A sale is an agreement by which the seller undertakes to deliver a good or service, and the buyer to pay it. In other words, a sale is the transaction by which a property or right held by a seller is transferred to a buyer for a sum of money (selling price). When the consideration is not money, then it is not a sale but an exchange or barter.
The sale is a set of actions and steps taken by a trader (sales representative, salesman, broker) in order to conclude a sales contract with a client.
There is the sedentary sale, the place of transaction is at the seller (store sale) and the fair sale or at home, for which the place of transaction is at the customer.
The sale can result from a negotiation between the seller and the buyer, resulting in an agreement on the thing and the price. It is often governed by the General Conditions of Sale and/or the Special Conditions of Sale and may require the edition of a tariff.
By extension, the term sale could have particular meanings:
- sale, all processes that, since the parts come into contact, leads to a written agreement (purchase order, contract …), delivery or execution (in the case of a service) and finally to payment.
- sale business refers to the sales force, department or commercial function responsible for managing and implementing operations specific to the business activity.
The spirit of the sale
Some general ideas about the spirit of sales shared by non-sedentary sales practitioners:
- The business of sale is first of all seduction.
- Selling is a dual skill: product knowledge, relationship management.
- It’s an art. And to possess this art is to master all the techniques allowing the accomplishment of a work. Selling requires in-depth knowledge as in any other profession.
- It’s a behavior. Enthusiasm, optimism, humor and simplicity are basic behavioral qualities that are good to have. Selling is not only a question of creativity, but of instinctive compilation of a set of data (experience, knowledge acquired in training and essentially in situation, impressions felt, personal sensitivity) in order to convince and especially to persuade. Indeed, a customer can be convinced but not persuaded and not buy.
- The sale begins when the customer says no.
- We do not sell the product, we sell the idea of the product.
- To sell is first to know how to listen. Before arguing, it is better to know the expectations of the interlocutor.
- Selling is the most enjoyable act of the seller’s trade. It is actually a series of other acts more or less binding (making appointments, prospecting, report writing, file maintenance, relaunch, sending documentation, establishment of the expense report, sometimes unpaid. ..)
- “Whoever you want to persuade, you must have regard for the person whose mind and heart you must know, what principles she gives, what she likes, and then notice within the object of which he is what relations he has with its principles and tastes, so that the art of persuasion consists as much in that of acquiring as in that of convincing, so much the men are governed more by caprice than by reason. ” Blaise Pascal, Of the Geometric Spirit and the Art of persuading, 1657.
Sale vs. marketing
Sales and marketing, often confused, are very different activities. Between the two extreme poles, one can interpose the direct marketing, the direct sale, etc.
| Marketing | Sale | |
|---|---|---|
| Relation | (?) | Indenture; face-to-face relationship |
| Finality | Market shares | Gross sales |
| Players | Anonymous | Seller |
| Nature of the object of the sale | Une référence | Une offre ad-hoc de produit ou service |
| Price | Fixed | Negotiable |
| Quantity | Large quantity | Single |
| Levels | General direction | Ground |
| … | … | … |
| Etc. | Etc. | Etc. |
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