I fear the days of Marketing serving me is over or at least altered forever.

My company sells to marketers. I am the Vice President of Sales in a funded start-up that develops applications to gives corporations and media agencies the power to measure social media ROI and I am currently in the process of building the sales team. What I used to like about it is that we (the sales team) were the customer.  My previous role was Regional Vice President at Eloqua Corporation.  During my time at Eloqua I would go into any B2B shop and ask a Marketing Executive or Manager,” who is your customer?”  On average, 80% of the time, I would hear ‘Sales’ over whomever their Ideal Customer Profile may be.

Last week I attended a marketing professionals conference as a sponsor.  For the first time, ever, I felt the shift of marketing and maybe, business development, having more power than the sales executive for customer acquisition. It felt like being on a skateboard in high heels and too short skirt – I could hold on for a minute, but something was bound to be exposed or, at the very least, not quite ever viewed the same again.

I made good, entertaining and valuable contacts from companies like OpenText, Mzinga, ExactTarget, Compensity, and others. I asked a handful of them in a highly unscientific way (i.e. either by emailing or over drinks). Here is what I heard:

I will be starting this journey as our sales model develops.

I have managed sales teams at big companies and small ones.

I currently manage two enterprise reps. I am about to add inside sales.

And I could, shortly, manage sellers of a freemium product (translation – not sales people)

Stay tuned to more pieces from our network as I am sure to have many more events, discussions and spontaneous thoughts!