An old
marketing adage says that nothing happens until someone buys something--in
short, sales drive every aspect of business. In every company, the salespeople
are the front-line troops. In the rough-and-tumble of the marketplace, the
slickest manufacturing processes, the shrewdest marketing, the brightest
corporate reputations won't make the sale without the face-to-face (at least
usually) meeting of seller and buyer.

This is
personal selling, and it's the most important and direct aspect of the marketing
process, but it is not the only way you appeal to the public and persuade them
to buy. While marketing in the large sense involves every aspect of your
company, the sales side of marketing is made up primarily of these four aspects:

·         

Personal
selling is face-to-face salesmanship, when you have the prospect in front of
you. It includes retail sales, much professional service selling and a healthy
percentage of business-to-business sales.

·         

Advertising
is paying for media space or time in which to sell your product at a distance.·         

Promotion is
a short-term activity, directed at either the distributor or the purchaser, to
boost sales for a limited time through special pricing or other offers. Of
course, you hope the short-term increase also leads to an incremental gain. It
can include advertising and personal selling.

·         

Public
relations is the unpaid (but, alas, not cost-free) marketing effort you
undertake to expose your product to potential customers and other interested
parties through the press, trade media and special media-related events.

Personal
selling, advertising and most promotion efforts are direct activities: In a
straightforward manner, you're saying "Buy me!" Public relations are the soft
sell, in which you take a visible role in the community and increase the
public's general awareness of you.