Sales is a term used to describe the activities that lead to the selling of goods or services. Businesses have sales organizations that are broken up into different teams. And these sales teams are often determined based on the region they’re selling to, the product or service they’re selling, and the target customer.
Companies staff entire departments with employees dedicated to selling their products and services. Salespeople reach out to contacts that might be interested in purchasing the product or service that their company is selling — prospects that demonstrate interest through actions like visiting the company website or interacting with the company on social media.
The goal is to reach out to leads who have shown interest in or fit the description of the company’s target customer, in hopes of providing them with a solution that results in a purchase of your product or service.
While many sales teams are held to monthly quotas and benchmarks for converting leads and closing deals, the real goal of sales is solving for the customer.
Marketing and Sales
Where can salespeople source leads and prospects? The campaigns and efforts of the marketing organization are some of the best ways to generate qualified leads. And the State of Inbound Report found that salespeople source 28% of their leads from marketing. While marketing and sales use different processes, both business functions impact lead generation and revenue.
So, how do sales teams sell? Let’s review the most common types of sales.
- Inside Sales
When huge sale teams engage with their prospects and customers remotely, often from an office alongside their team members, they follow an inside sales approach. This means they are selling from within their company. Organizations that use an inside sales approach often tend to have leaner, more automated processes and structured hours.
From phone service to internet to TV, AT&T provides products and services for just about any consumer and business. The company’s inside sales reps contact leads and prospects to complete the traditional sales process — uncovering the customers’ needs, matching them with the right solution, and closing the deal. They might use a sales software to keep track of customer interactions and sales won.
- Outside Sales
On teams where salespeople broker face-to-face deals with the prospect, they are following an outside sales approach. This implies that they are selling from outside their company — traditionally through door-to-door or field sales. These teams tend to not have strictly regimented processes, allowing freedom and flexibility for reps to develop and implement their own sales strategies.
As a leader in medical-grade equipment, Medtronic utilizes the skill set of experienced sales reps to match their products with medical professionals. Medical devices sales reps spend the majority of their time traveling — but once they reach their destinations, they meet with medical professionals and administrators who make decisions about what to purchase.
In addition to traveling to prospective customers, they might attend conferences and events where these decision-makers might be in order to network and build relationships before it’s time to make a sale.
- B2B Sales
This common acronym stands for “business-to-business” and describes companies that sell products and services to other businesses, instead of individual consumers.
B2B sales tend to have a higher ticket value and more complex terms because the goods sold to other businesses typically play an essential role in how the buyer’s business operates.
Within the realm of B2B, sellers can primarily support SMBs (small to medium businesses) or enterprise customers.
GetAccept is a sales enablement platform that helps sales reps build relationships with buyers. As a business that helps other businesses sell better, GetAccept classifies as a B2B company. Its sales reps work with other sales team managers to promote the benefits of the GetAccept products and create long-term clients that generate revenue for the business over time.
- B2C Sales
Unlike B2B sales, B2C (or business-to-consumer) sales revolve around transactions between a company and its individual consumers. These deals tend to be of lower price-value and complexity than B2B sales and can involve multiple deals with a variety of customers.
Moving companies rely on B2C sales to connect directly with the consumer who uses their services. uPack uses digital ads to source leads which their B2C sales team turns into customers.
Its sales process is simple, but effective — the company gets customers interested in their services by offering them a free quote on their move. Then, the B2C sales reps get to work enticing the prospective customer to choose their moving service over the competition because of lower prices and faster moves.
- Business Development Sales
Though business development doesn’t account for an entire sales transaction, it’s an important aspect of the huge sale function for many companies. This role is typically held by Slack BDRs at Slack who are responsible for the pipeline within enterprise accounts. They drive outreach to several stakeholders at the companies where they work. People in these roles are expected to be product experts and build demand for the Slack product.