Marketing Vs selling

Hi bloggers and others who visit my blog, today I would like to share something about selling and marketing.

What is the difference between selling and marketing, both are similar and pertain to the same department in many offices. That is what many of us think. While selling means giving whatever we have manufactured for a price, marketing means manufacturing what others need and giving it away for a price after due consideration of the purchasing power of the buyer. This is too technical for us.

Let us simplify this in our day today activities. A mother prepares a dish which is easier to make and involves less strain on her. The child may not like the dish the mother has prepared or may throw a tantrum if asked to eat it. If the mother insists that the child should eat what she has prepared, it is selling, without taking into consideration the child’s requirements and tastes. The mother may not have the time to prepare what the child expects immediately or the ingredients may not be readily available at home.

On the other hand, if the mother studies the child’s tastes and preferences for certain dishes and observes what the child loves to eat, and prepares it, the child will lovingly gobble up the whole food without any extra effort. This is exactly done in the market research and survey. This is the crux of marketing.

If on the other hand, the mother sits with the child on the previous day and discusses what he or she likes, but due to non availability of the resources at home, she could not make it or she suggests some other dish which the child may like, although not in the first instance, it is called negotiations in marketing parlance.

An organization which was manufacturing pens interviewed two people for the post of marketing executive. The first person entered. The interviewer asked him to sell the company’s pen to him. The candidate explained to him the quality, brand name of the pen and the superior quality of the ink used and sold the pen. He was asked to wait, while the next candidate entered. He was given the same task. The candidate took the pen from the interviewer and broke it into two pieces. Then he said, now that you don’t have a pen, you can try this pen and explained to him its features. Guess, who was selected for the post.

Obviously, the second one, because while the first candidate explained what was already there in the pen, the second candidate broke the pen and created a need for it.

This does not mean that you always have to destroy something to sell something, but the lateral thinking skills which the second candidate possessed was appreciated and he was selected for the post.

Marketing not only involves giving what the customer wants, but also to create a need for the product manufactured .