Christine (Chris) B.
Marketing Consultant. Branding Expert.Strategic Planner. Marketing Workshop Leader and Keynote Speaker.
What’s your opinion of the difference between sales and marketing?
Everyone seems to have a different explanation of the difference between sales and marketing. I wanted to open this up to my group of Linked In connections and find out other opinions.
Thanks!
Good Answers (54)
Brad H.
President, 427 Design, a Graphic Design firm
Best Answers in: Business Development (1), Sales Techniques (1)
Since I'm an old baseball guy I like to simplify this question in basic terms that relate to pitching.
I equate marketing to the starting pitcher....he does all the long and hard work to get you into the later innings. If he does his job right, he sets the stage for the closer. He may go 6 or 7 innings (continuous and strategic game plan...marketing) with some assistance in the later innings from a right or left hand specialists (other supportive media channels). All this leads to the closer (sales) to secure the victory at the end of the game.
You can't get to your closer if the front end effort fails....Marketing, when effective, leads to easier Sales.
That's my pitch, and I'm sticking to it.
Mitch K.
Author, Top-rated Speaker, Leadership Coach and World Traveler
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Marketing involves theory and research. Sales is a transaction.
You can market forever, but you make no money until you have a sale.
Hey Chris,
I remember having an argument with a college roommate, who was an advertising major, over the difference between PR and advertising. He insisted that PR was nothing more than paid advertising.
Sales is the end to the means; marketing is the means to the end. The sales manager at Radio Shack can sell widgets, but he/she won't know how many widgets to order without marketing.
Mike
John J.
Marketing consultant, best selling author, speaker and creator of the Duct Tape Marketing System and Brand
I always speak of it this way:
Marketing is getting someone who has a need to know, like and trust you.
Sales is turning know, like and trust into try, buy, repeat and refer.
Marketing owns the conversation, sales owns the relationship
Links:
I think this handy illustration sums things up nicely...
Links:
Tony P.
Systems Administrator at ITT in Afghanistan
Best Answers in: Internet Marketing (1), Small Business (1)
Marketing is communication - that's all it is. Radio ads, TV commercials, bill boards, webpages, and so on - are all forms of communication. In marketing, no monetary transaction takes place. It just creates selling opportunities.
A sale takes place when you actually transfer ownership of your product/services to someone else, usually through a monetary transaction.
Marketing is focussed on converting the customers needs into opportunities. Sales converts the opportunity into new business.
hi chris
in my openion marketing is what you make people aware that there is a product in the market alongwith its availability and other strengths, whereas, the sales part is the process that make you feel that mission been accomplished i.e. after the marketing.
hope i could make some point. Thanks.
Deborah C.
Customer Relationship Expert, Social Media Trainer, Consultant, Spokesperson & Website Writer, Internet Content, Speaker
Sales and marketing - think Reeses Peanut Butter Cups:
It just isn't a Reeses without both the chocolate and the peanut butter.
In the same way, marketing and sales go hand-in-hand.
Marketing creates the awareness and inspires the prospect to take action...come into the store, pick up the phone, visit the website.
Sales happens after they cross the threshold. I had a Pearle Vision franchise owner who used to say "You drive the traffic in the door and I'll sell them."
Marketing is the promise and Sales - the delivery.
Sales happens when you come face-to-face (literally or virtually) with your prospect, uncover their needs and fill their needs with your products and services. It is the delivery on the promise.
Deborah
Links:
Lewis G.
Founder & Managing Principal at L&G Business Solutions
Best Answers in: Internet Marketing (1), Change Management (1)
Chris,
Here is the basic difference: Sales closes clients and customers; marketing inspires and motivates potential clients and customers to be closed.
Claire S.
Chartered marketer| Professional services marketing|Small business marketing|
I think we're all saying the same thing just in lots of different ways! Basically, sales is about pushing the product or service your firm has in place. Marketing is identifying a target market, finding out their needs and wants and making sure your product or service fulfills these, better than your competitors.
Luca M.
