What is the difference between sales and marketing? I often hear the two intertwined and placed in the same department. Often they are considered one and the same. Are they?
Definitely not!
In my world, marketing is the positioning of the brand, product, or service. We market our brands, products, and services to get people to buy them. We educate, differentiate, and position through marketing. That is what marketing does. Sales is the process of leveraging that marketing to close the business. Marketing paints the picture. Marketing opens the door. Marketing allows the sale or sales process to take place. Once a product has been marketed, the sale can occur.
For some businesses, products, and services, marketing is nothing more than a sign on the front of the store. For others, it is word of mouth. For others, it is sophisticated and involves PR, sponsorship, media, and more. For some, it is only social media. And for still others, it remains the traditional great marketing channels of radio, TV, direct mail (in your mailbox at the house), outdoor/billboard or “out- of-home” as it is now called.
Yes, sponsorship is a form of marketing. Sometimes when a business is marketing, it uses sponsorship as one of the channels of its overall marketing mix. For many readers, those who buy sponsorships, it is a form of marketing as noted. But for many other readers, the ones that are sponsorship properties or rights holders, sponsorship is about sales. This group is selling the sponsorship assets to the brands that buy those assets to market their services. Sponsorship sales happen when a seller (be it a contracted sponsorship sales agency, a staff person at a property, or even a volunteer at the property) goes forward and shows the potential sponsor how the property’s assets and brand can influence, educate, and positon the corporate sponsor’s product or services. It is showing them through one-on-one engagement/relationship building, online, or other means. It is making an offer.
Marketing tells the story and sales closes the deal! Without marketing, the sale won’t happen. Without a sale (of a product, or just a positioning or message), the marketing is a wasted investment.
That brings me where I want to be. I have two messages.
- Properties and rights holders need to market themselves. They need to build their brands, have goodwill and equity. People need to know who you are, what you do, and why it makes an impact… or the sales process will be tough… really tough.
- Sales and marketing are different. They are different people… different mindsets. For either to be successful, they must work together.
As properties, we need to build our brands. We need to market and position what we have other than the “salesperson” on the street telling the story. Your property needs to position itself. It needs to differentiate itself. How is your soccer club, community theatre group, or municipality different from the one down the road? Why should that brand associate with you rather than them?
Unless you can position that, your salesperson will have a hard time selling the product. Whether you are a small charity gala or a pro sports team, the stronger your brand, the stronger your sales program. That is why we work with our clients on the property side with understanding their positioning and brand presence, rather than just the value of their assets. You can have great assets that will deliver results, but if no one knows about them (other than the three folks your salesperson spoke to today), they won’t sell. That is why sales and marketing, though very different, must, in my opinion, work together. Too often, marketing has its plan and it is different from the sales plan, so you end up marketing in a way that does not result in revenue generation—not really a plan for success.
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