Sales refer to the practice of selling products or services through one or more of many different mediums in return for money or some form of compensation. Some of the different methods of selling include:
- Making direct contact with customers and completing the sale. This is person to person contact, such as that of the retail store business where a customer chooses a product, takes it to the check-out counter and pays the cashier for the item.
- Consignment is the practice of placing articles for sale at the business of another. This means that the original seller does not get paid until the item is actually bought and paid for. The amount the seller receives should be agreed upon beforehand and could be the actual asking price or a percentage of it.
- Door-to-Door salespeople carry their products or samples of these products with them. They have a specific area to cover and they knock on every door attempting to make a sale to the homeowners. This is usually the way vacuum salespeople operate. The customer can actually see the product, witness a demonstration and complete the sale without having to leave home.
- Mail-order sales through catalogues and magazines also allow customers to buy from home. In this process, they usually choose the products they want from the catalogue and either phone in the order or place the order online at the company website. The order can come directly to the home address or a company warehouse where the customer has to go to pick it up.
- Online sales are now very popular with many companies having an online presence in a website on the Internet. There is a secure order form in which the customer enters the credit card information and the product is shipped to the home address. Some of these companies are actually home based businesses that do not carry any inventory at all. They take the customer’s order and then submit a request for shipment to their main supplier.
Marketing the products and services plays a very important part in sales. Unless customers know about the product and how they can make a purchase, it is doubtful whether a company will have very high sales. The company has to pay for the product, which is called the wholesale price and then add a percentage to it, which is called the profit margin. The profit a seller makes on each item is how this seller often makes a living. Some of the ways sellers market their products to increase sales are through advertising on radio, TV and in newspapers. They also send out sales flyers in the mail. Online there are many ads on websites through which customers can also gain information about various products and make the purchases.