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.

Academically, selling is thought of as a part of marketing, however, the two disciplines are completely different. In popular usage "marketing" is the promotion of products especially Advertising and Branding However in professional usage the term has a wider meaning of 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". Persuasion is a form of Social influence. It is the process of guiding people toward the adoption of an idea attitude or action by rational and symbolic (though not always 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.

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. The term pro forma ( Latin "as a matter of form" is a term applied to practices that are perfunctory, or seek to satisfy the minimum requirements A consultant (from the Latin consultare means "to discuss" from which we also derive words such as consul and counsel) is a Professional Complex Sales, also known as Enterprise sales, can refer to a method of trading sometimes used by organizations when procuring large contracts for goods and/or services Consignment is the act of consigning, which is placing a person or thing in the hand of another but retaining ownership until the goods are sold or person is transferred Telemarketing is a method of Direct marketing in which a Salesperson solicits to prospective Customers to buy products or services, Door-to-door is a Sales technique in which a Salesperson walks from one door of a house to another trying to sell a product or service to the general public For other meanings see RFP (disambiguation. For information about Wikipedia proposals see WikipediaVillage pump (proposals. 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. Business-to-business ( B2B) is a term commonly used to describe commerce transactions between businesses as opposed to those between businesses and other groups such as 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™

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. Business-to-consumer ( B2C, sometimes also called Business-to-Customer) describes activities of businesses serving end consumers with products and/or services Electronic Data Interchange ( EDI) refers to the structured transmission of data between organizations by electronic means Mail order is a term which describes the Buying of goods or services by Mail delivery Selling technique is the body of methods used in the Profession of Sales, also often called personal selling The term Consultative Selling was first coined by New York Times best selling author Linda Richardson Solution selling is a special approach to Sales. Rather than just pushing an existing product the salesperson focuses on the customer's pain(s and addresses these in his or Seller Agency is a relationship between a Real estate agent and the seller in the brokerage of homes ^[4]

Buyers broker or Buyer brokerage

This is where the sales person represents the consumer making the purchase. Buyer brokerage (or Buyer agency as it is also known is the practice of Real estate brokers (and their agents representing a buyer in a real estate transaction 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. JUSTICE is a Human rights and law reform organisation based in the United Kingdom. Honesty is the human quality of communicating and acting Truthfully related to Truth as a value ^[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). A vending machine is a machine that provides various snacks beverages and other products to consumers

Sales and marketing relationship

Marketing plays a very important part in sales. In popular usage "marketing" is the promotion of products especially Advertising and Branding However in professional usage the term has a wider meaning of 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 popular usage "marketing" is the promotion of products especially Advertising and Branding However in professional usage the term has a wider meaning of Advertising is a form of Communication that typically attempts to persuade potential Customers to Purchase or to consume more of a particular Brand Sales promotion is one of the four aspects of Promotional mix. Publicity is the deliberate attempt to manage the public's perception of a subject Public relations (PR is the practice of managing the flow of Information between an Organization and its Publics Public relations - often referred In most large corporations, the marketing department is structured in a similar fashion to the sales department 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]

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]

See also

• Sales (accounting)
• Sales Incentive Plan

Notes and references

1. ^ Sales. In Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Finance, Net sales are operating Revenues earned by a company when it sells its products A Sales Incentive Plan ( SIP) is a business tool used to motivate and compensate a Sales professional (or Sales Agent to meet goals or Metrics dictionary. com. Retrieved on 2007-04-07. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 529 - First draft of Corpus Juris Civilis (a fundamental work in Jurisprudence) is issued by Eastern Roman Emperor
2. ^ Greening, Jack (1993). Selling Without Confrontation. The Haworth Press, Inc. , 23. ISBN 1560243260.   Page image[1]
3. ^ (?) Compendium of Professional Selling. United Professional Sales Association. ISBN ?.  
4. ^ Davis, Sid (2005). A Survival Guide for Selling a Home. AMACOM/American Management Association, 4. ISBN 9780814472743.   Page image[2]
5. ^ Career:Sales Managers. iseek. org. Retrieved on 2007-07-09. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 455 - Roman military commander Avitus is proclaimed Emperor of the Western Roman Empire.
6. ^ Free download of BUREZ Jonathan, VAN DEN POEL Dirk (2009), Separating Financial From Commercial Customer Churn: A Modeling Step Towards Resolving The Conflict Between The Sales And Credit Department, Expert Systems with Applications, Forthcoming.. www. ugent. be. Retrieved on 2007-09-04. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 476 - Romulus Augustus, last emperor of the Western Roman Empire, is deposed when Odoacer proclaims himself
7. ^ Rumbauskas, Frank (2006). Never Cold Call Again. John Wiley & Sons, 192. ISBN 0471786799.   Page image[3]