What Is the Difference Between Sales and Marketing?

The two key elements one needs to operate a successful business are sales and marketing. Finding, attracting, and keeping customers for a company are the ultimate goals of both marketing and sales.

Although the goals of these two departments are identical, they approach reaching them differently.

Sales are more concerned with bottom-of-the-funnel transactions, like making sure customers complete their purchases, whereas marketing focuses more on top-of-the-funnel activities like reaching a target audience or generating leads.

Learning about sales, marketing, and the advantages that each business offers a company can help improve a company's performance over time.

Difference between sales and marketing

Simply put, marketing leads to customer awareness and draws prospects to your business. Those leads are turned into paying customers via sales. Businesses must have a comprehensive, team-based strategy that includes cooperation between the two departments to accomplish shared goals.

Sales vs. marketing

Although there are certain goals and duties that sales and marketing share, there are also many significant differences between the two.

Scope

• How they’re similar: Both sales and marketing strategies work to find prospects and turn them into paying customers. The ultimate objective of both departments is to boost sales, which raises marketing's income.
• How they’re different: Who controls which portion of the funnel might vary depending on the breadth of the sales team and the marketing team. B2C and B2B marketing strategies often concentrate on the top of the funnel, with sales taking over somewhere in the middle. Sales are the next department to handle the funnel's bottom.

Tactics

• How they’re similar: Sales and marketing both appeal to the requirements and desires of the customer.
• How they’re different: Sales tactics sometimes involve one-on-one interaction with leads, such as face-to-face meetings, product presentations, or conferences to interact with potential customers directly.

Reaching a large audience requires using marketing tactics that have a broader audience in mind, such as direct mail campaigns, radio advertisements, search engine optimization (SEO), social media advertising, or brand ambassadors. Automation may also be used in marketing tactics to help marketers offer material to leads more effectively.

Tools

• How they’re similar: Different digital tools that organize and manage data are advantageous for both sales and marketing.
• How they’re different: Sales require relationship management tools since they often concentrate on having face-to-face encounters with customers. A crucial sales tool for every company is customer relationship management (CRM) software, which gathers, arranges, and analyses data about customers and their journeys.

Marketing needs tools to gather information, assess its effectiveness, and oversee campaigns since it uses a larger net to reach customers via a variety of channels.

Teams/roles

• How they’re similar: Each employee has their own set of goals and objectives for increasing engagement and revenue, and sales and marketing professionals work their way up the responsibilities ladder. In certain circumstances, both departments are in charge of generating leads and caring for customers long after a sale.
• How they’re different: Different types of experience and skills are needed for sales and marketing. There may be writers, graphic designers, and illustrators on marketing teams, as well as experts in SEO, social media, video, and content planning.

To ensure that customers make the final decision to purchase a good or service, the sales team puts the marketing team's efforts to work. A sales team establishes targets and volume goals to track their progress. These are often based on shorter time frames, such as quarters or months.

Effective storytellers with great self-confidence and strong interpersonal skills make for good sales representatives. Sales professionals need to be able to communicate effectively with customers, use company messages, and pitch products.

A primer on sales

The whole process of facilitating and concluding a sales transaction is referred to as “sales.” Sales teams handle each step of the sales process, including prospecting, education, and conversion. A sales organization may grow from one person to a department with teams inside it.

• Sales representatives. Sales reps are personnel who work directly with customers. While outside salespeople interact directly with customers, inside salespeople do it virtually. To reach their sales goals, sales reps may be requested to do anything from cold calling to generating and mailing instructional materials to attending in-person meetings.
• Sales manager. Managers are often required for large sales teams to supervise the sales process. The sales management team sees to it that the reps have all the tools they need and are using the sales strategy. They could develop sales goals and strategies, analyze customer information, and mentor new sales reps for the company.
• Sales specialist. A sales specialist (also known as a sales consultant; the terms are sometimes used interchangeably) is a person who has the most in-depth knowledge of a product or service. They often carry out product demonstrations, market research for certain products, and troubleshooting.
• Account executive. Higher-level sales reps often concentrate on bringing in new business, creating sales proposals, haggling with customers, and completing transactions. Account executives may be in charge of several high- and low-level duties in a smaller company, but they seldom locate and hire leads. The account executive may be a full-cycle sales representative who manages the account from first interest to the sale for different business types, such as B2B businesses.
• Customer success. Sales work may sometimes continue after a sale. The customer success function, which focuses on retention, may be included in sales. They are responsible for encouraging satisfying interactions with their current customers, sustaining sales, and facilitating new purchases.

A primer on marketing

Businesses employ a variety of marketing strategies to draw customers to their products and services.

A successful marketing strategy focuses on the “4 Ps”: product, price, place, and promotion. The term “product” refers to the actual goods or services, “price” to what the customer pays, “place” to how and where the products are promoted, and “promotion” to the advertising strategy.

Marketing team activities might include: 

• Market research. Teams carry out market research to comprehend a company's target market and foresee market developments.
• Brand strategy. Who are we as a company? is a question that marketing must respond to. This affects how the company displays itself, including how its products and website are made and how it speaks to customers.
• Channel strategies. Marketing uses “channels” including social media marketing, email marketing, digital advertising, direct mail, and more to reach a target audience.
• Public relations. To spread the word, publicists will get in touch with media outlets.
• Customer acquisition and retention. To persuade someone to make a first-time purchase, exceptional customer experience creation is required.

These tasks are often delegated to different marketing team professionals, such as brand managers and social media strategists, or, in the case of small businesses, they may be combined into a single marketing manager position.

Managing sales and marketing departments

You may increase your success by using a few management techniques for the sales and marketing teams.

Identify tensions

Sales and marketing may sometimes clash. Marketers may point the finger at salespeople for their unsuccessful selling techniques if overall sales are low or a new product doesn't perform as anticipated.

However, if sales are weak, salespeople can believe that marketing isn't reaching enough quality leads or even targeting the correct audience. Tension may also arise from a breakdown in communication or a lack of comprehension of the precise tasks of each department, leaving neither side fully aware of the other's obligations.

Align the communication

Aligning your marketing and sales teams may be accomplished through good communication. Clarifying goals and making better use of resources may be achieved by aligning both departments with the customer journey and clearly defining what is expected of each team.

A service level agreement, which establishes a partnership's conditions, each department's particular goals, and recourse alternatives in the event of non-performance, aids in bringing everyone on the same page. Sharing information and conducting research across the teams must be prioritized as well.

Read: How to Write a Marketing Plan [With Free Template]

Know what to prioritize

Some companies can't or don't want to combine sales and marketing. Some businesses concentrate their marketing efforts online and give marketers the task of expanding their reach and encouraging customers to make purchases.

Some believe there is less of a need for specialized sales departments as a result of the growth of internet commerce. When they can make their own purchases online, many customers (especially in the beauty and fashion categories) no longer require a salesperson to assist them.

Some businesses may find this useful in streamlining their essential spending and determining where else to streamline their time and energy.

Other companies concentrate on sales initiatives; a B2B company, for instance, that offers a specialized product to a specialized audience, could make an initial investment in a sales team. These companies may benefit greatly from a single transaction and establish a long-lasting relationship.

Gain a competitive advantage by improving sales and marketing

With their own distinct goals, sales and marketing are two disciplines that are closely related. In essence, marketing serves as a sales plan's springboard, while sales are responsible for carrying it out. Aligning these departments may promote effective collaboration, which can eventually help the company grow and have an impact on its bottom line.