I think that the majority of companies have differentiators that aren't sales. First consider any company that's selling a commodity. Exxon's oil is the same

I think that the majority of companies have differentiators that aren't sales. First consider any company that's selling a commodity. Exxon's oil is the same as everyone else. I'm sure they might have sales in some capacity but they don't really need to convince someone on the fence to buy oil and they don't get a lot of value out of a slightly better negotiated price for their oil since again, if they try to charge more than someone else that customer will just go buy someone else's oil. So Exxon is generally speaking run by engineers because better more efficient engineering is the main way the company can derive more value than they do now. Now consider Coca Cola. For the most part Pepsi is just as good as Coke. Maybe you're really picky about one vs the other but truth be told most people don't care and the market is wide open for someone else to make a similar soda. So what is their "moat"? Their brand, maybe you could say their supply chains, which are world class. So Coca Cola isn't run by sales people but it is run by marketing and operations people because that's what drives their continued profit. What about Walmart? Again I'm sure Walmart does have salespeople working for them in some capacity but I'd say Walmart's main value driver is their ability to curate and acquire inventory. And sure enough at Walmart (and other retail stores) it's the Merchandisers and Buyers that have all the real power. It's not the "sales associates" running Walmart. Among the Fortune 500 you find very few companies run by salespeople.