Selling and Sales Management

Selling is a highly misunderstood profession. Many people, when asked what they think of salespeople, instantly use terms such as pushy, greedy, or some other unkind adjective. Yet professional selling is not what most people think. Professionally trained salespeople are among the most important individuals within many companies. This is especially true in business-to-business selling situations where the amount of promotional expense allocated to support a sales force far exceeds expenses for advertising. Also, successful selling requires the establishment of strong relationships with customers, relationships that are intended to last for a long time. Salespeople whose goal is to just get the sale and not worry about the customer are doomed to failure. Professional selling requires knowledge and skills that must to learned over time, thus on-going training is critical for most. In this section resources are offered to help both the experienced sales professional as well as those new to the field.

Area Coverage:

• learn the basics of the selling process with links and resources that focus on sales training
• find out ways to expand your prospect list with information for finding new sales leads
• see how manufacturers' reps add value to the supply chain