Selling your product is the most important aspect of your business.  It is the focus of all other activities in the business.  It is what generates income for the business and is the foundation on which profits are built.  If your product or service does not sell, the business will fail and all other activities of the business will have been for naught.

Selling is especially important for value-added businesses involved in direct marketing to retail outlets or consumers.  So, organizing and implementing your sales campaign is especially important.  For direction and assistance in direct marketing read How to Approach Buyers.  Another aspect of sales for value-added groups is Relationship Selling.

For more information on this topic, see the links listed below of articles posted on related Web sites.

Understanding Sales

• The Sales Process – Small Business Notes -- Most business owners would like to focus all their energy on daily business operations and serving existing client demands.
  
• So You're in Sales – University of Maine Extension -- Chances are that if you're in business, you are in some way making sales.
  
• A Brief History of the Sales Environment – University of Florida Extension -- Financial incentives are intertwined in the sales process. This has been a major cause of distrust between buyers and sellers. There have been sales personnel for as long as there have been things to sell.
  
• The Difference Between Sales and Marketing – Small Business Notes -- Many people mistakenly think that selling and marketing are the same - they aren't.

Sales Strategy

• Building a Better Buyer-Seller Relationship – HBS Working Knowledge -- How do you turn short-term transactions into long-term relationships?
• Want a Happy Customer? Coordinate Sales and Marketing – HBS Working Knowledge -- In today's hyper-competitive world, your sales and marketing functions must yoke together at every level—from the core central concepts of the strategy to the minute details of execution.
  
• How Effective Are Your ROI Sales Tools? – SalesVantage.com -- The effectiveness of ROI or value estimation in (and after) the sales process boils down to nine very important criteria.
  
• How Winners Leverage Sales Resources – SaleVantage.com -- It is critically important to build an effective sales operations infrastructure within companies.
  
• How Winners Trap Their Competition – SalesVantage.com -- Sales executives must be able to protect their value proposition from their competition or else they are risking more then they might realize.
  
• The Six Steps To Solid Sales Success – SalesVantage.com - Having a methodical approach to securing sales will help you build a successful business.
  
• Best Practices for Sales Processes – SalesVantage.com -- Why should you think about Best Practices? A better question is “Can you afford not to?”
  
• Improving Sales and Marketing with the Sales Funnel – SalesVantage.com -- Different sales executives define the sales funnel in different ways.  For the purpose of this discussion, allow us to define how we see the sales funnel.