Don’t get confused between sales and marketing

People often get confused between sales and marketing. I was once lecturing at a secondary school in Surrey and mentioned the word ‘sales’. I was immediately castigated by the teacher who, rather pompously, informed me that “we don’t discuss selling; we would rather our students considered a career in marketing”!

Sales and marketing are frequently considered to be one and the same and, therefore, interchangeable. People will say that they are trying to market their product to a particular person or company when what they’re actually trying to do is to sell it.

A simple rule of thumb is to say that selling is “one-to-one” while marketing is “one-to-many”. However, the definition goes far beyond that, as we shall soon see. Selling is certainly related to marketing, but only inasmuch as accounts is related to manufacturing.

In order to differentiate, let us first consider sales. Selling is the act of persuading a customer to buy a product or service from you, at the best margin possible, consistent with the business and sales plans of your company.

Marketing, on the other hand, covers a vast array of activities which, taken together, result in the sales person being able to close that sale.

Consider the case of Aardvark Engineering (an imaginary company) which has invented a new gizmo for the automotive industry. Marketing has a critical role prior to a single sale being made.

First they must establish if there is a market for the product, and at what price it can be sold. Then they must assess the competition in terms of functionality, price, after-sales support, brand position and a whole host of other parameters, and feed this information into the development and production departments. There is little use in having a great product that does the same as the competition, but costs twice as much.

Marketing must then establish the channels to market – whether to sell direct, through distributors, via the internet or even mail order. Frequently, this decision will be governed by such issues as margin, lead times, and even resources.

Having decided that there is a market, and the means by which they will address the market against the competition, marketing must hand over to sales the specification of the channels in order that they can start the process of selling.

They must also provide the collateral for the sales department to succeed, which will include literature, website, case studies, perhaps a CRM system, exhibition presence, and, more importantly, a source of good leads. The days when a sales person used to sit on the telephone making cold calls have not gone, but there are often more effective ways to generate regular leads.

With the company now making profitable sales, the marketing department must ensure the longevity of the product line by carrying out customer surveys to ensure that the product and its related service are providing satisfaction.

They must also engage with the sales team to collate feedback on shortfalls in the product, future needs of the customers, and on-going intelligence with regard to the competition’s activities. This information is then fed back into the company to provide a design plan for product modifications or even new products.

So should you sell or should you market your products? The clear answer is that, to be successful, you should do both. Each operation is dependent on the other for its own successes, and the company is dependent on the effectiveness of the joint outcomes.