What’s the Difference Between Sales and Marketing? A Guide

What is sales? Sales is the process of selling and delivering products or services to consumers in exchange for compensation. Sales generation often involves expressing a product’s benefits to potential customers through demonstrations. Companies can also offer discounts to make the product or service more attractive to consumers. A sale is the start of a contract between a vendor and a buyer. Salespeople are responsible for developing and cultivating relationships with potential and existing customers to help companies increase their sales and profitability. Related: What Is a Sales Job? What is marketing? Marketing is the process of promoting goods or services to consumers to encourage sales. It usually involves analyzing consumers to better understand their needs or challenges, which can help marketers make purchases more appealing. Marketing also involves using measurable data, such as website visits, to determine customers’ interests in a product or service. By using metrics, a marketing department can craft advertising that appeals to the people who are most likely to purchase a product or service. Read more: FAQs: What Is Marketing? (Plus Common Stages and Types) Sales vs. marketing Here are some core elements of both sales and marketing, including the primary differences between the two, to help you understand each one more fully: Process Both sales and marketing follow specific processes to achieve their goals. The marketing process focuses on informing consumers about a product or service. It involves creating strategies to market a product by explaining its benefits and describing the ways it can resolve challenges for consumers. The marketing process also includes determining the target audience for a product or service so marketers can create campaigns directly for those consumers. The sales process involves making an action plan to sell products or services using available tools and resources. While a marketing team works to make consumers aware of a product or service, a sales team works to co