Sales vs Marketing - What's the difference?

One of the best questions I've been asked recently is,

‘I have a Sales Director, why do I need marketing?'

I was speaking with a construction client of mine recently about what’s next. They turnover around ￡7m but are looking to see what the next move is to push the company towards a more self-sufficient model.

We went through the usual steps, what projects are you working on, what ones to do you like/dislike and more importantly which ones make you the most money for the least amount of effort ??

Drawing a line around the type of work we want, when then turned our attention to how we get more of these projects.

You have your usual routes, tenders, get on supplier list etc etc etc. But what we know is these are not always the best route to securing these projects. We need to get to the people behind these before these come to market.

So, I asked him what his marketing activities were.

‘We send a newsletter once every two months and post on LinkedIn once a quarter.’

‘Ok, what else?’ (me)

‘That’s it. We know we need to do more but we’re busy and to be honest I don’t know where to start’

Sound familiar?

When I looked at the results of their marketing it wasn’t much, but they did have people mention what they’d said in a post back to them. So, someone was listening at least.

It can be disheartening and often confusing, a lot of this confusion around marketing comes from the mis-selling and misinformation which is in the market today.

Compound this with the (not so long ago) internet explosion and mass ‘marketing’ genius online, selling anything to anyone. This blurred the lines.

Marketing Noise

The line ‘you don’t need sales if we bring the customers to you’ comes up often from the marketing masses online. Which would be great, in a utopia where they are already primed and ready to buy, but one thing we know for sure is not all prospects are ready to buy now.

Bring in a lead too soon and they need regular contact to keep them warm.

Bring them in hot and the salesperson drops the ball they turn straight to the next best thing.

Today’s solution is a mix of traditional and digital marketing. Your competition is all over the world, your market space is now noisier and busier than ever.

The marketing space is saturated with advice like ‘You HAVE to be on the top of Google’, ‘Your SOCIAL media accounts is where it’s at’ and ‘BROCHURES are dead, paid advertising is what brings in revenue’.

It’s not surprising that many out there are scared. They don’t know what to do, they don’t know who’s genuine or who is pulling the wool over their eyes.

Their response is to stick to what they know, stay comfortable, stick to their network, and only work with those who they know.

If you generate enough from your network, then stick to what you’re doing and if anything, just get better at it. Faster, more efficient, better profit margins etc etc.

But if you’re not … then we need to look outside the network.

Growing Sales

My client has a Sales Director, who was performing so the marketing headache was something we was happy to be out of, but his Sales Director had other ideas. He believed that will better materials in place he’d be able to increase his sales by at least 50%!

That’s huge.

So, I asked the Sales Director

ME: ‘What is marketing to you?’

SD: ‘SEO, brochures and a new website’ he replied.

ME: ‘What will deliver you the best return’?

SD: ‘Sales?’

ME: ‘Do you sell online?’

SD: ‘No’

ME: ‘Ok, so what do you want from the website?’

?‘Leads’…..

Now we have a clear target, now we’re talking about Marketing.

Understanding of what Marketing is NOT

Whether it be PR, advertising, website or SEO these are all tactics. Ways of implementing the master plan.

Marketing is your master plan; marketing is the strategy where we identify the end goal and how we get there. It’s from here we decide what tactic is best required to reach our end goal. So, before you dive into ‘SEO is what’s needed’ be sure to refer back to why it matters and how you’ll measure its success.

What is the difference between sales and marketing?

To answer this best, we need to look at their functions.

Sales = to close customers.

Marketing = to bring potential customers in.

Sales focuses on the individual.

Its aim is to persuade the customer to buy.

Its transaction based.

Objective is to close sales and follow up with leads.

Sales nurture contacts and prospects who have been brought into the business, purely with the objective of moving them to a customer (that doesn’t mean the relationship stop there).

Sales clearly bring great value to the business as it’s direct ie MUN (Made Up Name) Holdings made an order of ￡100,000, that’s John’s account so John in Sales = ￡100,000 in revenue structured.

What is missing is a piece of the puzzle…

Marketing focuses on the audience.

It's aim to the identify the customers’ needs.

It's about capturing attention, promoting the benefits and non-monetary value of the product.

Objective to get conversations started.

Marketing built the company website, which promoted the use of the company’s unique solution. To find out more about the solution the website user could leave their details in exchange for more information on the solution and how it helped those in their industry.

In this exchange Marketing knew everyone who opted-in for the content.

Marketing held an event where all those who opted-in for the content were invited along with some existing client. The event was well attended, and a Q&A held where visitors could ask questions and meet the senior team.

MUN Holdings were one of those attendees and they exchanged information with the Sales Director and from here they began the relationship.

While this a fictitious tale, the truth is there. If Marketing could secure 5 MUN Holdings that’s ￡500,000 in revenue and the growth prospects of the business are there to see.

As you can see it’s a line that while can seem blurred, they both share and rely on each other.

Sales relies on Marketing for leads

Marketing relies on Sales to close deals

Never thought of them as mutually exclusive but often they are separate departments.

Really want your sales to soar. Punch up your marketing

Not seeing sales from your marketing.

I think you know what I'm going to say ;-)

So, there is have it

I’ll sign off along the lines of where I started.

If you want to grow your business, generate more revenue and expand then you’re not going to do this with only your black book.

You’re going to have to make yourself known, build a presence in a network outside of what you’re currently doing.

This is where we step from the shadows into the limelight, but it is here my friend that the new connections are made.

When you’re an authority in your square inch of the world, now you attract the right customers, the right projects and the right everything in between.

This requires Marketing.

When it comes to Selling…

How we buy has changed, across all industries and for as long as I can remember we don’t like being sold to.

We need to inform our audience, layout our wares and let them know why they should use us.

We need to be front of mind and always open to opportunities.

This doesn’t mean you have to always be switched on, or forever chasing prospects but we do need to maintain a connection between the sales we make and the marketing which brings them into the business.

Ensure the connection is measured so you know what is working for you.

Bring in those who have experience and offer a fresh perspective. We can often miss what’s right in front of us and a fresh pair of eyes can be just what we need to unlock our businesses potential.

If you’d like to know how best to measure the success of what you’re doing currently then be sure to drop me a message, my inbox is always open and any advice I give comes with a smile ??.