Sales: The difference between selling and marketing Do we really know what sales people are supposed to do? It seems that if some hospitality employees have the word “sales” in their title, then they should be selling. If not selling, then what else is it they should be doing? Well, we all know pretty well what else they are doing. It would be no surprise to find out that in all probability some employees in sales may very well be spending only 50 percent of their time actually selling. It seems that to some extent sales people do get involved in a variety of activities, which come under a marketing effort. They will be doing public-relations work, writing news releases or newsletters, working some events or arranging open-house programs. Then, they could be handling the advertising for the property, or arranging to do direct mail and taking care of any property promotions that need to be done. And, of course, the new thing on the block is social networking—and don’t forget some will be taking care of the website. The list goes on and on; all activities really have to do with marketing. Now, we have to think about how much education, training or experience most sales people have had in marketing? Some GMs or owners of properties really think that their sales person should be and could be doing the marketing stuff. Big mistake! Certainly we do need to exclude the larger hotels, conference centers and resorts from these comments, since, for the most part, all those types of properties would have a marketing person on board to make sure those other facets of marketing are being handled properly. Yet, sales are a function of the marketing process. There is a big difference between sales and the other parts of a marketing effort. We can take a look at a very simple definition: Marketing encompasses all the things we do to bring a product to the attention of the public (or market). Selling is the delivery of the product for a price. Simple enough? Sales people get paid to bring business to a property; their efforts are measured by production. So, it stands to reason that sales people need to spend their time selling— and actually make the sale. It is a whole different process and effort than what is involved in marketing, despite what some may think. Yes, it is important to carry on a marketing effort to let the public, and more importantly the prospective buyers, know about what the property has to offer. But someone has to get them to buy, and that is the sales person. More and more companies are offering incentives to sales people based on their productivity. More sales equals more business for a property, which equals more income for a sales person. It seems that we would want sales people to busy themselves only with doing things that benefit the direct sales process and generate revenue for the property.