Sales vs. Marketing: Which Should You Prioritize and Why?


If you had to choose between Sales and Marketing, which would you pick? We asked seasoned operators in a variety of industries to share when to bet on sales, when to double down on marketing, and the metrics that should drive the call so you can build a plan that fits your stage, your margins, and your goals. Let's explore what others have to say about this age-old question.
- Marketing Builds Long-Term Growth Engine
- Content Marketing Drives Inbound Interest
- Face-to-Face Sales Build Trust Quickly
- Direct Sales Provide Valuable Market Intelligence
- Sales Create Clients Who Become Marketers
- Effective Marketing Establishes Expertise and Trust
- Sales Clarify Offerings Through Direct Dialogue
- Sales Teams Generate Revenue and Awareness
- Personal Connection Closes Real Estate Deals
- Cold Calling Launches Business Without Budget
- Marketing Automates Lead Generation Process
- Product-Led Growth Thrives on Marketing Alone
- Online Research Makes Marketing More Crucial
- Marketing Establishes Brand Image and Voice
- Strong Marketing Overcomes Weak Sales Skills
Marketing Builds Long-Term Growth Engine
If I had to choose only one, I would choose marketing. While sales drives immediate revenue, marketing builds the long-term engine that attracts, educates, and nurtures prospects—making every future sale easier and more scalable.
A short example from my experience: Early on, I focused almost entirely on content marketing and thought leadership, creating a strong online presence, case studies, and social media engagement. Without a dedicated sales team, inquiries and leads steadily came in, and conversion happened naturally because prospects already trusted the brand and understood its value. This taught me that strong marketing can drive measurable results even without active outbound sales—but the reverse is much harder: cold-selling without a compelling marketing foundation is often an uphill battle.
The takeaway: Marketing creates the ecosystem where sales can thrive, and in some cases, it can even substitute for direct sales if executed thoughtfully.
Manish Gupta, CEO, EDS FZE
Content Marketing Drives Inbound Interest
If I had to pick one, sales or marketing, I'd say marketing. I've experienced firsthand how marketing creates momentum that scales, but sales without marketing can be transactional and resource-intensive to manage.
As an example, when we introduced one of our early products, we did so with no formal sales team, just thoughtful, well-executed marketing. I focused on organic content, partner outreach, and email storytelling, all with a foundation driven by empathy and education. In 3 weeks, we had a 12% email conversion rate and our first production run was sold out! No cold calls. No sales scripts. Just plain, clear messaging that resonated and reached people in the right place to take action.
Why marketing? It generates inbound interest, and customers arrive already half-won. That lessens friction, increases trust, and provides you with leverage to scale without burning out through manual sales.
\MARKETING IS NOT ABOUT BEING LOUD, IT'S ABOUT BEING UNDERSTOOD. If you communicate a clear message, if you outwardly live your brand values, and if you create content that responds to real needs, with no hard sell, just your own approach, you can generate income adjusted to reality. That was the way we gained traction in the early days, and it's one I still rely on a great deal today.
Aleksa Marjanovic, Founder and Marketing Director, Eternal Jewellery
Face-to-Face Sales Build Trust Quickly
I'd choose sales. When I first started Rowland Pest Management, we didn't have much money for marketing. What I did have was time and a truck. I remember knocking on doors in a neighborhood where one customer had just signed up with us. I told their neighbors exactly what I was doing for that house and why it worked. A few signed up on the spot. That one afternoon of talking face-to-face filled my schedule for weeks to come.
That showed me sales build faster than marketing when you're small. People trusted me because I stood there, answered their questions, and gave them a clear solution. No ads or fancy campaigns could have done that in the beginning. Sales kept the lights on, and it remains the reason our company grew as it did.
Chris Rowland, Owner, Rowland Pest Management
Direct Sales Provide Valuable Market Intelligence
I would choose sales every time.
Here's why: While marketing can pique people's interest, sales is where you discover if your offering truly matters to someone.
Early in my business, before we had a marketing budget, I simply cold-called event organizers one by one. I would ask direct questions like, "Do you even book outside speakers, or is this a dead end?" That kind of direct contact not only secured our first clients but also provided me with raw intelligence I never would have obtained from running advertisements.
Sales proved that the demand was real, and only then did marketing become worth investing in.
