Marketing is the foundation on which you build your sales strategy. You must remember that Sales is part of your Marketing strategy, not separate from it. If you change a sales person, that’s a marketing decision. If you change the price, that’s a marketing decision. It’s no good having a brilliant product if your distribution network is poor. It’s no good having a massive advertising spend if your customer service is poor. It’s no good marketing your product nationally if your sales team only covers certain areas – because the strength of one is diminished by the weakness of the other.
Ideally, all of these different strands work together – Sales and Marketing don’t exist in isolation – they should support each other to maximise potential.
In summary, marketing involves any and all activities which involve research, products and customers – sales is specifically one of these activities which focuses solely on the actual transaction between a business and its customers.