Most salespeople don't understand how ecommerce brands operate. Most brands don't understand the game software vendors are playing.

Whether you are being sold to or buying from, you should be working on understanding the other side of the equation better.

The people who do, on either side, have an unfair advantage.

When they meet one another, they recognise that the other person 'gets it' and where these connections regularly happen, either the brand delivers a great tech strategy or the salesperson smashes their numbers.

As a salesperson, you can smash numbers without understanding e-commerce well if you're with one of the big guys whose brand and reputation are doing the job for you. You're an order taker.

As a brand, you can't deliver an excellent tech strategy without understanding software well unless you get lucky. The vast majority of the risk in this equation is on you. You only use one WMS, ERP, PLM etc. At the same time, the salesperson sells to many brands.

If you want to fix it, spend time learning deeply about the other side. When we started targeting ecommerce with Peoplevox in 2010 I wrote down on a piece of paper, "Become an expert on ecommerce".

There is a reason people who have worked at a combination of services agencies, vendors and brands are so damn knowledgeable and effective.