Sales

Various Sales Tactics

Individuals engaged in selling a product or service can approach the sales process in a variety of ways:

• Retail Sales: Set up a store to sell the product or service. Drive traffic to the store by marketing to interested parties.
• Door-to-Door Sales: Hire a sales force to go door-to-door and solicit sales.
• Inside Sales: Cold calling and solicit sales via phone.
• Business-to-Business Sales: Set appointments with other businesses, make appointments with key players, and close deals in a face-to-face sales presentation or meeting.
• Online Sales: Solicit online purchases through a website by using marketing tactics such as web banners, email, search engine optimization, pay-per-click campaigns, affiliate marketing and other web tactics to drive individuals to the businesses website. Traditional marketing tactics such as print, radio, and media can still be employed to drive sales to the business.

Benefits of Online Sales

Businesses with remote customers or an online sales force are not required to meet in person. Online business can recruit, train, and communicate with their salespeople and customers through the use of online collaboration or groupware software, webinar sessions, videoconferencing, online conferencing, teleconferencing or audio conferencing, Voice Over Internet Protocol, and other remote desktop connection tools. In real-time, instructors, business owners, customers or the sales force can communicate data with one another through application sharing and desktop sharing software via a web conference. Customers receive a detailed overview of the product or service, but are not inconvenienced by time pressures of face-to-face pitches.

Online sales are beneficial to companies because businesses can disseminate information regarding their product to a vast number of people for less money than it would cost for a traditional marketing campaign. Furthermore they present a professional image of their company and service with the use of advanced online meeting and remote desktop software. Online marketing is eco-friendly, because no paper is wasted sending individuals brochures and other information. No fuel or time is wasted traveling door-to-door in hopes of making a sale. No cold calling is necessary to solicit customers. If the business is strictly an online business, no costs are associated with maintaining a physical store. Because most information is automated, marketing online is easier because the sales person can target individuals who have preferences that would indicate an interest in a certain product.

Online businesses can utilize other business software and businesses to drive sales through affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is a tool that employs websites of related businesses or affiliate to drive business to the intended website. Businesses will reward those affiliates for each customer that purchases as a result of an affiliate’s advertisement. An interested customer can purchase a product via credit card in a secure online environment through the use of Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS). The customer’s information is protected through encryption.

Online sales can save the online business owner time and money by streamlining marketing and travel expenses.