As a marketer, I really like the world of marketing. But to be effective with our marketing, we need terrific selling skills to increase sales, and the ability to deliver top-notch customer service. So, what we need is “smarketing”, sales and marketing in one. Although they are closely related, marketing and selling are NOT the same thing. Marketing includes all the efforts you engage in that cause your customer to become likely to buy from you. It includes many very different activities, from advertising and social media posting, to special events and email newsletters. In general for a retail store, the foremost goal of marketing is to get the customer into your doors, with high purchase intent (that is, eager to buy) and carrying positive attitudes towards your brand. On the other hand, selling is person-to-person interaction where you match up your customer's needs, wants, and desires with the right goods from your store - and complete the sale. Imagine a sports goods store that decides to hold a promotion where all golf clothing merchandise is 20% off the weekend before the golf season starts. The store will:
- send the promotion to customers in their list who have bought golf merchandise before,
- post about the promotion on their social media pages alongside pictures of the merchandise on sale,
- send SMS text reminders,
- and create a great display window highlighting the sale.