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Field is just another term for the Sales team. More commonly, it refers specifically to the salespeople who are based in remote or home offices away from the company’s headquarters, though this distinction is by no means universal. A Field Marketer may be assigned to work exclusively with one or more salespeople, or can be assigned a particular territory (geographic region). Smaller companies may only have one Field Marketer who supports the entire sales force.
Field Marketers have a simple mission: support the Sales team with whatever it needs to win deals. This role is also sometimes called Field Enablement or Sales Enablement, because individuals in this position "enable" the Sales team to sell more effectively. The form of that support could be just about anything, but usually involves some amount of customized documentation or marketing collateral. For instance, a Sales Executive may feel that a particular customer would like to see a sales presentation that is better tailored to their specific needs than the standard corporate sales presentation. Or, perhaps the Sales Executive feels that a comparative analysis of the return on investment (ROI) that similar customers experience by using the company’s products would help seal the deal.
The work that Field Marketers and Product Marketers do is similar, but there are some important differences. While both Field Marketers and Product Marketers create collateral and sales tools, the focus is usually different. Field Marketers are strapped to the hip with salespeople and do a lot of "one-off" work. That is, the materials created by a Field Marketer are usually specific to one customer or type of customer, and may not be reusable to help close other deals. In contrast, Product Marketers generally focus on creating materials that would be of interest to the largest possible customer base, though not necessarily specific to any of them.
There are some other important differences between Field and Product Marketing. Field Marketers don’t perform the side of Product Marketing that involves collecting customer and market requirements and working with Product Managers and Engineering to transform those requirements into new or modified products. In addition, Field Marketers aren’t as concerned with creating the most elegant deliverable so much as creating the one that they can create or modify quickly to help win only whatever deal cycle they are currently involved in (and at the highest price). Finally, Field Marketers don’t work on materials or projects that have no direct linkage to driving sales. For example, Product Marketers occasionally work on projects with MarCom and CorpComm groups that don’t directly drive sales. But if it doesn’t directly effect sales, Field Marketers aren’t interested.
You may be wondering why Field Marketers are in Marketing organizations and not in Sales. Well, in some companies they are, though they hold different job titles which de-emphasize the marketing terminology. Even so, whatever companies call these individuals, the deliverables Field Marketers produce are traditional marketing pieces. And the skills that good Field Marketers possess are generally the same skills that other good marketing professionals possess.
What They Do
Field Marketers are highly output-driven. They produce the same kinds of materials that Product Marketers produce, but again the focus is on taking whatever collateral already exists and tailoring it to fit the needs of the sales cycle they are supporting, or to create something new from scratch, though it will probably be a one-off. The deliverables Field Marketers produce is dictated by what Sales tells them they need, which in turn is dictated by what prospective customers ask for above and beyond whatever "off the shelf" marketing materials are already available.
Here’s a common scenario: A company has dozens of case studies of customer successes, all summarized in one long white paper. But a prospective customer can only relate to a handful of those case studies (because it covers different industries) and isn’t impressed by the others. The Sales Executive suspects that if the prospect received a more tailored case study document to show to its Board of Directors, the prospect would purchase the company’s software. The Sales Executive asks the Field Marketer to alter the documentation by stripping out the non-relevant case studies, elaborate on the ones of interest, and re-package the document in a more "digestable" format for distribution at the next Board meeting.
The kinds of assistance that Field Marketers provide runs the gamut. It can range from wordsmithing an email about to go out to a prospect, to coaching a salesperson on how to deliver a particular sales presentation more effectively, to creating a 10-page document to help the staff at the prospective customer understand how the company’s products will uniquely benefit them, specifically.
Field Marketers may also be involved in projects to boost the productivity of the Sales team. For instance, they may implement a new automated proposal generation software tool, build pricing calculators for complex sales quotes, design and conduct sales training sessions, or design and manage an Intranet site (sometimes called a "sales portal") for organizing and disseminating information and materials to the Sales team. By facilitating such projects, the Field Marketer attempts to make every salesperson more effective on every deal.
Some Field Marketers also work on lead generation programs, and at some tech companies lead generation is one of the primary roles of a Field Marketer. This function is covered in the section on Marketing Programs Management.
Finally, Field Marketers may work closely with someone in Competitive Analysis, Product Marketing, or Product Management to conduct "win/loss analyses" — delving deep into why the company won or lost deals against key competitors.
Useful Skills
Since Field Marketers work side-by-side with salespeople, having a strong understanding of sales processes is mandatory. Perhaps more importantly, you should know how salespeople think. This doesn’t require that you have been a salesperson, but it would certainly help.
As with most Marketing roles, strong writing skills are exceptionally useful—in particular, the ability to write in a concise, business-oriented style. It also helps to be adept at conveying information in graphical formats (charts, graphs, tables, etc.), because in difficult sales cycles a picture really can say (and save) a thousand words.
Strong presentation skills are also key. Field Marketers often find themselves in customer-facing situations, whether face-to-face in a sales call meeting or on a phone call.
Career Paths
Field Marketing tends to be a mid-level position, and most Field Marketers hold the title of "Manager." Directors and VPs of Field Marketing are only common in the largest tech companies.
Most Field Marketers enter the role with a few years of experience in another Marketing field (especially Product Marketing or Management), in Sales, or in Sales Engineering. The transition can work the other way, too; Field Marketing is an excellent preparatory role for those same roles.
