Every day I spot a job post that wants to place a sales job beside a marketing job, and pay the same amount of money.

Is it just me, or do these people who post these jobs seem... illiterate or ignorant to the description or quality level of an occupation?

Marketers perform research, and they develop and execute marketing plans to sell a product or service, they aren't the sales representative.

Sales representatives educate themselves on the product or service and they develop sales leads, follow ups and close sales.

Sales and Marketers should not be combined, nor should they ever be paid the same amount. Infact, it's almost unethical to pay a marketer based off of commission.

This is something I had to get off of my mind. :)

That is the case for big companies, but for MOST webhosting companies, they cant afford to pay a marketer the usual rate they would get from somewhere else.

The money could be well-spent somewhere else. But indeed they should phrase it better

The Pioneer, I "mostly" agree with you. Sales people focus on selling the product directly. Marketers focus on product awareness / getting the name out there. That will RESULT in sales, but its not a direct sale.

However lets say all your marketer is doing is listing you in and managing PPC search engines. In my opinion, it's not worth $45k (the average salary in this area for someone with a marketing degree) for the 2 - 5 hours a day this task takes.

Plus with PPC search engines, if the business doesn't increase from the keywords being used, etc. then it's REALLY a waste of money to have the marketer there at all because they're not doing it right.

So I dunno, I can see both sides of the coin. If the marketer isn't managing PPC advertising and they're focusing on other campaigns like Print/Radio/TV/general awareness then they're doing their job and you don't expect to see a "direct return" on their work, that stuff happens over time. But if your marketer is doing nothing but managing PPC content then it kinda puts them closer to the sales person than the marketer.

Am I making any sense?

Originally posted by Indy4
Am I making any sense?
Yes, you do.

I have been enjoying your posts recently, and am glad you're on the forums to share your wisdom. You should like someone who's been around for a while and knows what you're doing.

Cheers!

Makes perfect sense. :)

The bigger a company gets, the more marketing and sales will become separate positions - or even departments.

And hey, once they get big enough, they will probably even hire a PR person like Pioneer to help in the public relations realm. :)

But for most smaller companies, these are often one and same in the beginning. The "jack of many trades" and "wearer of many hats" concept seems to apply a lot.

Originally posted by The Pioneer
Marketers perform research, and they develop and execute marketing plans to sell a product or service, they aren't the sales representative.

Sales representatives educate themselves on the product or service and they develop sales leads, follow ups and close sales.

Sales and Marketers should not be combined...
I don't think your definitions are entirely accurate in all cases. Sales and Marketing are more closely tied than the above.

A marketer markets...

v. mar·ket·ed, mar·ket·ing, mar·kets
v. tr.
1. To offer for sale.
2. To sell.

n. mar·ket·ing
1. The act or process of buying and selling in a market.
2. The commercial functions involved in transferring goods from producer to consumer.

n. marketing
1: the exchange of goods for an agreed sum of money [syn: selling, merchandising]

n. marketing
The commercial processes involved in promoting and selling and distributing a product or service

v. i. Market \Mar"ket\, [imp. & p. p. Marketed; p. pr. & vb. n. Marketing.]
To deal in a market; to buy or sell; to make bargains for provisions or goods.

v. marketing
Engage in the commercial promotion, sale, or distribution of

(taken from various sources)

I know what you mean though, more like you wouldn't hire a marketing firm and expect them to answer sales phone calls, but by definition, the distinction is not as cut and dry as you're thinking it is.

EDIT: Just to be clear, this post is not to show that you are wrong. Instead it is to provide reference and justification for the posts you have seen.