Markets are crowded with options—think of any supermarket aisle, and you’d agree. Everything has gone digital; online sales are growing faster than ever. Customers are becoming increasingly averse to being sold to; they prefer self-service. In fact, Gen Z, the first generation of true digital natives, demands a high-tech, omnichannel experience.
All of these factors have dramatically changed how organizations sell to their customers. Consultative selling, inbound marketing, go-to-market, product-led marketing, and customer success are taking precedence over traditional models.
In modern organizations, like SaaS businesses, marketing, sales, and customer success come together under a single function, typically termed ‘growth’. Together, these sub-functions build integrated marketing strategies that fuel customer acquisition. So, if you’re a sales professional looking to take the plunge into marketing, now’s your moment!
In this blog, we’ll walk you through how to transition from sales to marketing.
How to Make a Career Transition from Sales to Marketing?
- Why Transition from Sales to Marketing?
- Understanding the Differences Between Sales and Marketing
- Key Skills for Marketing
- Preparing for the Transition
- Steps to Successfully Transition from Sales to Marketing
- Leveraging Sales Experience in a Marketing Role
- Overcoming Common Challenges
- Tips and Resources for a Smooth Transition
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhy Transition from Sales to Marketing?
Even seasoned salespersons may consider making the switch to marketing for a number of reasons, such as:
Skill overlap
As customer-centric roles, both sales and marketing require strong communication, relationship-building, and an understanding of customer needs. This makes the transition more organic, if not easier.
Multi-dimensional work
The sales career can often be uni-dimensional, i.e., finding prospects, meeting them, and closing deals. As a career higher up the top of the funnel, marketing offers a wider scope of activities, such as digital marketing, advertising, events, content, etc.
Career growth
Marketing offers diverse opportunities in strategy, brand management, and digital tools. It also creates a great foundation for an entrepreneurial career if you’re so inclined.
Creative avenues
Marketing offers more opportunities to stretch your creative muscles in the form of writing copy, video scripts, design briefs, presentations, etc., which might be fewer in sales.
More opportunities
The number of marketing jobs available in the US is growing at a rate faster than for sales. For instance, the role of sales engineers, which the US Bureau of Labor Statistics defines as “sell business products or services, such as software or support, that require technical expertise,” grows at 6% while marketing managers’ roles are growing at 8%.
Bonus Read: How to get into tech sales.
But if you’re thinking about how to make a career change, begin by understanding the differences between the two roles clearly.
Summarize this article for me pleaseUnderstanding the Differences Between Sales and Marketing
Before we make any differentiation, it is important to know that one isn’t better than the other. Each career has its own pros and cons, making them specifically suitable for those with the right skill sets.
To map your skills, here is a primer on the differences between sales and marketing.
| Feature | Sales | Marketing |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Fulfill existing demand | Create new demand |
| Focus | Closing deals, generating revenue | Creating awareness, generating leads |
| Approach | Individualistic, typically one-to-one, especially in B2B | Collective, typically aimed at target segments |
| Activities | Prospecting, cold calling, demo, objection handling | Content creation, email campaigns, online ads, webinars |
| Metrics | Total revenue, Opportunities to deals conversion rate, Cycle length, Win rate, Customer lifetime value (CLTV) | Impression to lead conversion, MQL to SQL conversion rate, Email open rate, Clickthrough rate, Return on ad spend |
Summarize this article for me pleaseKey Skills for Marketing
In modern businesses, sales begins where marketing ends. For instance, marketing creates awareness, generates leads, and qualifies them. After that, the leads are handed off to sales, who nurture and convert them into customers.
To make that shift left, here are the marketing skills you’d need.
Communication
Your sales expertise gives you great communication skills. Transfer, adapt, and hone them toward marketing.
- Improve written communication skills for email marketing, press releases, etc.
- Develop a knack for design (use your slide creation skills here) to write briefs for banners, posters, ads, etc.
