Sales

:This article is about the commercial activity. For the commune in France, see Sales, Haute-Savoie.

Critique of selling

In theory, the purpose of selling is to help a customer realize his or her goals in an economic fashion. However, in reality this is not always the case. Customers can be influenced to purchase a product or service that initially was not of interest to them. Some salespeople are trained in the art of selling customers things they don't need.

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Take for example the purchasing of a car: a consumer may have a set of cars in mind (called an evoked set) that she feels match her needs, wants and budget. She may seek the advice of a salesperson given that a salesperson can help her realize the right car given those criteria. This can be a socially useful function; salespeople have specialized knowledge of products that can help consumers make an informed decision. However, a salesperson may also talk a consumer into purchasing a more expensive or perhaps larger car then she needs or can afford. In this context, the salesperson may have usefully helped the customer re-evaluate her needs, thereby establishing a new set of appropriate choices among which included the newer or large car. This again would be a helpful and useful service provided by the salesperson. However, it is sometimes the case that customers purchase a product or service that was not initially intended and remains an inappropriate purchase after the fact. On the other hand, the consumer in this scenario can be held partially responsible for the inappropriate purchase; indeed, "A fool and his money are soon parted." (P.T. Barnum, English proverbs)

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This dysfunctional behaviour is encouraged by:

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• incentives of salespeople to increase their total number of sales, especially where retailers keep track of sales or offer commission-based salaries
• incentives from the manufactures of products or the companies of service providers to salespeople to sell their products where other similar products offered by competitors are offered
• the incentive to sell a customer a product that is in need of being cleared out, despite the fact that a customer may be better to wait for the new product