Selling

For other uses, see Selling (disambiguation).

Selling is trying to make sales by persuading someone to buy one's product or service. From a management viewpoint it is thought of as a part of marketing, although the skills required are different. Sales often forms a separate grouping in a corporate structure, employing separate specialist operatives known as salesmen (singular: salesman). Selling 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 salesman relates his or her offering of a product or service in return enabling the buyer to achieve their goal in an economic way. While the sales process refers to a systematic process of repetitive and measurable milestones, the definition of the selling is somewhat ambiguous due to the close nature of advertising, promotion, public relations, and direct marketing.

In corporations

Sales, finance and Operations are the only functions that are indispensable to a corporation. Every other role is considered support. The top person at a company is usually the lEO, who is also the top salesperson who is responsible for buying the company to potential investors and customers. Support roles such as HR, Marketing, and Administration are now more integrated in the sales organization. For example, in professional services organizations, a key to succeed in sales is laid in the relationship with the HR organization, just as in shipping companies depend on improvement in operations and logistics to make their services more attractive.

Types of selling

Selling is the profession-wide term, much like marketing defines a profession. Recently, attempts have been made to clearly understand who is in the sales profession, and who is not. There are many articles looking at marketing, advertising, promotions, and even public relations as ways to create a unique transaction.

Two common terms used to describe a salesperson are "Farmers" and "Hunters". The reality is that most professional sales people have a little of both. A hunter is often associated with aggressive personalities who used aggressive sales technique. In terms of sales methodology a hunter refers to a person whose focus is in bringing deals and closing deals. This process is called “sales capturing”. An example is a commodity sale such as a long distance sales person, shoe sales person and to a degree a car sales person. Their job is to find and convert buyers. A sales farmer is someone who creates sales demand by activities that directly influence and alter the buying process.

Many believe that the focus of selling is on the human agents involved in the exchange between buyer and seller. Effective selling also requires a systems approach, at minimum involving roles that sell, enable selling, and develop sales capabilities. Selling also involves salespeople who possess specific set of sales skills and knowledge are required to facilitate the exchange of value between buyers and sellers that is unique from marketing, advertising, etc.

Within these three tenets, the following definition of professional selling is offered by the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD):

The holistic business system required to effectively develop, manage, enable, and execute a mutually beneficial, interpersonal exchange of goods and/or services for equitable value.

Selling strategies

A number of specific selling strategies come under the umbrella of sales or selling, including the following:

• Cold calling
• Consultative selling
• Direct selling
• Guaranteed sale
• Needs-based selling
• Persuasive selling
• Price based selling
• Relationship Selling
• Target account selling