Marketing Versus Sales

Ben Delaney © 2007

Marketing ands sales go together like a teenager and MySpace. But they are substantially different, and most organizations need both.

Sales has a bad reputation. At one nonprofit, which included in its mission providing consulting services to public organizations, I had a senior manager tell me directly, “We don’t do sales.” (That organization is now on a downward spiral.) Now, in your work in a nonprofit, you may also be thinking, “We don’t do sales.” But my friend, you are wrong.

• If you have a development team working to raise money for your organization, they are doing sales.
  
• If you have a program for which you recruit qualified people, you are doing sales.
  
• If you have a book or report that you are trying to get people to read – for free – you are doing sales.
  
• If you have an event for which you are trying to fill seats, you are doing sales.
  
• If you are recruiting people to sit on your board of directors, yes, you are doing sales.

Get the picture? Selling is nearly precisely equivalent to persuasion. You don’t have to ask for money to make a sale. (Remember when you “sold” your mate on the vacation you really wanted?) Sales occur when someone is providing value to you or your organization at your bequest. That value can be a donation, the most obvious “sale”, or it can be volunteering to help, or sending someone to meet with the Executive Director. When you are persuading people to work with your organization, or support it, or make use of its programs, you are making a sale.

Sales is not a dirty word. Everything you wear, everything you eat, everything you drive, virtually everything that surrounds you, was sold at one time.

Don’t be bothered that your organization has to make sales. Just be ethical and honest and the rest is easy to handle.

So back to the initial question, what is the difference between sales and marketing? The terms are often confused, but there are important and substantial differences.

Let me define what each of these essential activities is.

Marketing is:

• The inside part of the sales process
  
• The preparation to make a sale
  
• The communication function that drives sales
  
• The research that helps an organization know what to sell
  
• Deciding where, when, and whom to approach regarding your services and products
  
• The backup information needed to make a sale
  
• Working with a journalist on a story about your organization
  
• Publishing a newsletter
  
• Advertising to gain support
  
• The analysis of sales results
  
• Creating a great annual report
  
• Publicizing events
  

On the other hand, sales is:

• The outside part of the sales process
  
• Discussing a product or service face to face
  
• Structuring a deal
  
• Asking for business or support
  
• Negotiating the details of a transaction
  
• Asking a policymaker for help, or to support a position
  
• Following up with customers
  
• Looking for new customers

Like a horse and carriage, sales won’t go far without marketing. And likewise, marketing without sales is usually ineffective. In a nonprofit, the MarCom efforts provides a foundation for development work, program outreach, event management, and many other functions. While you may not think that convincing a policymaker to read your white paper is a sales function, I assure you that having a strong MarCom effort that has previously acquainted that policymaker with your organization will make your task much easier.

So remember. Those of us who work in the social services sector DO do sales. And we need a strong MarCom function to make our sales work more effective.