Do you know the difference between marketing and sales? For many people, there is no difference. Yet marketing and sales are two different disciplines, with different objectives and requiring different skills. What is important though: to be successful, marketing and sales must be one team.
The difference between marketing and sales
Marketing is concerned with researching and working the market. What is the target market, what needs do they have, and what solutions best match them? The marketer is responsible for creating an attractive proposal, communicating it to the market and thus finding interested leads. The website of course plays a very important role in this, but e-mail marketing, social media, brochures, newsletters, news releases and events are also common tools used by marketers.
Sales follows up on leads to eventually close the sales deal. In addition, sales deals with maintaining customer contacts and acquisition. The goal of sales is to convince the customer that the offered solution actually meets the needs of the customer. Often by talking to them, through presentations and through (product) demonstrations. The ultimate goal is to increase sales and contribute to the growth and profit of the company.
You can't do without marketing, but you can't do without sales either
So two completely different disciplines, which also demand different qualities from employees. The fact is that neither can do without the other. Without marketing, sales has no deals to close. Without sales, lead generation by marketing makes no sense. So it is also a redundant discussion to start determining which is more important and where you should invest your resources; marketing or sales. Both are necessary.
Working together brings greater success
Working well together is the only way sales and marketing can achieve good results. In many companies, however, these two departments are diametrically opposed or do not communicate with each other at all. And that's a shame. Because precisely by communicating well with each other, you strengthen each other and achieve the best results. For example, it can help to talk to each other about the issues below:
- Definitions: Who is our target audience? What needs do they have and are these needs changeable? What is a good lead? Just a few questions where marketing's view can be completely different from sales' view.
- Responsibilities: When does marketing transfer a lead to sales? Maybe it would be good to let sales help judge the quality of leads, and maybe it would be good to include marketing in a sales conversation for a change.
- Expectations: What is realistic to expect from each other in terms of output and results? How many leads will marketing generate and how many new deals by sales will this lead to?
So marketing and sales are by no means the same thing. However, they are disciplines that overlap with each other, both are indispensable in any organization and must work closely together to be successful.
Philip van Kemenade is marketing manager at Dysel and has daily contact with end users of software.
