Sales and marketing jobs in Sri Lanka

Here’s a little tip. Sales and marketing jobs in Sri Lanka might be one of the easiest to get, but the most difficult to perform in. Customers’ perceived needs and wants are always changing and sometimes it can be difficult to keep up with the latest trends.

What is Sales and Marketing?

Most sales and marketing jobs are grouped together. Many companies advertise them together and the terms ‘sales’ and ‘marketing’ are used interchangeably. The problem with this is that these terms actually mean different things.

Let’s take an example. Many of us use social media on a daily basis. We constantly see many advertisements and business pages on social media specifically targeted at our likes and dislikes. What these companies do, propping their little box-ads on our Facebook page, is marketing. It is only one kind of marketing, a branch we call inbound marketing. Then there are the traditional outbound marketing methods, such as sending emails, cold calling, sending brochures so on and so forth. These are all tools used in marketing. Thus, as you might have surmised, a marketer’s job is to promote the business or a product so that the prospective buyer is made aware of it.

According to Kotler, marketing is the science and art of exploring, creating, and delivering value to satisfy the needs of a target market at a profit.

Sales on the other hand, actually involves selling a product or service. However, having knowledge in marketing which includes how customers think and behave certainly helps someone become a great salesperson. Something else which comes in handy is knowing sales best practices.

Different types of sales and marketing jobs in Sri Lanka

Every single industry in the country or in the world needs to have great and sales and marketing teams if they want to succeed in their fields. As a result, these teams are made up of different types of jobs.

In a modern company, a typical marketing team might consist of a marketing specialist or manager, a social media manager, an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) specialist, a content writer, a web-producer, a product manager, a marketing analyst, and an advertising manager/specialist among others. These same roles might be given different names and some roles might even be amalgamated depending on the size of the company.

Different companies give different names to their sales teams. Some have Sales Representative. Some other have Business Development Representatives. There are business development managers, account managers, brand managers, and client executives. Some companies also have direct sales staff, out-bound call Centre staff and sales executives. If you have seen an advertisement for a sales person vacancy, it is important to read through the job description before you apply. When it comes to sales personnel, the name of the job might not mean what you think it does.

sales and e-marketing jobs in the modern world

Not all businesses in the modern world have shops or places of business. Transactions worth millions of dollars are conducted online. The sales and marketing spheres have had to adapt to these changing circumstances. It is now more important than ever for any company to have an online-marketing team. Even well-established companies which have been in trade for decades now find themselves in a fix if they have not made their presence known online. As such, there are many online sales and marketing jobs coming up every day. This is a great opportunity for today’s youth who grew up with the newest technology.

Expand your knowledge to get ahead in the sales and marketing field

Regardless of where you are in your sale and marketing career, you can never go wrong by expanding your knowledge. There are several methods of doing this. One is to obtain a local or international marketing certification such as SLIM or CIM. However, it must be noted that this would cost money.

Another method to is read. There are many regular and online books, periodicals and magazines on sales and marketing which can be obtained for free. There are also a large number of blogs dedicated to the field of sales and marketing on the internet. Use these free resources and apply what you learn in your career. When you go for an interview, illustrate your knowledge in the answers you give.

There is another third method. This is getting a free certification. While, getting certified by a marketing body such as SLIM or CIM can be costly, there are certification courses you can complete online for free. All you need is a steady internet connection and a few hours of your time every week. The best thing about these courses is that they are mostly geared towards marketing on the internet or on social media, which is exactly what you need in this digital age.