It is very common to see marketing, sales, and business development used interchangeably across many B2B and professional service organizations.

Except they’re not interchangeable.

They’re distinctly different disciplines, different muscles, and different ways of creating growth. And when leaders blur the lines between them or don’t understand the unique role of each one, the entire growth engine slows down.

And whether leaders admit it or not, the health of that reality shows up everywhere: your reputation, the client experience, the pace of decision-making, how well teams collaborate, and ultimately, whether the business grows.

Here’s the part most organizations miss:

Culture is business infrastructure, not decoration.

You don’t create culture.

You reveal it through the choices you make.

I’ve supported sales and business development, led rebrands, aligned leaders around new priorities, built growth infrastructure and helped teams navigate structural shifts. 

Every environment has defined “marketing” a little differently, but the throughline has always been the same.

Marketing is the ultimate cross-functional role.
It is the connective tissue between reputation, sales, operations, client experience and culture.

Which is exactly why the role feels like it’s having an identity crisis.

For B2B marketers and comms leaders, so much of our impact lives below the surface. These are the invisible wins—the shifts, the alignment, the ease—that no one can quite name but everyone benefits from.

Which raises a constant question: how do you measure something you can’t see but everyone can feel?

Marketing and communications rarely operate as solo artists.
We’re a full production—conducting from somewhere in the middle of the orchestra, shaping the tempo, coordinating the sections, creating coherence as we go.

That’s why proving impact is so tricky. Our influence often shows up in how seamlessly the business operates, how well-equipped teams are to do their jobs, how aligned decisions feel, or how quickly momentum builds. None of which typically makes it onto a dashboard.

Companies rely on CMOs to operate across functions — influencing product, brand, sales, communications, culture and customer experience — but still judge them by marketing-owned metrics. The result is a role that is critical to the business but often treated like a cost center instead of a growth lever.

This is the shift modern CMOs are navigating.

They are no longer simply driving campaigns. They are shaping how the company operates. They influence alignment, expectations and decisions across the business. They integrate how the brand shows up with how the business performs. Their value is structural. Their impact is cross-functional. Their work is commercial. But the measurement model hasn’t caught up.