Marketing vs Sales, is there a difference?

Hello there lovely person!

Are you a biz owner,

• That generally uses marketing and sales interchangeably?

• Or someone who has always wondered if there is any difference really, as both of them are used to get more customers and revenue

• Or someone who believes that they are the exact same thing.

Well, breaking news! Marketing and Sales are two different functions.

They are not the same, even though in common life, they are used interchangeably. Worry not my friend, I’ve got you covered, as this blog post will explain the difference to you.

The key difference between Marketing & Sales, is the intent or the objective behind doing them!

The objective of marketing is to build a brand, a legacy, a timeless & sustainable business, to solve a problem (If you’ve not read the “What is Marketing, really? Blog post, I suggest you check it out here), and as a byproduct of these activities, it ends up increasing revenue or number of clients in the short run.

Sales on the other hand, is undertaken to increase the revenue of the business through acquisition of new clients, repeat purchases from existing customers or simply any activity that increases the share of wallet of the customer. As a byproduct of good sales, customer loyalty & trust in the brand increases, which in turn supports the marketing efforts.

Sales and Marketing are different functions, however they are interdependent on one another and mutually beneficial to one another.

How do I know which activities are Marketing and which should go under sales?

I’m glad you asked! Here a few pointers on how to differentiate between the two:

Key FactorsMarketingSales

1. Intent

The intent with Marketing is Brand Building, Legacy to sustain business, Customer Loyalty, credibility and trust.The intent of sales is to increase revenue, increase customers or share of wallet from repeat purchases.

1. Process

Marketing includes all those processes that create awareness in the minds of the people, build a reputation and influence them to purchase. It also includes all activities to keep customers satisfied and influence repeat customers to the point of purchase.Sales is the actual transaction, whereby the product/service/solution is exchanged for value or money. Sales is when the actual repeat business happens, when a customer purchases the product/service/solution.

1. Measurement Metrics

Marketing activities are measured through a combination of qualitative and quantitative metrics. Some parts of the efforts can be tracked and measured (like social media metrics, website traffic, POS data) but some metrics are qualitative and skew more towards feelings and emotions.Sales activities can be measured point blank. Every single activity right from cold calling, potential customer visits, conversations, quotations, actual sales volumes, customer breakdowns, revenue from each customer segment, every single thing is measurable.

1. Time

The results from Marketing activities can be seen only in the long run (minimum of 1-2 years) of consistent and strategic efforts. However, the benefits from a solid Marketing program can also be enjoyed for many years. A successful marketing strategy takes about 2-3 years to actually reap results.The results from Sales are immediate. At the end of every month or close of the financial period, you can see the efforts of the sales team. A good sales tactic can bring you huge incremental revenue in the short run & vice versa, a bad sales tactic can result in loss of revenue in the short run.

1. Financial Treatment

A brand is considered as an intangible asset and Marketing, an investment to build it. Hence, Brand Equity appears on the asset side of the Balance sheet, in any company.Incremental revenue, which is directly proportional to the sales efforts, appears in the Profit & Loss/Income & Expense statement of a company.

Now that we have seen the differences between Sales & Marketing, let’s take a look at the relationship between Sales & Marketing (& let me warn you, it’s complicated)

1 - Marketing decides the strategy & Sales implements it. Let’s take an example: If the Marketing Strategy is to launch a new product, then the Sales tactic is to ensure that orders are placed for this new product. It is so important that the lines of communications between Marketing & Sales teams are clear, because a good strategy with a bad implementation, can lead to huge losses.

2. While on one hand, Marketing puts in a lot of effort to develop a product, messaging, strategy, making sure it aligns with the brand and brings in earned value, on the other side, once the product goes into the hands of Sales, they become very tactical and do whatever it takes to secure the sale.

Well, both are right in their own place, and one way to overcome this challenge is to involve the Sales teams in the strategic planning process. Sales people are close to the market and customers & getting their involvement in strategy, brings about some very key insights, apart from ensuring their buy-in.

It is safe to say that the relationship status of sales and marketing has evolved over the years. From being at war with one another, it has become more cordial!

Research states that those corporates with aligned Marketing & Sales teams achieved a 32% more revenue growth as compared to those companies, where these two departments were not aligned.

When Marketing & Sales works together, magic happens! As a company your efforts are focused more on customers that have the highest probability of conversion. While Marketing puts in the right efforts to understand buyer personas & bring the right kind of people into the sales funnel, Sales teams ensure that these ideal customers are nurtured properly & enjoy a good overall brand experience, as a result of which the entire company benefits.

How can you ensure that your Marketing & Sales teams are better aligned?

• Meeting Regularly

Ensuring that people from both these teams are meeting regularly as well as socially (informally) as a lot of insights get shared over a cup of coffee. It is so important for both these groups of people to share their insights and knowledge with another and understand each other.

• Creating a common work group for Sales & Marketing

Sharing the same communication & information with both these groups of people is very key. Many times, certain information gets passed to one group and the other is unaware, which causes a lot of confusion and miscommunication.

• Inter Departmental Trainings

These work wonders, while the Sales teams can be encouraged to formulate strategy, Marketers can be trained to visit customers and handle sales calls. This creates a sense of empathy and understanding and ensures that the business has a cohesive sales and marketing process.

Before we end this blog post, one of the most common questions I get are, a lot of companies club Sales & Marketing into one position. Is it wrong?

Well traditionally, the concept of sales was much better understood than the concept of Marketing, due to which Sales managers were generally hired. Then as the business scene evolved, some companies started introducing certain Marketing processes that required a Marketing person. However, the work was not so much that they could justify hiring a separate person for it. Hence, started the concept of giving one person the responsibility of both sales & marketing.

There is nothing wrong with it, as long as the roles & responsibilities along with the intent are clearly communicated to the person in question. The person is properly trained for both the roles and is able to shift between them seamlessly.

For you all you skimmers, who have come straight to the bottom of the page, I got you because I am exactly like you, let’s do a quick blog post recap:

• Well, breaking news! Marketing and Sales are two different functions.

• The key difference between Marketing & Sales, is the intent or the objective behind doing them!

• Sales and Marketing are different functions, however they are interdependent on one another and mutually beneficial to one another.

• Some of the key points of differentiation are the Intent, the Process, the Measurement Metrics, Time frame when results can be seen and lastly Financial treatment of both these functions.

• It is safe to say that the relationship status of sales and marketing has evolved over the years. From being at war with one another, it has become more cordial!

• There are few strategies with which you can ensure better alignment between sales and marketing like Making sure they meet regularly, they have common work space groups so that the same information is cascaded to them and lastly they have inter departmental trainings, so that they understand each other, there is empathy and the business as a whole reaps the benefit.

In the next blog post, we will be looking at the difference between Marketing & Branding, how to create an effective marketing strategy that will boost your brand equity.

I hope that you found this marketing post useful and if you have any questions, or would like to share your thoughts on this topic, feel free to connect with me via Instagram @rutaparanjape