There is a clear difference between sales and marketing, even if most people are not aware of it. While they work in tandem towards the same objective of growing your business, the two have different performance goals and thus different strategies to accomplish those goals. Understanding the differences between these efforts and teams will help you set expectations clearly and achieve success in both sales and marketing.

1. Definitions: marketing is lead generation, sales is lead conversion.
2. Timelines: in marketing it’s a marathon, in sales it’s a sprint.
3. Methodology: marketing is about telling, sales is about asking.
4. Personnel: not everyone in your organization is a sales person, but they’re all marketers.

Understanding the unique goals of sales and marketing efforts is key to helping your business grow — don’t run a business until you understand the difference.