Sales and marketing are two key components to help run any business successfully.
These two departments work in tandem, with similar goals.
However, their methods for reaching these goals differ from one another.
No matter what business it is, the main aim of sales and marketing is to find, attract, and retain customers.
This will help companies develop and increase revenue over time.
Whilst they are similar in that they act as catalysts to generate profit, sales and marketing have some distinct differences.
Marketing revolves around building awareness around an organization or brand, whereas sales builds on marketing by converting potential customers into real, existing clients.
Want to learn more about the differences between sales and marketing?
Read on as we discuss what sales and marketing really are and find out what their differences are in greater detail.
Sales in business refers to the activities and processes involved in promoting, offering, and exchanging services or products for money or other compensation.
Sales involves the transfer of ownership of services or goods from one entity or person to another, typically in exchange for money or something of value.
The goal of sales is to generate revenue for a business, but this department is also important for building customer relationships, and increasing brand awareness and market share.
An individual sale occurs when a consumer purchases commodities from a seller.
These can be either tangible or intangible. In essence, a sale is the passing of ownership of an item from the seller to the buyer.
Sales can be very competitive. Therefore, it often requires middlemen, including retailers, salespeople, and wholesalers, to name a few.
It can be an agreement or contract between a buyer and a seller, or it can be a procedure in which a seller sells various products.
Marketing is critical to all businesses.
It is essentially the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives.
It tends to involve researching, promoting, selling, and distributing products and/or services.
Marketing also typically includes a variety of activities, such as advertising, promotions, public relations, and, finally, sales.
Together, these are designed to generate demand for a product or service with a final goal of informing, persuading, and reminding consumers about a company's products or services in order to ultimately drive sales and increase profit margins.
The Oxford Dictionary defines marketing as "The action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising," and whilst this is true, marketing and its processes are continually evolving.
The "Father of Modern Marketing," Philip Kotler, defines marketing as an "administrative and social process through which individuals obtain what they need or desire'.
In other words, marketing makes the world go round, leading to profits!
There are many components associated with marketing, including advertising, selling, and logistics.
Most businesses have a marketing department whose main goal is to ensure customers receive the correct information regarding services and products.
The marketing team is also responsible for the quality of the products and services and the delivery goes smoothly.
Differences Between Sales And Marketing
Marketing tends to focus more on reaching a target audience and generating leads.
This is known as the 'top of the funnel." Sales, on the other hand, has more focus on transactions at the 'bottom-of-the-'funnel.'
Sales ensures customers complete transactions rather than attracting them in the first place.
In a nutshell, marketing builds a brand's awareness to attract leads. Sales converts these leads so customers purchase goods and/or services.
Both departments need to work together to reach these common goals. Therefore, collaborative, holistic approaches are required by marketing and sales teams to achieve such desired results.
Sales and marketing departments share differences and similarities across the board.
For instance, their tactics are similar in that they both appeal to a customer's desires and needs.
However, sales tactics typically require one-on-one contact with leads (customers).
This can be in the form of conferences, demonstrations of products and services, or in-person meetings to engage and interact with new customers and seal the deal.
As for marketing tactics, these are not as direct and the actions can be wide-reaching.
For instance, marketing can be achieved through radio advertisements, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), email campaigns, social media advertisements, or brand ambassadors, all to target a larger audience.
Automation can also play a key role in marketing tactics, making it easier for marketers to build content to serve potential leads.
The tools used by sales and marketing departments differ in various ways.
Although the tools used are beneficial by racking and organizing data, sales generally focuses more on one-to-one, direct interactions with clients or customers.
Therefore, relationship management tools are commonly used, such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is implemented to help collect and analyze customer information.
Because sales already have a pool of potential customers at their disposal, marketing needs to cast a wider net to attract potential buyers.
Therefore, more tools are required to gather insight into potential customer's behaviors. These tools can also manage marketing campaigns and measure their performance.
This is then evaluated regularly to ensure the right marketing strategy has been implemented.
At first glance, the teams and roles involved with sales and marketing have some similarities.
For example, both teams follow guidelines to achieve goals and objectives. These are usually similar in that they aim to drive engagement resulting in greater profit.
In some circumstances, both departments will be responsible for retaining customers, even after a sale, and lead generation.
But, here are the key differences. Both departments require specific areas of experience and expertise. A marketing department may include graphic designers, writers, and illustrators.
There may also be social media experts, content strategists, video editors, and SEO experts in a marketing team.
The work undertaken by the marketing team is then built upon by the sales department.
The objective is to ensure customers decide to invest in a service or product.
In most cases, the sales team will set volume and quotas goals so they can measure their performance, which are generally measured on a short-term premise, such as a monthly or quarterly basis.
We've all come across good sales representatives. They tend to be excellent storytellers and communicators.
They understand how to pitch products and services, deal with individuals on a one-to-one basis, and can utilize company messaging to generate sales.
Both sales and marketing strategies target prospective customers and clients with a goal to convert them into paying customers.
The scope of both departments is the same in that they both want to sell goods and services, leading to an increase in a business' revenue.
That being said, the strategies of sales and marketing differ, depending on which department is responsible for certain parts of the funnel.
Also known as the customer journey or buying journey, the sales and marketing funnel refers to the series of steps that a potential customer goes through from initial awareness of a product or service to the final purchase.
It's typically depicted as a funnel shape because the number of potential customers decreases at each stage of the process, as some drop off or fail to move forward.
Most of the time, B2B and B2C marketing strategies are focused on the upper portion of the funnel.
Sales tends to stand somewhere in the middle of the funnel before handling the bottom of the funnel.
Sales Vs Marketing Breakdown
Sales is the exchange of commodities for valuable goods, typically money. It is the action of selling services and/or products.
Marketing is the activity and process for "creating, communicating, delivering, exchanging offerings" that hold a value for clients and customers.
The primary goal of sales is to meet the expectations of customers (provide goods a customer feels their payment warrants).
The main goal of marketing is to attract potential customers who want to buy goods and services via different activities and tactics.
Sales focuses on increasing revenue through increased sales. Marketing focuses on improving and increasing the satisfaction of customers.
Marketing teams promote products and services, prices them, and makes them available for customers to consider.
Marketing can also focus on services after a sale has been made.
Sales is usually a short term process, when a customer decides to purchase an item and goes ahead with it.
Marketing is a longer process and more continuous.
Significant investments are required for sales with the old adage of "speculate to accumulate" being important to the department. This is to ultimately increase a business' revenue.
Marketing tends to be cost-intensive with many avenues to cover, such as logistics and advertisements. Therefore, marketing is typically very costly.
Sales and marketing are key to any business. Whilst they share some key values and objectives, sales and marketing operate differently from one another.
But, without one, the other can not achieve the success desired by companies and individuals.
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