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The Difference between Selling and Marketing

When I left my previous gig, which was focused on the PR and marketing industry, one of my concerns was losing a step. That’s partly proven true, since my day-to-day now, while still marketing, is focused on an entirely different industry.

However, it’s only partially true because moving onto a different vertical market has also helped me look at marketing problems — like law firm marketing — in new ways.  Last week, I found myself at an IT conference for the legal industry and one of the sessions focused on how to sell, or rather “market” IT project internally began with a quote I had never heard before and found it quite compelling.

“There  is a profound difference between selling and marketing. Selling is trying to get people to want what you have.  Marketing is trying to have what people want.  When you have what people want, it makes selling unnecessary.”

difference selling marketing

click here or image to enlarge

The presenter attributed the quote to a gentleman named Terrance Rynn, but web research seems to indicate the author’s name could possibly be Terrance Ryan.  I am uncertain, and absent a credible link, I’ll leave it at that for now.  However if any reader can pinpoint the original source, I’d gladly update this post.

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3 Very Different Ideas for Aligning Sales and Marketing [UML]

Photo credit: Flickr, U.S. Army, Army Photography Contestt… (CC BY 2.0)

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