Editing Sales (section)

==Definition==
A person or organization expressing an interest in acquiring the offered item of value is referred to as a potential buyer, prospective customer, or [[Prospect (marketing)|prospect]]. Buying and selling are understood to be two sides of the same "coin" or transaction. Both seller and buyer engage in a process of negotiation to consummate the exchange of values. The exchange, or selling, process has implied rules and identifiable stages. It is implied that the selling process will proceed fairly and ethically so that the parties end up nearly equally rewarded. The stages of selling, and buying, involve getting acquainted, assessing each party's need for the other's item of value, and determining if the values to be exchanged are equivalent or nearly so, or, in buyer's terms, "worth the price". Sometimes, sellers have to use their own experiences when selling products with appropriate discounts.<ref name=seller>{{cite journal |title=Buyer Success and Failure in Bargaining and Its Consequences |first1=C. |last1=Putthiwanit |first2=S.-H. |last2=Ho |journal=Australian Journal of Business and Management Research |volume=1 |issue=5 |year=2011 |pages=83–92 |doi=10.52283/NSWRCA.AJBMR.20110105A10 |s2cid=2873974 |url=https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/33588/2/MPRA_paper_33588.pdf |access-date=2022-07-13 |archive-date=2022-07-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220716060856/https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/33588/2/MPRA_paper_33588.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

Although the skills required are different, from a management viewpoint, sales is a part of [[marketing]].<ref>Philip Kotler, ''Principles of Marketing,'' Prentice -Hall, 1980</ref> Sales often form a separate grouping in a corporate structure, employing separate specialist operatives known as ''salespersons'' (singular: ''salesperson''). Selling is considered by many to be a sort of [[persuasion|persuad]]ing "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''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Greening |first=Jack |title=Selling Without Confrontation |publisher=The Haworth Press, Inc. |year=1993 |isbn=1-56024-326-0 |pages=23}} Page image [https://books.google.com/books?id=O8y4P3tGcEIC&dq=methodical+sales+approach&pg=PA23]</ref>

The sales process consists of a series of measurable milestones. However, the definition of selling is often unclear due to its close relationship with advertising, promotion, public relations, and direct marketing.

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]], [[Promotion (marketing)|promotion]]s, and even [[public relations]] as ways to create a unique [[Financial transaction|transaction]].

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 thinking|systems approach]], at minimum involving roles that sell, enable selling, and develop sales capabilities. Selling also involves [[salesperson|salespeople]] who possess a specific set of [[selling method|sales skills]] and the knowledge required to facilitate the exchange of value between buyers and sellers that is unique from marketing and advertising.

Within these three tenets, the following definition of professional selling is offered by the [[American Society for Training and Development]] (ASTD):
{{cquote|The holistic business system required to effectively develop, manage, enable, and execute a mutually beneficial, interpersonal exchange of goods or services for equitable value.<ref>{{cite web | title=American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) | work=Sales Competency Project | url=http://www.astd.org/sdp | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080921095003/http://www.astd.org/sdp | url-status=dead | archive-date=2008-09-21 | access-date=2017-03-07 }}</ref>}}

[[Team selling]] is one way to influence sales. Team selling is "a group of people representing the sales department and other functional areas in the firm, such as finance, production, and research and development". (Spiro) Team selling came about in the 1990s through [[total quality management]] (TQM). TQM occurs when companies work to improve their customer satisfaction by constantly improving all their operations.

=== Relationships with marketing ===
[[Marketing]] and sales differ greatly, but they generally have the same goal. Selling is the final stage in marketing which puts the plan into effect. A marketing plan includes pricing, promotion, place, and product (the 4 P's). A marketing department in an organization has the goals of increasing the desirability and value of the products and services to the customer and increasing the number and engagement of successful interactions between potential customers and the organization. Achieving this goal may involve the sales team using promotional techniques such as [[advertising]], [[sales promotion]], [[publicity]], and [[public relations]], creating new sales channels, or creating new products. It can also include encouraging the potential customer to visit the organization's website, contact the organization for more information, or interact with the organization via social media channels such as [[Twitter]], [[Facebook]] and [[blog]]s. Social values play a major role in consumer decision processes. Marketing is the whole of the work on persuasion made for the whole of the target people. Sales is the process of persuasion and effort from one person to one person (B2C), or one person to a corporation (B2B), in order to make a living resource enter the company. This may occur in person, over the phone or digitally.

The field of [[sales process engineering]] views "sales" as the output of a larger system, not just as the output of one department. The larger system includes many functional areas within an organization. From this perspective, the labels "sales" and "marketing" cover several processes whose inputs and outputs supply one another. In this context, improving an "output" (such as sales) involves studying and improving the broader sales process, since the component functional areas interact and are interdependent.<ref name="Selden">{{cite journal|author = Paul H. Selden|date=December 1998|title=Sales Process Engineering: An Emerging Quality Application|journal=Quality Progress| pages = 59–63}}
</ref>

Many large [[corporations]] structure their marketing departments, so they are integrated with all areas of the business. They create multiple teams with a singular focus, and the managers of these teams must coordinate efforts to drive profits and business success. For example, an "inbound" campaign seeks to drive more customers "through the door", giving the sales department a better chance of selling their product to the consumer. A good marketing program would address any potential downsides as well.

