The Evolution of Sales and Impact of Technology on Market Development

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of market development and sales, beginning with an exploration of sales' historical evolution, from barter systems to modern digital transactions. It then examines the pivotal role of technology in reshaping sales environments, including the use of big data, social platforms, and sales force automation. The report highlights the advantages and disadvantages of technology integration in sales, such as data security issues and the need for customer adaptation. Furthermore, the report delves into the importance of sales forces in business-to-business organizations, using HubSpot as a case study to illustrate the functions of sales teams, the importance of sales managers, and the holistic process of generating sales. It considers ethical standards and the importance of building trust within the sales force. The report also discusses the B2B sales and the evolution of sales from the pre-historic times to the modern era. The report concludes with the importance of the role of sales force for business organizations.

Running head: MARKET DEVELOPMENT AND SALES
MARKET DEVELOPMENT AND SALES
Name of the Student
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Author Note

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Introduction
The study is focused towards analyzing and evaluating sales through various different
dimensions. The study considers the evolution of sales, the role of technology and the
effectiveness of these two factors towards Business to Business sales organization functions are
analyzed subsequently. Sales is probably the most important function necessary for the growth,
development and progress of corporate businesses across the world. Hence, it important to
consider the various aspects that affect sales and the various dimensions that sales functions of
various organizations encompass. Sales can be defined as the activities that are related to the
selling of various goods and services. Sales are considered in regards to a certain time period in
order to facilitate effective measurement. Sales as a process consists of the activities of the seller
and the buyer. Sales can take place with regards to acquisition, requisition, appropriation or
direct interactions. A price is fixed for the service, value, product or commodity that is being
provided. This makes sales an important function to gain long term and short term profitability
that can guide many other functional areas of an organization effectively. It hence becomes very
important that sales activities are sustained and optimized over time. The growth and
sustainability of sales and sales process are analyzed systematically.
Evolving nature of sales
Sales have been present since the pre-historic times. It has been one of the most ancient
functions of humanity that had resulted in the evolution of businesses from the pre-historic to the
ancient to the medieval to the modern world. Civilizations have been created through the various
businesses that were sustained through the processes of sales. Some of the very early types of
sales processes that existed were based on the barter system. This system did not involve money
or tokens of assigned values. The sales transactions were measured in kind and quantity. This
meant that for the exchange of a certain quantity of one commodity a certain quantity of another
commodity is provided. Sales witnessed a large number of transformations over the ages. The
most important change that took place in the ancient times was the development of money. This
was due to the fact that barter system was becoming difficult to sustain after a certain time
(Dudovskiy, 2019). Large exchanges were not possible through this system and carrying the
transactional items became a huge challenge for the buyers and sellers. In the eighth century BC

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there was a system in ancient India that enabled independent business firms to own property and
the right to sue and the liability to be sued if required.
The Song dynasty of China in AD 960, witnessed the advent of the paper currency. Till
then currency solely existed in coin form. This made carrying and printing money easier. This
was due to the fact that the printing press was also invented at this time in China. Some of the
first partnerships and joint venture enterprises were formed at this time. The advent of paper
money facilitated sales and earning excess revenue. The capitalistic sales structures were formed
with the formation of joint stock companies and partnerships. In the 1500 AD there was a major
change in business sales across the world. Organizations such as the Dutch and the British East
India Companies began to build global trading empires. This was the time of more flourishing
global sales mechanisms. At this time sales included the floating stocks and bonds that were
formed on the new exchanges of the goods and services (Powers, 2016). Sales at this time began
to reshape empires and built lavish and growing new world powers. During and after the
eighteenth centuries the sales functions went through some of the more dramatic changes.
From 1752-1870 there was the role specialization in sales. This was the time of the
industrial revolution. One of the greatest changes that took place in human history. The insurance
companies were established at this period to secure the sales functions of the companies. Role
specialization happened as there were various people involved in the activities of sales such as
the sales initiators, the collectors and the producers. The period of 1849-1924 was known for the
snake oil salesmen. This meant that there were certain people that wanted to gain unfair sales
advantages by selling people false products, especially the ones that claimed some medical
usage. This was the time when the fraudulent sales activities came to the forefront. Sales went
through further evolutionary changes in the 1925-1936 era. The various sales principles were
formed. According to Strong Jr (1938) the psychology of sales was born with him identifying
various sales principles. The book named Psychology of selling came out in 2925 by the same
author. It provided some of the most important aspects connected with sales. The aspects that
were found were the question type, objection handling and benefits and features. There were
sales investments that were made and began to flourish. Post 1988, the spin selling factors were
formed. According to the spin selling principles, the customers are willing to purchase products
if only they rationally assume that it can have certain value in their lives. Hence, sales began to

