Sales and marketing are two very different activities, but they work together to support each other. Here’s how.
Australians love their sport, so when we talk about sales and marketing and how they both work together, it’s sometimes helpful to think about the 4 x 100-metre swimming medley. Stay with me.
The 4 x 100-metre medley involves four swimmers, one each doing butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle – each a different stroke, each requiring different skills. But they’re all swimmers and they all, you know, swim.
Sales and marketing are two words that are often used together or interchangeably. They both turn potential customers into actual customers, right?
Actually, sales and marketing are two very different activities, but just like swimmers in a medley, they work together supporting each other. Let’s take a look at how marketing supports sales.
Sales vs marketing: what’s the difference?
Put simply, the difference between sales and marketing is this: marketing generates the leads, and sales converts them into purchases.
To understand what this means, you need to look at the buying cycle. Marketing lays the groundwork of the buying cycle. It builds your brand, it explains who you are and how your offering can solve whatever problem or issue the customer has, and importantly, it clarifies why your business is the best to do it.
That’s a lot of heavy lifting, so for marketing to be effective, it needs to be underpinned by a solid marketing strategy.
Then marketing passes the baton to sales, and sales takes the lead, now warmed up and ready thanks to marketing, and converts them into actual customers.
Marketing works within the marketplace; sales works with people on a more one-on-one basis. This means the skill sets required by marketing professionals and sales people are quite different.
Marketing provides sales teams with information that can help them convert leads to sales. This can include research on the motivations and behaviours of customers, what they respond well to, what needs they are seeking to have addressed.
Marketing can provide sales teams with messaging based on what they know about customers, which the sales team can incorporate into their communications to get the customer across the line.
They can also support sales in the development of online and in-store assets and promotions.
Align marketing and the buying cycle
Prospective customers jump into the buying cycle at different points, and marketing picks them up at this entry point and funnels them down to sales.
You might, for example, have customers with a slight interest in what you offer who, after consuming infographics and blog posts, feel confident enough to move to the research part of the buying cycle.
At the same time, you will have potential customers who know they want your product, are fairly convinced you’re the best business to buy from, but just need a little incentive to buy.
Marketing can create content for every stage of the buying cycle, massaging a steady stream of leads into the hands of the sales team, which converts them into customers.
Speak to the marketing experts
While marketing and sales have two very distinct roles, a sales team is most effective when it is supported by marketing and a solid, effective marketing strategy.
Assemblo is a full-service marketing agency based in Melbourne and are experts in creating and rolling out marketing strategies that best support sales teams.
To find out how we can help boost your sales through strategic marketing give us a call on (03) 9079 2555 or send us a note via the contact form below.