If you're in a sales role in the UK (SDR, account executive, account manager, business development) and you want to move into marketing without taking a junior salary, this guide is for you. By the end you'll know which marketing specialisms suit a commercial background, how to rewrite your CV so it reads as marketing, and how to get your first interviews.
The short answer: the move from sales to marketing works best when you pick one specialism, prove it with a small piece of real work, and sell yourself as someone who already knows what a customer will pay for. Most people try it the other way round and end up applying for everything.
1. Pick a specialism, not "marketing"
Marketing isn't one job. Hiring managers read "I'd like to move into marketing" as "I haven't decided what I'm good at."
Three areas tend to suit commercial people best.
Product marketing. Positioning, messaging, sales enablement, launches. You've sat through hundreds of prospect calls, so you know which claims land and which get a polite silence.
Demand generation. Pipeline targets, campaign performance, working alongside the sales team. If you've carried a quota, the numbers won't scare you.
Account-based marketing. Targeting a short list of big accounts with tailored campaigns. It's close to what a good enterprise seller already does.
Brand, creative and PR are harder jumps from sales. Possible, but you'd be starting closer to zero.
How to tell it's worked: you can finish this sentence without wincing. "I'm looking for a [specialism] role at a [type of company] business."
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2. Audit what you can already prove
Write down everything from your last two years that touches marketing, even if nobody called it that. Customer objections you've heard repeatedly. Outreach emails you rewrote because the first version flopped. A case study you pushed the customer to give. Which LinkedIn posts or sequences got replies.
These are your transferable skills for marketing: customer insight, copywriting under pressure, and a feel for what moves a buyer. Treat them as evidence, not as personality traits.
How to tell it's worked: you've got five or six concrete examples, each with a before and an after.
3. Fill one gap with one small project
You don't need a degree. You do need something to show. Take a free tool such as HubSpot's marketing training or Google's own skills courses, then use it on something real: a landing page for a side project, a short email sequence, a teardown of your current company's positioning.
If you're still employed in sales, ask your marketing team if you can help with one piece of sales enablement. Most are glad of the help, and you get a reference who works in the function.
How to tell it's worked: you've got a link or a document you can send to a stranger.
4. Rewrite your CV as a marketing CV
Don't lead with quota attainment alone. Reframe the same work.
Instead of: "Exceeded target in mid-market accounts."
Try: "Rewrote outbound messaging for mid-market accounts after spotting a recurring objection on calls, lifting reply rates and contributing to target attainment."
Put a short profile at the top that names your specialism. Move the marketing-relevant evidence above the account list. And cut anything that only makes sense inside a sales team.
How to tell it's worked: a friend in marketing reads it for ten seconds and can tell you what job you want.
5. Use your network before the job boards
Your best route in is probably a marketer you already know or a salesperson who's moved before you. Send something short.
"Hi [name], I'm moving from sales into product marketing and your path looked similar. Could I ask you two questions about how you made the switch?"
Also browse marketing roles on OHUB to see how employers word junior-to-mid openings, then tailor your applications to those phrases. Make sure your LinkedIn headline says what you're moving towards, not just what you've done; the HubFluencer programme is worth a look if you want a structured way to build that profile.
How to tell it's worked: at least three conversations booked within a few weeks.
6. Answer the "why leave sales?" question
You'll be asked, and the wrong answer is a complaint about targets. Say something like:
"I enjoyed the part of the job where I worked out what customers cared about, and I want to do that earlier in the process, before they ever reach a salesperson."
It's true for most people, and it points forward.
If a step goes wrong
No replies to your CV? Your specialism is probably too vague, so go back to step one and narrow it.
Offered a salary well below your current one? Some of that is real. Marketing base pay can sit under sales on-target earnings, so compare base to base and ask what progression looks like in the first year.
Told you lack experience? Point to the project from step three and offer to do a short task as part of the interview.
This week
Write the sentence from step one, then message one person who has made the move and ask for twenty minutes.