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be associated more with the product and value offerings that companies provided. Sales people
focused on convincing the people to buy more of an important product. From 2015 onwards the
focus is on automation selling and the evolution of the long discovered cashless sales. This is the
period when sales are evolving at the fast pace than ever before in history.
Use of technology in the sales environment
Technology has for a long time been used to enhance the prospects of sales in the various
businesses. The advent of newer technologies over the years have facilitated monetary
transactions. At the same time it is important to consider how technology can be further
optimized to improve the sales functioning of the various enterprises. Hence, sales environments
continue to be benefitted though the implementation of better technologies. It is important to
consider that sales have been greatly optimized through the implementation of better technology
for facilitating transactions. In sales environments, the usage of technology is increasingly
improving the transactional functions in various sales environments.
Technology is rapidly evolving the businesses and constantly changing the ways in which
monitory transactions take place. Technology is being implemented across the various areas of
sales environments. Some of the most important technological advancements in the sales field
are causing better and easier financial transactions to take place. Competitive advantage in the
sales world of today are being gained by the ability to manage large volumes of customer data
among the various companies. This becomes difficult task for the various companies as they
have to deal with data that are massive (Rodriguez, Peterson & Ajjan, 2015). This necessitates
the utilization of big data technology. Prospecting of the potential customers have been made
easier through the implementation of the big data analysis tools and software. Organizations can
identify the potential buyers on the one hand and predict the customer sales outcomes more
accurately. This has also helped in the creation of specific target audiences that can be targeted.
It is important to understand that the companies are increasingly focusing on the use of
social platforms on the internet towards attracting their new customers. Hence, social technology
has also become a much important technological element that is being focused by the various
organizations that engage actively with the sales processes (Upadhyay et al., 2018). This is a new
way to engage the customers. Customers are more connected today over the internet than they
ever used to be in the past. This creates the necessity to integrate these customers with the sales

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process that are important towards improving the sales functionalities. An important aspect that
is connected with the sales process is the sales funnel. According to Rodriguez, Peterson & Ajjan
(2015) customers can get into touch with a product and know about its value oriented attributes
to understand its importance. At the same time the customers can gain further information about
the products through the reviews that are provided by the other users. The customer then if
interested can buy the product at the same instance though online payment systems. The
technologies are being integrated more into the online sales interactions that are happening over
time.
Sales force automation is another important technology that is used in the online
environment. This makes sure that a number of aspects connected with sales are very effectively
managed. The many tasks that are used for the sales functions are automated as a part of this
task. Sales figures, sales opportunities and customer complaints can be managed with the help of
the same tool.
It is also important to consider the fact that there are also various disadvantages of the
technologies that are used in the online sales processes as discussed. Firstly, data breach has
become a widespread issue as a result of the large information storage that is being created and
utilized. Secondly, a large number of customer are unaware of the online transactional sales
techniques. This makes them alienated from the rest of the online customers. It is important to
understand that the customers are not always effective for the traditional customers (Rodriguez,
Peterson & Ajjan, 2015). Thirdly, an important issue is the presence of a large number of issues
in the transaction features. This is much evident in the case of the frequent issues that occur with
the sales oriented systems in the online platforms. Fourthly, there is the prevalence of safety
issues within the frameworks for transactions. Many people find it hard to trust these sales
technologies due to the prevalence of potentially misleading information on the internet.
Analysis of importance of the role of sales force for business organizations
There is a need to understand sales processes between business-to-business organizations.
In order to evaluate the sales process that are implemented across the various B2B organizations,
an example can be take of HubSpot. The company is involved in the development and marketing
of various software products. The organization engages in inbound marketing. It currently has a
revenue of 513 million US dollars (HubSpot | Inbound Marketing, Sales, and Service Software,

