Selling Vs Marketing; The Battle of Orientations

It is an obvious and observable fact that many people typically assume selling and marketing
are same. Since, in many organizations, same people perform both sales and marketing
duties, the above assumption has been further established. In fact, they claim that there is no
any significant difference between sales and marketing since both have the focus on
increasing the revenue and profit of the organization. Meanwhile, some practitioners are in
the opinion that sales and marketing are two different functions which have significant
differences in terms of various aspects. Due to this contradiction, many scholars have tried to
unveil the difference between sales and marketing.

Marketing Philosophies/Orientations

To find out the difference between sales and marketing, the best way might be to study the
evolution of marketing. In the history of marketing discipline, different marketing
philosophies were emerged to guide the organization. Among them, “Selling Orientation”
and “Marketing Orientation” can be identified as two major philosophies. The selling
orientation assumes that consumers will not buy enough of company product unless they are
been motivated to do so. Thus the company must come up with aggressive selling strategies.
The major drawback is the lack of customer centricity.

The emergence of marketing orientation marked a significant change in comparison to selling

orientation since marketing philosophy was customer centered. Simply, it was a broader
concept than selling since marketing philosophy involves series of activities such as creating,
delivering and communicating customer value according to customer requirement.

The Focus

The simplest demarcation between sales and marketing might be the focus. The sales function
simply focuses on satisfying the need of seller, to earn profits by selling a product or service
to a customer. Thus it can be identified as a transactional process where the seller – buyer
encounter ends up with a single transaction, which is a narrow focus.

Obviously the marketing concept has a much broader focus where the aim is to satisfy the
need of consumer. It involves different marketing strategies and programmes designed to
deliver a superior value to the consumer. It is worthwhile to note that marketing concept
starts from the consumer and ends with the consumer as well. The marketing has the
approach where the company identifies and anticipates consumer needs and develops a
product or service that can be matched with identified need. This process essentially urges
company to adopt long term customer relationships rather than being transactional. Further,
the marketing plays a vital role for the company as a “Business Philosophy”. It is claimed
that marketing goes beyond a simple “Sales Transaction” and encompasses all aspects of the
organization.

The Process
Generally, sales function has a simple transactional, one to one process where the company
tries to persuade customer to purchase product or service. The product/service concept
emerges inside the company and the sales department has the responsibility to increase the
number of sales transactions.

In comparison to sales, marketing consist of various activities with a broader scope. It

involves initial analysis on customer markets which enables marketers to identify and
anticipate consumer needs. This analysis can be vied as a result of proper environmental
analysis and marketing information systems. Further marketing requires a thorough analysis
on competition in order to craft appropriate strategies.

Strategies and Marketing Programmes

The prominent aspect of marketing function consists of strategies and execution, which
demarcates marketing from mere selling. Target marketing process involves well-crafted
customer driven strategies to identify various customer segments that can be best served by
the company and to position the product/service in the market place. The strategy is followed
by execution through different marketing programmes such as product (Designing the
product/service, branding decisions etc.), price, place (Distribution) and promotion. The
success of customer-company relationship is greatly determined by above strategies and
programmes.

Due to the volatility of modern marketing context, best marketers need to clearly identify the
difference between selling and marketing in order to sustain the success of the company.
Marketers must be sensible enough to focus beyond simple transactions and to establish a
long term relationship with consumers through a well-focused marketing strategy.

By,

Dilan Rathnayake

Lecturer
Department of Marketing Management
University of Sri Jayewardenepura
dilan@sjp.ac.lk