50 points to teach you the difference between marketing and sales work in hotel operations!

I often encounter some friends asking: Are you in "marketing" or "sales"? I am often asked by friends who work in hotels, what is the difference between hotel "sales" and "marketing"? Another common complaint is: Our hotel’s sales department and marketing department are always in conflict with each other. What should we do?

I have been engaged in marketing practice research for many years. I have worked in sales and marketing, and have also done some theoretical thinking and research. I have also been a front-line marketing practitioner for many years. I have been thinking about these issues for many years and feel that the overall difference between the two is the difference between short-term and long-term, point and surface, local and overall, tactics and strategy, execution and strategy, hands and feet and brain. But these are still difficult to explain to people.

Below are some of my personal insights and thoughts on the difference between sales and market over the years. The market mentioned in the article can be regarded as "marketing" in some insights and perspectives.

1. The market is used to solve competition and future problems; sales is used to solve current and practical problems. When a hotel relies more and more on sales, it means that its sales and sales management capabilities are becoming increasingly weak. If salespeople feel like they are working alone, it means the marketing function is missing.

2. The market is about discovering and creating demand; sales is merely about meeting demand.

3. Marketing is about maximizing your own resource combination and strengths; sales is about maximizing your ability to gain customers’ potential and funds.

4. The market is about changing consumers’ psychological cognition and mental models and manipulating their subconscious minds. Sales is to guide and change consumers' purchasing habits and to make consumers buy immediately.

5. The market helps consumers make choices; sales implies or forces consumers to make choices.

6. The target of the market is consumers; the target of sales is customers (channels and terminals).

7. Marketing is about selling concepts that are consistent with prices; sales is about selling products that are consistent with values.

8. Marketing is about creating categories and selling brands; sales is about creating products and selling their use value.

9. The function of the market is to change consumers' price references; the function of sales is to change consumers' behavior patterns.

10. The market is about building consumers' sense of value; sales is about providing consumers with a sense of bargain.

11. Marketing is about persuading consumers; sales is about providing convenience to consumers.

12. The marketing department is responsible for market expansion, and the sales department is responsible for collecting payments immediately. If you fail in marketing, your death is inevitable sooner or later; if you fail in sales, your death is inevitable right now. Market expansion is the core work of marketing personnel; sales collection and market share expansion are the responsibilities of sales personnel.

13. The focus of marketing work is to cultivate the market; what sales does is to seize the market.

14. Market research and planning take the lead; sales execution and incentives are king.

15. The market focuses on rationality and research; sales focuses on sensibility and wolfishness.

16. The focus of marketing is on communication and brand building; the focus of sales is on promotion and volume increase to combat competing products.

17. Marketing is the art of spending money; sales is the skill of making money.

18. In the market, you must plan and win the battle from afar; in sales, you must fight hand-to-hand and it’s a life-and-death battle.

19. Marketing is about making what consumers want; sales is about selling what you have.

20. The market is about making consumers pay money willingly; sales is about using means to "rob" consumers' money.

21. Marketing focuses on system work; sales focuses on individual operations.

22. Marketing is the organization and coordination of resources; sales is the effective use of resources.

23. A marketing expert must be a sales expert; but a sales and business expert is not necessarily a marketing expert.

24. What sales staff often say is that your marketing plan or POA (quarterly marketing action plan) is developed behind closed doors and is not feasible; what marketing staff often say is that your employees have no execution ability and are only using crooked methods.

25. The goal of the marketing department is to establish a brand, expand brand awareness, enhance reputation, and provide consumers with reasons to purchase products; while the goal of the sales department is to deliver products to consumers and successfully collect payment.

26. Marketing is responsible for strategic planning; sales is responsible for tactical implementation. To put it simply, marketing is the brain; sales are the hands and feet. Or in other words, "market is the way" and "sales is the technique".

27. The market considers the overall situation and is the executor of strategy; sales considers local issues, mainly to achieve immediate purchase repayment from consumers, which is only one aspect of marketing.

28. The market considers the long-term interests and development of the hotel, which is based on a period of three to five years; the company's short-term immediate profit realization achieved by sales, and the sales targets are based on years, quarters, and months.

30. The marketing department provides combat plans and guns and ammunition; the sales department implements ground combat.

31. Marketing is a career; sales is a business.

32. The market is from the outside to the inside, focusing on consumers; sales are from the inside to the outside, focusing on the internal affairs of the company.

33. The sales team is the ground force; the marketing team is the air artillery support.

34. If you want to be good at marketing, it is best for you to have front-line sales experience first; if you want to be good at sales, you must also have a market concept to be invincible.

35. Market performance is measured by market share and brand awareness and reputation; while sales are measured by sales volume, that is, the amount of collection.

36. Sales is more about reflecting personal charm; marketing is the overall comprehensive quality of the hotel. Sales is beneficial to personal capacity building and more opportunities in close combat; while marketing requires industry background, professional skills, insight analysis, and planning thinking ability.

37. Small hotels and many domestic hotels are sales-oriented; large hotels and international brand hotels are market-oriented.

38. Marketing requires standardization and rationality; sales require flexibility and innovation.

39. Marketing is about building brands; sales is about building scale.

40. The market calls consumers potential customers; sales calls consumers real customers.

41. The market is the overall layout and offensive tactics of a football game; and sales is the finishing kick of the striker.

42. To do marketing is to love someone for a long time with your heart, emotion and time; to do sales is to win your heart with flowers and courtesy immediately.

43. The purpose of marketing is to make products “easy to sell”; the purpose of sales is to make products “sell well”.

44. The market is about competing for consumers’ minds; sales are about competing for competitors’ market share.

45. Marketing is about putting goods into the hearts of consumers; sales is about putting goods on the shelves.

46. ​​The market is the pull; sales are the push.

47. The market is the surface; sales is the point. The market involves research, positioning, product development, concept planning, and formulation of marketing plans; sales involves delivery and payment collection.

48. Market is love and romance; sales are etiquette and satisfaction^-^.

49. Doing marketing is like making chips; doing sales is like making displays.

50. The market is a clairvoyant; sales are a matter of footsteps.

Author: Li Congxuan

Source: Hotel Consultant