Difference Between Marketing & Sales
Marketing and sales are both components of a business which focuses on convincing a customer to buy a product. According to Harvard Business School, both of these departments look outward and create plans for communicating with customers outside the company. These departments differ in that the sales agent sells the product and the marketing staff create the strategy to sell the product.
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Internal Communication
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Marketing has a greater focus on communication within the company. Marketers have a responsibility to design a product that customers are likely to purchase. This means that marketers must work with other company staff, such as engineers, to create an effective product design. Marketers also create documents to help train sales agents to effectively demonstrate the product.
Overall Strategy
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Marketing designs a strategy for the product in the marketplace. Marketers study the products of competitors, and use this information to determine where to sell the product. Marketers also decide what price the product should sell for. Marketers create the branding campaign and are responsible for designing advertisements to show to potential customers.
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Long Term Planning
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Marketers create longer-term plans than sales agents. The marketer provides information and training to the sales agent, but does not negotiate an individual sale directly. Marketers determine the demographic who will purchase the product and the communications method, such as phone, email or direct mail, and provide sales material for each method to the sales agents.
Making the Sale
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Sales agents make the sale. The sales agent contacts the customer, including wholesale firms, retailers and individuals. Sales agents have more of an incentive to quote a low price to make a sale, and focus on making many sales quickly. This differs from marketers, who may favor selling the product at a higher price if it is consistent with their branding and product placement strategy. Sales staff often favor higher pressure selling tactics than marketing staff, especially if the sales agents receive most of their pay on commission.
Customer Relationships
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Sales agents are in contact with customers. A sales agent may call repeat customers and establish individual relationships with the customers. Marketing plans involve a broader focus, since marketers create plans which target a group of customers with similar characteristics. Both sales staff and marketing staff may find sales leads and keep lists of potential customers. The sales staff has a much closer relationship with the firm's customers than the marketing staff does. Sales staff collect surveys and receive feedback from customers, and provide this information to marketing staff to assist them with their planning.
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References
- Photo Credit laptop, salesman and the customers image by Dmitri MIkitenko from Fotolia.com
