Sales is a complete operational function with inputs, outputs, procedures and metrics, exactly like production or purchasing. Treat it as a personal talent residing in one energetic salesperson, and you build revenue that can neither be forecast nor repeated.
1 What the function actually does
Finds
Builds a list of prospects and qualifies them
Persuades
Understands the need and offers a solution with a price
Closes
Agrees the order and documents it
Keeps
Serves the customer and sells to them again
Four connected jobs — and failing at the fourth means starting from the first every time
The common error is to measure sales by the third alone. A business that rewards closing and neglects keeping buys a new customer every month at high cost instead of selling twice to one customer.
2 Sales and marketing: a common confusion
| Aspect | Marketing | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Create demand and attention | Convert demand into a deal |
| Scope | The market as a segment | The customer as a person or business |
| Horizon | Medium and long | Short and tied to the period |
| Output | A qualified prospect | A signed order and an invoice |
| Metric | Awareness, reach, cost per lead | Revenue, conversion rate, margin |
Where the link between the two breaks
Marketing says: “I handed over 400 leads.” Sales says: “None of them was serious.” The fix is not another meeting, it is a written, agreed definition of a qualified lead: which conditions must be met before a name passes from marketing to sales?
3 Selling to businesses and to consumers
| Aspect | Selling to businesses | Selling to consumers |
|---|---|---|
| The decision | Collective: the user, finance, management | Individual and quick |
| The cycle | Weeks to months | Minutes to days |
| Deal size | Large, and few of them | Small, and many of them |
| The driver | Return, cost and risk | Need, want and impression |
| Selling style | Relationship, advice and competition | Display, trial and price |
| Credit | Common: 30 to 90 days | Rare: payment on purchase |
In business selling, the decider is not the user
In a deal for accounting software, the user is the accountant, the influencer is the IT manager, the decider is the finance director and the buyer is procurement. Persuading only one of them does not close the deal, and neglecting any of them can stop it late.
4 How a sales team is structured
- By territory: a region per salesperson. Simple and clear, and suits a single product.
- By product: a team per product line. Suits anything needing technical depth.
- By sector: one team for government, another for retail. Suits differing buying cycles.
- By customer size: a key accounts team and a small accounts team.
- Inside support: a sales coordinator handling quotes and orders so the rep can stay in the field.
Two salespeople, each sold one million riyals this year. Commission is on revenue, so both earned the same:
| Item | Rep A | Rep B |
|---|---|---|
| Sales | 1,000,000 | 1,000,000 |
| Average discount given | 2% | 14% |
| Cost of goods sold | 700,000 | 810,000 |
| Gross profit | 300,000 | 190,000 |
Result: a gap of 110,000 riyals in profit, and identical rewards. As long as commission sits on revenue, Rep B is behaving perfectly rationally: the discount is the shortest path to the number. The problem is in the system, not the person.
Lesson summary
- Sales is a function with procedures and metrics, not a talent in one energetic person.
- It has four jobs: find, persuade, close and keep — and the fourth is the one most neglected.
- Marketing creates demand, sales converts it, and a written definition of a qualified lead joins them.
- Business selling means a collective decision, a long cycle and credit; consumer selling is the opposite.
- Measuring a rep on revenue alone produces a rep who sells on discount.
5 Test your understanding
Three quick questions
Pick the answer you believe is correct and you will see the result immediately.
1. Marketing hands sales 400 names a month and sales says none is serious. The root fix:
The problem is the criterion, not the count; without a shared definition the same complaint returns whatever the structure.
2. In an accounting software deal, persuading the accountant who will use it:
A business buying circle has several roles, and neglecting any of them can stall the deal late.
3. A rep hit the target in full but through heavy discounting. The original fault:
People follow what they are measured on; if the measure is revenue alone, discounting is the shortest route to it.