Marketing is Marketing and Sales is Sales

Submitted by Mitch Seigel on Tues, 6/02/2015

A few years ago I was invited to a breakfast meeting hosted by the marketing
department of a major university. I was invited under the guise of offering opportunities
to graduating seniors.

My offer to the college graduates was the knowledge of networking for employment
purposes. What I saw being offered by the major corporations in attendance, to the
dismay of the students, was several sales jobs for the students who had just spent four
years learning about marketing.

Two thoughts came to mind; is this the only way these corporations can find sales
people for their companies, and the other was why are these companies being
deceptive in their offerings to the students. In either case it was wrong.

The university realized this as well and has since formed a sales program, within the
marketing department, in order to differentiate the two. Now, if you want to focus in
sales at that institution, you can, and it doesn’t touch marketing.

I have seen several other career opportunities posted where it states that the position is
a marketing position for the company, when in reality it is downright selling. Individuals
seeking employment are smarter than this and companies making these offers actually
lose credibility.

My suggestion is for you to learn the difference between marketing and sales, before
posting positions which can possibly deceive recent college graduates.

What are your challenges when it comes to differentiating between marketing and
sales? I look forward to hearing your comments. Until next time…