Millennium Marketing Research®

Tom Schori DBA Millennium Marketing Research®, 808 Ironwood, Normal IL 61761, 309-532-8466

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Sales is not marketing, but marketing is sales.

By Thomas R. Schori, Ph.D., and Michael L. Garee, Principals,  Millennium Marketing Research, 808 E. Ironwood, Normal, IL 61761-5239. Tel. 309-532-8466 -

We continue to be amazed at the number of companies today that honestly believe they are engaged in marketing activities, when, in fact, they are actually only engaged in sales activities. That is, many times a company’s "marketing plan" consists merely of increasing annual sales by some arbitrary percentage over the previous year. Sales is not marketing, but marketing indeed does include the sales function.

Over the years, we’ve seen many definitions for the term "marketing." Based upon an amalgam of education, training and plain, old-fashioned experience in the field of marketing, here is how we define the term:

"Marketing involves first identifying that which customers/prospective customers want and then providing it. It also involves developing an effective marketing mix of product, price, promotion and distribution, plus an effective promotional mix, i.e., advertising, sales promotion, publicity, communication and personal selling."

Notice, that sales indeed does play a very important part in overall marketing, but still, it plays only a part.

Let’s examine the marketing function in somewhat greater detail, based upon this definition.

Identifying what the customer/prospective customer wants and then providing it.

As simple as this statement is, companies sometimes spend incredible amounts of time and money attempting to accomplish these tasks. It has been our observation that the origin of most problems in this regard stem from one of two situations. First, many, many companies turn inwardly, i.e., toward themselves, when trying to identify what customers and prospective customers want. That is, they don’t even bother to ask customers or prospective customers what they want. They simply ask each other within the company what customers and prospective customers are likely to want, or should want. Alternatively, if the company bothers to ask customers and prospective customers what they want, if the answers they get don’t jibe with what the company thinks customers should want, well, all bets could easily be off!

The simplest way to identify what customers and prospective customers want? Ask them, and then make sure you provide it to them!

Developing an effective marketing mix of product, price, promotion and distribution.

After learning what customers and prospective customers actually want, it’s vital that product, price, promotion and distribution be in sync, in order to be able to provide it in an effective manner. What sense would it make, for example, to have a great product if the price is out of whack with the marketplace? Or, what if you have a great product, competitively priced, but promotion of the product is either ineffective or non-existent, which means customers and prospective customers won’t even know the product is available! Or, what if you have a great product, competitively priced and efficiently promoted but the distribution system either makes no sense or is inappropriate for the target market?

We’re fully aware that in some companies not all of these elements of effective marketing¾ product, price, promotion and distribution¾fall under the direct jurisdiction of one individual. But, to ensure appropriate coordination of these vital marketing elements, they certainly should! And, to the extent that they don’t, dissonance or lack of efficient coordination in a company’s marketing efforts is far more likely to occur.

An effective promotional mix, i.e., advertising, sales promotion, publicity, communication and personal selling.

As is the case with the marketing mix, a great deal of synchronization among a company’s promotional mix is integral to a successful marketing effort. Many companies rely exclusively, or nearly exclusively, upon advertising to promote their products and services. But this approach normally makes about as much sense as relying upon just one element of the marketing mix, say, price, to drive the company’s overall marketing effort.

Each element in the promotional mix has an important role to play. Well-thought-out sales promotion programs, e.g., coupons, rebates, etc., can quite effectively support the company’s marketing effort. Appropriately timed and placed communications and publicity can do so as well. And personal selling efforts are of course "where the rubber hits the road," insofar as marketing is concerned.

Again, rare indeed is it that each of the disciplines included in the promotional mix falls under the exclusive purview of one individual. Usually, advertising and sales promotion will be in one department, publicity and communication in another, and personal selling under yet another department. Of course, they should all report to the chief marketing officer.

As long as all of these departments are striving for the same thing¾marketing excellence¾the fact that they are separate, distinct units can prove to be no overwhelming obstacle. But rare indeed is it to find such cooperation and coordination in most companies. Therefore, as we just stated about the marketing mix, ideally, all of these departments will fall directly under the leadership of a chief marketing officer.

So, if your company is among those to which "marketing" is used as an equivalent or interchangeable term with "sales," your company, unfortunately, is missing the mark by a wide margin. You’re also missing significant opportunities to gain maximum market share for your products and services