- Enhance your spoken communication skills for video scripts
Content creation
Take that step up from communication to content and supercharge your marketing career. Content doesn’t just mean writing. It includes:
- Strategy: Building a holistic omnichannel content marketing strategy across owned, paid, and earned media
- Multimodal approach: Creating written, visual, audio, video, and interactive content
- Repurposing: Finding creative ways to use the same content ideas across platforms and formats
- Workflow management: A typical content pipeline includes writers, editors, designers, developers, PR, social media, marketing operations, and more. Learn to use and manage this workflow
Campaign management
An activity that is a little more niche and perhaps even technical is marketing campaign management across search, email, or social media. Develop skills in planning, executing, and measuring marketing campaigns.
Data analysis
Salespeople have a knack for data analysis, especially when it comes to ROI. On the other hand, marketing OKRs need a more nuanced view of metrics and data. Learn to:
- Interpret market trends and customer data
- Connect the dots between various channels, campaigns, and content toward ROI-driven marketing strategies
- Understand omnichannel marketing and the impact of one channel on another
- Measure longer-term impact, including CLTV
If you’re excited to gain these skills and transition, here’s a roadmap to help.
Summarize this article for me pleasePreparing for the Transition
Transitioning from sales to marketing is a lot more organic than, let’s say, being a lawyer and becoming a wedding photographer. That doesn’t mean it’s linear. Before you make the transition, set yourself up for success.
Assess your current skills
Begin by understanding where you stand. Assess your current skills by:
- Looking back at your school/college education and identifying your qualifications
- Digging into your current role and everything you do
- Thinking of any internships or volunteering you might have done
- Doing some blue sky thinking about intangibles, such as the newsletters you read, the thought leaders you follow, who do you learn from etc.
From all your current skills, identify those that are adjacent to marketing. Even if not related to marketing, think of everything that’s transferable.
Get the education
To make a smooth transition to marketing, it helps to have some training. Start with generic knowledge and slowly specialize. You might do online courses, bootcamps, or get a certification. Anything that demonstrates your knowledge of marketing helps get you an interview.
⚡️Template Archive: Try your hand at applying what you’ve learned using marketing roadmap templates or marketing plan templates.
Understand the market
While you’re getting your education, it also helps to scour the market for potential opportunities. Learn about the kind of jobs available, what skills they require, and what goals you’re expected to achieve. This would help you navigate the future and point your efforts in the right direction.
Build a personal brand
Inbound marketing depends almost entirely on good branding. So, create a strong personal brand for yourself. Update your social profiles. Join relevant groups and communities.
Post meaningful and valuable content around sales first and then slowly shift to marketing-related topics.
With that, you’re ready to actually make the transition. Let’s get at it.
Summarize this article for me pleaseSteps to Successfully Transition from Sales to Marketing
Career transitions don’t happen overnight. So, don’t quit your sales job in a hurry. Move step by step patiently. Here’s how.
Set clear career goals
Based on your understanding of the market from the prep, set career goals. Set a big longer-term goal, such as, “Get a marketing job by the end of the year.”
You might break that down into smaller short-term goals, such as:
- Skill development: E.g., Learn market research methods by end of the month
- Certification: E.g., Get the Coursera certification in influencer marketing by the next quarter
- Job search: E.g., Identify three roles to apply for by end of the quarter
- Experience: E.g., Complete two one-month internships by end of the year
Begin networking
The best way to make the transition from sales to marketing is by getting the support of the right people. So, broaden your reach and network with relevant people. While doing that, look for two kinds of people.
1. Marketing professionals
Identify those who already have the career in marketing that you’re looking for. Speak to them about what their work is like, what they do in a day, what kind of growth they’ve experienced, etc.
2. Marketers who’ve transitioned from sales
Speak to those who’ve walked the path before you so they can show you the way. Follow their journey, the challenges they’ve faced, and how they overcame them. Understand what the day in the life of a sales manager used to be and how it differs from their current role in marketing. Learn from their experience.
