Marketing and sales not synonymous 

During our in-agency workshops and group seminars, we frequently get this question: “What’s the difference between marketing and sales?”   Our simple reply is: Marketing involves tomorrow’s new business; sales involves today’s new business.  The distinction is important.  Here’s why. 

The marketing mix 

Harvard Business School professor Neil Borden first presented the 4Ps of marketing in an article entitled “The Concept of the Marketing Mix” in the Harvard Business Review circa 1953. 

In his article, Borden used the marketing mix term to describe a variety of different marketing elements that come together to form a marketing plan. The elements are: 

. Product

. Price

. Place

. Promotion 

Product and price are self-explanatory.  Place refers to where and how your services are delivered.  Promotion encompasses your mix of personal sales and non-personal sales (direct mail, advertising,  publicity, telemarketing, online et al.) So, personal selling is actually a subset of marketing. 

Marketing is long-term; sales short-term 

Marketing is a process that builds your brand (your agency name and reputation) over time.  It is not a short-term strategy.  Marketing activities also help keep unqualified and qualified prospects flowing into the sales pipeline. Some will buy from you this year; some next year; some five years from now. 

Good marketers know that the key to business success is commitment to, and continuous improvement of, the 4Ps and an integrated marketing mix.  More about an integrated marketing mix and how to achieve it later.