Cover Story — Issue #2

"The true leader is always led." — Carl Jung

With the arrival of spring in March, the old leaves of the trees fall, completing their cycle and making room for new leaves to take their place and begin their own. In the same way, our vocation — how we choose to serve humanity — must be renewed so that we can continue giving the best of ourselves to others. It is for this reason that this March issue is dedicated to reflecting on why one should commit to marketing and sales as a profession.

When would I, with my years of experience as an educator, not recommend studying or dedicating yourself to marketing and sales?

When you say you want to make a lot of money. Money should not be the primary motivator — it can be the second, because when you do what you love and become very good at it, financial reward will follow. But if money is the only driver, there will be no long-term commitment.

If it is because you believe marketing and sales are fields without numbers or analytical rigor, allow me to tell you that they have them — and plenty — just like every other area of business.

And if it is because you want to be creative, creativity is not exclusive to any one discipline — it is practiced in all of them.

Perhaps most of us who work in marketing arrived through different paths: some by chance, accident, or even mistake. Yet many end up finding success. So the secret is not necessarily talent — it is the why. Why did you decide to stay and commit to marketing? Your why makes all the difference.

Of all the areas in which we can work in business, why dedicate yourself to marketing and sales? The answer is a personal search and reflection, and this piece does not aim to answer it — but rather to invite critical thinking about whether or not to commit to the profession, based on your own why. It is worth starting from a philosophical foundation: according to Hunt (2010), marketing serves multiple stakeholder groups — customers, companies, society, and others — and therefore, committing to marketing carries a responsibility toward all of those groups from day one.

The Path Is Not Always Straight

This is my subjective perspective, shaped by my international professional and academic experiences over the last 30 years dedicated to marketing and sales.

I did not study marketing as an undergraduate — I studied communication, and it was precisely that background that allowed me to transition into business, both professionally and academically. My marketing course in undergrad went right over my head, but advertising did not — two completely different teaching styles: the first, traditional lecture-based reading; the second, combining reading with problem-based learning. There was already a clue there about what moved me.

But it was not until my MBA at EGADE that everything changed. Taking the Marketing Management course with Dr. Carlos Ruy Martínez, my love for the discipline appeared. What caught my attention? First, Dr. Ruy Martínez's energy — his enthusiasm for the discipline was contagious. But so was learning how companies thought deeply about how to better serve their markets, and how they planned an entire strategy to achieve that goal, from conceptualization through implementation and measurement of the marketing and sales process.

Thanks to Dr. Ruy Martínez, I discovered the teachings of Kotler et al. (2010) on the evolution of marketing from 1.0 to 3.0: from product to customer, and from customer to the whole human being. This implies that whoever practices the discipline needs not only marketing tools, but a solid why — so that they can authentically serve the complete human being.

The Passion for Sales Came Through a Different Path

Who taught me the passion for sales? In that same MBA program, I had the opportunity to take Sales Management with Professor Rubén Treviño, another great professor and mentor. What did Dr. Ruy Martínez and Professor Treviño have in common that distinguished them as excellent professors? Both had extensive field experience; both had strong international academic credentials — rare in the nineties, but almost expected today in the 2020s. Classes that did not go over my head, professors who had a real impact on me, and knowledge that defined my future and who I wanted to be.

Why do I dedicate myself to marketing and sales? Because I want to contribute to a better world. My contribution: preparing future generations of business professionals with relevant knowledge so they can generate value in today's market — positively impacting the market they serve, the company they work for, and the society they belong to.

Jung said that the true leader is always led. Dr. Ruy Martínez and Professor Treviño were that for me. Who has been that guiding leader in your marketing and sales journey?

The Why

Why do you work in marketing and sales? What they say about the calling is real: you will feel it when you experience less stress working on something you enjoy, that you are passionate about, that motivates you to start every Monday eager to keep advancing on your projects. That is when you enter the state of Flow — Professor Csikszentmihalyi's (1990) theory —: absolute concentration on a task that requires critical and creative thinking. It is experienced across all disciplines and all professions, but you have to be in the right place to find it, and that requires knowing your why.

In my case — and that is why it is the slogan of mercadotecniayventas.com — I believe that in marketing and sales we must always generate value: for our clients, employees, company, society, and for ourselves, by employing our skills, talents, and knowledge in ways that continue to stimulate us to keep learning, keep growing, keep serving.

The Market Is Waiting — If You Are Willing to Renew Yourself

Some numbers to put the moment in perspective: according to Moorman (2025), marketing hiring grew 5.4% in 2025 — yes, even with AI — and similar growth is expected in 2026. There will always be room for the best. But that is precisely why it is important to renew your why, just like the trees: let the old leaves fall and let new skills, knowledge, and motivations grow. According to LinkedIn (2026), marketing skills — led by performance analysis, AI literacy, and social media branding — remain among the most in-demand globally.

To close, I hope that this piece leads you to question and reflect: why do you work in marketing and sales? Whether you are a student, professor, professional, or director — answer for yourself today: why do you dedicate yourself to marketing and sales?

References

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. HarperCollins.

Hunt, S. D. (2010). Marketing theory: Foundations, controversy, strategy, and resource-advantage theory. Routledge.

Kotler, P., Kartajaya, H., & Setiawan, I. (2010). Marketing 3.0: From products to customers to the human spirit. Wiley.

LinkedIn. (2026, February). Skills on the rise: Marketing 2026. LinkedIn News. https://www.linkedin.com/business/talent/blog/talent-strategy/linkedin-most-in-demand-skills

Moorman, C. (2025). The CMO Survey: Leading marketing in a complex world (34th ed.). Duke University Fuqua School of Business, American Marketing Association & Deloitte. https://cmosurvey.org

Technical note: Author: Dr. Carlos Valdez. Date: March 2026. Editorial assistance: Claude Sonnet 4.6 — proofreading, grammar correction, research and academic reference verification. Image generated with: Gemini 3 Nano Banana. Publication: Revista Mercadotecnia y Ventas. © All rights reserved. Revista Mercadotecnia y Ventas 2026. Reproduction without the author's permission is prohibited. Editorial syndication: This content is available for syndication. For licensing or collaboration inquiries, contact: carlos.valdez@mercadotecniayventas.com