Legendary management consultant Peter Drucker famously said: "The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself."

Marketing is not sales. Sales is trying to get rid of what you have. Marketing is figuring out what to create in the first place.

Real marketing happens long before an advertisement is created. It starts with market research (identifying a gap or a need in the market). Then, marketing works with Operations to design the product, with Finance to price it, and finally creates the promotional campaign to tell the world about it. If the marketing strategy is perfect, the sales team barely has to work.