One thing to note is most people, often especially those with purchasing authority in a company, are not technical and don't care about software in itself. They

One thing to note is most people, often especially those with purchasing authority in a company, are not technical and don't care about software in itself. They need solutions to their problems first and foremost. Often, the best way of educating them is through a sales process that breaks down the discovery and identification of the problem and mapping that to solutions that currently exist or can be made to exist with the product offering of a company. The stereotype of an overly pushy car salesperson is a caricature; the best sales people are good at educating potential buyers and thinking through problems they face...not aggressively ramming excessive products down your throat. That being said, there are plenty of terrible sales people out there, to be certain, but it is not useless or misguided as many other folks are alluding to in this thread. I am not aware of any software company doing north of a billion in revenue without a sales function.