Often we confuse the terms — marketing and sales. Though prima facie, they might appear to be similar but are they really?
As a salesperson, you might already know that marketing and sales are the most frequently used terms in the sales business. It is practically impossible for a day to go about without the use of these terms in some form or the other.
This makes it absolutely crucial to understand the basic difference between the two terms. You might not want to confuse one with the other. This will not only affect your knowledge base and learnings but might also confuse your clients and that might lead to the loss of the deal.
So, it is imperative that you know which term to use and address in which situation.
Difference between marketing and sales:
Before diving straightaway into the actual difference, let us first understand what these terms actually mean.
Marketing is nothing but the strategy of informing the public about your business and the kind of product and services you deal in. In return, your efforts attract clients to your company for business.
On the other hand, sales are the direct dealing with your prospects. The motive during sales is to provide the best service to your potential customer and gradually convert the lead into sure-shot clients.
Before knowing the differences, you should know why these two terms are often confused. This is because of the underlying motive of the two terms, i.e., to attract potential customers and successfully convert them into confirmed clients.
Sales and marketing are the two main pillars of a successful deal. They both directly impact the direction of the deal and strongly influence the client’s opinion and view about their as well as your business.
So, where marketing helps you get people interested in your business offerings, sales ensures that there is actual selling happening in a structured set of activities.
Salespersons are directly responsible for catering to the relationships with the prospects and providing a meaningful solution to eliminate or minimize their business problems. On the other hand, marketers make use of market research and deep analysis to effectively understand the interests and needs of potential customers. They are responsible for running campaigns and seminars to attract and educate people about their business, product, or service.
There are a few basic differences between these two terms such as marketing is more inclusive, i.e., the focus is on a large group of people rather than catering to a few targets. Sales, however, is exclusive — it targets a smaller particular section or a subset of a larger audience.
Let us now see a few key differences between sales and marketing in terms of functioning.
1) Process — In the beginning, the entire process is almost the same for marketing and sales. However, as you reach each individual stage, the plan broadens and thus, becomes different from one another.
The marketing plan defines what the product actually is, what is the cost, who is the potential customer, and where will it be sold. Hence, the 4Ps of marketing are:
· Product
· Price
· Place
· Person
The sales plan lays out the details about the whole sales structure, team layout, target market, and goals to achieve. Not only this, but the sales plan also defines the actual action plan as well as the tools and resources that will be helpful in achieving the targets.
2) Goals — Both the departments have their set primary goals to help generate revenue for the business.
The most important goal of the marketing department is to look at the bigger picture and promote the business, brand, products, and services. The marketing department is generally responsible for pricing the products and effectively communicating this to the clients. They are also in charge of attracting prospects through campaigns and seminars.
For the sales department, the primary concern is to effectively hit the quota and achieve the sales volume goals. These are often measured and tracked on monthly basis. A proper sales structure with all essential processes and targets for each stage is defined and communicated across the entire team.
3) Tools and resources — A customer relationship management(CRM) tool can be used by the whole company — including the sales and the marketing departments.
Also, social media can be effectively used by both departments in order to ensure their goals are successfully met.
However, there are a few tools that are specific to each department such as:
Marketing Tools:
· Conversion Rate Optimization(CRO)
· Project management tool
· Data reporting software
· Search Engine Optimization(SEO)
Sales Tools:
· Meetings app
· Invoicing software
· Email management tool
· Inventory and order management
4) Strategies — The function strategies of both marketing and sales departments are different from each other. Both of them have their specific strategies to function in an efficient manner such as:
Marketing strategies:
· Internet marketing
· Blog marketing
· Print marketing
· Social media marketing
· Video marketing
· Search Engine Optimization
Sales strategies:
· SPIN selling
· Solution selling
· SNAP selling
· Inbound selling
· NEAT selling
· The challenger sale
Now, as an effective SALESPERSON! We can do two things from here:
1. Not ignoring the opportunity and blaming the situation for revenue loss.
2. Take important notes and go back to revisit your sales strategy with the growth mindset.
**Dramantram (Pronounced as Dra-Mann-Tram) is a video production, communication design, digital marketing, and concept photography company that takes a human-centred, design-based approach to innovate, create and communicate. Our flexible approach works in tandem with creativity and innovation.