In my past life I was a pre-sales engineer and the resident subject matter expert or SME before it was called that. I was one of those rare birds that could sell and build solutions. I could be “salesy” if needed or as technical as it gets. I also, as a left and right brainier, could ascertain some of the trending marketing directions easily to become instrumental in helping the sales team focus their efforts accordingly. This last part turned out to be more important, or at least as important, as understanding how the product actually worked.