Naval is the ultimate philosopher king.
If he's not my favorite person I follow on Twitter, he's most definitely in my top 5. Every Tweet makes you slow down and think.
There are aspects of this quote I agree with + others that I disagree with.
After reading it a couple times, I tweeted "Be good at both, become a magnet." because it triggered 4 of my core beliefs:
Marketing makes Sales better
The better the CMO, the more productive the CRO and his / her teams.
People don't buy what they don't understand.
People buy what aligns with their jobs-to-be-done framework.
People appreciate the art of storytelling in formats / channels that make it easy for them to understand "what's in it for them".
Marketing helps Sales get more deals done.
Sales makes Marketing better
Sales gathers intelligence by asking for the order.
What you learn from prospects + the market in general when you ask them to pay for your product / service isn't necessarily what you learned in your focus group etc.
People buy for all sorts of reasons, some obvious, some anything but obvious.
Remember the Mike Tyson rule.
Sales + Marketing make Products better
Strong feedback loops between Sales + Marketing lead to more effective Demand Generation campaigns + increased sales cycle velocity.
But equally as valuable, strong feedback loops between Sales, Marketing + Product result in better products.
Enterprise deals don't close themselves
While a bottoms-up approach works well, the bigger the company you're targeting, the more complex the buying committee and therefore the sales cycle.
The way Enterprise companies buy requires human involvement to navigate competing agendas, diversity of opinion, spectrum of understanding / comfort with tech / innovation / change across the buying committee(s), departments etc.
When it comes to Sales + Marketing, it’s a 1+1=3.
April 2, 2021 (Tweet Link)