Are Marketing, Sales and Aftermarket Important?

The concepts of Marketing and Sales are known as two inseparable concepts. After selling! It is criticized as a phase that is generally ignored and forgotten with the understanding of "I sold it, I'm done with it". For this reason, deficiencies in After-Sales services may cause negative communication with the customer. In fact, After-Sales is known as the most important supporting and integral phase in creating a Sales environment again with a 360-degree management approach.

Therefore, in order to implement these concepts, which we can distinguish as Marketing, Sales and After-Sales, it may be necessary to coordinate the practices of learning and applying marketing approaches, sales and sales communication techniques, and after-sales.

Marketing; While it is defined as the process of determining strategies that enable the development, pricing, distribution and communication of products with customers, in the literature it is mostly known and tried to be implemented in the order of "4P (Product, Price, Place, Promotion)" Product, Price, Distribution, Promotion.

In addition, one of the most important supporting facts that can realize the product, price, distribution and promotion stages within the framework of marketing concepts is; Communication is the sending of an emotion, thought, information or message to be conveyed to the target recipient.

As Traditional Communication Channel, Newspapers, Magazines, Flyers, Posters, Catalogs, Manuals  Radios, Televisions, Cinemas are some of the most well known, past and still used. While Public Relations, Sponsorship, Outdoor Advertisements, Point of Sale and Product Placement approaches are preferred in Modern Communication Channels, Website, Search Engines, Wiki, Forums/Communities, Blogs and Microblogs, E-bulletin, Podcast, Social Network Sites are preferred as Postmodern communication channels. , Augmented Reality (AR), Gamification tools are preferred.

The main goal of marketing, which is based on communication channels, is the sale of the product. Sales; It is the transfer of ownership of the product to the customer in exchange for a fee. Therefore, the realization of sales is shaped according to the marketing approach of the enterprises.

In this context, when marketing concepts are examined under three main headings;

Traditional Marketing understanding; Between 1880 and 1950, it had a production approach and focused on production, with the aim of increasing production, reducing costs and meeting demand. Within the framework of the product understanding between 1920 and 1950, it was aimed to increase product-oriented product quality and performance and to create new featured products. Between 1930 and 1950, implementation of sales-oriented promotional activities within the scope of production approach (advertising, sales development, personal selling, public relations and direct marketing), increasing product sales volume and making profits from sales, establishing short-term sales relationships with customers, excessive product supply. Preferences were used in the subjects.

Modern Marketing Concept; Between 1970 and 2023, the customer was focused on the Marketing Management approach and studies were carried out under the headings of addressing customer demands and needs, developing integrated marketing communication, enabling businesses to compete in the market, developing customer satisfaction and loyalty, and ensuring long-term profitability. In the same period, with the understanding of Social Marketing, the focus was on protecting the benefit of the society with a society-oriented preference, increasing sensitivity to environmental problems, solving resource scarcity problems, and making renewability and recycling important. Between 1990 and 2023, a more relationship marketing approach was adopted and marketing parties/stakeholders were focused on. At this stage, there has been a differentiation in ensuring social welfare, creating long-term exchange relationships that will create mutual value, and implementing customer relationship management.

Postmodern Marketing Concept; Between 2000 and 2023, it focused on information technologies as new marketing approaches. It is aimed to make consumers educated and conscious, to cope with global competition, to ensure active participation of consumers in production, to change production forms and methods, to realize two-way communication, to establish mutual interaction, and this purpose is diversifying day by day. Especially today, the Modern and Postmodern marketing approach is based on establishing strong communication with consumers, developing and maintaining this communication; It is defined as a marketing approach based on collecting information about unidentified consumer groups, predicting their needs and expectations, and developing individualized marketing strategies specific to them. If there is a need for an evaluation based on these approaches, it can be found in sales and after-sales services based on these approaches, with the right setup on the customer side, ensuring post-purchase customer satisfaction and the customer purchasing the same product again. In this context, After-Sales Tracking/Monitoring can be considered as an important issue in sales and after-sales services: After-sales tracking is known as one of the important issues of Modern and Postmodern marketing approach. Post-Sale Tracking/Monitoring not only eliminates problems and doubts that may occur after sales, but can also help understand the customer's future product needs. Eliminating concerns in the customer's purchasing decision, providing support services, training, guidance, solving problems, being satisfaction-oriented, giving feedback to the customer about the products, establishing long-term relationships with the customer, receiving regular feedback from the customer, following the products and services offered by competitors to customers, By making analyzes regarding performance and development processes and using the outputs obtained as a result of these activities in favor of the customer, the marketing approach can help the sales and after-sales phases to fully meet customer and business expectations. In such a case, establishing loyalty between the product and the customer, which is the first step of the marketing concept, can pave the way for a profitable and sustainable process.