Wednesday

Marketing vs. Selling


Marketing is something that we do to let people know what products we have to offer. Selling is something that we do to show people that the products we have to offer are of value to them.
Marketing is the same, but the targeted audience is different. However, product has larger reach prospective than a service. A service may confined to an area, where as, a product can be shipped in other cities. Unless, the service is internet based. As a service people are looking for history and recommendations. A product is based on performance and special needs.
More than a product campaign, selling a service definitely requires real clarity as to "how does the customer benefit." I think selling a product; one can sort of get away with explaining what the company delivers. A *good* marketing campaign will of course still include how the product benefits the buyer.

The terms “marketing” and “selling” can often be confusing to new business owners. Marketing simply means making people aware that your product exists. Selling, on the other hand, means taking whatever steps are necessary to convince your potential customer to purchase your product.
Another big difference is that a product carries with it things like inventory, parts, hourly costs for manufacturing and so forth. A service ultimately breaks down to "how much is this *time* worth?" That, and how much is this *skill* worth? Both time and skills are abstractions, not easily given hard numbers.
These are about the degree of coupling between two ideas. Loose coupling is highly abstract and tight coupling is less abstract. So, marketing abstract products is fine, but your marketing communications still have to be very specific. If you sell management consulting, you really have to dig deep and figure out how to very specifically communicate what you offer, while avoiding clichés.
This is really a question of positioning strategy as well. Abstract products, like services, can be hard to position in the mind. Yet with the right communication strategy you can position abstract services ... generally by directly linking the service with a benefit, relative to other options available.
Marketing is essentially nothing more than research. It’s about identifying groups of potential buyers and then finding the best way of bringing the product to their attention, generally through some form of advertising.

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