Sales

Salesman redirects to here.

Sales, or the activity of selling, forms an integral part of commercial activity. It could be argued that it is the cornerstone of business as it is the meeting of buyers and sellers and all other areas of business has the goal of making that meeting successful. Mastering sales is considered by many as some sort of persuading "art". On the contrary, the methodological approach of selling refers to it as a systematic process of repetitive and measurable milestones, by which a salesperson relates his offering enabling the buyer to visualize how to achieve his goal in an economic way.

`Selling' is the heart beat of any business. No business can function with out professional sales people. Dubious selling practices may occasionally result in a sale if the customer is particularly gullible. But it is arguable that, even then, only good marketing, great quality of product along with sales follow up (which encompasses a far wider range of skills, with an almost diametrically opposed motivation) 'will lead the customer to buy again from the same company '. Organizations seldom profit from single purchases made by first-time customers. Normally they rely on repeat business to generate the profit that they need.[1]. However, there are some industries which have a business model based on one time only sales relationship. These tend to be the sale of very expensive, unusual household products such as houses and new and used cars.

The economic reason for this behaviour is that these items are usually unique. A customer is buying a product because of that product's features and benefits along with their emotional attachment or feeling about the product. These can be slightly influenced by the salesperson, however, the sales person knows that the same item cannot be resold to the same customer again at a later date. They also know that the customer is unlikely to buy a similar product for a long time, and so has no incentive to offer any extra quality of service to encourage a long-term relationship. This behaviour is generally true only of business-to-consumer sales. Business-to-business sales are much more relationship based owing to the lack of emotional attachment to the products in question.

Selling is a practical implementation of marketing; it often forms a separate grouping in a corporate structure, employing separate specialist operatives known as salesmen (singular: salesman or salesperson).

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).

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.

From a marketing point of view, selling is one of the methods of promotion used by marketers. Other promotional techniques include advertising, sales promotion, publicity, and public relations.

Various sales strategies exist, such as tit-for-tat which is best if ongoing dealings and interactions are expected. This insight is behind so-called consultative sales process which are used by Saturn to sell cars, as well as for some direct Business-to-Business sales.

Several types of sales exist including direct, consultative, and complex sales. Complex sales varies from other types in that the customer plays a more pro-active role, often requiring proposal response to their Request for Proposal (RFP).

Forms of Sale Activity

The term sales is includes many activities some of the various modes of selling include:

Direct Sales - involving face-to-face contact
- retail or consumer
- door-to-door or travelling salesman
- party plan
Industrial/Professional Sales - selling from one business to another
- business-to-business
Indirect - human-mediated but with indirect contact
- telemarketing or telesales
- mail-order
Electronic
- web B2B, B2C
- EDI
Agency-based
- consignment
- multi-level marketing
- sales agents (real estate, manufacturing)

Types of sales include:

Transaction sales
Consultative sales
Complex sales

Qualities of a Good Salesperson

There is a misunderstanding that a good salesperson has 'the gift of the gab' where as most trained sales people will have heard the saying 'You have one mouth and two ears, use them in that proportion'. A good sales person is a listener. They ask plenty of questions, and make notes of the answers. These notes (mental or written) help them find a suitable product or service for the potential customer. A successful sale is when the customer agrees with that solution.

Many salespeople are unable to sell to their potential owing to their own misunderstanding of their potential customers' needs. They are able to listen to the answers, but misunderstand that the customer doesn't have the same goals as they. Many sales people worry about the price of their goods compared to the compertiton. Customers, unlike the sales people, are unaware of the prices of non commodity goods and are willing to pay what they believe is a fair price (usually slightly below the market price) for these goods. It is only when a sales person, or a third party introduces doubt into the mind of the customer, that price becomes an issue.

Many successful salespeople have a deep understanding of human behaviour and are able to use these skills to their advantage. They are aware that, although there is a process for successfully completing a sale, customers fall into a range of different personality types. For instance, a sales person would have to deal with a teacher in a totally different manner to how they would deal with a businessperson. This is because the two sets of people have a different outlook on life and would therefore have different qualities which would be important to them. This is the reason they chose different career paths in the first place!

Most of the top sales people are very good at managing themselves and having a good work ethic. They understand that if they do not do the work, think creatively and use their skills to their potential, they will not hit their targets and earn the income they seek. Those who do blame outside forces are usually the ones who do not have a long career in sales.

Socialist Critique of sales

In capitalist apologetics, the purpose of selling is to help a customer realize his or her goals in an economic fashion. This assumption neglects the fact that buyer and seller may not have the same interests. Even if the organization can be supposed to recognize that its sustainability depends on the maintenance of a healthy symbiosis with repeat customers, the salesperson does not necessarily share that goal. Many sales professionals are characterized by their short-term goals, a desire quick returns on effort, and not the long-term building of relationships that the most successful sales people undertake.

Take for example the purchasing of a car: a consumer may have a set of cars in mind (called an evoked set) that she feels match her needs, wants and budget. She may seek the advice of a salesperson given that a salesperson can help her realize the right car given those criteria. This can be a socially useful function; salespeople have specialized knowledge of products that can help consumers make an informed decision. However, a salesperson may also talk a consumer into purchasing a more expensive or perhaps larger car then she needs or can afford. In this context, the salesperson may have usefully helped the customer re-evaluate her needs, thereby establishing a new set of appropriate choices among which included the newer or large car. This again would be a helpful and useful service provided by the salesperson. However, it is sometimes the case that customers purchase a product or service that was not initially intended and remains an inappropriate purchase after the fact. Although the consumer in this scenario can be held partially responsible for the inappropriate purchase ("A fool and his money are soon parted." - P.T. Barnum, English proverbs), it ignores the fact that someone chooses to attempt the parting, rather than educating the "fool".

This dysfunctional behaviour is encouraged by:

incentives of salespeople to increase their total number of sales, especially where retailers keep track of sales or offer commission-based salaries
incentives from the manufactures of products or the companies of service providers to salespeople to sell their products where other similar products offered by competitors are offered
the incentive to sell a customer a product that is in need of being cleared out, despite the fact that a customer may be better to wait for the new product.

Successful/Famous Salespeople

Max Hess
James A. Farley
Conrad N. Hilton
Ross Perot
Dalena Nichols
Winthrop Smith
Tom Hopkins
Zig Ziglar
"Diamond" Jim Brady

Etymology (Word Origin)

The word sala (a sale) is old English and was aquired from old Norse (sala). The term was first used as a reference of a discounted price was first used in 1866.