Jobs im Bereich Marketing und Vertrieb

In marketing, you will work on the targeted management of the external presentation of your company and its products and services in order to achieve the most profitable positioning possible on the market, increase awareness and thus build up buying interest. Here you will have the opportunity to use your strategic talents to develop a long-term vision and marketing strategy. The next step calls for your creativity. Appropriate measures and campaigns are developed that help to communicate the desired image to your target group.

How marketing campaigns are designed is very industry- and product-specific. The main focus is on identifying the channels that are relevant for your target group. Relevant channels range from online marketing, print media or a personal presence with your own stand at specialist congresses or trade fairs to TV, radio or podcast advertising, sponsorship of sports teams or other events. In most cases, marketing does not just use one channel, but several. When a content campaign is played out on different channels, it is referred to as multi-channel marketing. Due to the large number of channels, there are often specialists in marketing for certain areas.

Example: Online marketing has become of fundamental importance nowadays. The aim of online marketing is to be optimally findable for the target group on the Internet. This includes optimizing your own website or webshop presence with texts that enable a better result in search engine queries (SEO - Search Engine Optimization), link strategies by publishing blog posts and articles that refer to the company's topics or classic online advertising banners that are displayed as sponsored posts on search engines (SEA - Search Engine Advertising), for example, in order to direct potential customers to your own website.  

In some sectors, customers are less easy to reach via digital channels. Here, marketing focuses on the design of print advertisements in newspapers or trade magazines. The visual design of trade fair stands or advertising flyers also often falls within the remit of the marketing manager. Regardless of the sector in which the company operates, it often depends on the right marketing mix, which forms the foundation of a successful target group approach as part of the marketing strategy.

The Marketing department is therefore very broadly based and always geared towards the individual requirements of the industry. The focus of all marketing managers is ultimately on identifying the right channel and the right campaign for your target group in order to address as many leads (prospective buyers) as possible.

Once the lead has been generated, the marketing staff's area of responsibility often ends and the sales department takes over. This is where prospective buyers are turned into actual buyers. The sales department deals with the acceptance and evaluation of inquiries and orders. It prepares suitable offers and conducts the associated negotiations with prospective buyers. The activities of the sales department include both new inquiries and the ongoing support of existing customers to maintain the business relationship.

The specific way in which the sales process is supported also depends on the industry and product. There are products that require a great deal of consultation due to their complexity, individuality or configurability. In these cases, the salesperson often needs a technical background in order to be able to sell the product in question. This is the only way to ensure that the product can be tailored precisely to the needs of the prospective customer. Other products are less technically complex, but present different challenges. There are products that are in strong competition with each other. Sales in such a market require a particularly strong sales talent on the part of the salesperson. Persuasiveness, knowledge of human nature and negotiating skills are particularly important here in order to negotiate suitable prices and sales figures.

Depending on the product and industry, jobs in sales often involve a high willingness to travel. A personal level is often essential for a good customer relationship. This is best achieved through personal interaction. Good salespeople are usually also good communicators and networkers. They manage to build long-term customer relationships that lead to regular purchases and long-term sales growth.

Sales employees are responsible for identifying, developing and exploiting customer potential. The focus here is not only on the company's own customers and products, but also on observing the market situation, competitors' activities, customer needs and trends. The task of sales is to maintain and expand market share in the best possible way in the long term and to achieve internal targets. This includes meeting specified KPIs, such as turnover and sales targets, or generating certain new customer quotas.

A job in sales therefore requires a combination of sales skills, knowledge of human nature, but also business know-how in order to always run the business for the benefit of the company's profitability.