engio -
I’ll piggyback off of your post by saying that the sales guy you had that lunch with is a pretty classic example of what is found in my industry. Pretty much every company I’ve ever worked at or come into contact with in the POP Display business considers its salespeople to be the actual “talent”. All other creative professionals in the organization merely serve as support for that “talent”.
And yes I intentionally put the word “talent” in quotes when its in reference to salespeople - rarely are they the people that should be leading the charge, yet they usually are.