Evolution of Selling: A Study of Historic and Contemporary Sales Methods and Attitudes

The history of selling and buying goods dates back to centuries. Sales and marketing was there from the time humans started developing their basic needs. Since then sales has passed through different phases till it reached the present, technology driven, sales methods. There are different factors that have influenced this change in sales methods ranging from the change in consumer behaviour and attitude to the development in technology. The essay provides an insight into the evolution in sales trends and practices right from the post second world war period, even though the major changes started taking place by the end of 19 th century with the industrial revolution on its peak, to the present day. Sales can be defined in simple terms as an act which involves the transfer of ownership of a product or providing a service in return of money , product or service. Looking up on the history of sales, the system of selling a product in return of some compensation has been there since pre -historic times. The history of sales and primitive sales methods, prior to the time period of 1900, are clearly described in
Powers et al. (1987). The oldest form of sales known is the BARTER SYSTEM,

where a product is exchanged for another product. But this method started getting complicated on a later stage since the value of the product being exchanged differs for the seller and buyer. The product used in exchange for purchasing maybe something of great value for the buyer but will be having only negligible value for the seller. Also the economic development lagged in a society with barter system. The limitations of barter system were overcome by the invention of monetary system, which paved way to modern day sales. Since then it has passed through different stages being influenced by factors like development in technology and changing consumer attitude, which moulded it from primitive sales method of just selling a

product to the modern sales intention of making the consumer come in search of the same product again and providing the costumer with different kin ds of post sale services. This evolution in sales can be related to Darwins theory of natural selection where the survivability and prosperity of a species is determined by its ability to fix into the contingencies of its surrounding environment ( Henderson 1983;
Lambkin and day 1989 ). Major changes in sales methods and attitude towards

sales started taking place during the post world war periods when the industrial revolution was on its peak. The industrial revolution set major changes in global sales and marketing trends. It also resulted in a change of the global economy. Before the industrial revolution the economy was dominated by small scale firms where all functions were managed by the proprietor himself who had the simple sales motto of just meeting the consumer demands (Stills, 1976 ). During that time sales and marketing was never a matter of prime concern. With the industrial revolution that started by the end of 18 th century and beginning to grip the world economy by end of 19th century. Many major brands sprouted during this period, to be specific the automobile giants like GM, FIAT, etc. and the business scenario started to change , with industries producing goods in large scales which were not absorbable in the local market. Th is was when they started considering of implementing a sales department and started considering sales as a separate stream, which was found to be successful in spreading the market and helped the companies gain many potential customers. But still sales an d sales persons were not receiving the deserved importance. During those days the sales persons were paid strictly on commission basis and their service was considered as contracted help. Because of this reason the commitment factor of sales persons towards the firm remained to be less and the firms gave little notice over the consumer demands unless the products being shipped and the

representatives achieved their allotted sales target (Strader. M and Wysachi. A,

2002 ). The trends remained to be same till the 1970s.

Many firms had their sales evolution accompanied by major changes in sales structure to adopt themselves to the changing market environment The global economy underwent a drastic charge after the second war which witnessed the rise of new industrial powers like the U.S. The new market leaders also introduced new techniques in production which had significant impact in the attitude towards sales during the mid of 20th century. For instance, the Just-in-time inventory, proposed by American statistician W.Edward Deming , was introduced during this period. Just -intime inventory is a method were only the required inventories are ordered at the required time thus avoiding accumulation of surplus raw materials required for the production lines. This has been an advantage for the industries by saving funds by preventing extra purchase of inventories, thus allocating more resources for the development purposes. The introduction of just-in-time inventory system made the role of sales department and sales personals more vital because this system demands quicker response to the changing customer needs. This gained the sales representatives the role of order -takers and consultants taking them out of the label of just contracted staffs. Sales representatives became the face of the company as it is through them the company could know about the varying consumer demands. Thus the meaning of sales started to grow from just selling the products to selling the required product. Entrepreneurs started to establish relation with their consumers so as to know what they require and provide consumers essential services. By the start of 1980s sales became a field that was inevitable for any firm and sales departments were assigned wide responsibilities apart from just co mmunicating with the consumers. This included constantly collecting feedback from consumers and

making healthy customization of products and interacts with clients and meets their demands. In short sales personals became responsible for organising both inside and outside sales of the organization ( Stills, 1976 ). The swift growth in technology made the market more competitive thus forcing the sales division of different companies to adopt certain strategies for the healthy survival in the market . This resulted in the introduction of more advanced sales methods like franchising, increasing sales team strength, become more service oriented, etc. For a better understanding of this change in sales trends, we can consider the case of IKEA. IKEA is the Swedish furniture retailers which is today one among the biggest retailers. IKEA was started as a normal furniture manufacturing unit during the post world war period of 1946. Duri ng that era, furniture trading was an isolated affair which was usually handled by small department shops and small family shops. Once a customer places an order, the product will be delivered after 2 -3 months. The price was too high because of which the t arget customers were limited (Kotler,
1996 ). As IKEA started growing and the production increased, they started focussing

