Vive la Différence?
Ah, sales and marketing. Two teams, one goal: Inspire customers to buy. The stories are endless of how sales and marketing can't seem to get along, even though they share an objective so important it means the life or death of an organization. No customers, no company.
The many tales of sales and marketing woes focus on their vast differences; salespeople are from Mars, marketers are from Venus, and all that. So I decided to take a closer look to determine if sales and marketing are so different after all. Here's what I've come up with:
Percentages
Probably the most striking difference between sales and marketing are targets. If marketing gets 10 percent of its target audience to accept an offer, click a link, or respond to a mailing it's cause for celebration. If a salesperson only hit 10 percent of her quota she'd be shown the door.
Bully customers
Sure, some marketers are out there talking to customers face to face. Usually, though, there's a "safe distance": the hidden room adjacent to the focus group, the vast expanse of the Internet (for online and email surveys), the opposite end of the TV or radio signal, USPS routes. Even if a customer is voicing displeasure, it's from a safe distance; a distance that gives marketers time to ponder how (or if) they'll handle the issue.
Salespeople, on the other hand, spend most of their time right there in the room with customers. And it ain't always pretty.
Creativity
Marketers are tasked with creating communications that catch people's attention and inspire them to act. Salespeople get to make stuff up too: "Sure, we can get you those 10,000 widgets by next Thursday. No problem."
Hard numbers
Although marketers do track some straightforward numbers like conversion rates and click-throughs, more often they work with formulas that can be difficult to calculate or face scrutiny: lifetime value, satisfaction indices, and more. Salespeople for the most part live by hard numbers: quota, pipeline, conversion rates, and the like. Although some might argue that in some cases there's more creativity than fact in the pipeline.
I know there's plenty more to compare and contrast (and poke a bit of fun at). What can you add to the list? What are some of the commonalities of or differences between sales and marketing most obvious to you?
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A Drummy,
Excellent point. However, it's still true that direct marketers consider a 10 percent conversion rate a huge success, while direct salespeople would be considered vastly underperforming if they only hit 10 percent of their quota. I understand that volume comes into play here; direct marketing can reach millions, so 10 percent might actually be a number worth celebrating.
Also, it strikes me as interesting that it's often overlooked that the 90 percent of folks who "don't" respond to direct mail are actually responding, "No, thanks," suggesting that perhaps the targeting wasn't so great after all--yet they'll be mailed to again and again and again, in some cases lessening their potential to respond each time; while most salepeople will look to nuture only the most highly qualified prospects over time, while pursing completely new prospects with each passing quarter.
Sounds like most of you are unfamiliar with direct marketing.
The sole purpose of direct marketing is to drive sales. And it's not just about getting bodies in the door -- there's lots of intelligent targeting behind the marketing to get the right kind of prospects to respond. Direct marketers live and die by their numbers, and work hand-in-hand with sales. In web-based or call-center-based business, sales and marketing are completely interdependent.
Tim,
Interesting perspective on hiring marketing folks with sales experience. I'm sure that in some cases that's an abolute must, and in other cases having that creative flair that can capture a prospect's attention is a must, as well.
Jill,
Terrific analogy of the roles sales and marketing play in an organization. Thanks.
Hugh,
I’m glad you like the topic, and I’m interested to know there’s a difference that you’ve seen that you’d like to mention. Regarding poking fun at sales, actually only two of the four examples do so. The first two actually cite how tough it is to be in sales, implying that marketing has it easy in comparison.
The difference between Sales and Marketing is a great topic, and I'm hopeful that we'll see some engaging comments.
And I'm all for "poking a bit of fun" - but why does the Sales function serve as the punchline for most of the examples in this post?
Marketing's role is to supply potential business 6 months out. Sales supplies business today.
Too many folk in marketing have perceived it as a frilly job with brochures and artwork. Many have no clue of what a real sale involves. I'd not employ a marketing exec that hasn't carried a sales quota. They have to understand what a sales exec needs.
The reverse is not true. We hire sales execs because they are mavericks, often total rebels. We hire them to sell. Marketing has to step up to the plate and make their sales easier. Frilly graphics roles tend not to do this.
I've always thought of Marketing as the "air cover" -- spreading the word to a broad group of people, while identifying targets for the rest of the troops.
Sales, on the other hand, is more like the "infantry" -- fighting the one-on-one battles on the ground and ultimately winning the deals.
Both are equally important, and must work together for success.