Marketing vs. Sales in Business
Marketing and sales are two separate but very important parts of the business plan. Both work together and complement each other to make a profitable company. Dr. Jordan Sudberg explains that marketing is accomplished by knowing your market and finding the best way to show your product or service to them in hopes they will buy it or use it. Sales are done by getting those people who we have reached through marketing interested in buying our product or service for their own personal gain. The process begins all over again with marketing so that customers are continually being reached through different outlets until they enter the sales phase of the business.
Marketing can be classified as reaching potential consumers, whereas sales can be defined as convincing them to buy your company’s goods or services—sales and marketing work hand in hand within a business. The purpose of marketing is to bring customers through the door, while the responsibility of salespeople is to make those customers come back again.
Marketing can be described as any plan or effort aimed at drawing attention to a company’s products and services, with the goal of creating an environment that will encourage consumers (target market) to purchase them. This includes such things as advertisement, branding, public relations efforts, pricing strategies, customer service policies, etc.
Sales are broken down into three sections: prospecting for new leads, making contact with prospects through telephone calls or emails,/SEO/SEM-driven traffic generation. Once you have reached your potential client face-to-face, you must get them to agree with your product or service, and finally, the close.
Marketing is one of the four Ps of marketing, along with place, price, and promotion. Marketing involves gaining knowledge about your target market/consumer identifying their needs and wants before developing a product or service that will best suit them. The more you know about your client base, the better informed your decisions concerning pricing structure, distribution channels, etc.. will be in terms of meeting their needs while also encouraging repeat business. Also called 4P’s for short.
Dr. Jordan Sudberg explains in detail marketing Vs. Sales in business by the 4Ps of marketing. The four Ps are makeup marketing. They are product, price, place, and promotion:
1) Product: This is the physical goods or service that you sell. The product can be anything from household cleaning supplies to a large piece of machinery to computer software programs. Knowing your product is very important because it will dictate everything in your plan, such as your pricing strategy, distribution channels, etc.
2) Price: This pertains to how much money you ask for in return for your product or service. You must know exactly how much something costs to produce in order to determine an appropriate asking price for it. Additionally, when determining different prices for different market segments (based on demographics like age, geographic location, income level, etc .), you need to know what costs are involved with obtaining and servicing each price point. When considering the terms of any deals or discounts that will be offered during special times of the year (holidays, back-to-school, tax season), you must build into your pricing structure an adequate percentage for returns, allowances for damaged/lost/stolen goods, restocking charges, etc.
3) Place: This covers all aspects of how a company plans to actually sell its product or service. It involves issues like where it can be sold (retail stores vs . individual customers), where it is stored before being sold (in-house warehouse facilities vs outsourced third party storage facilities), how it gets to the sale location (shipment methods & timing), etc. The place also includes issues like distribution channels, retail outlets, selling strategies, etc.
4) Promotion: This is how a company advertises its product or service to consumers. It is broken down into two main areas: advertising and public relations. Advertising can include print ads in newspapers/magazines/industry-specific journals, television commercials, radio spots, billboards, direct mail pieces sent to potential buyers through postal mail, internet ads/PPC campaigns that are targeted towards web searchers for products related to your goods or services. Public relations work involves attracting positive attention from various press outlets who target your desired clientele through news stories about your company’s goods or services. Sales are the action of selling products or services to customers.