INTRODUCTION
Marketing and selling are both activities aimed at
increasing revenue. They are so closely intertwined that people often don’t
realize the difference between the two. Indeed, in small organization the same
people typically perform both sales and marketing tasks.
Nevertheless, marketing is different
from sales and as the organization grows, the roles and responsibilities become
more specialized.
Sales vs Marketing Activities
Marketing
activities include:
i. Consumer research (to identify the
needs of the customers) product development (designing innovative products to
meet existing or latent needs.
ii. Advertising – The products to raise
awareness and build the brand. The typical goal of marketing is to generate interest
in the product and create leads or prospects.
On the other hand, sales activities
are focused on converting prospects to actual paying customers. Sales involves
directly interacting with the prospects to persuade them to purchase the
product.
Marketing thus tends to focus on the
general population (or in any case, a large set of people whereas sales tends
to focus on individuals or a small group of prospects.
Marketing
·
Identifies
appropriate prospects
·
Effectives
communicates image and capabilities of the
firm
·
Creates awareness
of and emphasizes an appeal – a differentiation factor about the firm.
·
Perfects customer
service
·
Request feedback
from clients on a regular basis.
·
Anticipates and
meets needs marketing often necessitates cultural changes at every level in the
firm.
Ultimately,
marketing strives to make all interactions with your firm “aka moments of
truth” into positive experiences.
Selling is:-
·
Proactive seeking
of prospects
·
Interacting to
qualify prospects
·
Effective acknowledgement of he prospects concerns
·
Closing the sale
– getting hired
·
Following up and
staying in contact when not hired.
Successful sellers use active listening skills and
demonstrate the ability to meet the prospects needs by conveying competence
confidence.
The Difference Between Marketing and
Selling
One needs to know the difference to
be able to reach customers.
Many business owners and
practitioners mistakenly think of selling and marketing as interchangeable
concepts. This is particularly true in the case of small businesses which often
equate marketing with selling deliberately due organizational and resource
limitations. But ever of sales and marketing are intrinsically linked, the fact
is that they are two very different business activities.
The Difference
Selling begins when a product or
service becomes available for consumption or use. This function covers
retailers awareness and confidence on the product and cultivating customer
advocacy for the market of the product or service.
Marketing,
on the other hand, is much broader in scope and starts long before the selling
process takes place. It covers everything about the market, customer and the
brand.
Marketing is about crating consumer
relevant brand that satisfy specific market needs. It is about building product
and brand awareness influence consumers purchaser consideration and making them
repeat customers.
Marketing and sales are
complimentary functions- any of which can’t achieve its goals without other.
And they need two key elements to make them successfully do this:-
1.
An extensive
understanding of their customers and
2.
The ability to
adapt to the changing needs, attitudes, and behaviours of the market.
To ensure continuing sales success, a
marketing strategy needs to achieve four specific goals for a particular
products or service strong consumer focus, meaningful segmentation clear and
compelling brand positioning and a relevant marketing mix.
Difference Between Selling And Marketing
In general we use marketing and
selling as synonyms but there is a substantial difference between both the
concepts. It is necessary to understand the differences between them for a
successful marketing manager. Selling has a product focus and mostly producer
driven. It is the action part of marketing only and has short term goal of
achieving market share. The emphasis is on price variation for closing the sale
where the objective can be stated as “I must some how sell the product”. This
short-term focus does not consider a prudential planning for building up the
brand in the market place and winning competitive advantage through a high
loyal set of customers. The end means of any sales activity is maximizing
profits through sales maximization.
When the focus is on selling the
businessman thinks that after production has been completely the task of the
sales force starts. It is also the task of the sales department to sell
whatever the production department has manufactured aggressive sales methods
are justified to meet this goal and customers actual needs and satisfaction are
taken for granted. Selling converts the product into cash for the company in
the short run. Marketing as a concept and approach is much wider than selling
and is also dynamic as the focus is on the customer rather than the product while
selling revolves around the needs and interest of the manufacturer or marketer,
marketing revolves around that of consumer. It is the whole process of meeting
and satisfying the needs of the consumer.
Marketing consists of all those activities that are associated
with product planning, pricing, promoting and distributing the product or
service. The task commences with identifying consumer needs and does not end
until feedback on consumer satisfaction from the consumption of the product is
received. It is a long chain of activity, which comprises production, packing
promotion, pricing, distribution and then the selling.
Consumer needs become the guiding force behind all
these activities. Profits are not ignored but they are built up on a long run
basis. Mind share is more important than market share in marketing.
