SALES-DRIVEN VS. MARKETING-DRIVEN COMPANIES
As a business owner or key decision maker for a company, there are several choices you’ll be required to make. When it comes to looking toward the future and creating a plan for business growth, there are two types of basic approaches you can take. The sales approach and the marketing approach.
Ideally, your company would be able to allocate resources to develop both approaches, allowing the two to work hand-in-hand. Unfortunately, that is rarely the case. Constraints in time and finances often force brands to choose one approach or the other.
For this reason, it’s important that your business choose the growth strategy best suited to its specific needs. We’ve worked to define the characteristics of each approach in hopes of making this decision as easy as possible for you.
The Sales Approach
- Drives resources in hopes of achieving maximum short-term results
- Strives to acquire individual sales
- Focuses on prospects individually, seeing each one as either a successful sale or a failure
- Tries to convince consumer to buy product/service by emphasizing how it can help him/her
- Strong desire to close sales often causes company to lower prices or give buying incentives, which can result in a short-term sales increase (ultimately harms, rather than helps, the business)
The Marketing Approach
- Focuses more on long-term results and sustainability
- Strives to accomplish the bigger picture goal
- Looks at target audience as a whole, allowing a company to reach numerous prospects at once
- Learns more about target audience’s needs, positions product/service accordingly and gently encourages consumers to buy
- Aims to provide superior value and develop a lasting relationship with consumers so that they keep coming back for more