Market Research and Marketing Professional
Best Answers in: Market Research and Definition (2), Search Marketing (1)
In my opinion, after myself having spent some time and esperience dealing with both sales and marketing, you can easily put the matter in this way:
1) sales is an act and it cannot change the object that is being sold. It is basically the act of the meeting between the offer and the demand. If there is no demand for what is being sold, there will be no sales at all. If you are a seller, you have indeed to run a lot in the market in order to place your goods to the buyers who could want to buy them.
2) marketing is a construct of thought and, if implemented in actions (the actions of a marketing plan, for instance), it has the power to choose the object that will be sold because it is antecedent sales and, when choosing what to sell, it looks for the best social "meaning" in the selling and buying process (usually the less or more articulated needs of the buyer). If you are a marketer, you have to think very well about what to sell in all its aspects (the 4ps: product, price, placement, promotion).
Good question, Chris. Marketing (and advertising), done well, builds a relationship directly with the consumer. Sales builds the relationship with the retailer. Marketing supports sales by creating a consumer demand, paving the way for the sales force. Relying on sales without marketing is like relying on manufacturing without tools. The product can still be made, the sales can still be closed - it's just a whole lot harder to accomplish.
It differs greatly by "product", industry and company. In general I see Marketing primarily focused on "macro" activities such as PR, advertising, product development, packaging. Marketing works to develop the entire range of products. While sales is more of a micro activity. Utilizing some of the companies products to develop a program for a specific customer or channel. Marketing is generally more future focused and strategic, while sales is more tactical and executing todays objective.
Varun Goel {.
Senior Program Manager
Best Answers in: Internet Marketing (1), Computers and Software (1)
In my perception -
Sales: You go to market - catch anyone on the streat - so sweet talks which are baised to your requirement (Business) - offer your product - suggest a price with discounts etc - collect cheque - say gud bye
Marketing: Sales [You go to market based on your research - search for relevant prospect - share knowledge - create requirement of your product/service - offer your solution - suggest price with disc. etc - collect chq] ++++ add him/her to your marketing list for informing them about your new offers/updates - focus on long term relationship adn repeatitive business.
Do Comment!!
Marketing is developing the overall plan of defining your market, determining how you are going to reach them, evaluating data collected from seo, surveys, etc. Sales is taking all that information and making it happen (going to the bank).
In a perfect world (or business) sales and marketing goes hand in hand. And in any successful organization the one hand knows what the other hand is doing. Marketing can help with prospecting - sales can help with research into why people buy which will help with the marketing messages. Both Marketing and sales can lure the prospect through the buying process and then they can both do their own part in assuring the buyer they made a wise decision with post marketing and sales follow through. Sometimes sales may get all the glory - even though it can be Marketing that get's the prospect in the right mind-set and ready to buy.
Marketing and Sales can also be compared to a great marriage where each may have their own responsibilities but both can help each other get their tasks done. And at times their responsibilities may switch depending on the circumstances or they may share the duties. For example, both Sales and Marketing can work together on a powerpoint presentation or create and conduct an email campaign.
The crucial point to remember about Marketing and Sales is that they are both important and both are necessary to make a company grow.
Alan B. also suggests these experts on this topic:
William V.
Interim Chairman - Department of Accounting, Finance, and Economics at Park School of Business
My students offer the same question every semester, and here is my answer:
My opinion is that my discipline, marketing, is one of the most critical functions within the organization. Within the scope of most business enterprises nothing really happens until someone makes a sale. In order to make the sale and get the product or service to market requires the skillful management of scarce resources at all levels. Unfortunately, in the global economy some marketers view marketing as sales, as does the majority of the population. From their perspective: Marketing = Sales; and I define this concept as conveyed by one of my old marketing professors as “Getting rid of what you got!”
In the greater scheme of the world economy I teach my students that marketing plays a central role, in that a marketing manager needs communication skills and expertise in all phases of the business model. A skilled marketing manager needs knowledge in the disciplines of the social sciences, with particular emphasis in economics, political science and sociology. A skilled marketing manager must also have competence and communications ability to work with accounting, legal, human resources, sales, corporate finance, production, distribution and any other internal or external (vendor/customer/stakeholder) function within the organization. From this perspective I continue the concept as: Marketing = “Having enough to get rid of!”