ACCORDING TO PROF. THEODORE LEVITT “The difference
between selling and marketing is more than semantic. A truly marketing minded
firm tries to create value satisfying goods and service which the consumers
will want to buy. What is offers for sale is determined not by the seller but
by the buyers. The seller takes his cues fro the buyer and the products become
the consequences of the marketing efforts, not vice verse. Selling merely
concerns itself with thick and techniques of getting the customers to exchange
their cash for the company’s products. It does not bother about the value
satisfaction that the exchange is all about on the contrary, market views the
entire business as consisting of a tightly integrated effort to discover create
a rouse and satisfy customers needs.
Selling
1.
Emphasis on the
product
2.
Company
manufacturing the product first
3.
Management is
sales volume oriented
4.
Planning is short
run oriented in terms of today’s products and markets.
5.
Stresses needs of
seller
6.
Views business as
a good producing process.
7.
Emphasis on
staying with existing technology and reducing costs.
8.
Different
departments work as in a highly separate water tight compartments
9.
Cost determines
price
10.
Selling views customers
as a last link in business
Marketing
1.
Emphasis on
consumer needs/wants
2.
Company first
determines customers needs and wants and then deliver a product to satisfy
these wants.
3.
Management is
profit oriented.
4.
Planning is long
run oriented in today’s products and terms of new products, tomorrows markets
and future growth.
5.
Stresses needs
and wants of buyers
6.
Views business as
consumer producing process satisfying process.
7.
Emphasis on
innovation on every existing technology and reducing every sphere, on providing
by adopting a superior technology.
8.
All departments
of the business integrated manner, the sole purpose being generating of
consumer satisfaction
9.
Consumer
determine price, price determines cost.
10.
Marketing views
the customer last link in business as the very purpose of the business.
Marketing and selling and the difference
between the two
“Marketing” is not “Sales” it’s critical to know the
difference. Broadly, marketing creates the atmosphere to make it easy for sales
to happen. Marketing consists things like.
·
Marketing Strategy: Your product must be a med at consumers in one only of the Mass
market, Mid –market or High End (one product in the entire history of marketing
has ever succeeded in all three of those consumer areas). Aiming your product
at all three in a shotgun approach confuses going broke.
·
Target Market:
Strategy includes identifying a specific group of consumers (age bracket, etc)
within your one Mass, Mid of High End market area. The better we identify our
target group, the easier it is to make sales.
·
Research your Competitors: “Know your enemy”.
·
Point of
Difference or Unique Selling Proposition (USP) as it is sometimes called why
should a customer walk past my competitors to come to me?
·
Writing our
marketing material: brochures, adverts websites, etc, all precisely pitched to
our Target Market.
·
Developing our
brand names and good reputation (‘Image’). Chasing free editorial.
·
Devising tactics
to turn first time buyers into repeat customers.
·
And, the list
goes on and on… marketing is anything that creates atmosphere to make it easier
for sales to happen.
In my book, the most critical of all above is your
Point of Difference or USP.
‘Sales’ obviously is getting out and writing the
orders tough disciplined work. This involves skills like ‘closing’ the sale-
very different skills to marketing.
A marketer is a creative person, a law unto himself, a
person with few boundaries, a person who lives inside the head of your
customer, a person who dreams and creates at any/ all hours of day and night, a
person who can send normal disciplined people crazy. For a marketer the thrill
of the chase is creating original thinking/ products- original ideas that work,
ideas that nobody else thought about. Top marketers are some of the world’s highest
paid professional people.
What is the Difference Between Marketing
and Selling
Oftentimes, business owners confuse
the act of selling their products to a customer as marketing. In actuality,
selling is a small portion of the entire marketing scheme. Selling is the
transaction where a product is transferred from the business owner to a buyer
for a price. In contrast, marketing is process that involves several steps
ranign from the generation of of a product idea to the delivery of that product
to the customer.
Even after delivery of the product
to the costumer, the marketing process continues with direct communication with
the customer to obtain feedback about the product.
In the business world, marketing is
defined by the four P’s: Product, Price. Place, and Promotion. It is the
process of planning and executing the product idea, price, promotion, and
distribution of that product to satisfy the needs of the customer. This
definition illustrates how the marketing process is a proactive approach done often
before the product or service is produced and sold. This allows business owners
to behave like price-makers. In other words, marketing should not be an after
though of production but should be considered well before production takes
place.
For agriculture, value-added
business owners often think about marketing their product when it is ready to
be sold. Since most agricultural products are perishable, this often puts these
farmers at the mercy of their customers. This puts farmers in the position of being
price-takers with little control of the price they will receive and/ or the
quantity they will sell. By thinking ahead, this gives the owner more control
over business profitability.