Sales & Marketing: What's the Difference?
Many people believe that sales and marketing or advertising
are the same thing. However, this is a mistake. Businesses as well as
individuals even confuse the two concepts. For example, when a company advertising
for a marketing assistant, they often mean that they need someone to carry out sales
calls. Although marketing and sales are closely linked, there are a number of
definite differences.
Marketing defined
Marketing is a an extremely broad business area, and
encompasses a wide variety of activities, including:
- Discovering what
product, service or idea customers want.
- Producing a product
with appropriate qualities and features.
- Accurate pricing of
the product
- Promoting and advertising
the product
- Selling and delivery
Marketing
is everything that is used to gain leverage with consumers. Marketing is a
large set of processes that includes sales. In fact, marketing is often the way
in which sales are gained and maintained, through the use of clever advertising
and packaging.
Sales defined
Selling
is one activity within the marketing process, and involves persuading a
customer to buy your product. It can be described as a one-to-one, non-automated
part of marketing. Without sales, a business cannot function, as they could not
make money. Marketing is a sort of means to an end, with the end being the
final sales produced.
Contrasting
concepts
The
difference between marketing and sales can be seen further in the way the two
concepts are put into practice. Although both concepts are needed for a
business to function, they are used in different ways.
The
concept of marketing involves listening to potential consumers to find out what
it is they need and want. Two-way communication is emphasised between the salesperson and the consumer in order
to find out which products or services should be offered, and how to improve
existing products. The concept of marketing then uses these findings to make
the consumer aware of their products through advertising. Marketing is focussed
around meeting the demands of the consumer.
Selling, surprisingly, is less consumer
focused. Although concepts within the sales process can be changed to meet an
individual’s demands, the general idea of sales is to make the consumers needs
fit in with your existing product. The need for two-way communication is
reduced, because the consumer is not trying to describe their ideal product,
but rather decide whether one of the current products on offer is right for
them. The concept of sales tries to make consumer demand fit in with the
products that is has already produced.
Combining
marketing and sales
Marketing
and sales, although different in concept, often overlap. They are inexorably
linked together, and a successful business will embrace this fact. Although sales
focuses on selling the product, a salesperson can use marketing techniques to
assist them. For example, a sale might only be made by listening to what the
customer’s exact needs are, and then trying to match one of the existing
products to these needs.
Problems of
communication
It is
important that businesses combine marketing with sales, because not doing so
can result in both areas suffering. If sales are not part of the general marketing
strategy, then sales staff will waste their time with clients who do not have
an interest in their products. Furthermore, if marketing strategies are weak,
then sales will suffer because the products produced will not meet the needs of
the consumer, or the advertising will not attract the target audience.
Small vs. large
business
The
differences between sales and marketing are more apparent in large
corporations, where sales and marketing teams are fully separated. Although
with the correct level of communication this can be an advantage and make both
areas more efficient, it often leads to the aforementioned problems of
communication. Small and medium sized businesses are often much better at
maintaining links between sales and marketing, because they remain closer to
their entrepreneurial roots. In small businesses it is more likely that the
founders of the company are still involved, and they have at some point
performed both sales and marketing roles within the company. They understand
how the two concepts, although different, are linked, and so maintain a good
level of communication.
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Whether
you are in marketing or sales, or both, you have an important role to play
within your company. Although sometimes difficult to separate, and at other
times overly separated, they are dependent upon each other. Without marketing,
the company cannot know what their consumers want. However, if the business has
no sales, then the company cannot make any money. The only way for companies to
be successful is to acknowledge both the difference and interdependence of marketing
and sales.