Sales has many faces - and professions

Sales take place wherever goods or services change hands for money: Financial products at the front door, advertising campaigns on the phone, ravioli at the wholesaler or online and luxury watches at the jeweler. Sales professionals make sure that everything works, that the goods are available and the customers are satisfied, and that the cash register is in order at the end of the day.

In the professional world, a distinction is made between two terms:

• Retail tradestands for the sale of goods in stores to consumers.
• Salerefers to the work of the sales department of companies that produce goods or provide services and sell them themselves. Here, sales often comes close to marketing activities.

Accordingly, a distinction is made between two job titles:

Retail specialists

In everyday language, the common terms "salesperson" and "saleswoman" usually refer to retail specialists, i.e. people who sell goods and advise customers in stores.

Sales employees / sales specialists

Sales professionals work in corporate sales. Part of the sales work is directed outwards: Sales specialists are in contact with customers via channels such as telephone, catalog mailing and the Internet, advising them and concluding sales contracts.

Some companies employ sales specialists in theField serviceand send them with samples of their products to trade fairs or to their customers. Another part of the sales work is inside sales.

Sales experts in theIndoor serviceprovide the goods, take care of delivery and the payment process. Important tasks in the office are the maintenance of customer data, key account management, customer data analysis, strategies for offer planning and customer acquisition. These activities also fall into the area of marketing, which is why "marketing and sales" are often offered in combination in training programs.

Provider of further training in retail and sales