Difference Between Sales and Marketing

What is sales?

Sales is the process of facilitating or completing a transaction. Sales teams directly interact with leads interested in a product or who fit the target demographic. Sales teams identify customers, convince them to buy a product, and measure the company’s success against quotas and benchmarks. The process involves:

• 
  Identifying prospective customers
  
• 
  Learning customer interests and pain points
  
• 
  Educating leads about a product or service
  
• 
  Converting prospects into customers through outreach
  

Sales representatives rely on diverse tactics and outreach strategies. Some of the most popular tactics include:

• 
  Cold calling
  
• 
  Attending networking events
  
• 
  Product demonstrations
  
• 
  Personalized messaging
  
• 
  Researching and qualifying prospects
  

What is marketing?

Marketing attracts customers to a company’s products and services. Marketers create content, messaging, and research that generates interest in a product, fosters brand loyalty, and segments customers. Marketing ultimately improves sales by creating conditions in sales reps’ favor.
While sales involves a lot of direct contact with leads, marketers reach their audience through direct and indirect channels. Some of the most popular approaches include:

• 
  Content marketing
  
• 
  Social media marketing
  
• 
  Hosting promotional events
  
• 
  Email marketing
  
• 
  Search engine optimization (SEO)
  
• 
  Conversational marketing
  

What is “smarketing”?

“Smarketing” refers to the integration of the sales and marketing processes. By unifying both teams, proponents argue company performance improves across the board. According to LinkedIn, 85 percent of sales and marketing leaders assert that alignment is the largest opportunity for improving business performance.