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  Marketing-Sales.....whats the difference?

  The argument has probably been going on since there were goods for sale!

  So, focalpoint, is it the "Human Resources" people that are showing confusion ... or is it the sales and/or marketing 'decision' makers in the companies you are applying to?  If the later you probably don't want to work for them anyways....

  There are many different 'stereo-typical views of the split.  Like most stereotypes these are just wrong.  For example one has it that while typically marketing takes a longer term view than sales -- but this alone is not enough, in my view, to distinguish between them. Another stereo-typical view is that "marketing is everything that you do to reach and persuade prospects while the sales process is everything that you do to close the sale and get a signed agreement or contract". In this case note the insertion of the weasel word process -  perhaps a subtle attempt to suggest that sales is 'more concrete than marketing.

  Without directly answering your question, in reality  both are necessities to the success of a business (and you cannot do without a system for each over the long term). Strategically combining both are required for growth -- unbalanced efforts are almost sure to lead to failure.

  The very first company I worked for, a consumer coatings (paints to the layman) company, and perhaps the best 'marketing' company I've ever worked for, had a definition that worked incredibly well for them (as their sales channels were mfg->wholesaler-Retailer->consumer):

  Sales is what gets us on the (retail )shelf; Marketing is what gets us off it.

  Posted 06 Sep 07