Sales are activities related to selling or the number of goods sold in a given targeted time period. The delivery of a service for a cost is also considered a sale. A period during which goods are sold for a reduced price may also be referred to as a "sale".
68-418: Sellers may refer to Seller , someone who sells Sellers, Missouri , an unincorporated community Sellers, South Carolina , a small US town USS Sellers (DDG-11) , a US Navy destroyer Sellers (surname) , people with the surname Sellers See also [ edit ] Cellar (disambiguation) Fort Sellers Sellars Topics referred to by
136-552: A media , market research , or advertising agency . Sometimes, a trade association or government agency (such as the Agricultural Marketing Service ) advertises on behalf of an entire industry or locality, often a specific type of food (e.g. Got Milk? ), food from a specific area, or a city or region as a tourism destination. Market orientations are philosophies concerning the factors that should go into market planning. The marketing mix, which outlines
204-437: A price , in which agreement is reached on a price for which transfer of ownership of the item will occur. The seller , not the purchaser , typically executes the sale and it may be completed prior to the obligation of payment . In the case of indirect interaction, a person who sells goods or service on behalf of the owner is known as a salesman or saleswoman or salesperson , but this often refers to someone selling goods in
272-403: A systems approach , at minimum involving roles that sell, enable selling, and develop sales capabilities. Selling also involves salespeople who possess a specific set of 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
340-619: A business or organization. Any company that sells products or services to other businesses or organizations (vs. consumers) typically uses B2B marketing strategies. The 7 P's of B2B marketing are: product, price, place, promotion, people, process, and physical evidence. Some of the trends in B2B marketing include content such as podcasts, videos, and social media marketing campaigns. Examples of products sold through B2B marketing include: The four major categories of B2B product purchasers are: Business-to-consumer marketing, or B2C marketing, refers to
408-498: A competitive advantage". For instance, the Chartered Institute of Marketing defines marketing from a customer-centric perspective, focusing on "the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably". In the past, marketing practice tended to be seen as a creative industry, which included advertising , distribution and selling , and even today many parts of
476-488: A concrete process that can be followed to create a marketing plan . The "marketing concept" proposes that to complete its organizational objectives, an organization should anticipate the needs and wants of potential consumers and satisfy them more effectively than its competitors. This concept originated from Adam Smith 's book The Wealth of Nations but would not become widely used until nearly 200 years later. Marketing and Marketing Concepts are directly related. Given
544-549: 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
612-545: A geographically dispersed client base use manufacturers' representatives to provide this highly personal service while avoiding the large expense of a captive sales force. 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
680-426: A management viewpoint, sales is a part of marketing . 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 persuading "art". Contrary to popular belief, the methodological approach of selling refers to a systematic process of repetitive and measurable milestones, by which
748-408: A managerial approach that covered analysis , consumer behavior , market research , market segmentation , and planning . Phillip Kotler , popularised this approach and helped spread the 4 Ps model. McCarthy's 4 Ps have been widely adopted by both marketing academics and practitioners. One of the limitations of the 4Ps approach is its emphasis on an inside-out view. An inside-out approach
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#1732775687504816-412: A market. In addition, a great deal of advertising and promotion is designed to show how a given product's benefits meet the customer's needs, wants or expectations in a unique way. The two major segments of marketing are business-to-business (B2B) marketing and business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing. B2B (business-to-business) marketing refers to any marketing strategy or content that is geared towards
884-657: A model-building perspective, the 4 Ps has attracted a number of criticisms. Well-designed models should exhibit clearly defined categories that are mutually exclusive, with no overlap. Yet, the 4 Ps model has extensive overlapping problems. Several authors stress the hybrid nature of the fourth P, mentioning the presence of two important dimensions, "communication" (general and informative communications such as public relations and corporate communications) and "promotion" (persuasive communications such as advertising and direct selling). Certain marketing activities, such as personal selling, may be classified as either promotion or as part of
952-416: A more consumer-orientated version of the 4 Ps that attempts to better fit the movement from mass marketing to niche marketing . Consumer (or client) The consumer refers to the person or group that will acquire the product. This aspect of the model focuses on fulfilling the wants or needs of the consumer. Cost Cost refers to what is exchanged in return for the product. Cost mainly consists of
1020-479: A multiplicity of new markets. Market segmentation can be defined in terms of the STP acronym, meaning Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning . Segmentation involves the initial splitting up of consumers into persons of like needs/wants/tastes. Commonly used criteria include: Once a segment has been identified to target, a firm must ascertain whether the segment is beneficial for them to service. The DAMP acronym
