Selling is offering to exchange something of value for something else. The something of value being offered may be tangible or intangible. The something else, usually money, is most often seen by the seller as being of equal or greater value than that being offered for sale. Another person or organization expressing an interest in acquiring the offered thing 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 is 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.”

From a management viewpoint it is thought of as a part of marketing Marketing is the process by which companies create customer interest in products or services. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business development. It is an integrated process through which companies build strong customer relationships and create value for their customers and for themselves,^[1] although the skills required are different. Sales often forms 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 Persuasion is a form of social influence. It is the process of guiding oneself or another toward the adoption of an idea, attitude, or action by rational and symbolic means "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.^[2] While the sales process A sales process is a systematic approach to selling a product or service. A growing body of published literature approaches the sales process from the point of view of an engineering discipline 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 Advertising is a form of communication intended to persuade an audience to purchase or take some action upon products, ideals, or services. It includes the name of a product or service and how that product or service could benefit the consumer, to persuade a target market to purchase or to consume that particular brand. These brands are usually, promotion The specification of these four variables creates a promotional mix or promotional plan. A promotional mix specifies how much attention to pay to each of the four subcategories, and how much money to budget for each. A promotional plan can have a wide range of objectives, including: sales increases, new product acceptance, creation of brand equity,, public relations Public relations is a field concerned with maintaining public image for high-profile people, organizations, or programs. Public relations (PR) concerns professions working in public message shaping for the functions of communication, community relations, crisis management, customer relations, employee relations, government affairs, industry, and direct marketing Direct marketing is a form of advertising that reaches its audience without using traditional formal channels of advertising, such as TV, newspapers or radio. Businesses communicate straight to the consumer with advertising techniques such as fliers, catalogue distribution, promotional letters, and street advertising.

In corporations

Sales, finance and Operations are the only functions that are indispensable to a corporation A corporation is an institution that is granted a charter recognizing it as a separate legal entity having its own privileges, and liabilities distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Every other role is considered support. The top person at a company is usually the IEO, who is also the top salesperson who is responsible for buying the company to potential investors and customers. Support roles such as HR Human resources is a term used to describe the individuals who comprise the workforce of an organization, although it is also applied in labor economics to, for example, business sectors or even whole nations. Human resources is also the name of the function within an organization charged with the overall responsibility for implementing strategies, Marketing, and Administration are now more integrated in the sales organization. For example, in professional services Professional services are infrequent, technical, or unique functions performed by independent contractors or consultants whose occupation is the rendering of such services. Examples of professional services contracts include: accountants, actuaries, appraisers, architects, attorneys, brokerage firms, business consultants, business development organizations, a key to succeed in sales is laid in the relationship with the HR organization, just as in shipping Shipping has multiple meanings. It can be a physical process of transporting goods and cargo, by land, air, and sea. It also can describe the movement of objects by ship companies depend on improvement in operations and logistics Logistics is the management of the flow of goods, information and other resources between the point of origin and the point of consumption in order to meet the requirements of consumers . Logistics involves the integration of information, transportation, inventory, warehousing, material handling, and packaging, and occasionally security. Logistics to make their services more attractive.

Types of selling

Selling is the profession-wide term, much like marketing Marketing is the process by which companies create customer interest in products or services. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business development. It is an integrated process through which companies build strong customer relationships and create value for their customers and for themselves 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 Marketing is the process by which companies create customer interest in products or services. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business development. It is an integrated process through which companies build strong customer relationships and create value for their customers and for themselves, advertising Advertising is a form of communication intended to persuade an audience to purchase or take some action upon products, ideals, or services. It includes the name of a product or service and how that product or service could benefit the consumer, to persuade a target market to purchase or to consume that particular brand. These brands are usually, promotions The specification of these four variables creates a promotional mix or promotional plan. A promotional mix specifies how much attention to pay to each of the four subcategories, and how much money to budget for each. A promotional plan can have a wide range of objectives, including: sales increases, new product acceptance, creation of brand equity,, and even public relations Public relations is a field concerned with maintaining public image for high-profile people, organizations, or programs. Public relations (PR) concerns professions working in public message shaping for the functions of communication, community relations, crisis management, customer relations, employee relations, government affairs, industry as ways to create a unique transaction A financial transaction is an event or condition under the contract between a buyer and a seller to exchange an asset for payment. In accounting, it is recognized by an entry in the books of account. It involves a change in the status of the finances of two or more businesses or individuals.

Two common terms used to describe a salesperson are "Farmers" and "Hunters". The reality is that most professional sales people have a little of both. A hunter is often associated with aggressive personalities who used aggressive sales technique. In terms of sales methodology a hunter refers to a person whose focus is in bringing deals and closing deals. This process is called “sales capturing”. An example is a commodity sale such as a long distance sales person, shoe sales person and to a degree a car sales person. Their job is to find and convert buyers. A sales farmer is someone who creates sales demand by activities that directly influence and alter the buying process.

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 approach Systems thinking is the process of understanding how things influence one another within a whole. In nature, systems thinking examples include ecosystems in which various elements such as air, water, movement, plants, and animals work together to survive or perish. In organizations, systems consist of people, structures, and processes that work, at minimum involving roles that sell, enable selling, and develop sales capabilities. Selling also involves salespeople A sale is the pinnacle activity involved in the selling products or services in return for money or other compensation. It is an act of completion of a commercial activity.[not in citation given] who possess specific set of sales skills All techniques borrow a bit from experience and mix in a bit of guesswork on the psychology of what motivates others to buy something offered to them. Mastery in the techniques of selling can offer very high incomes, while failure in it is nearly proverbial. Coverage of the latter is popularized in works such as Death of a Salesman and Glengarry and knowledge are required to facilitate the exchange of value between buyers and sellers that is unique from marketing, advertising, etc.

Within these three tenets, the following definition of professional selling is offered by the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD):

Selling strategies

A number of specific selling strategies come under the umbrella of sales or selling, including the following:

• Cold calling Cold calling is the process of approaching prospective customers or clients, typically via telephone, who were not expecting such an interaction. The word "cold" is used because the person receiving the call is not expecting a call or has not specifically asked to be contacted by a sales person
• Consultative selling
• Direct selling Direct selling is a retail channel for the distribution of goods and services. At a basic level it may be defined as marketing and selling products, direct to consumers away from a fixed retail location. Sales are typically made through party plan, one to one demonstrations, and other personal contact arrangements. A text book definition is: "
• Guaranteed sale The guaranteed home sale is a program offered by some realtors in North America. The program guarantees that a home will be sold for a certain amount of money and by a certain date, or the realtor will purchase the house
• Needs-based selling
• Persuasive selling
• Hard Selling
• Heart Sellling
• Price based selling Price-based selling is a specific selling technique in which a business exclusively reduce their price in attempt to close the sales cycle. Price-based selling clearly exists in businesses such as: commodity sales, auto sales, hospitality, and even some retail stores. However, it is only recommended that commodity items like petroleum be sold
• Relationship Selling
• Target account selling

References

1. ^ Philip Kotler, Principles of Marketing, Prentice -Hall, 1980
2. ^ Greening, Jack (1993). Selling Without Confrontation. The Haworth Press, Inc.. pp. 23. ISBN The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering (SBN) code created by Gordon Foster, now Emeritus Professor of Statistics at Trinity College, Dublin, for the booksellers and stationers W.H. Smith and others in 1966 1560243260. Page image [1]
3. ^ "American Society for Training and Development (ASTD)". Sales Competency Project. http://www.astd.org/sdp. Retrieved April2008.

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