Marketing vs. Sales

Yup! Another definition.

This one makes the most sense to me, and I am indebted, as are you, to Rick Shea of Optiv8 for the insight.

It’s all about people, and it’s true for your business and mine, the local diner, the large department store, the churches, the banks and the telephone companies.

Marketing

Marketing is what you do, generally, to people you don’t yet know.

Writing a blog, or a newspaper article, public speaking, handing out business cards or mailing out flyers.

In each case your are sending out, broadcasting, a message about you and your services, hopefully to recipients in your target market area.

There’s not much point in the local Etobicoke (Toronto) church taking out an advertisement in the Montana Standard about next Sunday’s services.

There’s little point in The Montreal Deli getting door-to-door flyers pushed through letter-boxes in San Diego.

Marketing is to people or contacts who are not yet looking towards you, who are not yet facing you, who are not yet asking you questions by phone or email.

Sales

Sales is what you do, generally, to people you know.

Sales is to people or contacts who are looking towards you, who facing you, who are asking you questions by phone or email.

Sales is the process of moving people you know towards a cheque.

The Funnel

Or if you prefer, the pipeline, but a funnel looks better on paper because (quantitative may vary) for every 100 people who express interest in your services, only 20% might ever get to the Proposal stage, and of them, only 60% might get to the cheque stage.

Nonetheless, you do the marketing and with the responses you get, some of that vast number of (un-)identified of targets respond and by doing so they become the objects of your sales efforts.

Traditionally marketing was a one (you) to many (them) exercise, while sales was a one (me) to one (you) exercise.

This Blog

I never thought you’d ask!

This blog is a part of my marketing.

It is read by who-knows-who. Everyone of them unknown to me.

If and when you send me a comment or if you subscribe to the blog you become available to me as an individual and, strictly speaking, a sales prospect.

Of course I have other marketing efforts, and of course, if you send me a comment I won’t deluge you with flyers, postcards, emails etc.

But we may well start a relationship that may well blossom into a sale (”cheque”) for one or both of us!

Thanks Rick!