While most sales professionals have a basic understanding of the diversity of processes and roles within sales, it’s often not a widely-known concept. Understanding the various focus areas can broaden any sales team or organization’s horizons as to what can be optimized for increased sales.
In this blog, we’ll cover five basic types of sales and some sales positions within each. We’ll also touch on how software like monday sales CRM can support all of these sales types.
Five types of sales categories
The five major types of sales are:
- B2B sales
- B2C sales
- Direct sales
- Enterprise sales
- SaaS sales
To better understand these conceptually and practically, we’ve included each type of sales’ definition and examples.
B2B sales
When your company makes a sale of goods or services to another business, you’ve made a B2B, or business-to-business sale. B2B sales are often among the most complicated transactions, taking longer to close and requiring several levels of approval.
They typically deal with higher-value transactions than other types of sales. While some B2B sales involve the distribution of inventory for sale to consumers, others involve manufacturing supplies or business services.
With B2B sales, companies focus on long-term relationships, knowing that more sales will come down the pike if the buyer is pleased with the transaction.
B2C sales
Business-to-consumer or B2C sales cut out any middle person so that the seller can sell products or services directly to the consumer. Sellers may involve distributors who sell products they bought in a B2B transaction; for example, a supermarket buys frozen foods from various B2B sellers and resells them to the consumer in a B2C transaction.
B2C sales often rely on advertising and marketing to reach consumers, touching on customers’ emotional needs and pain points. Brand names can better leverage their status as a known quantity in a B2C transaction, and price is often vital to a successful sale.
Enterprise sales
Enterprise sales are B2B sales on a mega scale. Often known as complex sales, these are high-stakes transactions that involve very large companies. The enterprise sales process can be lengthy and complicated, with enterprises often buying an entire system rather than individual products.
Often, enterprise sales involve implementation, training, and support that continue far past the actual sales transaction. Enterprise sales, which are often highly lucrative, can tie the buyer and seller to each other for multiple years.
SaaS sales
SaaS or software-as-a-service sales involve selling web-based software to businesses. Because the software must be supported, often with customizations for each customer, this type of sales can pair business development managers with the sales team. The development team must provide demos and training, and the sales team must be extremely knowledgeable about how the software works.
One particularly useful type of SaaS is CRM (customer relationship management) platforms, which help businesses streamline their sales pipeline and deliver excellent customer service.
Direct sales
If you’ve ever bought a Christmas tree ornament from an artisan on Etsy, you’ve participated in direct sales. This type of sales, which involves selling directly to consumers, is used by product creators and small businesses.
Multilevel marketing is another version of direct sales, as are most real estate transactions. Direct sales typically employ a great deal of one-on-one communication, and the internet makes them feasible for individuals as well as businesses.
What kinds of jobs are there in sales?
Just as there are different types of sales, you can also find different types of sales positions. If you’d like a career in sales, you’ll choose the types of positions you pursue based on the industry you want to work in and your own personality and skills.
Take a look at just a few of the key positions that employees in sales can hold.
Business development manager
Business development managers are responsible for gathering sales leads and work directly with marketing professionals to develop strategies and implement market trends.
Account manager
Account managers take over once the initial sale has been completed. Working primarily in B2B scenarios, account managers are in charge of the continuing relationship with a customer or client, providing support, answering questions, and working with the sales team to generate additional revenue.
Sales manager
Sales managers typically have a background in sales, but in many ways, they’re really administrators, managing teams of sales reps and account managers. They’re primary role is to provide training and coaching for their teams.
Sales rep
Sales representatives are outward-facing employees who connect directly to customers and clients. Traditionally, sales reps are divided into two types: inside sales and outside sales reps. Inside sales reps typically work from an office, dealing with customers by phone and email while outside sales reps often sell in-person at the client’s location.
Access the tools you need for success whether you’re a sales rep, a sales manager, or overseeing a large team of your own with monday.com sales CRM.
monday.com features to help you perfect any type of sales process
When you take advantage of the monday sales CRM, you position your sales team for success, no matter what type of sales you’re conducting.
Lead capturing and management become streamlined, and your sales reps can access all the information they need to close deals at any time and from any location.
Integrated email features and automated reminders save your salespeople time so they can focus on clients, and customizable dashboards put you on top of everything from account management to sales operations, smoothing out your entire sales pipeline.
With tools like lead capturing, deal management, and automation, your sales and marketing teams can reach their full potential.
FAQs
What are the five types of sales?
- B2B
- B2C
- Enterprise
- SaaS
- Direct sales
What are some types of sales jobs?
- Business development manager
- Account manager
- Sales manager
- Sales rep
Empower your sales team with monday sales CRM
Whether you’re providing a service or selling a product, a sales CRM software can help you and your teams manage deals and customer relationships more effectively. Whatever the type of sales role you’re in, you’ll have access to the tools and support you need to build profit and earn repeat business. Use the monday sales CRM to empower yourself and your sales team to work smarter.
Get started