Sales are activities related to the quantity or sale of products or services at a certain targeted point of time. A sale is considered to be a successful sales when the seller gets a profit and pays the difference, if any, between the selling price and the buying price. The sale of a product by a company to another company is also called a transaction. It is considered as a sales transaction only when there is an exchange of money or the receipt of goods for money.
There are various aspects of sales process and every aspect has its own significance. These aspects include order taking, product inventory and quality assurance. The invoicing software helps in streamlining the entire sales process and makes things easy for both the buyer and the seller. In the recent times, invoicing has become a core activity of the sales process.
Order taking in the sales process can be termed as the primary function of the sales organization. In this process, the prospective buyers and sellers meet face to face and discuss the details of the products and the pricing. The two business functions – marketing and accounting – play an important role in the overall sales activity. The marketing function helps to promote the products and services to the prospect clients and to gather information about prospective customers. Accounting measures the financial performance of the company and keeps record of the sales and purchases, making these statistics available for analysis.
Both marketing and accounting play an important role in the success of the sales organization. The market is vast and the competition is very high. Therefore, the sales people have to work hard to promote their products and services in a wider field. However, the marketing function is very important since this is what draws prospect clients to the door of the sales organization. The market penetration of the internet and other new media has increased tremendously in the recent years and therefore, the marketing activities need to be performed with great flexibility and imagination. Moreover, even the traditional forms of advertising such as press, posters, brochures, newsletters, television, radio, and yellow pages need to be used effectively.
While selling, the sales manager keeps in mind the strategies to reach out to potential customers. The sales people are responsible for calling up potential customers and persuading them into the store. The marketing managers create strategies to reach out to potential customers and find new markets for the product or service. While working on the marketing aspects, the sales departments should ensure that the process of selling follows the logical sequence of the process i.e., it should be systematic and consistent.
Sales and marketing go hand in hand. This relationship is based on the mutual understanding of both the parties. The marketing manager will set the objectives and targets and the sales staff will follow the strategy determined by the marketing manager. It is a common misconception that sales refers to the net sales of the company but this term is actually derived from the marketing department. Net sales refers to all the revenue that is generated after the direct sales have been taken care of.