Marketing and sales are close relatives. Marketing sets the scene. Sales finish the job. Sales is the end result of marketing. Marketing must introduce the product to the market. Create a sales strategy. McCarthy defined the well known four-legged "marketing-mix". The Four P’s: Product, Pricing, Promotion and Positioning.
Product: everything from the design and development of the product range to testing ideas and evaluating the potential profitability of the product. The process includes market research and using any feedback received from the sales force to improve the product or product range.
Pricing: a pricing strategy must be set to achieve sales objectives, to achieve profitability and to define the place in the market. Do you aim to be a price leader or an exclusive supplier? High turnover of high margins?
Promotion: the strategy relating to the advertising of the goods and services. Promotion includes the establishment of a brand and spreading information about the product or company. Advertising may include media campaigns and in-store promotions. Others may focus on spreading the message through networks or word of mouth.
Positioning: includes the distribution and sales channels, the market segment to be targeted. Marketing at the individual level. The company and products are already known thanks to the marketing effort. Sales must identify customers and close deals. Although closely related, the activities of marketing and sales are different. Marketing focuses on the sales environment. Sales actually move the product.
It was once famously said by an internationally acknowledged marketing guru that Marketing was the art of ensuring that the right product was in the right position, of the right market, at the right time, and at the right price. Often the Sales Director reports to the Marketing Director. The prime areas of responsibility of the Marketing Department are, market research and intelligence, design, packaging, pricing and publicity. In many companies today the Marketing department and Sales department are one in the same. What impact will understanding the words "marketing" and "sales" have for your life?
Simply put, a sale is the action of placing a product or service into the hands of a customer for fair market value. Are you being subliminally "sold" by marketing?
Notice the product placement and the label. Being involved in the world of marketing and sales for the last 8 months, the difference between marketing and sales is fairly simple.
Even if a sale fails, the product or service has still been marketed and the ideas are in the consumers heads.
Every business is involved with marketing and sales in some form. Sales is the end journey of an effective marketing strategy. In order to sell your product, you must have given birth to a marketing strategy. Creating the product is the first step in marketing. All the research, planning, and promotion a company does is considered marketing. In selling the product, many of the aspects of marketing come into play, though ideally, the marketing strategy has completely defined what is expected of the sales division.