Austin Benton, Founder & CEO, SpeakerDrive
Sales Create Clients Who Become Marketers
"Without sales, you don't have a business; you have a hobby. True growth begins when sales create clients, and clients become the marketing."
I used to believe marketing was the most important driver of growth, but I was wrong. Sales is the heartbeat of any business. If you can't sell and close, no amount of marketing will save you, especially when you're offering a high-ticket product or service where the value of your brand must be sold, not just shown. Marketing gets people to the door, but sales is what actually brings revenue in. And when you serve clients well, they become your best marketers, spreading the word organically.
Early on, I struggled with closing leads even though I was getting them into the funnel. What I didn't realize is that sales, particularly with women, is an emotional process. Clients need to feel seen, valued, and understood. The logic only comes afterward to justify the purchase.
Shifting my focus to sales changed everything. Happy clients became repeat clients, referrals grew, and my confidence as a business owner skyrocketed. For me, the formula is simple: sales first, marketing second.
Marie Malvoisin, Owner/Founder, Bohemian Visions
Effective Marketing Establishes Expertise and Trust
If I had to choose between sales and marketing, I'd choose marketing. There was a time when we distributed a simple neighborhood mailer in Grand Rapids, explaining why ants appear in kitchens every spring and what homeowners could do to slow them down. I wasn't trying to pitch hard; I just wanted people to see we knew what we were talking about. Within a couple of weeks, the phone started ringing from folks who had kept that flyer until they needed help.
One call I remember came from a homeowner who said, "I've had this on my fridge for a month, and now the ants are everywhere—can you come out?" She told me the reason she called us instead of someone else was that the flyer explained the issue in plain English, rather than just yelling "call now." That stuck with me. Good marketing does the selling for you—it builds trust before you ever set foot in the door.
Anthony Sorrentino, Owner, Pest Pros of Michigan
Sales Clarify Offerings Through Direct Dialogue
I'd pick Sales. The absence of sales means you can have the most excellent product combined with the most attractive branding, yet generate no revenue. During the initial phase of PurpleMedia, I relied on cold emails to founders and Zoom calls from cafes with reliable Wi-Fi connections because we lacked a marketing engine. I generated $16K in retainers during one month through direct outreach and product demonstrations without spending any money on advertising or building a sales funnel.
Sales enables businesses to launch their operations, while marketing helps organizations expand their reach. The combination of time and hunger drives you to clarify your offerings while creating authentic dialogues.
Vincent Carrié, CEO, Purple Media
Sales Teams Generate Revenue and Awareness
Strangely enough, as a business owner and a marketing expert, I would probably choose sales first if I were forced to pick one or the other because the function can act twofold. Many sales activities, when it comes to outreach and generating business, are in fact marketing activities. Having a sales team that is reaching out to your ICP does many things that marketing can do when it comes to brand awareness and demand generation.
Marketing without a sales function is actually a waste. It doesn't matter how well you market if you don't have a sales team that is out front presenting your product or solutions and asking people to buy it. There is no way for marketing to generate revenue, unless you are an e-commerce site or a widget-type product that sells itself. If you are selling a service or a product that requires a sales interaction, just doing marketing is not enough to succeed.
We started as an agency with strong knowledge in sales, and that was our focus as a startup: to sell. With sales, we were able to work through the fulfillment and ultimately marketing, which has started to really gain traction. But our approach out of the gate was to focus on driving sales, not just simply marketing. One thing that drives me crazy is how siloed marketing and sales typically are in a company. They are on the same team and have the same goal; why they don't communicate more is beyond me.
Kevin McLauchlin, Co-Founder, CadenceSEO
Personal Connection Closes Real Estate Deals
That's a tough choice because both sales and marketing are essential — but if I had to choose only one, I'd go with sales every time. As a real estate investor and cash home buyer, I've seen firsthand how deals get done with personal connection, trust, and the ability to close — all of which come from strong sales skills.
Marketing can get your phone to ring, but sales is what turns that call into a signed agreement. When I first launched Click Cash Home Buyers, our marketing budget was close to zero. I wasn't running ads or campaigns — just pounding the pavement. I cold-called distressed property owners directly from public records and drove for dollars in nearby neighborhoods. No fancy branding, no website traffic — just straight-up conversation. I'd listen, ask the right questions, and more importantly, offer simple, honest solutions. That's what closed our very first deal, which turned into a quick wholesale assignment and our first five-figure check — purely through sales effort.
