Sales

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For other uses, see Sales (disambiguation).

"Salesman" redirects here. For the 1969 American documentary film, see Salesman (film).

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Sales are the activities involved in selling products or services in return for money or other compensation. It is an act of completion of a commercial activity.^[1]

The "deal is closed", means the customer has consented to the proposed product or service by making full or partial payment (as in case of installments) to the seller.^{[citation needed]}

Academically, selling is thought of as a part of marketing, however, the two disciplines are completely different. Sales often forms a separate grouping in a corporate structure, employing separate specialist operatives known as salespeople (singular: salesperson). Sales is considered by many to be a sort of persuading "art". Contrary to popular belief, the methodological approach of selling refers to a systematic process of repetitive and measurable milestones, by which a salesperson relates his or her offering of a product or service in return enabling the buyer to achieve their goal in an economic way.^[2]

A sale is completed by the seller, the owner of the goods. It starts with consent (or agreement) to an acquisition or appropriation or request followed by the passing of title (property or ownership) in the item and the application and due settlement of a price, the obligation for which arises due to the seller's requirement to pass ownership, being a price she is happy to part with ownership of or any claim upon the item. The purchaser, though a party to the sale, does not execute the sale, only the seller does that. To be precise the sale completes prior to the payment and gives rise to the obligation of payment. If the seller completes the first two above stages (consent and passing ownership) of the sale prior to settlement of the price the sale is still valid and gives rise to an obligation to pay.

1 Sales techniques
2 Sales agents
3 Sales and marketing relationship
- 3.1 Marketing potentially negates need for sales
4 See also
5 Notes and references

[edit] Sales techniques

The sale can be made through:^[3]

Direct Sales, involving person to person contact
- Buying Facilitation Method
Pro forma sales
Agency-based
- sales agents (real estate, manufacturing)
- Sales Outsourcing through direct branded representation (see Sales Outsourcing entry)
- Transaction sales
- Consultative sales
- Complex sales
- consignment
- telemarketing or telesales
- retail or consumer
door-to-door or traveling salesman
Request for Proposal is an invitation for suppliers, through a bidding process, to submit a proposal on a specific product or service. An RFP is usually part of a complex sales process, also known as enterprise sales.
Business-to-business — Business-to-business sales are much more relationship based owing to the lack of emotional attachment to the products in question. Industrial/Professional Sales is selling from one business to another
- Pharmaceuticals Sales
Electronic
- Web — Business-to-business and business-to-consumer
- Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is a set of standards for structuring information to be electronically exchanged between and within businesses
Indirect, human-mediated but with indirect contact
- Mail-order
Sales Methods:
- Selling technique
- SPIN Selling
- Consultative selling
- Solution selling
- Strategic Selling
- Sales Negotiation
- Reverse Selling
- Paint-the-Picture™

[edit] Sales agents

Agents in the sales process can be defined as representing either side of the sales process for example:

Sales broker or Seller agency or seller agent: This is a traditional sales person role where the sales person represents a person or company on the selling end of the deal.^[4]
Buyers broker or Buyer brokerage: This is where the sales person represents the consumer making the purchase. This is most often applied in large transactions.
Disclosed dual agent: This is where the sales person represents both parties in the sale and acts as a mediator for the transaction. The role of the sales person here is to over see that both parties receive an honest and fair deal, and is responsible to both.
Transaction broker: This is where the sales person doesn't represent either party, but handles the transaction only. This is where the seller owes no responsibility to either party getting a fair or honest deal, just that all of the papers are handled properly.
Sales Outsourcing: This is direct branded representation where the sales reps are recruited, hired, and managed by an external entity but hold quotas, represent themselves as the brand of the client, and report all activities (through their own sales management channels) back to the client. It is akin to a virtual extension of a sales force. (see Sales Outsourcing entry)
Sales Managers: It is the goal of a qualified and talented sales manager to implement various sales strategies and management techniques in order to facilitate improved profits and increased sales volume. They are also responsible for coordinating the sales and marketing department as well as oversight concerning the fair and honest execution of the sales process by his agents.^[5]
Salespersons: The primary function of professional sales is to generate and close leads, educate prospects, fill needs and satisfy wants of consumers appropriately, and therefore turn prospective customers into actual ones. The successful questioning to understand a customer's goal, the further creation of a valuable solution by communicating the necessary information that encourages a buyer to achieve his goal at an economic cost is the responsibility of the sales person or the sales engine (e.g. internet, vending machine etc).

[edit] Sales and marketing relationship

Marketing plays a very important part in sales. If the marketing department generates a potential customers list, it can be beneficial for sales. The marketing department's goal is to bring people to the sales team using promotional techniques such as advertising, sales promotion, publicity, and public relations. In most large corporations, the marketing department is structured in a similar fashion to the sales department^{[citation needed]} and the managers of these teams must coordinate efforts in order to drive profits and business success. Driving more customers "through the door" gives the sales department a better chance by ratio of selling their product to the consumer. There may also be a downside to this phenomenon. Very often (for legal reasons, e.g. in non-store retailing) companies have to provide credit to customers. This may cause a conflict between the sales department on the one hand and the credit department on the other hand. See Burez & Van den Poel (2007) for potential solutions to this problem.^[6]

[edit] Marketing potentially negates need for sales

Some sales authors and consultants contend that an expertly planned and executed marketing strategy may negate the need for outside sales entirely. They suggest that by effectively bringing more customers "through the door" and enticing them to contact you, sales organizations can dramatically improve their results, efficiency, profitability, and allow salespeople to provide a drastically higher level of customer service and satisfaction, instead of spending the majority of their working hours searching for someone to sell to. ^[7]