Sales techniques
A sale can take place through:[2]
- Direct sales, involving person to person contact
- Pro forma sales
- Agency-based
- Sales agents (for example in real estate or in manufacturing)
- Sales outsourcing through direct branded representation
- Transaction sales
- Consultative sales
- Complex sales
- Consignment
- Telemarketing or telesales
- Retail or consumer
- Traveling salesman
- Door-to-door methods
- hawking
- Request for proposal – An invitation for suppliers, through a bidding process, to submit a proposal on a specific product or service. An RFP usually represents 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[citation needed] to the products in question. Industrial/professional sales involves selling from one business to another
- Electronic
- Web – Business-to-business and business-to-consumer
- Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) – A set of standard for structuring information to be electronically exchanged between and within businesses
- Indirect, human-mediated but with indirect contact
- Mail-order
- vending machine
- Sales methods:
- Selling technique
- Consultative selling
- Sales enablement
- Solution selling
- Conceptual Selling
- Strategic Selling
- Transactional Selling
- Sales Negotiation
- Reverse Selling
- Paint-the-Picture
- The take away
- Sales Habits
Sales agents
Agents in the sales process can represent either of two parties in the sales process; for example:
- Sales broker or Seller agency or seller agent: This is a traditional role where the salesman represents a person or company on the selling end of a deal
- Buyers broker or Buyer brokerage: This is where the salesman represents the consumer making the purchase. This is most often applied in large transactions.
- Disclosed dual agent:This is where the salesman represents both parties in the sale and acts as a mediator for the transaction. The role of the salesman here is to oversee that both parties receive an honest and fair deal, and is responsible to both.
- Transaction broker: This is where the salesperson doesn't represent either party, but handles the transaction only. 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 involves 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).
- Sales managers: qualified and talented[peacock term] sales managers aim to implement various sales strategies and management techniques in order to facilitate improved profitsand 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 their agents.
- Salesmen: 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. Questioning – to understand a customer's goal and requirements relevant to the product – and the creation of a valuable solution by communicating the necessary information that encourages a buyer to achieve their goal at an economic cost comprise the functions of the salesperson or of the sales engine (for example, the Internet, a vending machine, etc). A good salesman should never mis-sell or over-evaluate the customer's requirements.
Inside sales vs. Outside sales
Since the advent of the telephone a distinction has been made[citation needed] between "inside sales" and "outside sales", although it is generally agreed that these terms do not have hard-and-fast definitions.[3] In the United States, the Fair Labor Standards Act defines outside sales representatives as "employees [who] sell their employer's products, services, or facilities to customers away from their employer's place(s) of business, in general, either at the customer's place of business or by selling door-to-door at the customer's home" while defining those who work "from the employer's location" as inside sales.[4] Inside sales generally involves attempting to close business primarily over the phone via cold calling ortelemarketing, while outside sales (or "field" sales) will usually involve initial phone work to book sales calls at the potential buyer's location to attempt to close the deal in person. Some companies have an inside sales department that works with outside representatives and book their appointments for them. Inside sales sometimes refers to upselling to existing customers.
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