Article Covering All Basics of Sales

What does “sales” encompass and what are the differences between B2B and B2C sales??

The term sales?captures?all activities involved in selling a product or service to a consumer or business.

B2C (business-to-consumer) companies sell products or services directly to consumers, while B2B (business-to-business) companies sell products or services to other businesses.

What are the steps of a sales process and why is it important to organize and track the sales process?

Most companies?have a dedicated?sales process, which is a repeatable, multi-step process,?to bring a prospective customer from the initial stages of?awareness of a product or service to a closed sale. CRM platforms are usually structured around a company's sales process. Typical steps include:

Prospecting, where potential customers are identified.

Qualifying, where potential customers are evaluated to see if they have a need for the product or service and if they can afford it.

Presenting, where the AE presents what the company has to offer to the prospect, as well as handle any potential objections that come up.

Closing, which captures everything that needs to be done in the end stages of a sale to get a prospect to sign a contract and become a customer.

Customer Success, where businesses must provide post-sale support so that customers continue to want to buy from the business.

What are the different roles on a sales team?

Business processes differ depending on a company's size and business model, so business analysts would customize processes according to their specific company.

Multiple team members of a sales force work on different parts of the sales process and interact with a CRM differently based on which stage of the sales process they are focused on.

Marketing Associates are responsible for generating marketing qualified leads (MQLs).

Sales Development Representatives vet leads to determine whether they are likely to make a purchase and therefore whether they are sales qualified leads (SQLs).

Account Executives present the product or service to the prospect, conduct demos and?follow up calls, handle any objections or hesitations, and?close?the?deal once the prospect has decided to purchase.

Customer Success Managers ensure that the customer has what they need: they?will help the customer configure the product or service they've purchased, answer any follow up questions, and conduct any support service to ensure the customer is happy.

Sales managers typically oversee a?sales force, providing them with guidance and discipline. They are often responsible for evaluating the performance of a sales team, reporting on their forecasted sales, and tracking overall sales metrics for their team.

Key Terms

Sales: All activities involved in selling a product or service to a consumer or business.

B2C?(business-to-consumer) sales:?The process of selling products or services directly to consumers.

B2B (business-to-business) sales:?The process of selling products or services to other businesses.

Sales process:?A set of repeatable steps that a salesperson can take to bring a prospective customer from the initial stages of?awareness of a product or service to a closed sale.

Lead: An individual or organization with an expressed interest in what a company is selling.?

Prospecting: The process of identifying potential customers to sell to. Sometimes referred to as lead generation.

Inbound leads: Leads that come directly to a business and express their interest.

Outbound leads:?Leads that businesses seek out and?reach out to in order to sell to them

Qualifying: The process of evaluating which leads are have a need for a product or service, are most likely to sustain interest in it, and can afford it.?

Prospect:?A potential customer that is qualified as fitting certain criteria.

Marketing qualified lead (MQL):?A?lead that the marketing team has deemed qualified and ready for a sales follow-up.?

Sales qualified lead (SQL): A sales prospect that has been vetted by the sales development team and determined to be qualified as a worthwhile?potential customer to pursue and to move forward in the sales process.

Sales force: The people in a company who are responsible for selling its products or services

CRM?business users:?Employees who use CRM in their everyday workflow. Also referred to as "end users".