I agree completely with your idea of marketing totally: its getting customers to yes before you know their name:

Funny example: Futurama's Fry goes to the eye-phone store and pulls out wads of cash and yells at the cashier. First two sentences: "take my money! I hope you have a phone left!"

I've not worked in sales and marketing but I have a soft place for those who do it well. I distinctly remember being asked by a Chem Eng at a young age: what's the difference between sales and marketing. And i distinctly remembered being confused. At that time both ideas where so fuzzy in my mind I had no idea how to start an answer.

Many years later I might add strong cross functional coordination and a great COO can help a company market itself. Its a base to build off. Its such a breath of fresh air when customers think a company isn't a bunch of silos.