The Key Differences Between Sales and Marketing

Sales and marketing should be regarded the greatest duo of all time.  (Move over chocolate and peanut butter).  However, they’re often seen as two very separate silos within companies.  Sure they’re different skill sets, but to be successful, you need both. 

Without marketing, you wouldn’t have prospects or leads to follow up with, but without a solid closing record from your sales team, all of those efforts – and ad spend – will be for naught.  We’re breaking down the key differences between marketing and sales in the blog post below. 

Relationships 

While sales focuses on building a one-to-one relationship with the customer, marketing seeks to establish relationships with many potential customers through a specific touch-point. 

Approach 

Marketing looks to build customer leads based on matching customer needs with the benefits of a product.  Sales on the other hand focuses on a set line up of products or services, and tries to match the benefits to a customer’s requirements. 

Timeline 

Sales is a short-term process compared to marketing.  While marketing typically takes longer to move a lead from awareness to conversion, a sales team will likely close a deal in a much shorter time frame. 

Audience 

Marketing builds campaigns that appeal to a larger target audience in order to create value and increase sales.  Sales, on the other hand, tends to interact directly with one customer at a time, working to persuade individual leads to purchase their product or service.  

Focus 

A good sales team will focus on the customer, and tailor their pitch to their individual needs.  Conversely, marketing campaigns emphasize the product or service being sold, doing everything they can to portray a particular item as one that should be wanted, valued, and ultimately, purchased. 

Strategy 

Traditionally sales teams have used a push strategy, identifying leads and contacting them directly to talk about the benefits of their products or services.  Marketing on the other hand uses a pull strategy, letting the customer discover the product or service on their own through various campaign touchpoints. 

Sales and marketing need each other.  That means, as a business owner, you need to make sure these two departments are working in sync in order to make the most of the efforts of both teams.   

If you’re in need of a solid strategy to get your sales and marketing teams working together, we can help!  Contact us today to learn more.