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What Is Sales?
You’re no doubt familiar with the word “sales” and have used it many times. If you’ve never sat down and tried to define it, however, you might find that it feels broad and nebulous.
So, just what is sales? In simplest terms, we can define it as:
The activities and processes involved in exchanging a product or service with another party in return for money.
It’s worth noting that some of the terms in this definition may mean many different things. For example, the ‘product or service’ being sold can be just about anything, from a car to a digital download. Similarly, the ‘other party’ involved might be an individual consumer or an enterprise business.
The key point lies in the first part of the definition – “activities and processes”. Sales is about more than just the moment when a customer clicks on Buy and money transfers from their account to yours. It encompasses the entire journey of encouraging and enabling an interested lead to make that purchase.
Asks and Answers
To better understand the role and responsibility of sales professionals, it helps to put their work in context. The most closely-related business arena is marketing. In fact, the two fields are often confused. So let’s take a closer look at how they are distinct but interrelated.
In a nutshell, marketing is the process of making people aware of your product or service, educating them about it, and encouraging their interest in it. Effective marketing results in ‘leads’ – people who are likely to purchase your product or service, but have not yet made the decision to do so.
On the other hand, sales takes those leads and ‘converts’ them, turning them into paying customers. It translates attention and interest into actual transactions.
The other business arena that sales is most closely connected to is support. Both are ‘customer facing’ processes. In other words, they’re all about responding to the needs of customers and providing solutions.Customer support’ or ‘customer service’ involves making yourself available to help customers when they have a question or run into a problem. That makes it a crucial part of the sales process, both before and after a conversion takes place. Some of the ways that support is vital to sales include:
The above definitions should help you better understand the role sales plays in a successful business. However, if you’re thinking about a career in this field, it might be useful to know a little more about what it looks like to work in such an environment.
Firstly, your day-to-day responsibilities will vary depending on what kind of sales you end up working in. There are many different specialties, such as:
- B2C Sales. This stands for ‘Business to Customer’, and is probably the first thing that comes to mind when you think of sales. It involves selling products or services to individual consumers, and often focuses on a high volume of small-ticket sales for various items.
- B2B Sales. ‘Business to Business’ selling is when you target entire companies rather than individuals. This kind of sales often relies more heavily on developing strong relationships, and on processing big-ticket purchases and bulk orders from fewer clients.
- Inside Sales. Rather than describing who you’re selling to, this term describes the type of process a sales team might follow. Inside sales are typically conducted in an office environment and involve communicating with potential and current customers via email, phone, live chat, and similar channels.
- Outside Sales. On the other hand, ‘outside’ sales involves meeting customers where they are. This means a less structured working environment and more face-to-face interactions. It might involve door-to-door sales, direct meetings with potential clients, or attending conventions and other events.
When you’re considering an occupation in sales, it helps to start by making sure this field is a good fit for your strengths. Successful sales professionals are skilled in:
- Communication. It’s hard to make a sale if you can’t communicate clearly and connect with potential customers.
- Collaboration. As we mentioned earlier, sales isn’t generally a solo effort. That means you’ll need to be prepared to work within a team.
- Flexibility. Sales often involves working with many different accounts and customers, and completing a variety of tasks on a day-to-day basis. It’s useful to be able to switch gears quickly.
- Time management. The sales world can be fast-paced, and leads/customers will expect quick responses. In other words, you’ll need to manage your time carefully.