Sales and marketing are usually used interchangeably and, when told that you need to ramp up one or the other, it can be easy to confuse the two. However, these two are different and, although they have similarities, they mean different things. Although sales activities and marketing efforts look similar, which is where most of the confusion comes from, they are different. Let’s take a look at the difference between sales and marketing.
- What is marketing and what is sales?
- Let’s take a look at how you can juggle both and what’s most important.
- Summing everything up.
What Is Marketing?
Marketing educates people about your company and the products or service that you offer. The goal of marketing is to inform consumers about your company and tells them what makes your company special. It’s telling customers what makes your company stand apart from the competition and there are a few different kinds of marketing.
Nowadays, online marketing is the most popular choice since most of our generation has turned to use electronics. However, depending on your company, your audience and the goal of your marketing, different marketing may work best for your company. Email marketing, SEO, and content marketing are all popular kinds of marketing.
Think of marketing as the hook, where you’ll get people interested in your business. This is the point where you’ll get people wanting to explore more and learn more about your company. Marketing is where you’ll get people interested in your company as a whole and what you have to offer.
What Is Sales?
Once your marketing team has generated leads, your sales team then moves into converting the leads into paying customers. While marketing sparks the interest in your company, sales are where you actually convince someone to buy from your company. The leads usually come from your marketing efforts and then the sales team steps in to convince the leads to actually purchase from you.
Sales are typically thought of as the conversion to convincing people to buy the product, but there’s a lot more to it than just that. Sales is where most of the one-on-one interaction will be done with customers and where you’ll work to build the initial relationship with the lead. This may include one on one meetings with leads, abandoned cart emails, or direct sales.
You can think of sales as the part where you’ll actually convince consumers that your product is worth it, build a relationship with them and then ultimately get them to purchase the product. Marketing is the first step towards getting consumers interested, while sales takes that interest and nurtures it.
Which Should I Put More Effort Into?
It’s hard to determine which you should put more effort into; marketing or sales. It depends on your company and on what you think is lacking. Although they aren’t the same, the two do work together to meet the same goal. This means that, when thinking about which you want to put more effort and attention towards, you want to view it as one.
If your sales are down then it’s a direct fault of your marketing, and if you feel like your marketing is excellent and sales are still down, you may need to rethink your sales process. Without attention brought to your company from marketing, there are no sales. Without sales, your company may not make any profit. Both are equally important and require your attention and effort. Without them, your business won’t thrive.
How To Juggle Both
One of the biggest issues that businesses have is juggling both sales and marketing. It can feel like keeping track of both of them can be impossible some days. Most times this is because companies have only one or two employees doing both sales and marketing. This can be disastrous and not only for the reason that it may be difficult for employees to juggle both. Sales and marketing aren’t the same and they don’t require the same expertise. You want different employees, with different expertise in their area, to be doing sales and marketing.
Summing It Up
Although many mistake sales and marketing for being the same thing, they aren’t. The two are different and have different goals with what roles they play in a company. To put it simply, marketing brings awareness to consumers and sales turn those consumers into paying customers. Both of these are essential for your company and to bring in business.
However, knowing which you should be paying more attention to and how you can juggle both at the same time can be difficult. You want to put time, effort, and attention into both marketing and sales since they both play key parts in your company. When it comes to knowing how you can juggle both at the same time, you’ll want to hire different teams that have experience in the area. Having solid teams with the expertise needed for sales and marketing is crucial for a thriving company.