"Sales & Marketing Are Like Salt & Pepper"

Sales and marketing - or marketing and sales if you prefer to mention them in that order - are a lot like salt and pepper. Really?

Let me explain. Salt and pepper are generally mentioned as a single item even though they are two distinct items. No one would think that a recipe needed more salt and then just add pepper because the two spices are interchangeable. Of course, they are not. Nevertheless, they so often are used or referenced together that they often function as a single entity.

What table setting has only salt or pepper and not the other? Some recipes ask you to salt to taste, but many more ask you to add both salt and pepper. Of course, salt and pepper are two distinct spices. Everyone knows that. The point is that they are so often used together, appear together, and are mentioned together, that they have become as one item.

Now, take sales and marketing (marketing and sales). Pretty much the same as salt and pepper. They have very distinct functions but so often are referenced together that many people don't fully appreciate or understand the subtle differences.

You would never use marketing when you want sales, and you should never use sales when you are marketing - although many people try to do this.

Marketing precedes and leads to sales. Sales takes over after the lead has been generated through marketing. Marketing makes the phone ring, the email appear, or the front door open. Then sales begins.

Sales and marketing - like salt and pepper - are often mentioned as a single item or as a pair. Again, they are separate and distinct but complement each other the same way salt and pepper do with food and recipes. You can have marketing without sales, but what's the point in just generating interest if there is no action to follow-on with it? Sales generally don't just happen without a lead being produced through some marketing effort - intentional, passive, or incidental.

Just be careful not to reach for the salt (marketing) when it's really the pepper (sales) that you want - other the other way around.

Steve Hoffacker, CAPS, CEAC, SHSS, is a licensed Certified Aging In Place Specialist - Master Instructor and best-selling author of aging in place books. To learn about this and other programs for aging in place or universal design, visit stevehoffacker.com or call 561-685-5555. Also, check out the "Aging & Accessibility" groups on Facebook and LinkedIn.