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Field Marketing
Field is just another term for the Sales team. More commonly, it refers specifically to the salespeople who are based in remote or home offices away from the company’s headquarters, though this distinction is by no means universal. A Field Marketer may be assigned to work exclusively with one or more salespeople, or can be assigned a particular territory (geographic region). Smaller companies may only have one Field Marketer who supports the entire sales force.
Field Marketers have a simple mission: support the Sales team with whatever it needs to win deals. This role is also sometimes called Field Enablement or Sales Enablement, because individuals in this position "enable" the Sales team to sell more effectively. The form of that support could be just about anything, but usually involves some amount of customized documentation or marketing collateral. For instance, a Sales Executive may feel that a particular customer would like to see a sales presentation that is better tailored to their specific needs than the standard corporate sales presentation. Or, perhaps the Sales Executive feels that a comparative analysis of the return on investment (ROI) that similar customers experience by using the company’s products would help seal the deal.
The work that Field Marketers and Product Marketers do is similar, but there are some important differences. While both Field Marketers and Product Marketers create collateral and sales tools, the focus is usually different. Field Marketers are strapped to the hip with salespeople and do a lot of "one-off" work. That is, the materials created by a Field Marketer are usually specific to one customer or type of customer, and may not be reusable to help close other deals. In contrast, Product Marketers generally focus on creating materials that would be of interest to the largest possible customer base, though not necessarily specific to any of them.
There are some other important differences between Field and Product Marketing. Field Marketers don’t perform the side of Product Marketing that involves collecting customer and market requirements and working with Product Managers and Engineering to transform those requirements into new or modified products. In addition, Field Marketers aren’t as concerned with creating the most elegant deliverable so much as creating the one that they can create or modify quickly to help win only whatever deal cycle they are currently involved in (and at the highest price). Finally, Field Marketers don’t work on materials or projects that have no direct linkage to driving sales. For example, Product Marketers occasionally work on projects with MarCom and CorpComm groups that don’t directly drive sales. But if it doesn’t directly effect sales, Field Marketers aren’t interested.
You may be wondering why Field Marketers are in Marketing organizations and not in Sales. Well, in some companies they are, though they hold different job titles which de-emphasize the marketing terminology. Even so, whatever companies call these individuals, the deliverables Field Marketers produce are traditional marketing pieces. And the skills that good Field Marketers possess are generally the same skills that other good marketing professionals possess.
What They Do
Field Marketers are highly output-driven. They produce the same kinds of materials that Product Marketers produce, but again the focus is on taking whatever collateral already exists and tailoring it to fit the needs of the sales cycle they are supporting, or to create something new from scratch, though it will probably be a one-off. The deliverables Field Marketers produce is dictated by what Sales tells them they need, which in turn is dictated by what prospective customers ask for above and beyond whatever "off the shelf" marketing materials are already available.
Here’s a common scenario: A company has dozens of case studies of customer successes, all summarized in one long white paper. But a prospective customer can only relate to a handful of those case studies (because it covers different industries) and isn’t impressed by the others. The Sales Executive suspects that if the prospect received a more tailored case study document to show to its Board of Directors, the prospect would purchase the company’s software. The Sales Executive asks the Field Marketer to alter the documentation by stripping out the non-relevant case studies, elaborate on the ones of interest, and re-package the document in a more "digestable" format for distribution at the next Board meeting.
The kinds of assistance that Field Marketers provide runs the gamut. It can range from wordsmithing an email about to go out to a prospect, to coaching a salesperson on how to deliver a particular sales presentation more effectively, to creating a 10-page document to help the staff at the prospective customer understand how the company’s products will uniquely benefit them, specifically.
Field Marketers may also be involved in projects to boost the productivity of the Sales team. For instance, they may implement a new automated proposal generation software tool, build pricing calculators for complex sales quotes, design and conduct sales training sessions, or design and manage an Intranet site (sometimes called a "sales portal") for organizing and disseminating information and materials to the Sales team. By facilitating such projects, the Field Marketer attempts to make every salesperson more effective on every deal.
Some Field Marketers also work on lead generation programs, and at some tech companies lead generation is one of the primary roles of a Field Marketer. This function is covered in the section on Marketing Programs Management.
Finally, Field Marketers may work closely with someone in Competitive Analysis, Product Marketing, or Product Management to conduct "win/loss analyses" — delving deep into why the company won or lost deals against key competitors.
Useful Skills
Since Field Marketers work side-by-side with salespeople, having a strong understanding of sales processes is mandatory. Perhaps more importantly, you should know how salespeople think. This doesn’t require that you have been a salesperson, but it would certainly help.
As with most Marketing roles, strong writing skills are exceptionally useful—in particular, the ability to write in a concise, business-oriented style. It also helps to be adept at conveying information in graphical formats (charts, graphs, tables, etc.), because in difficult sales cycles a picture really can say (and save) a thousand words.
Strong presentation skills are also key. Field Marketers often find themselves in customer-facing situations, whether face-to-face in a sales call meeting or on a phone call.
Career Paths
Field Marketing tends to be a mid-level position, and most Field Marketers hold the title of "Manager." Directors and VPs of Field Marketing are only common in the largest tech companies.
Most Field Marketers enter the role with a few years of experience in another Marketing field (especially Product Marketing or Management), in Sales, or in Sales Engineering. The transition can work the other way, too; Field Marketing is an excellent preparatory role for those same roles.