Heads up! To view this whole video, sign in with your Courses account or enroll in your free 7-day trial. Sign In Enroll

How to Start a Business

Preview

Start a free Courses trial
to watch this video

Sign up for Treehouse

What is Sales?

2:57 with Pasan Premaratne

Sales involves all the actions taken to convert potential customers into buying ones by getting an agreement or contract. The sales process depends on the type of sale you have and in this video we’ll take a look at what steps we can take to ensure constant success.

This video doesn't have any notes.

Related Discussions

Have questions about this video? Start a discussion with the community and Treehouse staff.

Sign up

    Related Discussions

    Have questions about this video? Start a discussion with the community and Treehouse staff.

    Sign up

    [MUSIC] 0:00
    In the last stage, we went over the different marketing activities we 0:04
    can undertake to bring customers to our front door. 0:08
    In addition to that however, we also need to do some direct selling to 0:12
    get the product into our customer's hands and bring in revenue. 0:15
    In this series, we're going to learn about sales, and 0:19
    how we can start selling our product. 0:22
    But first, what is sales? 0:24
    Sales goes hand-in-hand with marketing, 0:25
    and it involves everything you need to do to convert those 0:28
    potential customers into buying ones by getting an agreement or a contract. 0:31
    Without sales, your company won't last long. 0:36
    Like marketing, sales is not a one solution fits all activity. 0:40
    In fact, your approach to selling depends on the type of sale. 0:44
    There's B2B, or business to business sales, B2C, business to consumer, 0:48
    B2G, business to government, and even consumer to consumer, or C2C. 0:54
    Sales strategies and 0:59
    tactics really depend on which of these types of sales you are undertaking. 1:00
    For example, with B2C sales, 1:05
    your strategy might be to appeal to the emotions, wants and needs of the consumer. 1:07
    But with B2B, you probably want to focus on cost benefits, advantages and so on. 1:12
    When you sell, there are certain steps you can take to ensure success. 1:18
    First off, you make the initial contact with the potential customer or prospect. 1:23
    This step is also called prospecting. 1:28
    Next, you plan out the sales process and the materials you need to make the sale. 1:31
    Once you have that ready, 1:36
    then you approach your prospect, which involves getting in touch with them. 1:38
    This step will lead to certain information about the prospect that you can assess and 1:41
    analyze to get a better understanding of their wants and needs. 1:46
    You then make your presentation based on the collection of information 1:50
    about their needs. 1:53
    This is where you sell your product. 1:55
    If everything goes according to plan, and you sell your product or 1:57
    service, that's great. 2:00
    But if they don't want to buy from you, the next step is to listen to 2:02
    their objections, and to respond to them without sounding defensive or pushy. 2:06
    If you convince them to buy, 2:11
    well then you get a commitment from the prospect, who is now a buyer. 2:12
    Once you have made the sale, 2:17
    you follow up with a customer with post-sale services and support. 2:18
    That is the sales process in a nutshell. 2:23
    Having a scripted process like this reduces the uncertainity involved in 2:26
    the process, and thereby the risk that you won't be able to make the sale. 2:30
    Sales is not just about relaying facts and expecting your prospect to buy. 2:34
    It is also about understanding the needs, wants and desires of your target audience, 2:39
    the ability to listen, and relate to your customer. 2:43
    For someone inexperienced, sales can be very hard to get into. 2:47
    But don't worry, we'll go over each step together, and with time and 2:51
    effort you will get good at it. 2:55

    You need to sign up for Treehouse in order to download course files.

    Sign up

      You need to sign up for Treehouse in order to set up Workspace

      Sign up