Sales are the ultimate goal of a business, as they are the ones that generate profits. Consequently, the sales department is one of the most important in the structure of the organization, since the profitability of the company ultimately depends on the actions of its employees and the head.
Why is sales important?
Sales in business means not only the direct exchange of goods for money, but also practically all activities aimed at making a profit. Sales represent the final stage of a business enterprise, whether it provides services or manufactures consumer goods. Obviously, the efficiency of the sales department affects the entire company, therefore, the competent organization of such a department is an important component of a successful business.
Unfortunately, many managers do not understand the specifics of the sales department, often confusing them with customer service departments. Of course, the responsibilities of the sales department staff include both finding new customers and maintaining contacts with old ones, but we must not forget that the main task of the department is sales, that is, the conclusion of transactions. Ideally, a sales manager should devote more than 80% of their time to phone calls and meetings with potential clients, and spend the remainder on paperwork and planning. In reality, it often happens that instead of sales, the manager is engaged in advertising, accounting, customer support and consulting.
The job of a sales manager is one of the most stressful, as it involves constant contact with people and convincing them of the need to close a deal.
Sales department structure
As a rule, the structure of the sales department is as follows: the head of the department is the head who controls the employees and plans the work of the department, and subordinates to him are several managers for the directions, the "field" manager and the dispatcher who takes orders. Such an organization leads to the fact that managers are forced to independently carry out the entire cycle - from advertising to the execution of contracts. Of course, the sales department can carry out its work in this form, but this leads to inefficient use of working time, since each employee is forced to constantly switch between different tasks.
Sales is a foreign term used in this sense only in the plural. In Russian, the closest synonym is sales.
A more efficient form of organization of the sales department is the following scheme: two main groups of managers (for active sales and for work with regular customers) are subordinate to their bosses, and the head of the department works directly with them. In addition, the document flow and order acceptance manager is directly subordinate to the manager. Finally, there are several "service" structures that work in conjunction with the sales department: accountants, logisticians, marketers, advertisers, support service. As a result, salespeople are able to devote all their working time to finding clients and closing deals, rather than solving various related tasks.
