The Future of Sales and Marketing Leadership
Why marketing leaders may be better prepared to lead the next era of revenue growth
Sales vs. Marketing
Sales and marketing organizations frequently have tension. Both drive revenue, but marketing is sometimes viewed as a cost center, while sales is always seen as a money maker.
Over the past fifteen years, with the rise of new technologies, marketing has taken on a much bigger role in revenue generation, leading the relationship with the customer, building brand awareness, creating demand, and driving acquisition. Sales and marketing teams are working more closely than ever and oftentimes, we are seeing an overlap between the two divisions. With the promise AI brings to revenue growth, both teams are working to understand the opportunities, but marketing leaders seem to have a better grasp of how to leverage AI than their sales counterparts.
This past week, Mary Meeker’s AI Trends Report was released, and one of the data points that stood out to me was that 75% of global CMOs are already testing or implementing AI tools. At the same time, the report showcases that sales productivity is the #3 priority for enterprise AI investment, just behind productivity and customer service, yet, in our conversations with both sales and marketing leaders, across multiple industries, we are seeing faster adoption of AI in marketing organizations than we are in sales.
What does the next generation revenue leader look like?
The research, as well as our conversations with both candidate pools, prompts the question: What does the modern revenue leader look like? Will the CRO and CMO roles remain separate? Will they merge into a single Chief Commercial Officer role? Are today’s sales leaders, many of whom came up in traditional relationship selling models, ready to lead through this transformation? Or is the marketing leader, who has been forced to become more technically savvy in recent years, better suited for the top role of revenue generation?
What we are seeing in practice is marketing leaders more comfortable than sales when it comes to testing new technology and integrating AI into their day-to-day practice. This varies by person, industry, and location, but generally speaking, we are seeing a faster adoption rate in SaaS and tech sales than we are in more traditional industries like media and advertising. This makes sense, as these sectors leaned more into relationship-based selling and have been in decline for years. The premium price of advertising has shrunk, automated systems have taken hold, and legacy sellers are working to maintain relevance in a shifting market.
Evaluating the next generation of revenue leaders
There is an argument to be made, as sales and marketing organizations continue to become intertwined, that either leader, sales or marketing, can ultimately own the full commercial function for a company. This shift forces a new way to think about organizational design, breaking down silos and eliminating the long-standing friction between the two teams. Commercial leadership can grow up on either the sales or the marketing side of a company, but to find success, the next generation of revenue leaders must carry the following traits:
Adaptability
We look at how much a leader has evolved with the times, not just evolving their business, but also evolving themselves and their leadership style. A tremendous amount has changed with business, technology, and culture. It is a yellow flag when interviewing somebody who only points to their past successes vs. articulating where the future is going and how they are shaping their organizations, teams, and themselves to address it.Tech Curious
Our interviews today are going far beyond ChatGPT and Claude. With 4,000 AI companies out there, we want to know what tools leaders have actually tested and how they are designing their tech stack for growth. Great revenue leaders, whether they are coming from sales or marketing, are sharing with us the tests they are running, what has worked and what hasn’t, and what problems they are trying to solve.Hands-On Experimentation
Being "hands-on" is no longer reserved for start-ups. Every modern commercial leader needs to roll up their sleeves, test the tools, and use the tech themselves. If a leader can’t articulate how they are personally using the technology, it is clear they will be falling behind.Product Partnership
Sales and marketing teams must both be tightly aligned with product, sharing customer insights and creating a feedback loop that drives product innovation and informs the product roadmap. If we are interviewing a revenue leadership candidate who is not tight with the product team, we are questioning their ability to maximize growth across the revenue ecosystem.
Deeply Collaborative
Salespeople are notorious for being lone wolves. As social as they are, sales leaders thrive on being out in the world and not collaborating internally. More and more, we are seeing a need for revenue leadership to be the glue across the organization. No longer can sales be solely out in the field, versus internally influencing, to ensure revenue-driving priorities are heard and acted on throughout the organization.
What’s Next
As AI reshapes how companies grow, the line between sales and marketing will continue to blur. What will matter most is not the discipline the leader grew up in, but how quickly they can adapt, experiment, and drive results with the tools in front of them. The next era of growth will belong to commercial leaders who know how to lead across functions and who are building for what’s next, not protecting what once was.
Talent + Tech
A weekly roundup of leadership, tech, and talent
WHAT TO READ:
Mary Meeker’s AI Trends Report is a must read for anyone who is business and tech. Don’t have the time to read the full report? Drop it into ChatGPT to get the summary.
WHO TO FOLLOW:
Sangram Vajre is a driving force behind the Go-To-Market (GTM) movement. Vajre understands how AI is shifting the way companies align sales, marketing, and product around revenue. He talks actively about organizational design, tech stacks, and data-driven growth.
START TO LISTEN:
The CRO Spotlight Podcast is a good listen for anyone who is looking to understand how other CROs, or aspiring CROs, are finding sales success. Hosted by Warren Zenna, Founder and CEO of The CRO Collective, this podcast will get you outside of your bubble, sharing insights and revenue strategies, directly from your peers.