For many commerce graduates or MBA aspirants, a frequently asked question would be “what are you going to choose, marketing or sales?”.
Marketing and sales are both the ends of the same stick. Both fields are helpful aids to increase the revenue of a business but with using different approaches.
While many use the two terms interchangeably, mistaking them to be synonyms, since they are so closely intertwined, in reality, marketing and sales are subtly different from each other.
Understanding the difference between them will help you figure out a common debate of Marketing vs. Sales, and weigh your pros and cons of both fields, to come up with a lucrative career choice according to your strengths and weaknesses.
To help you choose the perfect field, and get out of the marketing vs. sales dilemma, we have for you a detailed analysis of both fields, to aid you in making an informed decision.
What is Marketing?
According to the dictionary definition, Marketing is referred to the systematic planning, implementation, and control of business-related activities to increase awareness, customer engagement, and attract potential customers and audiences towards the company, and build long-lasting relations with the clients. In short, marketing is used to plant a “need” for a product in the customer’s life, so that there is a desire to purchase it.
Marketing covers various fields such as advertising, public relations, branding, promotions, and also sales. All these fields are important because they, through their campaigns reach out to the customer to tell him why he needs the product or service in his life. Marketing is simply a creative, and engaging way of informing a huge audience, all at once about the product, its benefits, and its availability.
Marketing vs. Sales: What Makes Marketing a Good Career Choice?
- Businesses are booming, and sales of products are thriving all thanks to marketing specialists working to convince their customers to purchase their products. Marketing is the most visible operation of an organization, and it is responsible for the company’s revenue, visibility, growth, market reputation, and popularity, thus guaranteeing some job market guarantee.
- A marketing team is one of the most creative and innovative part of an organization, that come up with different marketing strategies. They challenge the sales of similar products from different companies and work to increase their own with customer engagement solutions. A career in marketing can be perfect for a creative, innovative, and outgoing person who likes to take responsibility and likes the challenge of attracting new clients by strategizing.
Recommended Read: Getting Started with a Career in Marketing: All You Need to Know
- In the marketing division, a professional is responsible for shaping up the consumer narrative, through conventional and unconventional means of marketing. Professionals get to interact with people from all walks of life, on a global scale, promising you ample career growth. Another perk of having a career in marketing is the added excitement of switching gears from digital marketing to international marketing and social media marketing.
- Marketing is known to be one of the highest paying roles in the business domain. With good experience, and performance you can change hike to even better-paying roles like marketing management quite smoothly.
To conclude, the career offers great salary prospects, and several opportunities to travel abroad for assignments. The heavy demand for a qualified, and experienced marketing professional is global, so landing a well-paying, and stable job in marketing might not be comparatively difficult as compared to other fields.
What is Sales?
The dictionary defines ‘Sales’ to be a transaction between the buyer and the seller, where the seller promises the customer delivery of tangible or non-tangible goods, assets, or services in return for a certain amount of money.
In business, sales are the outcome of successful marketing. It is the process of meeting the needs of the interested consumers at an “opportunistic” moment of need, at the time of physical interaction between the two parties. Unlike marketing, there is no involvement of brand identity, longevity, and maintaining customer relationships at that moment. Sales are all about fulfilling the requirements of the customer, at the right place and at the right time.
Marketing Vs. Sales: A Career in Sales
- A career in sales is best for people who like engaging in debates, enjoy socializing, are independent, love to travel, and are motivated and confident about themselves. The Sales division of companies is popular to provide a lot of opportunities to travel, grow and learn new things, on a very attractive pay package even for the entry-level jobs.
- The sales team is an integral part of the operations of a company since it facilitates businesses to grow, and is the mediator between the company and its customers. Understanding that, most companies provide job security to their sales employees, giving them peace of mind as well as career growth. Additionally, the field provides professionals with ample growth enhancement opportunities, as well as training.
- Salespeople mostly earn commission based on the number of their sales. This creates a high potential for talented sales professionals, who want to work hard, to earn pretty well for themselves. Companies often provided very impressive salary packages for the top performers, with the most sales record.
- A career in sales is most popular with commerce students, since they understand the market, and they understand the science behind product selling and engagement. This makes sales one of the many career options for commerce students.
However, unlike marketing, which requires various certifications, and degrees, a student from any field, with any qualification can apply for a job in sales.
Recommended Read: Underrated Career Options for Commerce Students
Marketing vs. Sales: A Better Career Option?
It is very hard to choose between such exciting career options. Both have a great potential to become great career choices, that can provide you with a very comfortable lifestyle for a long time.
Choosing between the two fields depends hugely on the personality, and on the preferences of the individual, and what kind of a bent of mind he has.
Conclusion
You can always turn to Mindler if you’re still tied between marketing vs sales!
Mindler is a top career counselling company, for online career assessment, guidance, and counselling for school students and college graduates.
We provide tailored assessments to understand your strengths and weaknesses, to recommend the best choice of careers for you with our detailed analysis and accurate reports.
Register for Mindler’s Career Counselling Online and dive into the pool of new careers today!
We also provide a Virtual Internship Program in Marketing where you will learn all the in-demand skills such as Digital Marketing, Advertising, Public relations, and Social media marketing.