Sales are essentially activities associated with the exchange of products or services at a specific point of time. The exchange of a service for an additional cost is commonly thought to be a sales. Some sales do not involve exchange of products but instead have value-based payment processes. While all sales involve some kind of exchange, not all sales are the same.
Marketing and sales are the two business functions that are closely related. Marketing is primarily concerned with the creation of awareness, evaluation of customer needs, preparation of the selling process, and the achievement of the sales objective. In contrast, sales is more appropriately focused on achieving a profit. Salespeople are salespeople. They are marketing’s worst nightmare!
The two business functions sla back to marketing’s roots. The early marketer developed marketing through association with sellers of physical products. Marketers met on a regular basis and identified opportunities that could be exploited to sell more product. Today, marketing is generally defined as the process by which products are offered for sale in order to generate a profit. The development of marketing evolved from market research and the observation that the sale process promoted the continued flow of revenue.
The development of social media has simplified the process of marketing. It is now possible for people to identify opportunities that would allow them to sell their product on a social media platform. This is good news for the salespeople because it allows them to be seen as professional in an increasingly competitive market and presents new selling opportunities that they may not have realized existed.
Net sales refer to the revenue generated not only to the gross sales level but also to the net sales number. The gross sales include the gross book, gross invoice, and gross rent. The net sales refer to the revenue generated after the gross sales.
Income statement provides information on the revenue generated by the business operations and accounts for gross sales less any expenses. Income statement helps the management of the company to understand the trends in the business operations. It helps determine whether the revenue growth is increasing or stagnant. Income statement should also provide a comparison between revenues and expenses. The analysis of income statement provides the basis for the budget planning and future projections of the business operations. A manager can therefore use this report to achieve planned objectives of the business.