The sales department would aim to improve the interaction between the customer and the sales channel or salesperson. As sales is the forefront of any organization, this would always need to take place before any other business process may begin. Sales management involves breaking down the selling process and increasing the effectiveness of the discrete processes, as well as improving the interactions between processes. For example, in an outbound sales environment, the typical process includes outbound calling, the sales pitch, handling objections, opportunity identification, and the close. Each step of the process has sales-related issues, skills, and training needs, as well as marketing solutions to improve each discrete step.

One further common complication of marketing is the difficulty in measuring results for some marketing initiatives. Some marketing and advertising executives focus on creativity and innovation without concern for the [[top line|top]] or [[bottom line]]s – a fundamental pitfall of marketing for marketing's sake.

Many companies find it challenging to get their marketing and sales teams to agree.<ref>{{cite web|title=Ending The War Between Sales And Marketing|url=http://hbr.org/web/special-collections/insight/marketing-that-works/end-the-war-between-sales-and-marketing|website=hbr.org|publisher=Harvard Business Review|access-date=16 August 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140819125522/http://hbr.org/web/special-collections/insight/marketing-that-works/end-the-war-between-sales-and-marketing|archive-date=19 August 2014}}</ref> The two departments, although different in nature, handle very similar concepts and have to work together to achieve the business's goals. Building a good relationship between the two teams that encourages communication can be the key to success.<ref>{{cite web|title=How To Choose The Right Sales Representatives|url=https://marketingaudit.agency/how-to-choose-the-right-sales-representatives/|website=marketingaudit.agency|publisher=Mark C. Jimenez|access-date=10 August 2021|archive-date=25 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211125082623/https://marketingaudit.agency/how-to-choose-the-right-sales-representatives/|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Industrial marketing===
The idea that marketing can potentially eliminate the need for salespeople depends entirely on context.  For example, this may be possible in some [[business-to-consumer|B2C]] situations; however, for many [[business-to-business|B2B]] transactions (for example, those involving industrial organizations) this is mostly impossible.<ref>{{cite web |title=Sales Outsourcing vs In-house Sales development team |url=https://www.salesoutsourcingservice.com/en/sales-outsourcing-vs-in-house-sales-development-team/ |website=salesoutsourcingservice.com |access-date=2020-04-16 |archive-date=2020-08-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806233143/https://www.salesoutsourcingservice.com/en/sales-outsourcing-vs-in-house-sales-development-team/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Another dimension is the value of the goods being sold. [[Fast moving consumer goods|Fast-moving consumer-goods]] (FMCG) require no salespeople at the [[point of sale]] to get them to jump off the supermarket shelf and into the customer's trolley. However, the purchase of large mining equipment worth millions of dollars will require a salesperson to manage the sales process – particularly in the face of competitors. Small and medium businesses selling such large ticket items to a geographically dispersed client base use [[manufacturers' representative]]s to provide this highly personal service while avoiding the large expense of a captive sales force.

===Sales and marketing alignment and integration===
Another area of discussion involves the need for alignment and integration of corporate sales and marketing functions. According to a report from the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council, only 40 percent of companies have formal programs, systems or processes in place to align and integrate the two critical functions.

Sales, Digital Marketing and Automated Marketing campaigns. With the increase of the use of the internet today, sales functions of several enterprises are finding traditional methods of marketing quite old fashioned and less efficient. So the use of automated Marketing Applications is on the rise ranging from [[Customer relationship management|Customer Relationship Management (CRM)]] to [[Sales force management system|sales force management]].

Traditionally, these two functions, as referred above, have operated separately, left in siloed areas of tactical responsibility. Glen Petersen's book ''The [[Profit maximization|Profit Maximization]] Paradox''<ref>
{{cite book
|last= Petersen
|first= Glen S.
|title= The Profit Maximization Paradox: Cracking the Marketing/Sales Alignment Code
|year= 2008
|publisher= Booksurge in 1221
|isbn= 978-1-4196-9179-9
|page= 176
}}
</ref> sees the changes in the [[competitive landscape]] between the 1950s and the time of writing as so dramatic that the complexity of choice, price, and opportunities for the customer forced this seemingly simple and integrated relationship between sales and marketing to change forever. Petersen goes on to highlight that salespeople spend approximately 40 percent of their time preparing customer-facing deliverables while leveraging less than 50 percent of the materials created by marketing, adding to perceptions that marketing is out of touch with the customer and that sales is resistant to [[messaging]] and [[Marketing strategy|strategy]].