Marketing Is Not Sales!

I live in a business community that "doesn't get it"!

Here in Las Vegas it seems like "Marketing" is just another word for "Sales". At the very best, many companies treat marketing as an additional virtue of a sales person.

SORRY!

Now, let me tell you why this is happening. I am sure you have heard the mantra of Reno, "the biggest little city in the U.S." The exact same is true of Las Vegas, only on steroids! There are two industries here. One is the casino/hotel industry .... here in grand scale. The other is 6,800 other businesses that grew out of supporting the growth of Las Vegas. There are a handful of nationwide companies here with satellite offices.

The casino/hotel business understand the difference between marketing and sales. In fact, they do a rather good job in database marketing. They know exactly who plays the slots vs. 21 and craps. They know exactly who to invite to a slot tournament vs. a poker tournament and have a very sophisticated direct marketing program in place.

But, they believe only the people who have worked in the hotel/casino business of marketing are the only people who know how to implement their marketing programs. Like the auto industry, they hire from within. Hence, their marketing innovations all seem to be the same. Little thinking "outside the box".

Now the "meat of this post".

Marketing is not sales.

Most of the other 6,800 companies here grew up from a daily laborer starting his or her own company. Once they began to grow, they hired "worker bees" to replace them as they began to manage their growing company. This two level company structure remains today. The owner at the top and everyone else is a "worker bee". When the owner wants more business, they look for people to find it for them. Hence, in the minds of the top management, sales people have blurred the lines between themselves and marketing as an attribute sales people should have.

WRONG.

Marketing is a function and discipline unique to itself. Yes, it supports all sales efforts, whether a company has a sales force or they sell direct to the buyer by catalog and e-commerce.

Put one of these owners in the middle of today's Direct Marketing Association convention (ending today) and they’d be lost. They come upon a session on the New SEO as essential to proper SEM

"Whazzat"?

I write this post for all of you looking for clients and/or job positions.

Be very careful top management gets the difference between marketing and sales. A great indication is the company structure and the town or city the company grew up in.

Company structure. Make sure there's a whole sophisticated level of top and middle management. Not just the company owners and everyone else works for me mentality. If the area where the company grew up is dominated by a certain industry like Las Vegas and Reno, make sure the company relies on business growth nationwide and even worldwide.

The one exception ..... and it's the way I grew up in this business .... if the company you are talking to started by selling their product or service directly to the end user. Hence Direct Marketing. These people "get it" in a big way. In fact, many of them are the reason there is a Direct Marketing Association in the first place.