Is Sales Marketing a real thing?

For as long as there has been sales and marketing professions they have been separated. The sales team typically has its own department within a company, and likewise with the marketing team. These two departments, although they are separate, are in close communication with each others daily operations, and work with one another for many different projects they could be working on. Given this connection between sales and marketing, one would think that a company would see these similarities and try to integrate the two positions together to not only save money with payroll, but to streamline the overall processes that these two portions of the company focus on. This is not the case however, because most companies tend to stick with the classic split between the two.

In my life, my main focus with my marketing degree has been sales, which was brought to my attention by a professor in college that was asking me what I truly valued, and what I saw myself doing later in life as a profession. My answer was somewhat simple, I said that I valued positive human connection, thrived off of social interaction, and enjoyed learning what the driving force behind consumers behavior was. She replied and said to me that she could very well see me being a sales focused marketer with a minor in communication, and after a little explanation thats exactly what I did. I have been focusing on all of those interests for the past couple of years, and have found that with my skill set and interests, the position of sales marketer is not only possible, but exactly what I was looking for.

I am currently an intern at Discovery Map International, and I have been able to set myself up with work that would make me a "sales marketer", even though this company does not have a specific role with that title. This company focuses on selling franchises, with an alternate revenue source in the form of an app that they are developing. This app is designed to allow local businesses the opportunity to gain new customers through discounts and coupons, and allow consumers to find local businesses through the same coupon process, a win-win. I have been tasked with the job of canvasing new businesses to set them up with joining the app, which is extremely important in order to get it up and running. With my background in marketing and interest in sales this was the perfect opportunity for me to make use of both of those together. Not only would I be running marketing campaigns for growing the consumer awareness of the app, but also using that same knowledge to get new businesses to join, working both sides of the market. Back in the day, this business acquisition would have been solely up to the sales team, and the marketing campaigns would solely be the marketing team. Through a bit of integration however one team was formed to complete all of these tasks. As anyone who has ever dabbled in copy writing knows, consistency on all fronts is key, and with one team running it all there is only one front so it is always consistent. This is how a sales marketing position was born, and how you can take any situation you find yourself in with your company and make it work for you.