What is the main difference between marketing and sales?

Marketing activities include consumer research (to identify the needs of the customers), product development (designing innovative products to meet existing or latent needs), advertising the products to raise awareness and build the brand.
The typical goal of marketing is to generate interest in the product and create leads or prospects.
On the other hand, sales activities are focused on converting prospects to actual paying customers.
Sales involves directly interacting with the prospects to persuade them to purchase the product.
Marketing thus tends to focus on the general population (or, in any case, a large set of people) whereas sales tends to focus on individuals or a small group of prospects.

Dear Ahmed,   Here’s a list of five differences that should give you the gist.
I hope this list helps people looking for positions figure out what they are actually looking for, and small business owners to figure out who they need to hire.
Sales is1:1.
Marketing is1:many.
Even with social media marketing, it is1:1:many.
That means that even though I may be replying to a single person on Facebook, it is a public reply and other people are watching.
What I say will influence that one person, but it will also influence all those silent watchers… who may choose not to be silent and jump in themselves.
Sales is relationship driven.
Marketing is data driven.
Marketers analyze data and do tests, like A/B testing with ads.
We analyze website analytics and public behavior.
Salespeople analyze the behavior of a limited group of people, the sales prospects whom they can deal with on an individual basis.
Sure, Marketers also focus on groups, but our target audiences are way too big to contact individually.
You try contacting all American women between25 and50, who’ve graduated from college, and have two kids.
Yeah, I thought so.
Salespeople don’t develop products.
Marketers do.
Marketing is more than just convincing people to buy.
Marketing is also researching what a target population desires and then turning those desires into a product that can be sold.
Salespeople work with the prospect to figure out which of the available products is best for her, yes, but they don’t develop products from scratch.
Sales is very track-able.
Marketing is not.
If a sales guy makes a sale, he knows.
Marketers don’t get that instant gratification.
If a person comes in because she saw an ad, she might not even know it herself. 
She may think she was just walking down the street and was thirsty.
I’ve heard it said that you have to be in front of a person3 times before she buys.
Does she remember the first time? Did she consciously notice it? Sales is about sales.
Marketing is about more than sales.
Salespeople sell.
That is what they do and part of the reason they make commission.
You want a salesman to focus on selling.
Marketers do more than sell.
We manage reputations.
Coca-Cola’s brand was worth $70 billion in2009.
It’s hard to say how much a single marketing action affects a brand’s image, but you can feel it when the marketing’s not there.
Marketers get paid salary because their value is in more than driving sales, so rewarding them based on just sales doesn’t fit.
  Marketing So here are a few key points about marketing: - - it’s made up of 1:many activities such as mail-shots; advertising; mass events; PR and broadcastingonly practical when what you’re selling doesn’t cost very muchis pointless unless your offering is different enough to pass the “so what” test.“here is what I am offering   - come and get it if you need it” approachtypically you do not know who your actual client is going to becan help to build and sustain a brandis usually expensive and you cannot easily measure a return on your investmentcan be habitual – do the same thing over and over even though you aren’t sure if it works.When challenged a common defence is “we need a presence” – I don’t buy this and neither should you! Sales And the same for sales: - it is a1:1 activity such as taking somebody for lunch; calling them to invite them to an event or asking for the businessmost effective where the average business deal is larger – the bigger the deal the more you should be selling not marketing“let me understand what you need and then propose a way forward” approachyou know the actual name and contact details of your target – or can easily find them outis not about establishing a brand – it’s about individual rapport, trust and understandingIs very cheap (unless you “lunch” at the Ivy) and you can easily measure the return on your investmentshould never be habitual – you should be “going where the money is” right now or is going to be in the near future.In most cases you don’t need a presence or a brand – it’s all about finding a way to get to your target, understand their needs and propose an attractive way forward.
  Here you will find a very helpfull Comparison chart: http://www.diffen.com/difference/Marketing_vs_Sales   So here’s my advice if you want to sell more and market less: - Get a CRM system and add all your clients and prospects to it Learn how to sell Know what your ideal client looks like Go where the money is – put your time and money where you are most likely to make a sale!   Best Regards,   Hany Sewilam AbdelHamid Business Development Manager

Marketing is basically communicating the value of your products and services to customers, while sales is actually just closing a sale..

Marketing Brings in the Sales

If we broke it down to the basics, marketing is everything that you do to reach and persuade prospects and the sales process is everything that you do to close the sale and get a signed agreement or contract.

In simple terms, Marketing is described as the process of stimulating demand for a product or service such as the4 P's of marketing;product,price,place and promotion.
Each of the4 P's of marketing is an activity that must be designed, tested,and launched in order for the sales process to be effective.
Sales on the other hand also is customer oriented but makes customer demands match the products the company currently offers.
It is ususlly a one-on-one process, it generates purchases/orders,it is short term, once the product has been created one persuades the customer to purchase the product to fulfill his/her needs.
Unlike marketing which is a pull strategy, sales is a push strategy.
Sales is a narrower concept, and lastly sales is the ultimate result of marketing.
Marketing and sales are aligned in a way for the purpose of increasing revenues for most organization, but they are2 different functions that uses different skill sets and strategies.

Marketing includes research (identifying needs of the customer), development of products (producing innovative products) and promoting the product (through advertisements) and create awareness about the product among the consumers.
As such marketing means generating leads or prospects.
Once the product is out in the market, it is the task of the sales person to persuade the customer to buy the product.
Well, sales means converting the leads or prospects into purchases and orders.
While marketing is aimed at longer terms, sales pertain to shorter goals.
Marketing involves a longer process of building a name for a brand and pursuing the customer to buy it even if they do not need it.
Where as sales only involve a short term process of finding the target consumer.
  In concept also, sales and marketing have much difference.
Sales only focuses on converting consumer demand match the products.
But marketing targets on meeting the consumer demands.
 

هي مجموعة من التقنيات والخطوات التي تتغير مع طبيعة المنتوج و  قوة تنافسية الشركة المنتجة للمنتج  بحيث يتم تحديداستراتيجية لتسويق لتسويق المنتج  بحيث يتم على اربع عناصر /المنتوج /الثمن/الاشهاراو الترويج/التوزيع/product/price/promotion/place/   هو الهدف الدى يسعى اليه المنتج  ويلجا الى التسويقsale لتحقيق  اقصى الارباح وخلق اسم تجاري والسيطرة على  حصة مهمة من السوق  لتحقيق التنافسية  ادن لتحقيق البيع يجب التسويق للمنتج

I consider sales to be only one of many aspects of marketing.
Marketing can include psychological studies, such as consumer behavior and how this is effected by age and culture.
It may also be an analysis of4 P's (price, product, place, promotion).
Sales, on the other hand, is more a function of how to sell an established product/service in a particular sector or geographical region.
This activity focuses more on establishing both price and cstomer relationships to develop a profitable level of sales. 

The relationship between marketing and sales is the relationship between the gas and the car cassette or registered each complementary to the last one of them can not be separated from each otherSelling is an extension of the tedious process of planning and the proper mindset and marketing calledAnd implementation of marketing plans and downloaded on the ground called the sales can not be dispensed with someone

To cut a long story short- Marketing makes the product sell-able whereas Selling is just a part of marketing where you sell whatever is given to you.
Success in selling will depend on how good a job the Marketing guys have done.