Sales and marketing: what is the difference?
11 April 2025What is meant by sales and marketing?
The terms sales and marketing are often used together, but they refer to two distinct business functions.
- Sales focuses on closing transactions and generating revenue.
- Marketing: deals with brand promotion, market analysis, and creating strategies to attract potential customers.
Both are essential for a company’s success, but they operate with different approaches and specific goals.
What is the relationship between marketing and sales?
The relationship between marketing and sales is closely interconnected: marketing creates opportunities, while sales materializes them.
An effective marketing team generates qualified leads, which the sales team then converts into customers.
Working in synergy allows companies to increase brand awareness and demand for products or services, create targeted strategies for specific market segments, and optimize the sales process, reducing the time it takes to close a deal.
What do sales and marketing teams do?
The main activities of a sales team include:
- Contacting potential clients and managing negotiations.
- Personalizing offers based on customer needs.
- Closing contracts and overseeing post-sales activities.
Meanwhile, the marketing team is responsible for:
- Analyzing the market and identifying the target audience.
- Creating advertising campaigns and sales marketing
- Developing content to increase interest in the brand.
What are the differences between Sales and Marketing?
The differences lie in objectives, methodologies, and timelines.
Marketing aims to increase product awareness and generate interest among potential customers.
The sales team focuses on converting leads into buyers, executing sales actions, and building customer relationships.
Marketing operates with a medium-to-long-term strategy, while sales has a more immediate approach, spanning from the first contact to closing the deal.
However, a skilled sales team can build long-term relationships that are reinforced over time.
In terms of working method, the marketing team uses tools such as advertising, SEO and social media, while sales relies on direct reports and negotiations.
Although sales and marketing have distinct roles, their success depends on mutual collaboration: an effective advertising campaign enables sales representatives to achieve results quickly, adding value to the company. Efficient integration of these two departments ensures a competitive advantage, increased revenue, and customer loyalty.
What studies to enter the marketing or sales department of a company?
To enter the world of sales and marketing, after an academic path that can include scientific as well as humanistic subjects, it is essential to specialize by taking higher education courses.
Bologna Business School, located in the heart of Emilia-Romagna – one of Italy’s most productive regions known for companies that sell and export worldwide – offers a range of programs dedicated to marketing and sales. These include Professional Executive Master programs, ranging from 12-month full-time programs to short, specialized courses (Open Program) lasting only a few days.
Master Programs at Bologna Business School
- Master in Analytics and AI for Marketing (Full-time, English, 12 months) This program is designed to train professionals who can use data and advanced technologies to develop innovative marketing and sales strategies. It combines digital expertise with the ability to transform complex analyses into efficient solutions, preparing graduates to enter the workforce as key players.
- Master in Applied Marketing and Sales (Full-time, English, 12 months) Focused on placing the customer at the center of business, this program equips young graduates with the essential tools to understand and manage key aspects of a company’s sales area: product and customer. With a systemic approach, the program aims to develop global vision, strategic thinking, flexibility, and strong communication skills, training professionals such as Brand and Product Managers, Marketing Managers, and Sales Managers.
- Master in Digital Marketing and Communication (Full-time, English, 12 months)
Designed for young graduates looking to acquire cutting-edge skills and tools in a rapidly evolving business sector. A true incubatole of immediately expendable ideas and techniques, this curriculum combines specific knowledge with personal development on communication and leadership issues. - Master in Business Administration – Retail Management and E-Commerce (Full-time, Italian, 12 months)
Aimed at young graduates seeking to develop strategic and operational skills in both physical and digital retail. New models of sales and distribution, strategies and technologies related to the digital world combine with negotiation and logistics skills to train sales managers, buyers, trade marketing managers, highly trained and with a base of skills acquired also through the practical work carried out during the months of internship provided by the Master. - Executive Master in Sales and Marketing (Part-time, Hybrid, Italian, 12 months)
Designed for professionals aiming to enhance their strategic management skills in sales and marketing. It is designed for those professionals who want to enhance strategic skills in the operational management of processes, from planning to evaluation of sales performance. Covering marketing management, sales networks, promotional campaigns, and performance evaluation, this program is ideal for future industry leaders.
Open Programs at Bologna Business School
- Trade Marketing & Sales Management (Part-time, Italian, 10 days, in-person)
Designed for sales, trade marketing, and marketing managers seeking to improve their effectiveness in managing distribution channels. The course enhances commercial policies, sustainability strategies, and market competitiveness with a strong focus on economic sustainability; and to improve competitiveness in the middle market. - Shopper Marketing (Part-time, Italian, 5 days, in-person)
Addresses managers looking to deepen their understanding of shopper marketing, an emerging discipline complementing traditional consumer marketing. Thanks to an interdisciplinary approach, this course allows to acquire methodologies, tools and expertise to start or consolidate shopper marketing activities in the company. - Digital Marketing & Communication (Part-time, Italian, 7 days, in-person) Provides an integrated approach to digital marketing and communication, helping professionals develop effective web and social media strategies. With a broad overview of the digital world, this course makes it possible to imagine every online and offline activity as a moment of a unique and complex system: in this panorama, one can identify objectives and develop effective web marketing strategies to operate on networked sites or social media.
- Sales Management (Part-time, Italian, in-person)
Inspired by Anglo-Saxon business practices, this course helps middle managers and sales professionals refine their negotiation and customer relationship management skills. Understanding the dynamics of sales, the importance of customer service, from B2B negotiation to customer relationship management, is the key to this course dedicated to middle managers who want to expand their skills in the sales management area and to sales accounts eager to rise to apical roles in their function. Sales and Marketing: The Core of Every Business
Sales and marketing are at the heart of every business. BBS courses are the best gateway to the career you are looking for, both in the Italian and global markets, thanks to a hands-on approach run by a faculty of excellence and an international network of the highest quality.
