Know-How Exchange : Other

Sale and marketing are separate in my mind.

sales is a one to one communication, and has the main goal of closing business now.

Marketing is a one to many communication and is focused on all time frames of the sales cycle.

Separate

If I had to hire one or the other, I'd hire a salesman.

I think a marketing person with a sales background is better than a salesperson with a marketing background.

Sorry folks

Michael

In many businesses in Japan, there's no marketing department. It's everyone's job to find out more about potential customers, explain the benefits of the company's offerings, etc. Think of it as a hologram - the pieces of it are sprinkled throughout. In many other countries, we isolate people's roles, so there's a marketing specialist.

Sales is about trading money for an offering. The better the perceived value of the trade, the easier the sale.

Not everyone can sell something. But everyone can market something, especially if they believe in the value of their offering.

Having worked in both sales and marketing I would say they are separate functions as are production, R&D etc.

Marketing actually involves everyone in a company because it comes down to developing and strengthening customer relationships.

No one department can do it all by themselves and the successful companies I think have marketing and sales working together in partnership.

I love this question.

I see many small businesses where the owner has a great handle on marketing - yet they are starving for business because no one is there to "get the order".

And

I see many medium size businesses who cannot reach their goals because they have a pack of wild sales people traveling in loose formation.


Marketing is the strategic planning of sales. Without a good strategic plan, success comes at a higher price or doesnt come at all. With a poor strategic plan, success is very expensive.

Marketing and Sales are distinct functions, not the same or one the part of the other. Marketing is like sociology - looking at the world as a whole and making sense of all the differences. Sales is like psychology - operating on one person at a time. Both functions are needed in a business. Sales without marketing is directionless because it's all about "the moment" and not forward thinking. Marketing without sales never gets anything done.

Personally, I don't buy into the Japanese cut of "no marketing function because everyone should know strive to understand the customer," as Jay points out. As Frank points out, a strategy is needed for success and that's what Marketing does. You can't have a cohesive strategy if everyone is doing it independently. Diffusing marketing into everyone might be successful in Japan because their individuality varies by less than 0.0000001% or it really isn't and this is why there are few renowned Japanese marketers and marketing texts. Quality and cost-effective manufacturing, they have down well (after Demming taught them). No question. Innovation and marketing - that's another story. Of course, our innovation and marketing is wasted many times because we can't make it well or cheaply.

Wayde

Wish I had more time to write something as it is a corker of a question... but I would like to add my sound bite:

Sales is the sharpened tip of the marketing blade.

As Marcus said, marketing is the act of going to the market, thus sales is a function of marketing, as it is directly marketing your product, within the marketing also comes communication which is part of and not a synonym of marketing

Also the product features or the solution offered, pricing to the end of the Ps are part of marketing,

At least that is my opinion

Many fine posts above, let me take a slightly different tack...

You ask if sales and marketing are different functions. But a more basic question is, is either of them a function at all?

It seems to me that there are various functions which are assigned to sales in a given organization, and other functions which are assigned a marketing.

Mauybe neither sales nor marketing is a function, but each is a collection of functions.

Sorry to be splitting hairs here, but it sounds as though you are trying to clarify your thinking (and the excellent comments above certainly are helping me clarify mine...)

It seems to me that the most optimal set of functions to be assigned to a sales department and or a marketing department will depend on many factors which will change over time as an organization and a market matures. There is no simple answer to the question: while there may be general guidelines, selecting an optimal mix for a particular company and situation requires seasoned business judgment.

For example, if a million-dollar deals on the table today, and all the sales reps are out of town, should the company president dispatch a marketing person to close the deal, even at the risk of offending someone's definition?

As a marketing service provider, should we walk away from a sales manager who has the budget to produce a new brochure, because we feel that he or she is in the wrong department?

In my opinion, the proper perspective to take is the perspective of customers and prospects. The organization needs to serve their needs, the organization does not need to try to conform to some pattern written in your book or mine.

In my opinion, it is most important to determine which functions are not being performed, and which should be performed, and to assign those to people who can get them done, rather than to have an esoteric discussion about the way things should be done from an ivory tower perspective.

Again, I have very much enjoyed reading the above posts, and feel that these can be excellent guides for decision-making. But in practice, these helpful guides cannot become handcuffs which prevents us from doing our best possible job in the best possible way.

Good luck with your book.

In the example above-- if there is a million dollar deal on the table and all sales are out...

You fly back your salesperson. The deal isn't going to close in an hour. I really haven't met too many marketing types who know how to sell. They may know the features and benefits, but they don't know how to sell, drill to the clients hot button and persuade.