 

And the insights your team brings back from the field? They'll be more valuable than any report you can buy.

Looking to connect the dots between GTM planning, sales enablement, and customer insight? See how CLINTONSCOTT bridges the gap.

Feel free to share this with your social networks! 

Clint Allen