In business not much happens until a transaction is agreed upon. The strategy of how these transactions occur is called marketing. The techniques and procedures are called sales. Without sales there is no business. The successful business is always looking at ways to improve sales.
Successful businesses become students of the sales process.
That is important because the very way transactions occur is changing. The nature of the sales process is changing. In the 'commoditized' age we focus on price and differentiation. Unless you are a monopoly some combination of price and benefits are the driving factors in the sales process today. But just below the surf ace we begin to see the real effects of this rapid change.