5MARKET DEVELOPMENT AND SALES
2019). The organization consists of the sales force that focuses mainly on promoting the values
of the products of the organization to the potential buyers. The organization used its sales forces
to secure the various important deals that can enable it to realize higher profitability. The sales
force consists of the sales manager, the sales leaders, the sales teams and the various other
departments that support sales processes. It is important to consider that sales generation is a
holistic process. This includes the creation of value for the customers, attracting the right kind of
customers and selling the intended item to rake in huge rewards. Like many other organizations,
sales technology also helps to improve the functional aspects of the sales departments of
Hubspot. The importance of the sales force of the company is discussed to evaluate its
importance toward determining the value of the sales process for the organization.
The company actively engages in the sale of marketing, sales and service software. The
organization is B2B and mainly caters to the service requirements of various businesses. This
makes the internal and external functions of the sales force very important for the organization.
Some of the most important issues that they have to deal with are making the employees
prioritize the increase of sales, setting the most important ethical standards for work, creation of
trust both internally and with the clients and maintain the business standard norms while
operating. Some of the most important roles in the workforce is played by the sales manager.
These are firstly, making the salespersons aware of the policies and the rules of the organization
as well as the industry. Secondly, the sales manager of the company is also focused towards
managing the rewards and recognitions of the employees of the organization (Upadhyay et al.,
2018). Thirdly, the maintenance of ethical climate of work is a much important functional area of
the sales manager. However, the functional areas of the manager go well beyond these functions
that are described. It becomes important that the engagement of the sales force happens
effectively to create a better environment for the functioning of the organization.
The importance of the sales forces for the company is far more than simply improving the
sales functions of the organizations. The principal role of the sales forces are to increase the
revenue potential of the organization by increasing the brand awareness in the company. Driving
the sales forward is important in this case (Fatima & Azam, 2016). The team ensures that the
organization is effectively poised towards the development of the sales functions of the
organization. The importance of the sales team increases further as the sales forces are also

6MARKET DEVELOPMENT AND SALES
engaged in generating more trust with the customers. The engage in follow up functions,
customer journey stages management, re-engagement with the previous customers, providing
discounts, establishing better communications and increasing customer satisfactions. The sales
teams become the face of the brand and the face of the organizations. The clients engage most
frequently with the sales teams. This creates the opportunity to help the clients identify the
values they want to derive from the product. Like most of the other B2B enterprises the same
functional attributes are present within the Hubspot Company. The importance in keeping better
performing sales team lies in the benefits that they are able to receive through increasing the
brand awareness. In developing better relationships with the clients the sales teams not only
provide information of the product to the client but at the same time they provide the
organization with all the necessary information that is much required about the customers. The
company is in much need for the sales forces as they are the ones that determine the value of the
products that are being provided to the clients. The engage with the various departments to
develop a coordinated effort towards improving the services and management.
Conclusion
The study was important in pointing out the most valuable information about the
evolution, usage and utilization of sales. The sales process was found to improve greatly over the
ages. However, the determination of value has always been the central idea that have been
focused in all kinds of sales situations. The emergence of social media and media oriented
technologies was found to be very important in the rapidly developing sales processes of today.
It is important to understand that sales development is important for the growth of the
organizations. The importance of technology and the advantages and disadvantages of the same
have been well established through the study. The importance of the Salesforce towards
determining the success of the sales functions of the various organizations were very much
effectively determined. The integrative value of the sales forces toward engaging the customers
as well as the internal organization were very well established through the report.

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