"I'm in Marketing."

People "in Marketing" aren't necessarily Marketers. In fact, most of the time people "in Marketing" don't seem to get Marketing, at all.

Several years ago when I worked for MCI, our meeting with our VP was in full swing when I realized the sadness of our situation. In the room, of all the VP's direct reports, only I had been in the field with actual salespeople and customers in, get this ... 3 years. No wonder we had meetings all the time to constantly REACT to what was happening around us. We didn't even know what being proactive meant.

Guess what ... this happens everywhere and it is self-evident when talking to salespeople as they are unequipped to do their jobs in large part due to the people "in Marketing" whose responsibility it is to determine the market approach.