Cutting the Middle wo/man in marketing

How many of the marketing folks you know of , talk to the customer DIRECTLY?

Or do they depend on secondary/tertiary information fed by sales/colleagues/press/analysts etc?

Nothing comes close to interacting first hand with the customer and I see many marketing folks not very comfortable with that. The truth between the lines , the informal communication, the true meaning behind the words... all this one gets to appreciate only by interacting with the customer directly.

But interacting with customer needs lot of confidence , knowledge and skill. This is the reason perhaps many organizations do not 'allow' marketing folks to talk to customer directly as they are not sure that the marketing folks dont create a 'wrong' impression with the customer.


But this is the 'moment of truth' for marketers. The one most powerful in the organisation is the one who drives customer and business. Let that one be marketing folks. Amen to that!