Feb 22, 2022
Soon, millions of college graduates will be looking for jobs. In today’s job market, most will succeed. And many will end up in either sales or marketing.
But what is the difference between sales and marketing? The two words are often used interchangeably, even though they fulfill two extremely different needs.
Marketing is the culmination of all activities that set the stage for sales (e.g., the transaction itself) to take place. It is the marketer who establishes a brand and maintains its reputation in the eyes of others. Marketers engage customers and clients (prospective and current), raising the profile of a brand so that it attracts the "right" people — those most likely to make a purchase.
Marketing is all about the “Four Ps:” product, price, place and promotion. Marketers define the benefits of a given brand, attracting buyers by educating them about the particulars.
While marketing is tied to the customer or the client, salespeople have an even more bottom-line relationship. Sales is about making the final transaction happen, culminating all of the activities that lead to direct purchases of goods and services. Whereas marketing establishes and maintains a brand's reputation, sales representatives ensure that the brand can endure financially by securing real revenue. A sales plan, therefore, includes the tools and resources that will be used to actually move the buyer from "interest" to "purchase."
The article read in this episode originally appeared on the Forbes Agency Council CommunityVoice™ in July 2020.
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