on the expansion of their market. Instead of sticking to the traditional sales method, they started implementing new strategies into t heir business. One was cutting down the price of their product which helped to sell their product among different classes in the society and also they started expanding their retail franchisee to different geographical locations so as to provide customers products of their demand and give them better post-purchase services. Today IKEA is having more than 100 outlets in 28 countries. Apart from technical factors and rise in market competition, there are certain other factors that has influenced in changing sales from just a business process to the root of todays business world we see. The time starting from 1980s the competition in global market started to get increase. Companies started to give their products

competitive prices and started to realise the importance of sales personals thus working on the factors that can motivate the sales personals to sell more products. The main motivation technique used till date is providing the sales representatives target based incentives apart from fixed salary which was not present in previous days. Incentives can be monetary or non-monetary benefits. In this ways the organisations started to develop much more serious outlook towards the sales function. In todays scenario, sales have become more strategy based and technology driven both in Business-2-Business Sales and Business-2-Customer Sales. Companies adopt and imple ment different strategies to increase their sales. The growth of internet technology resulted in major changes in sales methods. For example the leading computer manufacturer DELL SYSTEMS opted a different sales channel. When all its rivals depended high c ost dealers to sell their products, DELL started taking orders through telephone and internet. As part of the customer service they also allowed their customers to customize their products and provide them the product with required configuration . Apart from internet development in other media like television, radio, cinema etc. and new methods of advertising has taken sales and sales promotion techniques to new heights. The changed nature of new age sales demands sales force to have higher skills. The sales person must be able to prove their proficiency in retention and deletion of customer so as to maintain highly profitable customer profiles. Even technical knowledge has become an unavoidable requirement so as to aid considerable part of sales task through internet and database. As mentioned before, since sales have become more service oriented, customer relationship management is another main factor being considered in the modern sales world. It focuses on maintaining long term relation with the customers instead of the traditional method of closing the sales once the transaction is completed. Sales persons are also supposed to take the role

of consultants for dealing close with the customer problems and convincing customers about the service and product quality, whereas in old era, sales men focussed in just getting product orders from the customer. The sales man has become the face of the company, the media of communication between the customer and the company ( Jobber and Lancaster, 2009 ). The sales evolution is seen as a continuous process. The sales function is undergoing an unparalleled metamorphosis, driven by the plethora of changing conditions ( Leigh and Marshall, 2001 ). Nowadays the prime asset of a company is its customer base. The new business philosophy claims the Customer is the King. Therefore the sales process follows the path of pleasing the customer, by fulfilling his wishes, for increasing the revenue instead of making the customer buy what they produce. Enlightened firms view their customers as assets, and are entrusting their sales people to management these assets ( Ingram et al, 2002 ). More changes are expected to occur in sales trends and attitude in future. In a discussion conducted with sales executives from around the wo rld by Sibson & Co. , a Chicago based management and compensation consulting firm, the future has much in store for sales. Some of the major changes expected to happen in future sales are sales strategies being replaced by customer strategies, longer sales training where each sales individual will be having a unique set of development needs, broader role will be assigned to the sales management and sales managers will be prompted to take more risks by implementing advanced sales strategies and finally the prominence of sales function within the organisation will increase and firms will give more importance for their frequent customers due to the shortage of loyal customers because of increased option of products and brands. Successful long-time customer relation has become the key to profitable business. Successful relationships that are mutually beneficial may lead to repeat business

that is curtail to success of any business ( Garofalo, 1998 ). This can be achieved only through a skilled set of sales force, advanced strategy and proper usage of all available medias to reach the customer and understand customer needs. The years following will give sales a more sophisticated image. An image mixed with high competition and advanced technology and strategies. Sales department will become the dominating section in any organisation and more people will be attracted towards taking sales as their profession.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals

Jobber, D. and Lancaster, G. (2009) Selling and Sales Management. 8th Edition, London: Pearson Education Limited, PP 7 -10. Rackham, N. and Ruff, R. (1991) The Management of Major Sales. Aldershot: Gower Publishing Company Limited. Gold, L, N. (1988) the Evolution of Television Advertising -Sales Measurement: Past, Present and Future, Journal of Advertising Research, pp19-21. Jobber, D. and Lee, R. (1994) A Comparison of the Perception of Sales Management and Sales People Towards S ales Force Motivation and Demotivation , Journal of Marketing Management, The Dryden Press, pp325-332. Keenan. And Willam (1994) Restructuring Your Sales Force, Sales and Marketing Management, ABI/Inform GLOBAL, pp40. Piercy, N. F. (2007) Evolution of Strategic Sales Organization in Business to Business Marketing, Journal of Business and Industrial marketing, Emerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 0885 -8624]. Strader, M. and Wysocki, A. (2002) A Brief History of Sales Environment. University of Florida [SN 001 ] Thomas, R. and Wortruba. (1991) The Evolution of Personal Selling, The Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, 11, 3; ABI/Inform Global, pp.1
Online Reference
http://www.shoreyconsulting.com/Articles/Article_1_-_PDF.pdf http://www.buzzle.com/articles/barter-services-history-of-barter-system.html http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36134788/ns/business-autos http://www.business.illinois.edu/research/020104paper.pdf