The Difference Between Marketing, Advertising and Selling
Marketing, Advertising and Selling are fundamental to business.
But, so few in business know the difference and thus can not act effectively in any of these areas.
Marketing is what you do so that people are willing to transact with you, contact you about your offer and know that your offer exists with a solution that will help them handle a problem or correct (or make better) a situation. This entails a fair amount of research about who is in the market, what they want and where are they looking for information.
Advertising is the action of delivering a message across a media to a market (group of people with a common interest). The better this is matched, the more likely a sale will occur. This is an intermediate action that must occur - otherwise the message is neither seen nor heard by the potential prospect.
Selling is the action of talking to or communicating with a client to "close him" and complete the transaction. This is usually person to person.
Selling is not going to dinner, playing golf. Those are relationship building actions that may or may not lead to a sale.
There is so much confusion about marketing, advertising and selling.
It starts with who you need to talk to about your offer. Then moves to creating an offer that the "market" will listen to. And then moves to find out where the "market" is looking and listening to get information about the offer that you have.
Volumes have been written about this and yet I hear this confusion about sales and marketing. Books written as far back as the 1940's and 1950's talk about the function of sales, maketing and advertising. So why is there still this confusion in the business world?
In a perfect world, marketing would actually support sales. Meaning the marketing department would find out what the market is looking and listening for. And then craft a message that make them "reach" for the solution that is in the offer.
Then sales would take that reach (better known as a lead) and go and close the customer. Not re-qualify them. Not feel them out. All of that is a waste of time for a sales person who is about the business of completing transactions on behalf the company.
The marketing function should handle all of the screening, education and qualification of the prospect before the sales person gets the lead.
Having been successful in sales for many years...This rarely happens. In fact, marketing and sales should have the same agenda..."Make More Sales".
I know that this can happen for two reasons. I have seen real marketing systems that work to sell everything from Vitamins to Industrial Equipment.
Here is the sequence, the prospect sees the advertised offer that is managed by the marketing function. The prospect recognizes that he has a problem and the advertisement has a possible solution.
What does the prospect do? Get more information about the solution that he thinks that he has found.
Then marketing just keeps on feeding the information until the prospect is ready to make a move forward.
All the while, the sales person and the marketing function are working together to move the prospect closer to a buying decision. Only after the prospect crosses a certain barrier of contacts and time should the sales person engage to close.
The key is to have enough marketing activity and advertising activity moving to keep the sales people talking to ready, willing and able to buy prospects that have qualified themselves as potential buyers.
It does not take much, but it does take some thinking, planning and real execution to make this happen.
But it can happen. And when it is working, sales are a joy. And, the Top and Bottom line grow.
Best Regards,
David Bullock
Optimizing Marketing Processes and Systems
But, so few in business know the difference and thus can not act effectively in any of these areas.
Marketing is what you do so that people are willing to transact with you, contact you about your offer and know that your offer exists with a solution that will help them handle a problem or correct (or make better) a situation. This entails a fair amount of research about who is in the market, what they want and where are they looking for information.
Advertising is the action of delivering a message across a media to a market (group of people with a common interest). The better this is matched, the more likely a sale will occur. This is an intermediate action that must occur - otherwise the message is neither seen nor heard by the potential prospect.
Selling is the action of talking to or communicating with a client to "close him" and complete the transaction. This is usually person to person.
Selling is not going to dinner, playing golf. Those are relationship building actions that may or may not lead to a sale.
There is so much confusion about marketing, advertising and selling.
It starts with who you need to talk to about your offer. Then moves to creating an offer that the "market" will listen to. And then moves to find out where the "market" is looking and listening to get information about the offer that you have.
Volumes have been written about this and yet I hear this confusion about sales and marketing. Books written as far back as the 1940's and 1950's talk about the function of sales, maketing and advertising. So why is there still this confusion in the business world?
In a perfect world, marketing would actually support sales. Meaning the marketing department would find out what the market is looking and listening for. And then craft a message that make them "reach" for the solution that is in the offer.
Then sales would take that reach (better known as a lead) and go and close the customer. Not re-qualify them. Not feel them out. All of that is a waste of time for a sales person who is about the business of completing transactions on behalf the company.
The marketing function should handle all of the screening, education and qualification of the prospect before the sales person gets the lead.
Having been successful in sales for many years...This rarely happens. In fact, marketing and sales should have the same agenda..."Make More Sales".
I know that this can happen for two reasons. I have seen real marketing systems that work to sell everything from Vitamins to Industrial Equipment.
Here is the sequence, the prospect sees the advertised offer that is managed by the marketing function. The prospect recognizes that he has a problem and the advertisement has a possible solution.
What does the prospect do? Get more information about the solution that he thinks that he has found.
Then marketing just keeps on feeding the information until the prospect is ready to make a move forward.
All the while, the sales person and the marketing function are working together to move the prospect closer to a buying decision. Only after the prospect crosses a certain barrier of contacts and time should the sales person engage to close.
The key is to have enough marketing activity and advertising activity moving to keep the sales people talking to ready, willing and able to buy prospects that have qualified themselves as potential buyers.
It does not take much, but it does take some thinking, planning and real execution to make this happen.
But it can happen. And when it is working, sales are a joy. And, the Top and Bottom line grow.
Best Regards,
David Bullock
Optimizing Marketing Processes and Systems
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