The Marketing & Selling Marriage

By Dick Biggs

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"To fix your messengers, fix your message."

~ Harry Beckwith, Selling The Invisible

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Marketing and selling are like a good marriage. While there are differences between husband and wife, they form a formidable team when they work together. Likewise, for a business to succeed, marketing and selling must compliment each other, even though there are major differences between the two concepts. For example:

• Marketing is about the message. Selling is about the messengers who represent the products and services proclaimed by the message.



• Marketing is what you do to keep your products and services in front of prospects and clients so that they think of you when they're ready to buy. Selling is the exchange of money for a product or service.



• Marketing isn't about who you know; it's about who knows you! Selling isn't about pressure; it's about problem-solving.



• The "magic" of marketing is in the mix of ways you keep your products and services in the mind's eye of the public. The "secret" of selling is in the search for how your products and services will provide successful solutions to the problems of the marketplace.



• Marketing costs you money and usually takes a lot of time. Selling should make you money and often occurs in a brief time span, i.e., the stroke of a pen.
  
  
• Marketing establishes your brand, or who you are in the marketplace. Selling extols the benefits of how your products and services will solve problems for your clientele. For instance, my brand is The A-Line-Ment Specialist because I help employers boost bottom line profits and better the top line--people and their productivity. My benefits are the specific ways our keynotes, seminars and resources help employees develop professionally (bottom line) and grow personally (top line).

Obviously, any successful organization must be good at marketing and selling. The two concepts are a skillful blend of company identity with the identification of markets that will benefit from your products and services.

What are your markets? How are you marketing your products and services? Are your salespeople spending too much time selling the features of your products and services? Or are your salespeople stressing the benefits of what these products and services can do for your prospects and clients.

Indeed, there's no substitute for skillful selling, but it all begins with masterful marketing. And when successful selling produces results, the best marketing is the way you serve your clients after the sale. If you do a splendid job of marrying these two concepts into an integrated business plan, your chances for success are bright.