.jpg)
Sales involve the engagement of reps directly with leads and prospects to explain further the importance of a business's products and services to convert prospects or leads into customers, call it closing deals. In addition, marketing speaks out to the public, lets the public know about the goods and services of a business, and also attracts people to the goods and services of a business.
You can now realize the difference between those two functions; they perform almost similar roles and have the same revenue, profits, performance, productivity, and expansion goals.
These two are interdependent. Therefore, one can hardly operate without the other; with the two functions working together, trust me, your business will be effective and will perform better than those without the two functions; however, most businesses have one and not all the two, and this happens to be causing the rate of expansion and growth to be slow for most businesses or startups. (State of Inbound Report 2018)
These two functions can work together, and most importantly, they always have the same goal: attracting prospects and leads and turning them into clients.
Read More: Sales Prospecting: All You Need To Know
Let's understand the two business functions, what they do, and how they work together, and finally, we will unveil the difference between these two operating functions.
Marketing involves getting people to pick interest in your services and goods. Marketing includes executions or actions that aid in convincing people to determine interest in the kind of goods and services you sell. First, through comprehensive business research and analysis, marketers get to know people's interests, likes, and preferences. Then, marketers run ad campaigns to pull people's attention toward liking the goods and services of your business or towards loving a particular business brand; marketing usually targets the entire public.
Sales include all actions that involve the selling of goods and services. Sales reps usually bring in sales, and this happens only when a client is convinced about the goods and services you offer and then makes a purchase deal. Sales reps are company representatives who control administering and maintaining good business relationships with clients by providing quality goods and services that translate into a sale when a purchase is made. The sales department is supposed to ensure that prospects and leads are made part of the company as clients by buying goods or services; sales reps/ people usually aim at closing deals and always engage small groups of people.
Related: The Best Sales Techniques For You
Much as people say that marketing and sales functions are the same, they are different and perform different roles; however, they share the same goal.
The difference between marketing and sales
Marketing
Marketing aims at obtaining new prospects.
Marketing aims at getting new leads and prospects.
The goal of marketing is to enlarge the business's picture and promote it. It doesn't end at promoting the company alone, the products and services, or the brand in general. Marketing talks about the price of the goods/products and services and explains how the product brings customer satisfaction. Additionally, marketing goals are mostly long-term and go for a long time or months.
The marketing function has strategies; however, these depend on two things, i.e., the campaign type and the customer. The strategies include; video marketing, internet marketing, search engine optimization, social media marketing, print marketing, and blog marketing.
A marketing plan portrays the product being sold, the price of the product, target customers and where the product will be promoted or where it will be sold, social media platforms and channels that are going to be used for advertising, and also the estimated budget for the entire campaigns that will be running.
Marketing uses social media or other social channels to promote content.
Marketing tools are way different from those used by sales. Some of those tools include; content creation tools, project management tools, search engine optimization tools, data reporting software, and conversion rate optimization.
Sales
The sales teams or individuals are aware of their prospects.
The sales function aims to follow up with the leads and prospects and convert them into pay customers.
The sales goals are mostly short-term goals: achieving daily goals, weekly goals, monthly goals, or even quarterly goals to increase the volume of sales. However, sales goals can be defined over time, and then the head of sales and the entire department determine how much is required to have their sales goals met, whether at an individual level or as a team.
Like the marketing function, the sales function has selling strategies; however, these vary depending on a few factors like; industry, target customer, market, and products. These selling strategies include; the Sandler system, spin selling, challenger sale, solution selling, N.E.A.T. selling, M.E.D.D.I.C., inbound selling, conceptual selling, customer-centric selling, and SNAP selling.
The sales plan portrays the whole sales process, the structure of the sales team, the people or the market to be reached out to, the goals of the sales team, the action plan of the entire team or individuals, the tools to be used during selling, the number of resources required to ensure that the set targets are met.
Sales use social media as a social selling strategy
While marketing tools are very different from sales, sales also have their tools to generate more revenue and profits. Some of these tools include; email management, invoicing software, inventory and order management software tools, meetings, and documents.
We have explored the difference between marketing and sales functions. One has to support the other. They share goals that are generating revenue; therefore, the need to keep working together is vital.
How does marketing work together with sales?
1. Streamline communication for both teams
Marketing and sales teams should use the same information, especially when they are convincing clients. They should all say the same thing about your products and services such that clients gain that sense of trust. Otherwise, it would bring contradiction if the two teams were giving varying information, and this would cause clients to think otherwise.
2. Be clear about the roles and responsibilities of each function
To avoid contradiction between the two teams, specify the roles for each function. Let the marketing function know they are supposed to generate new leads for the company and promote its content and brand. Similarly, let the sales team know they are supposed to close sales deals.
3. Coordinate the approach
Do both teams know the people they should approach, when, and where?
4. Service Level Agreement
The other way to emphasize the performance and effectiveness of sales and marketing functions is by signing a service-level agreement that binds the partnership of the two functions. In the agreement, roles and responsibilities for each function should be stipulated, such as the overall goal, how the performance review will be done, etc.
5. Make sure that both teams are kept up to date
To do away with contradictions and varying information, keep both teams informed to feed the same information to clients.
Final thoughts and conclusion
We have seen that the two functions are different and perform different roles and responsibilities. However, they share the goal of driving revenue for the company. Although they differ in roles, it doesn't mean that the two teams can't work together for the business's success,s their alignment is so important.
Monkeypesa Sales and marketing software
The world of marketing is in a crazy revolution. Every passing day, there is new software on the market. The software makes the work easier with automation.
MonkeyPesa CRM is an all-in-one business automation tool. From sales marketing, automation or customer support. With its devotion to helping Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), MonkeyPesa is a user-friendly tool. The pricing, features, analytics and easy-to-interpret dashboard make it ideal for you.
The CRM aids businesses to get prospects, insights, converts more leads to become customers and manages customers across several channels. At the same time, they go through the selling process.
The services offered include; Sales pipeline management which helps companies to sell faster and get more prospects into the business. The invoicing and billing system allows tracking time, generating invoices, Pro-forma invoices, quotes, and getting much more money faster.
MonkeyPesa CRM Features:
Team collaboration
Contact management
Pipeline management
Data security
Insights, analytics and reports
Human Resource and payroll
Inventory and stores
Bulk SMS and emailing
Accessible Communication is a giant step into maintaining good relationships with clients. Strong relationships generate more sales and support, improve client satisfaction, and reduce business expenses.
A closed buyer is just as vital as a new lead. MonkeyPesa CRM allows you to create charges based on a prospect’s information, schedule calls for them at any point in time, take notes based on our interactions, and easily save and organize that data for future use. In a nutshell, you are moving a sales lead, or prospect from one stage of your sales funnel to the next.
The MonkeyPesa CRM allows you to add contacts manually or upload files. Because the goal is to have streamlined communication in the sales process, you do not have to open another platform to make calls with your clients and prospects. The dashboard enables calls. In addition, all these interactions are captured in case you need to make clarifications and references.
It is a catch for small and medium enterprises, from social networking tools, project management to CRM, document management, calendars, team management, email marketing, phone management, and flawless lead management.
Social Media is a very relevant tool of sales and marketing today. Every passing day, there is a new social media channel your clients and prospects sign up for. MonkeyPesa provides a centralized location for all your social media interactions — tweets, posts, reels, videos, comments, replies, Direct Messages.