The Water Cooler: Are Salespeople and Marketers Reading Different Articles on LinkedIn?

Getting sales and marketing on the same page is an enduring problem for business.

Or is it?

Sales and marketing appear to be extremely aligned when it comes to the articles they engage with on LinkedIn. For this month’s Water Cooler, we examined the top 10 articles engaged with by salespeople and the top 10 articles engaged with by marketers in September.

The verdict?

The interests of salespeople and marketers are remarkably aligned. For both salespeople and marketers, the top six articles were the same with the only difference was that “Be Somebody Who Makes Everyone Feel Like Somebody” and “Empathy Is the Most Important Leadership Skill Needed Today” swapped the third and fourth spots.

Of the top 10, eight of the same articles appeared on both the sales and marketing lists. Here are the articles that appeared on the sales list but not on the marketing list:

• “It’s Later Than You Think.”
• “Great Employees Don’t Complain — They Walk Away”

And here are the two articles that appeared on the marketing list but no the sales list:

• “Will the Leaders Stand Up?”
• “Leadership is a Precious Gift”

Overall, sales and marketing professionals are engaging with the same kinds of articles on LinkedIn. These articles, such the top one on both lists, “Work for Someone who Appreciates your Ideas, Loyalty and Hard Work,” tend to be about making the workplace more welcoming and business more human. That’s something all of us, even salespeople and marketers, can agree on.

Top 10 Articles Engaging Sales Professionals on LInkedIn

1. Work for Someone who Appreciates your Ideas, Loyalty and Hard Work By Brigette Hyacinth
2. A Message to Business Owners Struggling With What to Charge By Scarlett Darbyshire
3. Be Somebody Who Makes Everyone Feel Like Somebody  By Deepak Bhagat
4. Empathy is the Most Important Leadership Skill Needed Today! By Brigette Hyacinth
5. Boy Bullied for Homemade Tennessee Shirt has Logo Become Official Design By Jon Haworth, WABC
6. Great Leaders are Great Listeners! By Brigette Hyacinth
7. It's Later than You Think By J.R. Storment
8. Your Task as a Mentor is to Help Someone Recognize and Bring Out the Talent and Skills They Have that They're not Even Aware Of By Scott Douglas Clary
9. Great Employees Don't Complain — They Walk Away By Ian Daley
10. How Much Value Do You Bring? By Scott Nelson  

Top 10 Articles Engaging Marketers on LinkedIn

1. Work for Someone who Appreciates your Ideas, Loyalty and Hard Work By Brigette Hyacinth
2. A Message to Business Owners Struggling With What to Charge By Scarlett Darbyshire
3. Empathy is the Most Important Leadership Skill Needed Today! By Brigette Hyacinth
4. Be Somebody Who Makes Everyone Feel Like Somebody  By Deepak Bhagat
5. Boy Bullied for Homemade Tennessee Shirt has Logo Become Official Design By Jon Haworth, WABC
6. Great Leaders are Great Listeners! By Brigette Hyacinth
7. Will the Real Leaders Stand Up? By Carlos T. Carter
8. Your Task as a Mentor is to Help Someone Recognize and Bring Out the Talent and Skills They Have that They're not Even Aware Of  By Scott Douglas Clary
9. Leadership is a Precious Gift By Kees van der Ent
10. How Much Value Do You Bring? By Scott Nelson

Lessons for Marketers

The conventional wisdom is that sales and marketing go together like oil and water, Bears and Packers fans, Democrats and Republicans. The conventional wisdom is that marketing to salespeople and to marketers requires different messaging. But these two groups may not be as far apart as you think. Both want to produce revenue — one does so at scale, the other up close and personal.

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