For people who are not in the trade, many assume that Marketing and Sales are one and the same. However, if you take a deep dive into the two you will come to realize that they are in fact very different.
By taking a look at these concepts together, we will be able to provide a clear distinction of their difference and how one cannot exist without the other.
To start off, let us define each one.
What is Marketing?
Marketing is the act of pooling together people and building interest in the product or service that you would like to sell.
Marketing is more of what happens prior to selling. It is the combination of activities that will help you build customers who will buy your product.
There are five different marketing concepts that will help a business come up with a group of people who will be interested in buying their product or service. These concepts help a business determine and accomplish the needs of their clients and customers. The five marketing concepts are the following:
Production concept
Production concept is based on the capitalist movements in the 1950s. It prevailed because of how it is focused on the production of a product. Mass production was how businesses operated based on this concept in order to lower costs.
Product concept
Product concept is somehow the opposite of the production concept. In this manner, the product concept is focused on creating products with even better quality, price, and availability. Think of how bespoke products and services are. Even though they’re quite pricier, there is a market for them because of the quality of the product.
Selling concept
Selling concept is more focused on the activity of selling the product or service. If a business works on this concept, they rely heavily on the act of selling rather than focusing on mass producing or producing a high-quality product.
Marketing concept
A company relying on the marketing concept aims to provide a product or service that is based on the needs and wants of its audience.
Societal marketing concept
Despite being a newer concept, societal marketing concept is among the concepts being used by a lot of the modern companies. The concept is mainly based on welfare and well-being of the community, its customers, and the society overall. One of the most recognizable companies that have used this marketing concept to run their business is The Body Shop. Its founder, Anita Roddick is a well-known environmentalist and is a big supporter of ethical consumerism. She made sure that her products’ raw materials are ethically sourced and are involved in Fair Trade.
To emphasize, marketing involves exciting people to have a group of people who will buy your products and patronize your services.
Due to the ever-changing times, marketing concepts have also changed. But based on recent histories, the five above have remained.
However, it is important to remember that for your marketing efforts to be rewarded with loyal customers and of course, sales, you will need to target the needs, wants, and demands of the people.
What is Sales?
Sales, on the other hand, refers to the activities that involve in selling the product or service. It may be seen that the marketing is part of the activities that will sell the product or service.
Even though marketing and sales may seem the same thing, sales involve different processes in order for it to become profitable. It may be different for every organization but at the core of it, the sales process involves the following steps:
Prospect
In the prospecting stage, the business is getting to know your customers and clients
Connect and qualify
Once a business has examined the field, they will create steps to connect and qualify the people they have prospected.
Research
At this stage, the business will take a look at the different challenges that might hinder the prospect from being converted into a sale. Once the challenges are presented, the business may take the necessary steps to convert this prospect into a definite sale.
Present
Once the research stage is accomplished, the business will present to their prospect. When presenting their product and service, the business must highlight why the product or service is necessary and how the product or service is necessary in the life of the client/customer. Asking the why and how may potentially help the business ensure that the prospect will be converted into a sale.
Handle objections
Handling objections are part of the sales process because, in reality, the prospective client or customer will have objections that may potentially discourage them from purchasing the product or service. Objections must be taken as simply, part of the process and must not, in turn, discourage the business from continuing the business nor chasing after the customer.
Close
Close will refer to any of the activities in the sales process that may include creating quotations, negotiations, and finally achieving the sale. This is the stage in the whole process that all businesses go for as it is the step that will involve profit. At the end of the day, businesses and the customer/client must mutually-benefit from each other.
Communicate and continue to sell
After-sales treatment is just as important as the pre-close steps. After-sales is important because most of the customers and clients would like to feel valued even after they have already purchased the product or service. Having a great after-sales treatment will provide businesses the opportunity to up-sell or to even cross-sell. Furthermore, with their good experience you can even receive referrals from the customer/client.
How can I improve my marketing strategies to dramatically increase my sales?
Based on our definition for sales and marketing, it can be said that these two aspects of the business goes hand-in-hand. They are not mutually exclusive because for a business’s sales to increase, their marketing strategies must be examined, reviewed, and always be made better.
Here are some of the best tips to improve marketing strategies that may help increase your sales:
Make use of data and statistics
Someone once said that numbers won’t lie. Data and statistics matter especially in this day and age of digital marketing. How you measure your success and your presence is vital to increase sales. These data will ultimately help you pin-point what aspect of your strategies can be further adjusted to make way for more success.
KYC: Know your client/customer
When getting to know your client or customer, it is important to also dive deeper than just their age, location, gender. One of the most helpful pieces of information that you must have are your client/customers’ sources of inconvenience or what we can dub as painful points.
Once you’ve found out about your customers’ sources of inconvenience/painful points, you can create effective marketing strategies that will make them realize that your product or service is beneficial for them.
Manage your Social Media accounts better
These days marketing is more than just posting advertisements that run in the newspapers or a spot in primetime TV. Another aspect of marketing that should definitely be inspected, if not, considered is Social Media management.
People from all over the world use the internet. Having an internet connection comes with having social media accounts. As of this writing, there are about one billion people on Facebook alone. Imagine being able to reach this amount of people through your social media accounts.
That said, a Social Media account for your business that doesn’t have any presence may possibly hinder you from achieving increased sales. The same goes for mismanaged Social Media accounts where profiles are being negative or impolite.
Improve customer experience
A customer’s experience is vital because this is what will be retold to their family and friends that are a possible market for your product or service.
By ensuring that a customer leaves with a satisfactory experience will spread word of your reliability as a brand.
Learn the ropes of voice searches
Voice searches are interesting because it has been around for a while now, but, it’s only recently that it has received attention.
It goes to show that more and more people rely on devices that can assist them such as Siri, Alexa, Bixby, and the IFTTT system.
Voice searches work in the same way as search engines. As such, you can optimize voice searches in the same way… and that is by keywords.
Harness digital marketing
Digital marketing encompasses social media management. Digital marketing is the big picture and the latest frontier in business management.
Digital marketing, if done correctly, will have a look at your statistics such as number of likes, shares, comments, mentions in a day; will create polls, surveys, that can attract engagement and grow your potential market; help you get to know the points where you can improve your product or service through their reviews posted on their blogs and profiles.
Digital marketing can do all of that and so much more. Having an effective digital marketing plan in place will help increase your sales because of the number of people that you can reach from your social media accounts.
Conclusion
Going back, marketing and sales work hand-in-hand. An effective sales plan may not work without a strong marketing strategy. That said, there are a number of ways that can help strengthen your marketing that will snowball into closed sales.
These days, one of the most effective marketing strategies that you can do is coming up with a digital marketing plan. With a digital marketing plan in place, we can assure you that you can expect your business to grow financially and significantly as a brand.
