| |
| |
|
Marketing Resource Center |
|
|
|
What IS the Difference Between Marketing and Sales?
There seems to be a never ending argument among marketing andsales professionals as to what really is the difference betweenmarketing and sales functions. More often than not, bothbusiness activity terms are used to describe any businessactivity that is involved in increasing revenues. For smallbusinesses, with limited resources, there often is no practicaldifference in marketing and sales functions, all revenuegenerating activities are typically implemented by the samepersonnel. As a company grows in revenues and number of personnel, ittypically follows a logical business function progression of"specialization", a process where the lines between moregeneric, departmental descriptions and functions became muchmore definitive and associated functional responsibilitiesbecome much more focused. Marketing and sales functions are noexception. Marketing and sales functions are diverse yet veryinterdependent. Typically "sales" cannot exceed revenueobjectives without an effective marketing planning and support,and "marketing" directives ultimately becomes useless withoutsales to implement the plan. Like many complex business issues, it is sometimes easier todefine something by what it's NOT as it is to define it by whatit is. Let's take a closer look at marketing to better definewhat sales is not. Simply defining "marketing" as the "Four P's", product, price,place and promotion, based on your Marketing 101 class incollege is not practical in today's global markets. In ageneral sense, marketing is more theoretic than sales, focusedon purchase causality and is more prescriptive in purpose thandescriptive. Marketing involves micro and macro market analysisfocused on strategic intentions where sales is driven more bytactical challenges and customer relations. Let's take a closerlook at how marketing is truly different from sales: Marketing responsibilities are distinct from sales in thatmarketing: * Establishes and justifies the company's best competitiveposition within a market * Initially creates, helps sustain, and rigorously interpretscustomer relationships * Locates and profiles potential markets and key participantswithin * Generates quality sales leads * Develops effective selling tools * Formally analyzes and tracks competitor's business strategiesand tactics * Defines, prioritizes and justifies new product or serviceimprovements and developments * Promotes an explicit company product or service image * Facilitates information transfer from customers to the rest ofthe company * Simplifies the customer's product or service procurementprocess A full time Marketing Manager would be responsible for thefollowing tasks: New Product Rollouts: Agency Evaluation: Customer Database Management: Market Research: Pricing Analysis: Product Audits: Public Relations: Trade Shows: Product Promotions: Marketing Communications: Media Selection: Internal Communications: International Marketing: Strategic Planning: Board Meeting Participation: Corporate Vision Statement: Corporate Identity and Image: To a "pure" marketer, the marketing role in a company is notjust a business function, but a business philosophy. Aneffective marketer truly believes "dominating" their targetmarket is "owning" their market. The more a marketer can do tomaintain market leadership the more effective they areperceived within the organization and within the industry. As customer retention has become more of a business priority inour intensifying competitive markets, the marketing functionhas evolved from influencing potential customers to involvingthem the company's business planning and advancement. Effectivemarketing also has blurred the distinction between product andservice and continues to apply more influence on the company'ssales representation priorities. In conclusion, marketing and sales functions are deeply rootedin each other's purpose and revenue growth intentions. Thereare few functional areas in business that relate more to eachother. So the next time you hear someone say the word "sales",when the appropriate description would have been "marketing",or vise versa, think of this article and choose from any one ofthese documented business functions to make your point ofdistinction! About the Author: Mark Smock is President of http://www.business-buyer-directory.com, theFIRST international business buyer directory of its kind.Business Buyer Directory provides a non-traditional means forproactive business buyers to locate businesses for saleworldwide that meet their exact registered purchase criteria.