1088-399: 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 . Selling is
1156-432: A section to the marketing mix. The 4Ps refers to four broad categories of marketing decisions, namely: product , price , promotion , and place . The origins of the 4 Ps can be traced to the late 1940s. The first known mention has been attributed to a Professor of Marketing at Harvard University, James Culliton. The 4 Ps, in its modern form, was first proposed in 1960 by E. Jerome McCarthy; who presented them within
1224-634: A store/shop, in which case other terms are also common, including salesclerk , shop assistant , and retail clerk . In common law countries, sales are governed generally by the common law and commercial codes . In the United States, the laws governing sales of goods are mostly uniform to the extent that most jurisdictions have adopted Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code , albeit with some non-uniform variations. A person or organization expressing an interest in acquiring
1292-412: Is a one-on-one coaching process by high-performing sales professionals and consultants with salespeople, managers, and executives. The process involves equipping them with the knowledge, abilities, and skills needed to become more effective sales professionals. Unlike sales training, sales coaching is typically an individualized, ongoing endeavor. In common law countries, sales are governed generally by
1360-490: Is a subset of marketing research. (Avoiding the word consumer, which shows up in both, market research is about distribution, while marketing research encompasses distribution, advertising effectiveness, and salesforce effectiveness). The stages of research include: Well-known academic journals in the field of marketing with the best rating in VHB-Jourqual and Academic Journal Guide, an impact factor of more than 5 in
1428-422: Is conducted for two main purposes: better allocation of a firm's finite resources and to better serve the more diversified tastes of contemporary consumers. A firm only possesses a certain amount of resources. Thus, it must make choices (and appreciate the related costs) in servicing specific groups of consumers. Moreover, with more diversity in the tastes of modern consumers, firms are noting the benefit of servicing
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#17327756875041496-556: Is currently defined by the American Marketing Association (AMA) as "the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large". However, the definition of marketing has evolved over the years. The AMA reviews this definition and its definition for "marketing research" every three years. The interests of "society at large" were added into
1564-420: Is diametrically opposed to the popular concept of B2C or Business- to- Consumer where the companies make goods and services available to the end consumers. In this type of business model, businesses profit from consumers' willingness to name their own price or contribute data or marketing to the company, while consumers benefit from flexibility, direct payment, or free or reduced-price products and services. One of
1632-406: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Seller The seller, or the provider of the goods or services , completes a sale in an interaction with a buyer , which may occur at the point of sale or in response to a purchase order from a customer. There is a passing of title (property or ownership) of the item , and the settlement of
1700-466: 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 or services for equitable value. Team selling is one way to influence sales. Team selling is "a group of people representing the sales department and other functional areas in
1768-458: 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 or bottom lines – a fundamental pitfall of marketing for marketing's sake. Many companies find it challenging to get their marketing and sales teams to agree. The two departments, although different in nature, handle very similar concepts and have to work together to achieve
1836-401: Is the traditional planning approach where the organization identifies its desired goals and objectives, which are often based around what has always been done. Marketing's task then becomes one of "selling" the organization's products and messages to the "outside" or external stakeholders. In contrast, an outside-in approach first seeks to understand the needs and wants of the consumer. From
1904-433: Is the value of the goods being sold. 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
1972-410: Is used as criteria to gauge the viability of a target market. The elements of DAMP are: The next step in the targeting process is the level of differentiation involved in a segment serving. Three modes of differentiation exist, which are commonly applied by firms. These are: Positioning concerns how to position a product in the minds of consumers and inform what attributes differentiate it from
2040-654: The Social Sciences Citation Index and an h-index of more than 130 in the SCImago Journal Rank are These are also designated as Premier AMA Journals by the American Marketing Association. Market segmentation consists of taking the total heterogeneous market for a product and dividing it into several sub-markets or segments, each of which tends to be homogeneous in all significant aspects. The process
2108-515: The sales process engineering perspective, defines marketing as "a set of processes that are interconnected and interdependent with other functions of a business aimed at achieving customer interest and satisfaction". Some definitions of marketing highlight marketing's ability to produce value to shareholders of the firm as well. In this context, marketing can be defined as "the management process that seeks to maximise returns to shareholders by developing relationships with valued customers and creating