That early experience taught me something I still practice today: good marketing brings awareness, but sales pays the bills. Especially in industries like real estate, where buying houses for cash means talking to folks during stressful life changes (like foreclosure, divorce, or inherited homes), it's that one-on-one connection and ability to offer clear options that seals the deal. So if you're just starting out? Hone your sales skills first — the marketing can catch up later.
Cesar Villaseñor, Real Estate Investor / Landlord, Click Cash Home Buyers
Cold Calling Launches Business Without Budget
As the owner of a marketing agency, I'm going to make a case for using sales as your only strategy. In a scaling company, you're really going to need both marketing and sales, but let's assume we're not talking about a scaling company.
Just about any type of marketing is going to cost something, but sales can be very effective at its lowest cost model. There's something to be said in the digital world we live in for just picking up the phone and calling or stopping by and introducing yourself. Even the worst salesperson in the world will close a deal here and there doing this. A lot of marketing really needs some type of financial backing and even then, you still often need salespeople to field the leads and reach out to them.
As the owner of a marketing agency, I'm saying that sales will launch your business from 0 and marketing usually won't. Each has its place in the world of business and there's a reason we don't have to only choose one; the combination of both has proven to be a winning one over and over again.
Dave Perlman, Owner, Horizon Visual Media
Marketing Automates Lead Generation Process
Marketing, easily.
I've grown full products off just newsletter traffic and SEO without doing a single sales call. For example, PRpackages.io gained over 30,000 subscribers and paying customers without me ever "selling" - just through content, rebrands, and backlinks.
Marketing brings the leads in automatically. Sales feels like chasing - inbound leads will always win.
Victor Hsi, Founder & Community Manager, PR Package - PR Gifting & Influencer Seeding Platform
Product-Led Growth Thrives on Marketing Alone
If you are a SaaS product owner, you can lead your PLG (Product-Led Growth) strategy with pure play marketing. However, it comes with a few caveats:
- Simple and clean UX for a self-serve product that works off the shelf
- Strong product documentation
- A support team to retain customers and troubleshoot queries
Choose marketing in the early stages only if your product checks off all of these criteria. Figure out which channels work best in marketing (performance, SEO, etc.) and double down on them. This approach has worked excellently for getting 600+ customers in Equip's 0 -> 1 journey.
When you gradually move towards enterprise sales, you would need sales and marketing to work in tandem.
Aishwarya Lohi, Head of Marketing, Equip
Online Research Makes Marketing More Crucial
In a world dominated by Google, not to mention new tools like LLMs (Large Language Models), direct sales is much less important than it used to be. Customers are doing more and more of their own research before making purchases, and most of that research happens online. Marketing is a much more effective tool for building brand awareness and steering that research in the right direction for your business.
Wynter Johnson, CEO, Caily
Marketing Establishes Brand Image and Voice
I would probably choose marketing, mainly because so many things fall under the general umbrella of 'marketing,' whereas 'sales' is pretty straightforward. Marketing is a primary way for you to establish your brand image and voice. It's how you can connect with your current audience and prospective customers. Social media is a part of it. Marketing has so much to do with who you are as a business and how you connect with people, beyond purely making sales.
Steve Schwab, CEO, Casago
Strong Marketing Overcomes Weak Sales Skills
Easy: marketing.
You won't have anything to sell without it, and with enough marketing, you'll have enough prospects to succeed even if you're terrible at sales.
I'd rather close 1% of 1,000 people than 99% of zero.
Raphael Larouche, Founder & SEO Specialist, Agence SEO
Sales or Marketing? The Real Answer Is “Yes.”
Here’s the upshot: if you’re short on cash and need customers now, lead with sales—calls, DMs, door-knocking, free assessments. It brings in revenue fast and teaches you what buyers actually want. If you’ve got a little runway, or a high-end (long contemplation cycle) service, invest in marketing (content, SEO, email) so trust and leads start arriving on their own. Most small businesses will do a bit of both, but the winning formula is sales + marketing working together: marketing warms up the room, sales closes the deal, and feedback from sales makes the marketing sharper next time. In plain terms: sell to survive, market to scale…and make them shake hands early.
Ready to stop guessing the split?
Sales or marketing first? Let’s map it to your stage, runway, and deal size…then give you a one-page plan you can act on tomorrow.
