It’s Smart Marketers Who Make Business Happen

It’s perhaps the most undisputed truth of the business world: “Nothing happens ’til somebody sells something.” And it doesn’t make a bit of difference what kind of business you’re in – business-to-business, business-to-consumer, or some of each – it’s a truth no business should ignore. But generating sales – selling – doesn’t happen by itself. Marketing drives sales.

Those three words – “Marketing drives sales” – are always good for an heated discussion. It’s been that way since the start of the industrial revolution.

Those who sell for a living will tell you, “Good salesmen aren’t made, they’re born.” And, yes, that includes saleswomen, too. But consider this: Unless there’s an audience for the pitchman to pitch, there won’t be much selling going on.

Marketing pulls together a multitude of varied audiences to whom those who can sell will sell. Example: How much more difficult would it be for real estate agents to sell homes if not for marketing’s ability to cull from the general population those people who are interested in buying a home.

Or insurance sales people. How much of their often confusing and dreaded products would be sold did not marketers pave the way by preparing receptive minds among potential buyers.

And what about the people who sell high-priced automobiles? When you get down to it, they’re selling transportation. Plush transportation, true, but basically what they offer is a vehicle that takes people from place to place. A Chevy or a Toyota will do the same as a 7-series BMW. But marketing creates the initial interest in – and drives the demand for – “The Ultimate Driving Machine.”

“Nothing happens ’til somebody sells something” remains as true today as it was the day that concept was first put into words. But unless and until the appetites of large numbers of people are tempted by the information marketing provides, far fewer products or services would be sold, and far fewer businesses would prosper.

It might be more accurate to say: Little happens ’til smart marketers pave the way.