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Why Marketing is More Important Than Selling

Why Marketing is More Important Than Selling?

Many sales professionals wrongly consider marketing and sales to be the same. In reality, ‘sales’ is a part of marketing. Marketing can be defined as the efforts that a business makes to connect with their target audience. A marketing strategy focuses on spreading awareness about the product/service that the business offers. A sales strategy, on the other hand, is designed to reinforce the value of the solution that the business offers, helping prospects turn into buyers.

 

Marketing vs. Sales: The Differences

 

Process

Both your marketing and sales plan should include details regarding the company’s history. Both plans must also talk about your business’ milestones and goals and the initiatives you plan to take to achieve these objectives.

Your marketing plan should explain your services in detail, and must also reveal other details such as previous success statistics and your pricing. Your marketing plan must clearly define goals. After setting goals, you need to choose the most appropriate marketing channels (according to your budget and goals).

Your sales plan must include details related to your sales process, the target market, goals, and team structure. Your plan must also outline your sales action plan to achieve your targets.

 

Tools and resources

Both your sales and marketing team can use the CRM database to manage relationships with candidates and clients. Both teams can also leverage social media. While marketing teams use social media platforms to promote content and for lead generation, sales teams leverage social media for social selling.

 

Some popular tools specific to marketing

  • Digital content creation tools

  • Search engine optimization tools (such as Google Keyword Planner, Google Analytics, and SEO Web Page Analyzer)

  • Data reporting software

  • Conversion Rate Optimization tools such as Adobe Analytics and Adobe Target

 

Some common popular tools used by sales teams

  • Inventory and order management software

  • Invoicing software

  • Email management tools

  • Document tools

Thanks to technical advancements, both sales and marketing teams have a range of resources available at their disposal. Many sales and marketing teams, for instance, use AI and live chat to better serve their existing clients and develop and nurture relationships with leads.

 

Goals

The focus of both sales and marketing teams should be to generate revenue for the business. The primary goal of marketing teams is to use compelling brand stories to create and maintain relationships with the business’ target audience. A marketing plan lays the roadmap for building a positive brand reputation. Marketing teams take a look at the bigger picture and come up with strategies to promote the business’ products/services. Marketing teams are responsible for creating a pricing strategy. Marketers need to identify the problems/challenges their target audience is facing and communicate how their product/service can help address these problems.

Sales goals, on the other hand, are short-term and are usually measured every month. Once volume goals are set, sales managers perform calculations to determine a recurring target (can be a specific number of clients or positions filled every month) that their team members must meet to achieve volume goals.

 

Strategies

When developing your marketing strategy, some important factors to consider are your target market, target audience, and the type of campaigns you plan to run. Given the important role that digital platforms play in helping businesses build a positive brand reputation, you need to have a separate strategy for promoting content and fostering relationships on social media.

 

Some popular marketing strategies:

  • Internet marketing

  • Blog marketing

  • Print marketing

  • Social media marketing

  • SEO or Search Engine Optimization

Sales strategies too can vary depending on the business’ market, industry, and target audience.

 

Some common sales strategies:

  • Conceptual selling

  • ‘N.E.A.T. selling

  • Inbound selling

  • SNAP selling

 

Marketing is more important than sales; here’s why

Marketing is a broader concept than sales. Businesses cannot sell their products/services without creating awareness about them. The primary focus of a sales strategy is to convert leads. A marketing strategy, on the other hand, is designed to maintain existing relationships and foster new ones.

The modern consumer expects businesses to communicate with them on a personal level. Businesses that get back to their buyers only when they want to make a sale will eventually end up losing them. To build a loyal client base, businesses need to come up with marketing strategies that focus on making their clients and candidates feel special and valued. Some tried and tested personalization strategies include:

  • Sending mails and greeting cards to customers on a special occasion (can be their marriage anniversary or birthday).

  • Addressing them with their names.

  • Using personal data to suggest the best solution according to the customer’s needs.

  • Delivering personalized content to prospects and customers.


 

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