Selling Orientation

Selling Orientation

As opposed to production orientation or product orientation, a firm using a sales orientation focuses primarily on the selling and promotion of a particular product. The successful management of the relationship between the company and its customers defines the act of sales or selling. It creates value for customers. Emphasis is not placed on determining new consumer desires, as such. Consequently, this entails simply selling an already existing product and using promotion techniques to attain the highest sales possible. Such a modern-day orientation may suit scenarios in which a firm holds dead stock, or otherwise sells a product that is in high demand, with little likelihood of changes in consumer tastes that would diminish demand.

Approaching marketing with a selling orientation was popular for companies in the 1950s and 1960s. Up to this point, a growing population and lack of significant competition combined to create an environment in which production and product orientations could lead to success. However, after the untapped demand caused by the Second World War was saturated in the 1950s, it became obvious that products were not selling as easily as they had been. The answer was to concentrate on selling. The 1950s and 1960s are known as the sales era, as the guiding philosophy of business at the time was the sales orientation.

A marketing orientation centered around sales represented a major milestone in modern business. The amount of competition being realized at that point was unprecedented, and the scale of consumerism was rising. For the first time, a more significant effort had to be made to understand the desires of potential customers. In today’s realm of marketing, selling has developed into a holistic business system required to effectively develop, manage, enable, and execute a mutually beneficial, interpersonal exchange of goods and services for equitable value. In other words, the importance of selling makes it indispensable to modern business, and it has subsequently evolved into a complex system. Effective selling requires a systems approach, at a minimum involving roles that sell, enable selling, and develop sales capabilities.