Marketing and Sales: The Dilemma of Working Together

It’s safe to say we’re experts on being experts. That’s why this week’s fist pump is going to address a social media dilemma that has a lot of business folks stumped like trees. The difference between Marketing and Sales may just be a discrepancy in understanding the definitions, but it’s not just a problem with finding the words in the dictionary. Both facets of the business industry have their own cues and their own agendas. We’ll distinguish these for you so you can just relax, enjoy a drink, and pretend for a brief moment that you know what you’re reading about.
The basics. We’ll put these terms into simple analogies so you can try them out at cocktail parties (use hand gestures sparingly). Differentiating between these two fields of business is not only critical to your success, it’ll make you look smarter when you talk about it (…and it’ll land you success). Marketing is really the first step of the business enterprise. It’s the worm on the hook thrown in the pond full of hungry little fish. It’s all about attraction and casting a wide net for scooping up clientele. This requires using as many tools as possible to gain business or product exposure. Now social media marketing takes the forefront as the most prominent way of spreading the word to audiences, but direct mail, blogging guest articles, and even cold calling are ways of getting people to simply hear and see the name of your product or service.
The issue here is that most young business professionals believe that their marketing strategies alone will score them sales. Marketing is only intended to get clientele interested, their foot in the door, to whet their appetites, (no additional metaphors necessary) to at least get them to make the move towards you and ask for more information. Like that worm on the hook, once they see something that’ll make their lives easier dangling so appetizingly right in front of them, you’re ready to make a catch.
Now, Sales is the gentle reeling in of those little fishies. Your business’ Sales Team should have an operation distinct from your Marketing Team. When marketing has been effectively executed, clients will stop by (your website) and Sales will take over from that point, ever-so-politely escorting them about the place. Know that people reaching out to you are already interested. At this point, it is now your responsibility to provide them with the appropriate product or service to accommodate and satisfy their consumption search.Once these fields have been properly aligned you will be able drive revenue and start expanding your business.
Even with the definitions of these terms made a little more clear, the real challenge is executing how you will reconcile the discrepancies in either one of these departments. Take some time and scrutinize these components of your work. Assess whether your Sales is trying to over-compensate for a lack of marketing or vice-versa. Bridging the gap between these fields will help you get on track, and keep you moving forward. For further advice on the differences and co-dependence of these departments on success business strategies, take a look at the Berkeley Blog and see how your experience with different marketing-sales experiments can help you really launch your business.
Alright, folks! Notes you should have taken if you were paying any attention at all: marketing and sales are like peanut butter and jelly–they just don’t make sense if you have them separately. Keep your eyes open and see what combination of these strategies works best for your business!
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