Find a mentor
You will face roadblocks, objections, rejections, and crippling self-doubt. An empathetic mentor will make all of this so much easier on you.
Reach out to potential mentors and ask for mentorship. Speak to multiple people before you decide on the one that’s right for you. Set mentorship goals, discuss your challenges, and leverage your mentor’s advice to fast-track your transition.
Bonus Read: How to find a marketing mentor.
Build your profile
For any job search, you need a resume and some cover letters. Use a tool like ClickUp Docs to iterate through various versions of your resume. Share it securely with your mentors to get feedback (they can even add comments!).
Look for internal transfers
The best place to find your first marketing job as a salesperson is to look in your current organization. Explore internal transfer opportunities. Apply for available positions and talk to your potential managers.
The team already knows you and appreciates your skills. You also have significant knowledge about the organization, its products, and services. Use that to your advantage.
Apply to marketing roles outside
If the internal transfer doesn’t work, look outside.
- Reach out to your connections who might refer you for roles
- Explore vacancies published on job boards and LinkedIn
- Identify organizations you’d like to work in and apply to open positions there
- Go to marketing events and pitch yourself for potential opportunities
If, at any point, your job search gets unwieldy, get things in order with ClickUp’s Job Search Template. Use it to track job openings, your applications, resume, interview resources, and more.
You might get a few rejections and some ghosting, but with the right skills and job strategy, you’ll be well on your way to a marketing career. Once you’re there, be sure to use the following tips.
Summarize this article for me pleaseLeveraging Sales Experience in a Marketing Role
Don’t feel like a fresher in marketing. You’re a consummate professional with robust sales skills. So, bring everything you’ve got to your new role.
Customer-centricity
As a salesperson, you’re the one closest to the customer. You understand them deeply and intuitively. Leverage that knowledge in your content and campaign management.
💡Pro Tip: For example, while writing a blog post, tap into your understanding of the customer’s challenges and pain points.
CRM
In any organization, the salesperson is arguably the one who uses customer relationship management (CRM) most. Bring that experience to your marketing role.
- Leverage a tool like ClickUp CRM to manage customer data
- Dice and slice customer segments to send targeted campaigns
- Explore customer behavior and preferences to design content
- Identify data points you can use to personalize customer experience
Data-driven reporting
As a salesperson, if you’ve developed a knack for looking at granular data, zoom out a bit to see the big picture as a marketer. Set up KPI-driven reports on a tool like ClickUp Dashboards to review how various marketing efforts work together.
Visualize progress on your marketing campaigns, measure impressions/conversions on your content, and connect it all to revenue with ClickUp for sales teams.
Automations
If life as a marketer gets overwhelming, don’t force yourself to do it all by yourself. Use ClickUp Automations to handle repetitive tasks. Set up custom lead capture with ClickUp Forms and automate tagging/segmentation for them. Create email automations based on custom triggers that are important to you.
Feel stuck in your role? Trigger some inspiration with ClickUp Brain. Use AI to brainstorm content ideas, write content, summarize reports, generate keynote scripts, create tables, and transcribe videos. What’s more? Proofread and improve quality with the built-in spell-check.
Despite the best tools and efforts, you will experience challenges. Let’s see how to overcome them.
Summarize this article for me pleaseOvercoming Common Challenges
Career marketers themselves face a lot of challenges every day. As a marketer transitioning from sales, you’d have some unique roadblocks. Here’s what you’re likely to face and how to overcome them.
Adapting to a new mindset
Sales is about closing individual deals, while marketing is about reaching wider audiences. Salespeople get validation of tangible results in the form of closed deals, but marketers need to be happy with impressions and leads.
Sales metrics and performance indicators are more straightforward than marketing. Moreover, sales is a focused role, while marketing can have a wider scope.
