#7 Different types of Sales a person can opt as profession:

#7 Different types of Sales a person can opt as profession

In professional arena the most talked or discussed term if you search, you find the term “Sales” because in any sort of business sales is the only department which generates revenue for the business by making a fragile relationship with all the support departments without which merely sales can’t happen.  You will find n numbers of articles on how to do sales, what type of strategies one need to opt to do sales etc but still today people don’t know the different types of sales which a person who want to opt sales as a career have verity of options and ability he/she can work upon.

Coming to point, if someone wants to join sales as profession in how many different types of sales domain he/she may opt as career .

One important point, I want to clear here is yes in sales profession travelling is a must activity and carrying your sales-kit all the times. To live life we need oxygen, similarly to do sales we need to reach out clients and in below all domains travelling involve sometimes with high frequency and sometimes with low. We discuss this in detail further in this article.  Below is the list and let’s discuss them in detail one by one.

1.       Direct Sales:

It is the domain we all are aware about in common because in direct sales a sales person need to reach out to door steps of the prospects to convert them into customers. The reason for this is the nature of product they are selling involves door-to-door selling. Best example for this is Eureka Forbes products, Dictionary or books selling, NGO donation funding etc. In all this types of business target customer is the mass audience.  Prerequisite to join this sales are you need to have guts, self-confidence , communication skills (specifically, good command over local language), convincing skills, aggressive in pitching and most importantly handling rejections. Probability of getting rejected is highest in this domain out of all. In direct sales, sales professionals called as “Son of Soil” the reason is they work on field 90% of their time. Direct sales is the toughest one in all the below sales domains.

2.       Retail Sales:

It is another type of sales; it emerges because of the mall culture. The qualities required here are sales persons technical knowledge about the products specifications, excellent command over 3-4 products who are substitutes to each other, knowledge about shelf management, merchandising, bar codes segregation & floor management. The best examples here are any mall, an exclusive factory outlet, More Mega Mart, Reliance Fresh or any FMCG shops, Superstore etc.

3.       Channel Sales:

A channel sale is also known as Dealer channel management, Here as a professional your customer here are not the end-user but the dealer. So the skill sets requires here is, be good at numbers. Because end of the day dealers and traders are working for commissions and you need to show them what they want. The trickiness here is many times you need to make sure the sales target must be achieved by dealer or else as a sales professional you need to help them to meet the target. You need to focus on Pricing, Commissions, Products gifts and samples and if you are managing key accounts then you need to help the end users as well. The best examples here are the consumer durable sector, FMCG sector, Retail sector all this sectors requires a professional who is good at dealer channel management. As the name sales channel management so from company to end user who all are comes in between you need to manage them all.

4.       Industrial Sales:

This is my personal favorite sales domain because here it involves some part of all types of sales here. Skill sets requires here are open for hectic travelling part not only in city but for out station tours as well. Sometimes you were handling a state or country as a territory, hope you can able to imagine the opportunity you have to explore world and to meet with new people, good at personal relations and act as a solution provider. Other benefits in this domain are you get an opportunity to deal with top management personals and the decision makers of the companies.  You need very good at presentation skills, technical skills and analytical skills to do sales-effectively . This type of sales type mostly used in manufacturing sectors and capital item product sales or participating in tenders etc.

5.       Corporate Sales:

It is a type of sales you find in the service industry where you are not selling any physical products but you are selling services like IT sales, financial products selling etc. Here written communication is the pre requisite, along with verbal communication, excellent command over benefits of your services, interpersonal skills and negotiation skills. It is a fact that “a person with more relevant information is always a very good negotiator” and as a corporate sales professional you update yourself with full of information like product knowledge, competitors knowledge, offers and policies prevailing in the market, knows your target customers.

6.       Indoor Sales/ Tele- Sales:

This is the type of sales which done over telephones; it not at all involves travelling, that’s why is it also named as in-house sales. Pre-requisites required here to do tele sales is you work as excellent communicator (Especially verbal), knows etiquette related to tele-sales. Further, you expected as very good listener abilities and keep things simple and precise, it all helps you to close the sales. Here you need to do pre-sales, closing and post sales over phone itself. Industries where tele-sales reps need are in KPOs, BPOs etc.

7.       Sales Support:

It is one of the most important divisions if sales because of the Sales support team sales team equipped with all the necessary back up required to complete the sales cycle. Sales support people are generally not directly associated with sale but definitely play a vital role to get repeat business from the existing customers. Sometimes a sales person need to play a role of support function as well. The key requisites needs here are patience, listening skills, excellent knowledge about company's policies and compliance's etc. You find sales support department in almost all the companies irrespective of the kind of product they manufacturing or services they are providing.

In last, here are some of the common skills set required while facing customers and become an effective & successful sales professional:

1.       Communication skills

2.       Presentation skills

3.       Technical skills

4.       Negotiation skills

5.       Convincing skills

6.       Analytical skills

7.       Leadership skills

8.       Self-motivational skills

9.       People skills

10.   Learning attitude

Keep applying the skills and make a note doing sales is not a cup of tea for all. You can share in comments any skill sets which you think is an important part of sales, this enable many people to decide on if they think of opting sales as a career.