As a sales consultant and trainer for the past 24 years, I've worked in pretty much every conceivable industry. I've seen the good (even the great), the bad and the ugly and have always attempted to add my two cents so that my clients' marketing endeavors are aligned with and support their sales efforts.
But here's the truth: It is in the smallest minority of cases that the marketing and branding folks turn the talk to sales. It's almost an afterthought, and the feeling conveyed is that it simply gets in the way of the sexy creative stuff that gets marketers so revved up.
The fact is that the sales efforts have to be considered right from the get-go. If not, that sexy and compelling marketing campaign just might not equate to dollars, cents and new business. But when marketing and sales are deployed as an integrated program, two parts of a whole, the results improve exponentially and everyone wins.