Salespeople sell and you hire a sales force to sell. But your ultimate task is rather different. This is to get customers who are solvent and who respond to your offer by laying down hard cash - more than once, if possible. Much of that depends on your own ability to create and deliver a product which meets and continues to meet the needs of the customer. You can have the best salespeople, the best strategies and the best customer service, but if there is not a demand for your product, the quality is lacking, or if there is no single characteristic that sets your product apart from the competition, you will be hard pressed to make sales.
Effective sales start with the product.
You have to understand the industry in which you will be competing, the competition, both present and anticipated and above all, the customer. By creating a product to fulfil the needs of the customer, you will be better able to develop a sales strategy to generate sales. Producing a saleable product however, is just one aspect of the sales process. Organisation is another key to smart selling. Your company's ability to create and keep a customer, which is the very survival of your business, depends on your organisational capabilities as well as any other skills you may have.