Chris,
Sales owns the customer relationship and provides insights to the marketing group to aid marketing planning and analysis. Sales implements the marketing strategies on a personal level with the customer.
Marketing owns the analysis and planning efforts to evaluate opportunities idenitified in conjunction with the sales group, as well as those identified from other avenues. Of those oppportunities, marketing evaluates alternatives and refines the strategy to pursue the most profitable that are within the organizational capabilities and resources.
The smartassed answer is "Marketing lies and Sales sweares to it". The real difference is that Marketing is "strategic" in it's approach to the customer and Sales is "tactical".
In my opinion, marketing (the concept, not the department) includes sales. In fact marketing includes all the 4-5 "P's" - product, price, promotion, place (distribution) and positioning. Sales includes place, and some promotional aspects.
In manufacturing/ product management, the marketing department includes product, price, promotion and positioning and the sales department includes distribution (with some promotion). However, in retail, the merchandising department includes product, price, and position. "Advertising" shares promotion with merchandising, and "Operations" is the distribution/sales arm.
The age old question: sales and marketing and how are they different? They are seperate and should remain so however in today's world so many small companies are operating with a skeleton crew so; the person making the planning decisions for marketing then goes out to sell what they have designed for the company. I have been in sales over thirty years with some excellent marketing and also a lack of marketing or poor decisions. To me marketing is putting together the concept and program that the sales people will sell. If they come up with poor, non-competive, or un-needed services and products the sales will be down and eventually the sales people will leave. A true sales person is evaluated on their sales, dollars, number of units, and service to the customer. Usually, all of the sales persons efforts result in commissions. Sales people are constantly asking the decision marketing heads to give them a better product, a better price or best, an exclusive service or product that is not in the market. Another part of marketing is direct marketing to the customer, part of this is branding. Getting us to call a tissue a klenex. Have you ever heard someone say "please give me a Puff"? A sales person can influence marketing decisions but not set them.The best situation is to keep the two seperate but in today's world it's not always possible.
The process of sales focuses on taking product to the consumer while marketing and advertising focuses on bringing the consumer to the product.
Chris,
Here's my take on your question:
Marketing sets up the sale by positioning you in the marketplace, telling potenial customers who you are, what you do, and why they should do business with you. Sales is the process of the transaction: features and benefits, pricing, delivery and other terms.. If well coordinated, marketing provides the tools for closing the sale.
Jeanne
Flyn P.
Telephone Sales Training & Telephone Sales Management Free Webinars►bit.ly/tsu_webinars ►5/22 Unique Selling Proposition
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Just a little FYI for you -- this question has been asked before and you might try searching it out to get more ideas.
Sales and marketing are two parts of one process, the process of developing from the world of suspects customers.
The best analogy would probably be fishing. Marketing is the bait, and once the fish bites it is up to sales to bring em in the boat.
Marketing's job is to position the company in such a way as for them to believe that they would have to be a fool not to do business with you regardless of price.
Marketing's job is to get the attention of those that "could" be customers (the Suspects) so that they engage the organization.
Frequently, marketing takes the second step in this process, that of figuring out if those that raise their hand are actually potential customers. At that point they are turned over to sales.
The job of sales is to fit the solution offered to those that have raised their hand establishing with the suspect exactly what the solution can deliver inn terms of the customer's needs and expectations.
Confusion on either definition is a guarantee of sub standard performance as the key objective will not be achieved if it isn't aimed for.
"I'm no theologen" (yes I know it doesnt fit here) but, marketing is the action to create and increase the sales (if done right!).
Dawud M.
Marketing Coach, Website Design, WordPress Aficionado
Best Answers in: Blogging (12), Web Development (10), Internet Marketing (7), Small Business (3), Viral Marketing (1), Business Development (1), Sales Techniques (1), Career Management (1), Databases (1), Using LinkedIn (1)
I see marketing as what you use to create relationships with your prospects and sales as the effort involved in converting those relationships into paying customers and clients.
Marketing and sales are not the same thing. Nor is sales and conversion. Sales, like marketing, is a process. The transaction happens from the process of sales.
