Hot take: The marketing vs. sales rivalry is 100% pointless.

It’s so much better when the functions sustain a feedback loop that helps each perform its role.

Here’s what that looks like: Marketing uses the ground truth that sales collects to create more relevant, resonant messaging. Sales enlists marketing’s help to develop messaging that plugs knowledge gaps and answers questions they observe in their daily interactions.

The feedback loop closes more deals!

Senior strategist Grace Wright says it bluntly and well in the video above. “Marketing content isn’t just marketing content. It shouldn’t just go to the website to die.”

Organizations should strive to get more out of it than that.

Any chance we get to talk with our clients’ sales people, we jump at it. In addition to collecting that ground truth I mentioned, it’s also the chance to refine content strategy so it can produce other yields.

Ask: “How are you using the content we’ve made?” If they’re using it, how so?

The holy grail is a sales person relying on marketing content to do their talking for them while accelerating someone through the buying process. If that’s happening, it’s a sign you’re right on the money in terms of demonstrating an understanding of your audience’s pains, goals and questions.

(That understanding is best developed based on frequent interviews with subject matter experts — the whole point of this video series.)

Of course, it takes work to get there. The question is not always simply how are you using this?

Other questions to consider: “Does this messaging feel on-track to you? If it doesn’t, what are we missing? What questions do you keep hearing repeated? What can we make so that you can respond to all those repeat queries with an emailed link instead of the same 30-minute call again and again?”

That’s the feedback loop in action. Keep it fed and watered, and it sustains itself.

And about that dumb little rivalry?

What rivalry?