❀ vina@bmtv ❀

Are the two similar? No, not unless you’re dealing with a shared target customer or market base – that’s the common objective they both share.

In general, the two employ different skill sets. One, Marketing, is what I usually describe as “intel” researchers – they’re the data gatherers and assessors. Marketing conducts a lot of research and evaluation and tends to study, in military terms, a “terrain” carefully before launching foot soldiers and front-liners or Sales to secure the territory. In other words, Marketing should be the one who’ll tell you where the ammos of mass destruction are located so Sales can go and bomb the site precisely. And “precisely” is the operative word here – how do you direct Sales effectively with marketing strategies? How do we start the marketing process?

To understand something complex like Marketing – because it can be complex as there’s usually a number of calculations and measures that are worked eventually into a strategy that prepares a market or prospects for sales. Therefore, to explain “guerilla marketing” to someone who has to take up the function within an organization that tends to trust a person (who is simultaneously tasked with a multitude of other functions like within small family businesses or SMEs) rather than take on a candidate based on education and experience in the real world – it’s always best to break down the process and use simple analogies or scenarios.  It’s also best to explain what Marketing is NOT and what Sales is NOT rather than what they are.  And of course, in the process of explanation, it’s always best to keep the language simple.

Otherwise you’ll have to deal with industry jargon, terminologies and explanations that run somewhat along the following lines:

More than 75 percent of the average firm’s market value is derived from intangible assets that traditional financial metrics don’t capture. … Providing the missing link between strategy formulation and implementation, Strategy Maps is a blueprint for describing, measuring and aligning intangible assets for superior performance.

_{Strategy Maps, Robert S. Kaplan, David P. Norton}

But we’ll do away with that kind of language and just make this simple so it will be easier for a lot of those who are thrown into a marketing role unexpectedly to understand what the marketing function should cover.  Marketing should understand and know how to explain, illustrate/graph out datas containing the following:

• Product, service or idea – what it is about the three offers from a company the customer or target market wants and expects.  Marketing employs both the micro and macro analysis focused on strategic intension (here is where you need to keep your market data research and resources updated and why you should know the source, meaning and breakdown of such demographic specifics like A, B, C and Upper C markets – I mean, just what are they really!  Where’s the source? And how reliable is the source? and what’s the range? Why the heck use Upper C?! What’s the lower or mid C supposed to be like? Are we dealing with Age group? Economic Status? Territories? Is that a local or international statistic? What exactly?) and facilitates information transfer from the customer or target market to the rest of the company. (Sales, on the other hand, will be driven more by tactical challenges and customer relations.)  Marketing here works like a psychologist who tries to analyze and study a customer or target market so a “market/customer profile” can be created and the right product, service or idea can be prepared effectively for offer to that customer or target market base.

• New Product/Service Creation and Audits – ensuring that a product or service has the appropriate features and quality appealing to the customer or target market and to simplify the customer or target market experience with the product or service procurement process. Marketing needs to encompass also the skill in strategy development, programme incentives, timing and media coverage. Marketing also has to ensure that there are formal means to evaluate competitive offerings in the process.

• Pricing and Pricing Analysis – understanding how to put a price to the product or service and initiate and analyze competitor’s pricing practices.

• Promotion, Positioning and Agency Evaluation – spreading the word and creating awareness in the right place with the right crowd.  Here is where the function is to locate and profile potential markets and to establish the company or organization’s best competitive position within that market. Generally the “selling” process under a specialized marketing role is to assist in “generating quality sales leads” – and this is where the confusion between marketing and sales can take place.   Marketing has to help sustain and actively interpret customer relationships and works with delivering promotional messages to the customer or target market through the selection and evaluation of outside marketing contractors who can execute advertising, public relations, brand marketing, viral marketing, and direct mail activities. In the Positioning exercise, Marketing also has to analyze and track any competitor’s business strategies and tactics and define when new products or service should be developed or improved.

And now, what is SALES?

Sales does nothing of the above.

In fact, it’s quite interesting to see that most people don’t know the difference between Marketing and Sales and assume they’re good at marketing when in fact, they’re a natural born sales-person. You LEARN marketing through educational institutions, but you learn to sell from the school of hard knocks – experience itself.  Of course these days, there are accomplished sales men who give sales seminars on the sales strategies and tactics you can adopt to be a successful sales person.

Here’s a sample of the Marketing Courses offered by The London School of Marketing:

1. Marketing Fundamentals
2. Marketing Environment
3. Customer Communications
4. Marketing in Practice
5. Marketing Planning
6. Marketing Research and Information
7. Marketing Communication
8. Marketing Management in Practice
9. Analysis and Evaluation
10. Strategic Marketing Decisions
11. Managing Marketing Performance
12. Strategic Marketing in Practice
13. Marketing and Consumer Behaviour
14. Advertising
15. Public Relations
16. Direct Marketing and Sales Promotion
17. Integrated Media

And there you have it … courses in marketing that can last anywhere from 6 months to 18 months.  And a marketing diploma thrown in as well after the completion of the courses.

How would a Sales Course look like?  Again a sample from the UK, and this is the MTD Sales Training and what their 2-day workshop has to offer:

1. Learn the difference between an average sales person and a superstar sales person
2. Learn how to identify the specific needs of your client and how to match these with what you are selling/offering
3. Learn how to prepare for sales presentations and calls
4. Learn how to overcome objections and excuses in a positive and influential manner
5. Learn how to build up credibility and “likeability” from your prospect
6. Learn how to elicit your prospects needs and desires and how to read these
7. Enhance your questioning and listening skills
8. Learn how to use body language and non-verbal communication to your advantage – how to influence your client without them knowing!
9. Learn how to understand the motivations of your prospects
10. Learn techniques of how to get to that “YES” and close the sale
11. How to get your point across without the waffle
12. Learn how to build effortless rapport with your prospects
13. Learn how to make that positive first impression
14. Learn how to generate business over the telephone

So what course did you take – a marketing or a sales one?

If we breakdown the function of a Sales as we did with the Marketing function, in Sales the following would have to be accomplished:

• Product Knowlege – Sales will have to know everything about a product or service, the concept behind the product or service, its features, if existing product/services are available, who the potential competitors are if some exist already, who are the potential customers or target market, how will the product be offered and at what price? and so forth and so on – and the product knowlege has to be supplied by marketing.  Put another way, sales needs to undergo product review and training from marketing.

• Sales lead and sales quota – Sales gets the client and covers the target market through leads generated by marketing. Put another way, marketing will have to say to sales, “Here’s a list (the sales leads) of hotels and airlines,  this is our magazine, here are the pages we can sell including the price for those pages, the terms and conditions are included … now go and bring back signed contracts within 30 days, we need a minimum of 50 advertisers (the sales quota).”

• Closing the Sale – a Sales oriented person knows that he or she must get a customer to eventually sign a contract and commit to a deal.  The Sales objective is always to “Close the Sale”.

• Sales strategy – the ability for Sales to create a winning strategy by its ability to formulate a sales campaign that can answer the key concern of every company or corporation: “Why is the customer going to buy from us rather than from one of our competitors”.  An effective winning sales strategy works on the basis of what can be offered periodically to existing or new customers so loyalty can be established.

In conclusion, simply and directly: Generally, Marketing should indicate to Sales what should be sold, where to find the customer and how much cash to bring back, and most importantly, how to manage and defeat competition. Sales involve the direct exchange of product and/or service for cash and is focused on the “Show Me The Money” battle plans.

Now, are you a marketing person or a sales person?