MORE RESOURCES:
Marketing - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Has the Free Report Had Its Day? For years now we have been inundated with offers of Free Reports. Most promise to tell you how, in a few hours per week, you can make incredibly huge sums of money or achieve some other benefit. Marketing Ideas Without Action Will Get You Nowhere! Marketing Ideas Without Action Get You NowhereYou want to grow your small business, but how do you do that? Many of the small businesses I work with are not really sure what works best, or how, or where to get started.We're all familiar with the term Marketing, but what in the heck is it really supposed to do for us?* Build brand awareness* Build name recognition* Increase market share* Get more clients* Generate referrals* Create more repeat businessMaybe you've tried some things in the past like brochures, yellow pages advertising, Chamber of Commerce networking but were disappointed with the results so you stopped doing them. Basic Brand Building A brand is the essence of who you are. The more powerful the brand the more memorable you will become. What Does Marketing Mean? You can have the best little business ever with wonderful potential, but if you can't market it, you don't have a business at all.Learn how to market yourself, because you are your business. Marketing and Advertising Techniques of Super Bowl Advertisers Each year, advertisers with super sized budgets sink millions of dollars into Super Bowl advertising. While most of us do not have a large enough budget to advertise on the Super Bowl, the commercials -- both past and present -- demonstrate several marketing techniques we can apply elsewhere. 11 Rock Solid Techniques For Generating Product Ideas Anytime Anywhere! Whatever business you are in, either online or offline, you've got to constantly generate business/product ideas.If you've ever wondered how on earth those big corporations and companies generate wonderful and irresistible products plus powerful and revolutionary ideas, here are the 11 basic principle behind it all and the greatest of news is that it can be applied to any business. Go Guerrilla Jay Conrad Levinson coined the term guerrilla marketing, which I define as low-cost, creative and typically self-implemented public relations techniques.Here are a few thoughts that might spawn some ideas for your own business. Leverage The Power Of Using Flyers To Advertise Your Online Product or Service Offline One commonly overlooked method of advertising offline is flyers. Flyers are extremely easy to create. Creative Emulation In business we have a number of ways or tools that we use to stimulate improvement. Most of us could recite these in our sleep:? Brainstorming? Benchmarking? Problem solvingWhen these things fail, or we realize that perhaps there are better ways to do these approaches, we do the next likely thing and hire a consultant. The Biggest Problem With Your Marketing Is...? What is the biggest problem most marketers have? Who knows. We don't, and they certainly don't either. Three Ways to Put Fresh Spins on Old Marketing Concepts Are you struggling to find a new twist for old advertising or marketing campaigns?If you're a small business owner or a copywriter/coach/other creative professional, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Having to come up with new ideas for a long-term client (or even your own business) can be overwhelming. Did Jesus Get Killed for Practicing Interruption Marketing? I'm reading Seth Godin's Permission Marketing and he brings up the difference between Interruption Marketing and Permission Marketing.Interruption Marketing is when you interrupt people from what they are doing in order to ask them to pay attention to something else. Corporate Branding and Trade Shows - 8 Tips for Marketing Managers Trade shows are part of the marketing mix and the appearance by your firm should be a continuum of your entire marketing including advertising, public relations and events.While you may introduce a new product or showcase a service, many firms make mistakes by not connecting the overall corporate branding with the show. Direct Mail Offers: Eight Steps to Making them Effective Every direct mail package you drop in the mail should contain an offer. The offer is the incentive or reward that motivates prospects to respond to your mailing, either with an order or with a request for more information. Shopping Comes Back To The Community THE GREAT BRITISH TRADITION OF STREET MARKETS IS UPHELD AT STREETTRADERSUNITED.COMHammer Force Ltd, a Croydon-based online service provider offers people who enjoy an alternative to impersonal shopping malls a chance to access a site which lists more than 708 UK markets, arranged by region in an easy-to-use format. Put Your Marketing To The So What? Test Want to get Better at your Marketing today?For many service business owners, marketing can be a real mystery. We don't really know exactly how it works. Sleigh Bells Ring...And Cash Registers, Too During the holidays, folks everywhere shop many long hours to buy gifts for the important people in their lives. Spending at this time of year is one of the driving forces of our economy, and retailers go to great lengths to make the frenetic experience a festive one. The REAL Key To Successfully Marketing Any Product! The REAL key to successful marketing of any product is building relationships. The most successful tools for this strategy are forums, communities, coops and the new form of media desktop software, i. Marketing The Real You I often wonder how the practice began of pretending to be someone else in order to market your business. You know what I'm talking about -- it's the marketing face, the selling voice, that you often put on in order to attend a networking event or make a sales call. Renting Your Mailing Lists to Others RESOLVING THE "PROPRIETARY" DILEMMA..
|
| home | site map | Advertising Articles |
| © 2006 |
