Is Selling Different from Marketing

 I am fortunate to have a brother that I rate amongst the best salesman in South Africa. We had a chat during Christmas dinner about me being in marketing and him being in sales. What came from this 3 hour discussion, much to the frustration of the rest of the family was just amazing. Selling and marketing is so different from each other and the irony is, that most people would not see the difference.

Lets look at my definition for these two.

Selling : To persuade or induce (someone) to buy something.
Marketing : Offering goods or services for sale.

If you look at my 2 definitions, you will note that marketing precedes selling. Each can accomplish the same goal, but they are very much different. For most businesses selling is very much part of marketing, but it is not. A salesman will go and sell anything to anybody regardless of the consequences of the sale. They sell and that is exactly what they do. They will talk anybody even a rock into buying something that they might not even need.

Marketing however integrates the many ways of introducing your product or service to as many people as possible. It creates awareness of a need and it relies on transferring accurate information to the consumer in order to obtain trust and understanding of the product or service they offer. A sale is the consequence of creating the awareness and reaching the target individual in the correct manner.

Internet marketing is the merger

We all hate salesman that are pushy and interrupts us with their grinding selfishness to get an appointment. A very good friend of mine owns a very successful business that utilizes only sales reps. We were sitting at a convention one day debating the importance of marketing. His closing argument made me think, "Marketing can be ignored but a salesman can not." Although I will never forget these words, it is important that you understand the true meaning of marketing in the online environment. Marketing is a function that integrates retention and public relations as well as maintaining the positive image of a business. Marketing is essential for the long-term success of any business.

In the Internet environment this becomes more important than anywhere else. The consumer has choice. They can ignore and close anything they like, when they want to and as much as like. They can even install software to do this for them. In the online casino industry this is a common mistake made. They want to be in the face of people. The will have elaborate pictures and animation just to attract attention. They will utilize popup ads despite the irritation it causes. They try to sell online. But the fact remain, the consumer has a choice. They can ignore those very expensive excuses for salesmen.

The true use of the Internet is not just marketing or selling, but a merger of both. Your website is your salesman and your marketing tool. Its core focus is on the consumer and their needs. Your content needs to merge sales with marketing, your emails needs to merge sales and marketing, everything about your website needs to merge these two crucial functions into one.

So despite the fact that selling and marketing are different the Internet is one place where they need to be merged into one effective function.