Within the context of customer engagements and marketing, the marketing process and selling process are entirely separate from one another. Both of these processes are meant to inherently influence the customer but the end goal between the marketing process and the selling process are different: in marketing, the process focuses on ensuring that the product continues to provide the customer with the needs that they requested throughout the cycle of the product’s life. The first principle element in this process is attracting individuals to the product. This can be accomplished by exposition to the product through advertising or coverage from entities such as blogs. (Fillis, 2006) This is followed by converting them to them to wanting or following the product exclusively using calls to action. From there, the emphasis is on closing the deal and providing a sense of delight to the customer’s experience. (McNamara, 1999) At the core of this experience is the intention to provide a different perspective regarding the product and to instill a sense of involvement with the company presenting it.
The selling process is slightly different, in the sense that it is focused on the selling of a product as opposed to more so the establishment of trust and reliance in the product and company. The selling process starts with prospecting and analysis, where potential customers are identified. From there, there is the pre-approach, which is the stage in which the salesperson proceeds to collect information and relevant data regarding the potential customers. (Kohli, Jaworski, 1990) The approach is used to actually engage the customer, quickly followed the presentation of the product. One crucial element of this process is the handling of objections and negotiations by the seller, in which they attempt to ensure the customer is sold on the product being presented. (Ernst, 2010) From there is the closing process, followed by the last and final follow-up to ensure that there is a level of satisfaction. This process is meant to engineer a willingness to simply buy the product further, as opposed to the marketing process’ goal of establishing reliance upon and trust in a brand as a result of the actions of the seller.
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- Fillis, Ian. “Art for Art’s Sake or Art for Business Sake: An exploration of artistic product orientation”. The Marketing Review. 2006. pp. 29–40
- Kohli, A.K. and Jaworski, B.J., “Market Orientation: The Construct, Research Propositions, and Managerial Implications,” Journal of Marketing, Vol. 54. 1990. pp 1-18.
- McNamara. Developing a Market Orientation. Thousand Oaks, CA. Sage. 1999. p. 11
- Ernst, Bart. “Drivers of sales performance: A contemporary meta-analysis. Have salespeople become knowledge brokers?”. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. 2010. 407–428.
