The Difference Between Marketing & Sales
(And why confusing the two keeps good work from gaining traction.)
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Most purpose-driven solopreneurs I work with start with a negative impression of marketing and sales.
I don’t blame them. I used to feel the same.
When your inbox is full of “last chance” countdowns and your feed is stuffed with bro-marketing hacks and false promises, it’s easy to assume that all marketing is manipulation and all sales is sleaze.
But what if the problem isn’t the activity itself, just how it’s been defined and deployed by greedy platforms and bad actors?
What if marketing and sales aren’t the same thing at all?
Where Things Go Sideways
Here’s where most people get stuck:
They confuse marketing with sales.
They conflate exposure with interest.
They try to close the sale before they’ve earned the relationship.
And it’s not their fault. The “best practices” they’ve been taught prioritize performance over permission and tricks over trust.
But there’s a better way—one that actually works and one that’s rooted in how human beings really make decisions.
So What’s the Difference?
Marketing is telling true stories to people whose lives will be enhanced by colliding with your idea, product, or service. It’s how you earn awareness, attention, permission, and trust.
Sales is helping those people make a change they already want to make.
It’s how you encourage enrollment and investment—through empathetic tension, not pressure.
In other words:
Marketing is about invitation.
Sales is about commitment.
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The Exposure → Proximity → Access Model
Here’s how this plays out in the real world:
Exposure
This is how people discover your work.
Social media posts, podcast interviews, newsletters, YouTube—these are channels that help open a loop and spark curiosity.
Proximity
This is where trust starts to build.
Closer conversations. Email replies. Comments. DMs. Community calls. When someone gives you their permission, you have a chance to turn innovation into information.
Access
This is where the decision happens, and change begins.
People get close enough to see how your offer works, what it costs, and what it could change. They evaluate whether the risk feels worth it (and whether the outcome feels real).
What This Looks Like In Practice
Exposure is a post that resonates.
Proximity is a conversation that continues.
Access is an invitation to invest.
If you try to sell during the exposure phase, you will be ignored.
If you never make the shift to access, you stay stuck in content creation purgatory.
When you align your marketing and sales with these natural stages of relationship-building, your work spreads faster (and lands deeper).
Your Turn
Where are you spending most of your time—exposure, proximity, or access?
Where is your audience getting stuck?
Leave a comment or hit reply. I’d love to hear what you’re noticing in your own marketing and sales process.
P.S. On Friday, we’re unpacking the Diffusion of Innovations Curve and the five adoption decisions every potential client makes (whether consciously or not).
That post (and the replay of last weekend’s full workshop) is available to Circle members only.
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Thanks Scott. You make it easy to turn knowledge into action.