A More Complete Definition of Sales

When I ask sales people to define what sales is, I get a wide variety of responses. Here are a few: 

• Sales is a transaction
• It’s providing a solution
• Sales is solving a problem
• It’s an exchange of value
• Sales is transferring excitement
• It’s about building trust and relationships
• Sales uncovers pain and fixes it 

These definitions are not wrong. They’re just incomplete. Even if you try to make them complete, they still miss many points. The dictionary definition of sales does not help either. It defines sales as an exchange of a commodity for money. There’s obviously more to selling than that.

The following one-sentence definition paints a more complete picture of what sales really is. This definition is a little different.

The definition of sales is:

Sales is the process of helping someone make a positive change and allowing them to own it.

I unpack this in the book, Feel Good About Selling, but there are at least six components at play in this definition.

1. Sales is a process
2. Sales is about helping people
3. Sales is about making positive change
4. Sales is about solving pain/problems
5. Sales is about helping people take ownership
6. Sales is a relationship

This is a much more robust and complete picture of professional sales compared to the traditional value exchange definitions.

What are your thoughts? Post them in the comments below.