Not Knowing That Difference Can Be Fatal to Your Business

By
Don Warner
Author, Marketing for Smarties Workbook

A news report that an Atlanta-based computer services company had filed for bankruptcy brought to mind a meeting with the firm’s management. During our first visit, everyone we met had used the words marketing and sales interchangeably. In that last meeting, we attempted to underscore the difference with outlines of two proposals, one for marketing —virtually a new activity for the firm—and another for improving sales effectiveness.

“In my book, it’s all one,” the owner quickly cut in. “And I don’t have the time or money for fancy marketing.” We explained that the activities were not expensive and made another effort to explain the distinction. He half-listened, his eyes wandering around his expensively furbished office in what, until then, had seemed to be a well-run, rapidly growing business.

“No!” he thundered, impatiently interrupting again. “Everything is sales. Just get’em on the phone and tell’em what we have! Find out what they need! Get back in there with a presentation! That’s all there is to it. Everything else is irrelevant.”

The enterprise employed 18 people. The sales department consisted of one national and two regional sales representatives, with an assistant who took care of their correspondence, which included preparing and managing a stock of lavish if not especially interesting promotional materials. In addition, the CEO handled a few major national accounts. A healthy arrangement to that point, he had no idea how his resistance to change ill-prepared his venture for what lay ahead.

In a hot market sector, the steady supply of leads that built the business came from referrals, networking, and calls in response to industry directory listings. But the news about the sector was out. New, well-financed competitors had appeared on the scene. His lead generation and conversion rates were declining. Operating capital had slid from 120 days cash forward to 60 days. Clearly, the enterprise was in trouble.

What to do? A little research to gain a fresh perspective of what customers and prospects want? Competitive analysis to see how their products and services stack up against the field? Reevaluate and refine if not overhaul positioning, the ground the business stands on? Craft an exciting new message? Prepare a marketing plan implementing telemarketing, key account marketing, publicity, or other affordable activities that would give effect to the foregoing?

In The Planned Growth Company’s experience, astonishing numbers of owners and managers view marketing as that CEO did: a waste of time and money, something for large companies who can afford such luxuries. Perhaps they forget the old saying, “If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got.” If things aren’t going well, they dig their heels in deeper networking, waiting for phone calls from referrals, turning their directory listing into a display ad, or whatever other means they used in the past.
Unfortunately, the inability to make the distinction between marketing and sales can be costly, as it was for that high tech firm.

Trade shows— marketing and sales events—can serve as a model to illustrate the difference between the two.

Marketing is the research and analysis required to find the right show (or shows), a good booth location, dressing up the booth, and preparing a strong message for materials and promotions —which need not be expensive. 75% of show attendees come from within a 500 mile radius. Lists can be cherry picked for the best prospects who are sent a package of materials, called, e-mailed or some combination of the three that gets customers and prospects to the booth. In short, marketing creates the environment and generates the leads that give sales reps something to sink their teeth into.

Living in the environment created by marketing, the sale reps directly delivers the company’s message to individual customers and prospects. With big ticket products and services, the work may be more about card collecting, meeting and greeting than anything else. Others will try to sell as much as possible and nurse along prospects who show serious interest. All will want to stroke good customers even if they’re not buying at that moment. Sales reps also trying to pick-up marketing intelligence from everyone who visits, even those who say they are not interested —much of which will be reported to the marketing department. In sum, they do the things that sales folks do bring in the business, and if done in the right way, contribute to a dynamic relationship between marketing and sales.

Whether you’re the sole employee or have 18 people working for you, recognizing that marketing and sales are separate functions is essential to the growth of your venture. The artist Donald Judd once said, “To make good things, you have to believe in something.”That’s what marketing comes down to: finding the beliefs, messages, and tools that most effectively speak for the business. The entire burden cannot rest on the salesperson alone. There has to be something behind him or her. That something is marketing.