Sales are the productive activities related to the quantity or selling of products in a certain targeted interval of time. The sales process is an important part of any organization because it determines its sustainability. The sale of a product for a particular price is also generally regarded as a sale.
Every business unit has its own specific sales process that is formulated on functional areas. Some of these areas are product development, marketing, sales, accounting and administrative or human resources. There are many other functional areas which are considered to be important throughout the sales process. There are many marketing departments, customer handling, order taking, warehouse and distribution, research and development, finance, information systems and other functional areas.
In a typical sales transaction, there are two main parties which are the seller and the buyer. The seller is also known as the manufacturer, while the buyer is called the consumer. In this transaction, the manufacturer gives the manufacturer the price/value of the product or services and the consumer, who is the customer, consents to the sale through his debit or credit card. The buying process usually starts after the seller has informed the buyer of his product and of the features/benefits that he is interested in purchasing.
Salaries/wages are the main source of income during the sales transaction. There are many different ways by which salaries and wages can be determined. One party can be the employer who pays the salary to the employees or one party can be the seller and the buyer in this case. The role of the bank or the financial markets in this transaction is very important because the financial markets have a major say in determining the value/price of the transactions which are based on SALES.
The role of the marketing and advertising departments in this transaction is very important. The companies always try to reach out to the maximum number of possible customers in order to increase their sales. Salaries/wages are what a person will receive after the sale of the product or service to the buyer. This income is earned by the seller and marketed to the buyer. In this type of sale transaction, the marketing department makes a lot of salespeople work for them. They will find clients in the localities, market themselves to these clients and make sales to them.
It is quite evident from the above that the two business functions in a transaction are not the same. What is clear is that there are some key points which are common in both the functions. These two business functions are then used interchangeably by many companies, organizations and individuals. The salaried or salary employee is paid for their performance and the role of the marketing and advertising departments is used to market the products and services to potential customers. It is because of this interchange of the two business functions that many organizations use the terms’ SALES and Marketing or Advertisement departments in their businesses.