Difference Between Sales And Marketing

Every day, we hear business owners interchange marketing and sales as though they mean the same thing,

But nothing is further from the truth.

Yes, they have some similarities in that it’s through them that the business achieves its goal of revenue generation and profit.

But they are also quite different across their goals, the steps they take to achieve those goals, their view, and the strategies they use.

Want to learn more about the difference between sales and marketing? Keep reading.

Difference Between Selling & Marketing

Marketing consist of activities that a business carries out to generate interest and awareness in a product or service.
The goal of marketing is to promote its product or service, communicate value and generate leads.

Sales differ here because its goal is to convert leads into customers, to meet its sales goals or quotas.

Sales consist of activities that lead the prospect or lead to exchange money for the value the business is offering.

The activities the business has to carry out to market its products or services differ from those it has to do when it wants to sell.

When a business is marketing, it has to explain what it’s offering to a target audience, how it works and how much it costs.

Businesses market through social media, radio television, digital channels, billboards, flyers etc.

But with sales, the activities are different.

The business engages in cold calling, product demonstration, promotional events, etc.

When a business is selling it first determines the prospect’s interest in the solution it is offering.

Then goes ahead to convince them why the product or service is best suited to meet their needs.

So you see, with marketing the process targets a larger audience and is more general than specific in its language.

With sales, the process targets a smaller audience, and its language is specific.

Regardless of their difference, both sales and marketing can and should work together to help your business achieve its goals.
Marketing creates awareness, promotes the product to generate interest and capture that interest.

Then, sales come in to qualify that interest and convince the prospect to buy the product or service.

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