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2176-546: The Commission's intention was to offer traders a means of breaking down barriers occasioned by the different legal systems of its (then) 28 Member States . A 2012 Communication from the Commission argued that a Common European Sales Law would help to address some of the concerns which it had identified in the development of a market for cloud computing services . However, the proposal was withdrawn in December 2014 when
2244-458: The Commission's work plan was rationalised. Marketing Marketing is the act of satisfying and retaining customers . It is one of the primary components of business management and commerce . Marketing is typically conducted by the seller, typically a retailer or manufacturer. Products can be marketed to other businesses ( B2B ) or directly to consumers ( B2C ). Sometimes tasks are contracted to dedicated marketing firms, like
2312-564: 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. Inside sales generally involves attempting to close business primarily over
2380-423: The basis of "distinct needs, characteristics, or behaviors who might require separate products or marketing mixes." Needs-based segmentation (also known as benefit segmentation ) "places the customers' desires at the forefront of how a company designs and markets products or services." Although needs-based segmentation is difficult to do in practice, it has been proved to be one of the most effective ways to segment
2448-438: The broader sales process, since the component functional areas interact and are interdependent. 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
2516-436: The business's goals. Building a good relationship between the two teams that encourages communication can be the key to success. The idea that marketing can potentially eliminate the need for salespeople depends entirely on context. For example, this may be possible in some B2C situations; however, for many B2B transactions (for example, those involving industrial organizations) this is mostly impossible. Another dimension
2584-399: The case of services marketing . Other extensions have been found necessary in retail marketing, industrial marketing and internet marketing. In response to environmental and technological changes in marketing, as well as criticisms towards the 4Ps approach, the 4Cs has emerged as a modern marketing mix model. Robert F. Lauterborn proposed a 4 Cs classification in 1990. His classification is
2652-404: The centrality of customer needs, and wants in marketing, a rich understanding of these concepts is essential: Marketing research , conducted for the purpose of new product development or product improvement, is often concerned with identifying the consumer's unmet needs . Customer needs are central to market segmentation which is concerned with dividing markets into distinct groups of buyers on
2720-448: 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
2788-426: The common law and commercial codes . In the United States, the laws governing sales of goods are mostly uniform to the extent that most jurisdictions have adopted Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code , albeit with some non-uniform variations. The European Commission proposed adoption of a Common European Sales Law in 2011 and set out a proposed regulation on this area of law in 2014. Whilst remaining optional,
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2856-428: The competitor's products. A firm often performs this by producing a perceptual map, which denotes similar products produced in the same industry according to how consumers perceive their price and quality. From a product's placing on the map, a firm would tailor its marketing communications to meld with the product's perception among consumers and its position among competitors' offering. The promotional mix outlines how
2924-488: The consumer relationship, as opposed to a pure exchange process. For instance, prolific marketing author and educator, Philip Kotler has evolved his definition of marketing. In 1980, he defined marketing as "satisfying needs and wants through an exchange process", and in 2018 defined it as "the process by which companies engage customers, build strong customer relationships, and create customer value in order to capture value from customers in return". A related definition, from
2992-408: The consumer to attain the product, thus making them more likely to do so. Communication Like "Promotion" in the 4Ps model, communication refers to how consumers find out about a product. Unlike promotion, communication not only refers to the one-way communication of advertising, but also the two-way communication available through social media. The term "marketing environment" relates to all of
3060-481: The definition in 2008. The development of the definition may be seen by comparing the 2008 definition with the AMA's 1935 version: "Marketing is the performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods, and services from producers to consumers". The newer definition highlights the increased prominence of other stakeholders in the new conception of marketing. Recent definitions of marketing place more emphasis on
3128-456: 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
3196-457: The factors (whether internal, external, direct or indirect) that affect a firm's marketing decision-making/planning. A firm's marketing environment consists of three main areas, which are: Marketing research is a systematic process of analyzing data that involves conducting research to support marketing activities and the statistical interpretation of data into information. This information is then used by managers to plan marketing activities, gauge
3264-402: 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. Marketing and sales differ greatly, but they generally have the same goal. Selling is the final stage in marketing which puts
3332-415: The major benefit of this type of business model is that it offers a company a competitive advantage in the market. Customer to customer marketing or C2C marketing represents a market environment where one customer purchases goods from another customer using a third-party business or platform to facilitate the transaction. C2C companies are a new type of model that has emerged with e-commerce technology and
