Sales management is a combination of two words- sales and management. Sales is the art of planning in the mind of another a motive which will induce favourable action. The committee of American Marketing Association has defined it as: “Selling is the personal or impersonal process of assisting and or persuading a prospective customer to buy a commodity or a service or to act favourably upon an idea that has commercial significance to the seller.”
Sales has to co-ordinate with the marketing department. Particularly promotional activities and sales do need harmonization. Sales has to co-ordinate with market planning. Sales co-ordinate with distribution channels on introduction of products and later on the buyers must be made aware where the products are available. Sales has to balance the interests of the trade and those of the manufacturer.
Sales has to motivate the trade for joint promotional efforts. It is necessary to have the co-ordination of sales and overall marketing strategy. New product introduction rightly calls for a high degree of co-ordination between sales and marketing. It is necessary to be careful about inventory levels, sales plans, branch management, sales training and sales operations while a new product is being introduced. It is also necessary to co-ordinate with publicity, sales promotion and advertising of a new product.
Relationship
Sales & Advertising: Both stimulate demand. They need to be blended. Salespersons can improve advertising effectiveness. Advertising needs to support sales where and when they need it most.
Sales & Marketing information: Data is needed for analysis of sales problems, for determining sales potential. Raw data is collected by sales people.
Sales and service: contributes to strategy success.
Sales and distribution: Minimizes stock out situation; improves inventory control; helps sales to focus on demand generation.
Sales & Production: The amount of demand is assessed by the data provided by salesmen.
Sales and R&D: The R&D is based highly on the changing needs, taste and preferences of people.
Sales & Finance: The higher is the sale, more is the revenue earned by the company.