What are the differences between marketing objectives and sales objectives?

Marketing and sales are both aimed at increasing revenue. They are so closely intertwined that people often don’t realize the difference between the two. Indeed, in small organizations, the same people typically perform both sales and marketing tasks. Nevertheless, marketing is different from sales and as the organization grows, the roles and responsibilities become more specialized.How does sales differ from marketing?Not to make an overly subtle point, but this extreme example illustrates that sales has the power to change conditions, to transform a situation through the skills of the salesperson. Marketing, however, generally does not possess such transformative power. Marketing needs to work with conditions as they are. One could simplify and say: Sales is persuasion. Marketing is understanding applied.Scorsese’s motif is an illustration of my marketing mantra, “No one buys what you sell, they buy what is of value to them,” and a marketer’s ignorance of this first part, “No one buys what you sell,” often leads to the mistake of making marketing about the product. Marketers often try to push a product. They try to prop up the perceived value of the pen.The reality of the situation is that people are actually always only buying what is of value to them. Marketing should put forth an offer that meets the buyer’s needs right at the place and time of sales opportunity. The most effective marketing is therefore about communication, not manipulation. The salesperson in the flesh has the immediacy and power to create an artificial need in the buyer: a missing pen. Brad is therefore able to transform the sale from an unnatural and ineffective one, in which the seller has to convince the buyer to do something he does not want to do, into a natural one, in which the buyer recognizes a problem that only the seller can easily solve—in one moment the buyer does not value the pen, in the next moment he does. Once this transformation has occurred, the sale only has to be negotiated on mutually acceptable terms.In marketing, such a transformation is usually not possible, and if it is, it is very expensive (See demand creation). In marketing there should actually be no need to force the sale. Marketing should put forth an offer that meets the buyer’s needs at the right place and time, and in the language of her needs. The most effective marketing is therefore about communication, not manipulation.Sales and marketing What you ultimately want from a buyer is not a sale, but a relationship. At their best, both sales and marketing are opportunities for the creation of mutual benefit. They should never be, as depicted in The Wolf of Wall Street, a means to “get one over” on hapless buyers. What you ultimately want from a buyer is not a sale, but a relationship. Relationships should be built on trust, and while the world of sales certainly allows for the possibility of convincing a buyer to buy something they know they do not need, this requires great skill and results in an asymmetrical transaction–one that is to the primary benefit of only one party. This does not foster the trust that is the foundation of any positive brand relationship. In marketing,Convincing someone of something is both extraordinarily difficult and generally a bad idea.Jordan Belfort uses his understanding of sales to exploit people’s greed. His buyers are victims. In your world, you can use this same fundamental insight about the nature of such transactions to communicate the value your products actually deliver to those who truly need them. This process will make your buyers equal beneficiaries of the sale, and thus eventually make of them brand loyalists who will facilitate your cause.

At Duffy Agency, we have developed a consumer-based brand equity model that, by comparison, is easy to understand and use for planning and assessing marketing activities. This model is not based on financial valuation or product attributes. It’s based on the conditions that must be satisfied to increase the probability of future purchases at a premium price point by a defined group of consumers. It would definitely help you understand the difference: http://bit.ly/GuideObjectives