3400-506: The marketing environment. To overcome the deficiencies of the 4P model, some authors have suggested extensions or modifications to the original model. Extensions of the four P's are often included in cases such as services marketing where unique characteristics (i.e. intangibility, perishability, heterogeneity and the inseparability of production and consumption) warrant additional consideration factors. Other extensions include "people", "process", and "physical evidence" and are often applied in
3468-418: The marketing process (e.g. product design , art director , brand management , advertising, inbound marketing, copywriting etc.) involve the use of the creative arts. However, because marketing makes extensive use of social sciences , psychology , sociology , mathematics , economics , anthropology and neuroscience , the profession is now widely recognized as a science. Marketing science has developed
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#17327756875043536-435: 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 strategy . A sale can take place through face-to-face contact, via mail order , through a vending machine or through online selling . Other methods of selling include: Agents in the sales process can represent either of two parties in the sales process; for example: In
3604-474: The monetary value of the product. Cost also refers to anything else the consumer must sacrifice to attain the product, such as time or money spent on transportation to acquire the product. Convenience Like "Place" in the 4Ps model, convenience refers to where the product will be sold. This, however, not only refers to physical stores but also whether the product is available in person or online. The convenience aspect emphasizes making it as easy as possible for
3672-458: The nature of a firm's marketing environment and to attain information from suppliers. A distinction should be made between marketing research and market research. Market research involves gathering information about a particular target market. As an example, a firm may conduct research in a target market, after selecting a suitable market segment. In contrast, marketing research relates to all research conducted within marketing. Market research
3740-437: The offered item of value is referred to as a potential buyer, prospective customer, or 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
3808-436: 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. Although the skills required are different, from
3876-414: The phone via telemarketing , 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. Sales Coaching
3944-417: The place (i.e., distribution) element. Some pricing tactics, such as promotional pricing, can be classified as price variables or promotional variables and, therefore, also exhibit some overlap. Other important criticisms include that the marketing mix lacks a strategic framework and is, therefore, unfit to be a planning instrument, particularly when uncontrollable, external elements are an important aspect of
4012-601: 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
4080-463: 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 blogs . 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
4148-420: The precise nature of specific concepts that inform marketing practice, the most commonly cited orientations are as follows: A marketing mix is a foundational tool used to guide decision making in marketing. The marketing mix represents the basic tools that marketers can use to bring their products or services to the market. They are the foundation of managerial marketing and the marketing plan typically devotes
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#17327756875044216-467: 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 . Many believe that the focus of selling is on the human agents involved in the exchange between buyer and seller. Effective selling also requires
4284-449: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Sellers . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sellers&oldid=959186817 " Categories : Disambiguation pages Place name disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
4352-499: 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
4420-530: The sharing economy. The different goals of B2B and B2C marketing lead to differences in the B2B and B2C markets. The main differences in these markets are demand, purchasing volume, number of customers, customer concentration, distribution, buying nature, buying influences, negotiations, reciprocity, leasing and promotional methods. A marketing orientation has been defined as a "philosophy of business management." or "a corporate state of mind" or as an "organizational culture." Although scholars continue to debate
4488-466: The specifics of the product and how it will be sold, including the channels that will be used to advertise the product, is affected by the environment surrounding the product, the results of marketing research and market research , and the characteristics of the product's target market. Once these factors are determined, marketers must then decide what methods of promoting the product, including use of coupons and other price inducements. Marketing
4556-460: The tactics and strategies in which a company promotes its products and services to individual people. Traditionally, this could refer to individuals shopping for personal products in a broad sense. More recently the term B2C refers to the online selling of consumer products.< Consumer-to-business marketing or C2B marketing is a business model where the end consumers create products and services which are consumed by businesses and organizations. It
4624-605: 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 (CRM) to 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 Paradox sees
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