I recently read an article on Forbes.com that caught my attention. The article was arguing the importance of marketing, and how marketing in recent years has become severely undervalued (and underfunded) in the business world. The article clearly laid out the American Marketing Association’s definition of marketing:

“Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.”

(1) Marketing Matters Now More Than Ever

I noticed that there is nothing about “selling” or “closing a sale” at the end of the definition. There’s a reason for that: marketing is not selling.