So is there any difference between marketing and sales? this is what i've been hearing in the interviews that i've attended over couple a months. I seriously dont get it why is there so much confusion between sales and marketing among people who take interviews. I clearly indicate them that I want to get into marketing and not sales, so they ask me whts the difference they both are the same. then i get to explain them and they say ohh is it so. basically the job they offer has me to do cold calls, go and get some business and then they call me a marketing executive. this is so wierd.

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.

thanks bricoleur,

its the Human Resources most of the time and the last couple of interviews its been the people in the sales. so how should one handle the situation according to you. for eg; say i work in the sales and then i want to move to the marketing side. what barriers will i face and what objections or questions will be raised.

Sales is a marketing tool. It has to be.

You get someone to know about your product.

You get them to want to buy it.

You let them buy it.

They can buy it through a sales person, through a retailer, online. Sometimes they buy it after they've been using it, like shareware.

Because they way something has to be sold must be in line with the customer then sales needs to be a decision made by marketing.