Well said. Engineers shouldn't be afraid of sales or marketing, and can often do it as well or better than "business types". Treating it as a separate world sets up an unhealthy dynamic.
In my experience, this dynamic is more often than not created by the "business types" who tend to think that if you can do engineering, you can't do sales & marketing.
But I agree, the engineers who can do it are often many times more effective than those without an engineering background. It all depends on the person.
tend to think that if you can do engineering, you can't do sales & marketing.
No, they know you can and are protecting their turf. That's a warning sign that they aren't very good at what they do. Just as an engineer who blindly disparages marketing is foolish - without those guys being on the ball your chances of getting paid goes way down.
