Marketing or Selling? Do You Know the Difference?

I don’t care how many degrees you have on the wall, if you don’t know how to sell, you’re probably going to starve.”—George Forman

A lot of business owners think they are selling, when really all they are doing is marketing. Do you know the difference between the two?

It will cost you a lot of time, energy, and money if you don’t.

I learned this lesson the hard way when I hired a woman to help me make sales in my workshop business. Madeleine was bright, fun, and energetic and I was very optimistic about her being able to enroll additional people for my Financial Stress Reduction® Workshops.  But I soon found out that although she was happily marketing me wherever she went, she wasn’t making any sales. She attended lots of networking meetings and told everyone she met what a great workshop I had. She passed out my business cards and told them to call me. She had many great ideas for promotional giveaways, advertising displays, attending conventions, placing media ads, designing brochures, etc.

But every idea she had cost me money. What happened to the additional money she was supposed to be bringing in, I wondered. Where was that? After a couple of months, when I saw that my expenses had risen and my profits had decreased, I knew we had to have a talk. This is how it went:

“Madeleine, darling, I really appreciate all your time and effort marketing my workshops,” I began. She preened happily. “Now I need to know how many prospects you have met that you think will pay to enroll in my workshop?”

She looked at me and nodded enthusiastically. “I’ve talked with lots of people!” she exclaimed.

“Well, that’s not exactly what I’m asking,” I replied. “How many people have said ‘Yes, I’m coming to the class on this date’ and paid the money?”

“Well, no one has done that,” she replied.

“Then this is what I want you to do: Please make out a list of how many follow-up calls you can make to all those prospects you’ve talked to. Find out what they need, share what we have to offer, and ask them to enroll. How many people do you expect will say yes?”

Madeleine frowned and dug her heels. “Wait a minute,” she said. “That’s not what I want to do. I don’t want to have a quota!”

“I understand,” I said, “But in order for me to be able to continue to pay you, you have to make the company some money by actually closing some sales!”

After some discussion, we agreed that we saw the nature of the job differently. She wanted to market my services. I wanted her to sell workshops. We agreed to part ways.

After that experience, I made a checklist so that I would always be conscious of what was “Marketing” and what was “Selling”.  Whether you are doing the sales yourself, or have someone assisting you to do it, you need to make sales that generate income. Or you will soon be out of money and out of business.

Here is my checklist:

MARKETING: SELLING:

Costs money = expense                                   Makes money = Income

General description of product                    Specific benefits to a client

Talking to groups                                                Talking to individuals

No close, no money paid                                 Deal closed, money paid

Administrivia: paperwork                               Cash, check, credit card

Emails and thank you notes                            Telephone calls-ask for referrals

Networking meetings                                         Individual meetings/phone calls

Talking                                                                      Listening

Leaving messages                                                Having conversations

Undefined goals/unmeasurable results     Specific goals/measurable results

Long-term payoff                                                Short-term payoff

“Whenever you’re ready” statement          “When will you be ready?” question

Information given: presentations                Information gotten: interview prospect

Answers                                                                   Questions

“Who can I talk to today?”                               “Who wants to buy today?”

Lists of features: when, what, where           Specific benefits  for this buyer

Someday                                                                 Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc.

It’s a pity that so many new entrepreneurs think that all they have to do is attend networking meetings, put an ad in a newspaper or directory, send out an email blast, or hang out a business sign, and the world will beat a path to your door, and you can then just sit back and wait for people to call you.  Turst me, if it was that easy, everybody would be doing it.

Even interested parties need to be motivated to take action. It takes about twelve “touches” to close a sale. They have to meet you, get an email from you, see your ad, talk with someone else about you, talk with you on the phone, get your brochure, get another email, and on and on. All of these “touches” add up and then one day they are interested in buying your product or service. Call them and ask a lot questions–find out what they need and see if you can help them handle their problem or help them achieve their goal. When you can show them that your product or service can help them alleviate their pain or give them the pleasure they’re looking for, they will be happy to hire you, and all your clients will praise you and pay you.

As Abraham Lincoln said, “Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.” Let’s all “Do the Hustle” and meet a lot of people, have a lot of fun, and make a lot of money!

Prosperity is a habit. You have to practice it every day.

10 Minutes a Day to a Wealthy Spirit – Daily Facebook Live videos

Learn more about the new Facebook private group “The Wealthy Spirit Group” today!

Join Today
Picture of Chellie

Chellie

Chellie Campbell is a Financial Stress Reduction® Coach and the author of The Wealthy Spirit, Zero to Zillionaire, and From Worry to Wealthy. She is one of Marci Shimoff's “Happy 100” in her NYT bestseller Happy for No Reason and contributed stories to Jack Canfield’s books You’ve Got to Read This Book! and Life Lessons from Chicken Soup for the Soul. Past president of the LA Chapter NAWBO, she was "Most Inspirational Speaker" by Women in Management and "Speaker of the Year" by the Association of Women Entrepreneurs. She does daily inspirational videos in The Wealthy Spirit Group on Facebook.

Share this post

Send me affirmations, insider tips,
exclusive event notification & deals
Name
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Would you like to flip through the pages in your own book?
Front-Back The Wealthy Spirit Book

Join Us for

Cheese & Crackers & Cash

Tuesdays @
2 p.m. PST

chellie campbell's cheese and crackers event on facebook