Creating an Article for 'Maximum US' Magazine

Before we delve into the difference between Marketing and Sales, let's ask that famous question, "Is it marketing that leads to sales, or is it sales that comes after marketing? These two concepts are often considered synonymous, what do you think? Do you really believe that marketing and sales carry the same meaning? For those who say yes, I have some bad news...

 

The yogurt you bought from the supermarket yesterday, the new Home Insurance you just acquired, or a simple wallpaper you chose for your room, all have one commonality: they are marketing products. And once that product is now yours, it is a completed sale.

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Let's start with definitions first. Marketing is the entirety of processes that begin with the design of a product and encompass all the way until it reaches the consumer. So, what are these processes? Simply put, it involves identifying the product to be produced, deciding where and how this product will be manufactured, packaging, pricing, distribution, and promotional activities. Afterward, sales takes the stage. So, what is sales? It refers to the act of presenting a product that has been produced, brought to the market, and planned in its entirety to the customer and ensuring its purchase. It can also be seen as bringing the consumer and the product together and winning over the consumer. The department that determines these steps, known as the 4Ps of marketing, which are product, price, distribution, and promotion, is marketing itself. At this point, we can liken marketing to a bridge. Naturally, these processes constitute the foundations of the bridge.

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In order to keep the bridge standing, all supports must be positioned correctly, which means all processes must be executed successfully. Let's take a product that we all have in our homes, like a refrigerator, for example. The entire process of a product, such as a refrigerator, from the content of the advertisements we see on social media or on television to determining the price we pay, until it reaches the customer, is the responsibility of marketing.

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The customer has come to the store. The customer's needs were identified, and a refrigerator suitable for their needs was explained, along with information about promotions. At this point, sales is about meeting the customer's demand, which has come to the store, with the product or service produced, and ensuring the purchase of the product by the customer. It should be noted that marketing and sales are interdependent. They can also be seen as two interconnected siblings.

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Without marketing, there can be no sales, and without sales, the significance of marketing diminishes. Why?

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We marketed a product superbly, but the sales department couldn't succeed in presenting the produced product to consumers; in short, we couldn't sell the product. At this point, the marketing efforts will not benefit the company. Looking at it from another perspective, you have a strong sales team, but the marketing efforts fall short, with incorrect advertising or pricing decisions. Again, it's a failure.

 

Even a simple soccer analogy can actually summarize the situation. If marketing is the midfield, sales is the forward. Marketing sets up the game, while sales scores the goal. Marketing identifies the product that will meet the need, while sales satisfies the need with existing products. Marketing attracts the consumer, and sales delivers the product to the consumer.

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After marketing raises awareness that "insurance will make life easier in such a situation one day," sales should create the sale of the insurance product that the customer will need at just the right time.

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The concepts are familiar. So, when we look at the insurance industry, how do these two concepts work? The concept of marketing in the insurance industry is related to expanding the awareness of the industry in a way that benefits society in the face of insurance organizations. Potential customers for the insurance sector are reluctant to think about disasters and death. Therefore, they tend to postpone planning for these possibilities until they contact insurance companies and are influenced by them.

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In the insurance industry, marketing and sales need to work in more coordination than in most sectors. This is because insurance needs to be sold more than most products, and no one wakes up one day and says they need life insurance today.

 

All these activities form an integrated marketing and sales strategy. Marketing and sales work closely and in parallel. The selection of risks (product planning), policy underwriting (customer service), actuarial rating (pricing), and agency management (distribution) are the cornerstones of this collaboration.

 

Regardless of the industry or company you are in, it's not what you sell but how you sell it that matters. Although marketing and sales are different concepts, they serve the same purpose: to acquire and retain customers.

 

Marketing brings the customer to the company, while sales sends the customer away satisfied.

 

Imagine there is a sign around customers' necks that says, "Make me feel important" and you will succeed in sales.

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