Because of the lack of understanding and formal training about marketing, there is often confusion about the difference between marketing and sales. Larger AEC firms may have a sales staff and marketing professionals, too often the roles are lumped together. While marketing and sales are both part of the business development function, it is important to understand the difference between the two functional areas.
Marketing’s role is to help condition the environment for a sale by systematically identifying needs and wants, then develop and implement a plan to communicate potential solutions to satisfying that demand.
Sales’ role is to focus on building and maintaining relations that lead to the sale of profitable opportunities.
To be truly effective, marketing and sales professional must work very closely together, both as part of a firm’s business development process. Effective AEC firms understand how the two functions can work in concert.
Brian Gallagher