Marketing, branding, and sales often get lumped into a single group, but they’re each quite different endeavors. Of the three, though, sales is the one that stands out the most. In many cases, if you have to resort to “sales”, then you may be doing something wrong.
In a recent podcast episode titled “Why LinkedIn is crucial in 2025“, Gary Vaynerchuk laid out some thoughts on why every business should be active on LinkedIn. He also laid out why sales can be problematic, saying:
“I love sales. I’m a salesman. But let me explain to you what sales is. It’s what you do when you don’t know how to market and brand.”
He refined it further by adding:
“Sales, you have to go and ask. Marketing, it comes to you.”
In most cases, sales involving “go and ask” means spam. It’s cold calls, cold emails, and other interruptions that no one is looking for. It reminds me of what Seth Godin shared back in 2022 when he said:
“Marketing is creating the conditions for a story to spread so you can help people get to where they hope to go. Marketing is work that matters for people who care, a chance to create products and services that lead to change. If you have to interrupt, trick or coerce people to get the word out, you might be doing too much promotion and not enough marketing.”
Marketing is essential, and it can’t work without solid branding behind it. Sales, though, most of us can do without.
