Sales vs Marketing in 2023: What's The Difference?

Marketing and sales are pivotal within a business and have two key roles; firstly to attract more customers and secondly to develop the customers you already have. All with the ultimate goal of maximising opportunities through both streams so that you can bring in more clients, revenue and increase profit.

They are often grouped together under one umbrella term, however, there is actually a considerable difference between the two, and understanding their importance can help you to maximise the outcomes. Although sales and marketing are both working towards the same common goal, they follow different processes to get there.

So what’s the difference?

Marketing is all about building awareness about your brand and products, while sales is all about converting these potential customers into prospective buyers.

In the geospatial and surveying industries, or those businesses offering similar or substitute products or services to the customers, we are often “heavily-sales-led”.

According to award winning marketeer Yaagneshwaran Ganesh, sales led industries are often focused on growth strategy. This is essentially where your sales team drive the company forward in order to increase revenue and therefore profit.

You’ll often find that those in sales teams use tactics like cold calling to fill the sales pipeline, and it is a heavily intense person to person interaction, then when a prospect is hooked, it’s up to the seller to convince the buyer to purchase. Sound familiar?

This is a very traditional way to sell and it is the way we have always done things within the survey profession and geospatial industry because our industry isn’t like selling ice to Eskimos.

Sales and marketing both impact the business in lead generation and revenue. Sales refer to all activities that lead to the selling of goods and services. Marketing is the process of getting people interested in the goods and services that are being sold.

To optimise both streams, it's important to visualise the full customer journey first. This way it is much easier to understand where both sales and marketing fit within the journey, how they intertwine and how they work cohesively to build awareness and attract new customers.

When this is understood sales-led organisations will see an improvement in their overall sales revenue and profit.

But what is the customer journey?

The customer journey is not simple, but it doesn't stop us from understanding it.

During the customer journey, the prospect will come into contact with your brand several different times, these are known as touch points. Ideally, they will have also seen you across multiple channels too, this is what we would call an ‘omnichannel’ approach, basically being visible on multiple places e.g. your website, social media, traditional press etc. Top tip, at each touch point, the reputation or perception of the brand should be positive.

Marketing's role is to develop positive touch points along the customer journey. So if you are a river surveyor, for example, it's about identifying where your customers (prospects) come into contact with your brand FIRST. Think local council or river authority at the start of that customer journey where they don’t know they have a problem yet.. then local radio, environmental news, river news, local papers then social media pinpointing key hashtags for easy search. Remember to think like your potential customer; what would they type into google if they had never met you before?

Marketing along with sales will identify the key buyers the company is targeting in order to produce the right content for the right audience, after all, they want to attract the ideal client.

Equally, identifying the key influencer points that persuade your buyers is also a key role of the marketing team, allowing you to create content that addresses underlying problems. Done well, great marketing can make your target customers aware of these problems before they even know about them, and that’s a really key element of promoting your business successfully.

So how do you effectively map out your customer journey?

There are five steps to perfecting your customer map so that your sales and marketing strategy can fit right in. Understanding your customers and these stages is essential to make sales.

Problem not aware

These are your buyers that don’t know there’s an issue yet. Understand the issue and why it’s a problem then make them aware of it and bring it to their attention by addressing potential questions and showcasing statements that bring the problem to the surface!

Be mindful not to talk shop. Remember at this stage it is about them, not you!

Problem aware

These buyers know there’s an issue, but they don’t know how to solve it. Use your content marketing to address questions they have. You don’t need to heavily push your brand or product yet, this is all about being helpful and understanding what your buyer needs to connect with them.

Research

For buyers in their research phase, this is where you can help. Your marketing, especially your content marketing can produce in-depth content to guide and inform. During this stage your potential hot buyer wants answers! So go nuts and answer as many customer questions as you can. Get them down on your website. Folks will go elsewhere if they feel you are pulling the wool over their eyes.

Consideration

Buyers are considering purchasing something in this phase, so it’s time to step it up. Your marketing can be white papers, online demos, onsite demos or anything that means you’re showing how valuable you are. This is where sales can help people to see your value and buy from you, nudging them in the right direction, you!

Purchase

Purchasing! This is the bit everyone wants to get to and fast.

By working in conjunction with each other, sales and marketing help to improve your brand.

Marketing needs sales to get client feedback and input for a better understanding of the customer needs, as well as help to identify the right buyer personas.

Whilst sales help to get highly qualified leads where they can then add further person-to-person value to the customer by providing the supporting content that has been produced by the marketing team.

Finding the right harmony and balance between the two may take time, but once you’ve cracked the formula you will be well on your way to company success.