Sales v. Sales-Contracting

What's the difference between Sales and Sales-Contracting?

Sales is the process of getting a customer from indifferent to wanting-to-buy.

Sales-Contracting is the process of getting the customer from wanting-to-buy to signed contract.

The important word here, at least for Sales-Contracting, is process. Sales-Contracting is a process and, like any process, it’s got to have an overall objective. The overall objective of any sales-contracting process is Good Contracts Closed Quickly (GCCQ).

In other words, the end point is an agreed contract which contains all the elements and protections you need (= good for the seller), which contains all the elements and protections that the customer is looking for (= good for the buyer), which is signed in the minimum elapsed time (absolute time, as well as person/hours consumed), and which generates the minimum of friction (= quickly, which won’t happen unless also = good for the buyer).

Why does this matter? Because a poor Sales-Contracting Process means:

• increased costs;

• increased time to get to the money;

• increased friction and burn of customer goodwill;

• increased chance that your buyer will get lured away by a competitor.

All of which are best avoided.