Article on the Marketing division of a business

by Diane M. Hoffmann

Contrary to a lot of beliefs, marketing and sales are not the same thing. Marketing is not sales and sales is not marketing. Marketing includes sales. Marketing supports sales. Marketing directs sales. But not the other way around. Sales is sales all on its own! If your company needs business right now, don't hire a marketing man/woman - hire a good salesman /woman.

But speaking of communication, where else is communication more needed than in marketing and sales? That's where the very top line of the financial statement comes from -- without it there aren't any bottom lines!

Marketing communicates between products and consumers, product research and markets, studies and monitoring of analysis and statistics, creativity and implementation of promotions, etc. -- all in support of the most important function of any organization: sales. No sales, no business!

Marketing communicates between the executive division of sales and production. If the company has branches, it communicates to them too. In a distribution environment, it communicates between the company and the dealers. We cannot cover every aspect of all of this department's functions, but one thing's for sure, the contextual part of communication is as critical here as in any other divisions. And sales communicates between marketing and the customer.

I remember the big drive in the 70's and 80's for the "hard sell". Hard closers were in demand. Now a couple of decades later, we are redirecting our sales force to a "soft-sell" approach. Relationship builders are what we want now. One extreme to the other. What does that mean? The wisest, of course, realize that the secret lies somewhere in between -- a healthy combination of the two that is backed by good communication. You can't pound, pest or force someone to buy. At the same time, you can't walk away helping the prospect not to buy.

To "close" you have to show benefits that will make the customer's job easier or more productive -- that's what the prospect wants to buy. The professional salesperson does not sell products today, he/she sells solutions-- and very specific solutions, tailored to each and every customer. So we must now gear our sales approach on that individuality.


For information on the book "Contextual Communication, Organization and Training" by Diane M. Hoffmann click here