When you transition from sales to marketing, you need to be able to adapt to the new role.
- Introspect and understand the changes you need
- Invest time in collaborating on creative projects
- Learn to give and receive qualitative feedback
- Set up periodic reviews of your performance
Handling knowledge gaps
Marketing is a widespread field that’s constantly evolving. You will occasionally realize that you have knowledge gaps. Create a personal development strategy to overcome them.
- Review your work from time to time to identify gaps
- Seek feedback from peers and managers about your skills
- Sign up for online courses or workshops
- Put your skills to practice with pilot projects, personal assignments, etc.
Once you have a plan, organize them with ClickUp Tasks. Set up tasks, subtasks, deadlines, priorities, and more.
Creating your own knowledge base
While you’re doing your online courses and skill development programs, use Clickup Docs to take notes. You can even link your notes to tasks, creating for yourself a network of information that is easily accessible by search.
Fitting in
If you feel a little out of place as a salesperson in the marketing department, don’t sweat. That’s bound to happen. Understand the day in the life of a marketing manager.
- Observe your new teammates and learn from their behaviors
- Listen carefully and ask questions
- Be confident in your perspective and offer helpful input
- Develop relationships and community
Summarize this article for me pleaseTips and Resources for a Smooth Transition
Before we wrap up, let’s look at some valuable resources to make your transition smoother.
Online courses and certifications
Try any of the following to get yourself ahead in the transition to marketing:
- HubSpot Inbound Marketing Certification
- HootSuite’s Social Media Marketing Certification
- Content Marketing Institute Certification
💡Pro Tip: For more, see the 10 best marketing certifications to grow your career.
Best marketing books
One of the best ways to adapt your thinking to be a marketer is to read widely. Seth Godin’s Permission Marketing, Purple Cow, and This is Marketing are great starting points.
For something more traditional, try Ogilvy on Marketing. For startup marketing, read Hacking Growth by Sean Ellis and Morgan Brown. To learn content, consider Joe Pulizzi’s Content Inc. If you’re in tech, explore any of these product marketing books.
Some popular blogs
Subscribe and read some of the best marketing-related content in town:
- Copyblogger for content marketing and copywriting resources
- Marie Forleo (and her YouTube/Podcast) for marketing for small businesses and solopreneurs
- HubSpot, the OG inbound marketing blog
Tools that help in marketing
Master the marketing tech stack, which typically contains tools for:
- Analytics: Track website traffic, including impressions, page views, clicks, form fills, user journeys, and more with Google Analytics. Also, keep a few analytics templates handy
- CRM: Manage customer data with HubSpot, Salesforce, or ClickUp CRM
- Design: Spin up visuals for brochures, flyers, social media messages, etc. quickly with Canva
- SEO/SEM: Manage keywords, optimize content, and run campaigns with tools such as Semrush and Ahrefs
- Project management: Bring all your marketing tasks together and see the big picture with ClickUp
Summarize this article for me pleaseMake Your Move to Marketing with ClickUp
Marketing is a natural transition toward growth and leadership for many salespeople across the globe. In fact, a sales background may toughen up aspiring marketers and provide them with the on-ground knowledge they need to flourish. With the change in customer sentiment against “being sold to”, the role of a marketer becomes more business-critical.
In fact, with a stint in marketing and then customer success, you can develop your pedigree as a growth leader, a role in immense demand among startups and enterprises alike.
However, the many benefits don’t make the transition easy. Marketing roles are in great demand, and interviews are competitive. Moving from sales to marketing requires a strategic and cumulative effort.
You need to gain skills, put them to practice, get certifications, read books, find internships, network, build a personal brand, create a resume, apply to jobs, ace interviews—all this before you even begin the transition!
Don’t let the logistics of all this boggle you. Use a flexible project management tool like ClickUp for marketers to plan and execute your transition to marketing. Try ClickUp for free today. Good luck with your career!
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