Sales and marketing are closely related activities involved with creating a demand for thecompany’s products and moving them from the company to the customer.The sales function includes the near-term activities involved in transferring the productor service from the business to the customer.Marketing incorporates longer-term functions necessary to promote and distributeproducts in the marketplace, provides support for the sales staff, conducts research todesign products that customers will be interested in purchasing, and determines theappropriate pricing for the products. Marketing begins with an identification of the targetmarket for the organization’s product or service. Once that has been identified, decisionsabout the four p’s of marketing (product, price, placement, and promotion) can be made: