Different Types of Sales: Everything You Need to Know

Some 21% is the average sales win rate. Not the number you expect, right? It takes understanding the target audience, type of sales, optimization techniques, and a properly chosen sales strategy—knowledge that beginners may not have. When clarity is needed most, they are overwhelmed with reporting tools, trends, and sales approaches. 

The result? Around 54% of sales reps believe that selling is more challenging than the year before. So, how do you become confident in closing deals?

Main Types of Sales and Recommended Approaches

The first step to mastery is to define key types of sales and their peculiarities. This will shape how you approach potential customers and build long-term relationships with them. Most importantly, it will answer the main questions: Who are you selling to and how?

Let’s look at the different types of sales.

1. B2B Sales

B2B (Business-to-Business) type of sale is all about selling products from one business to another, and thus, the name. The nature of B2B challenged over 50% of sales professionals to handle longer sales cycles, multiple decision-makers, and withstand a competitive market.

So, how can sales teams address these concerns? 

• Clearly define a customer’s journey and map touchpoints with your brand. 
• Personalize pitches using data you have on prospective clients.
• Consider customers’ pain points and how your product addresses them. 
• Use case studies and success stories to foster credibility.

2. B2C Sales

Think of B2C (Business-to-Customer) as providing goods or services to individual customers. Unlike the B2B industry, this type of selling has shorter cycles. The goal? B2C sales strategy aims at quick, emotion-driven purchases through discounts, special conditions, and promotions.

Here is how you should approach B2C product selling:

• Use clear, compelling messages to address the needs of your prospective customers.
• Try the FOMO strategy to create a sense of urgency for quick sales.
• Work with social proof and customer reviews for increased trust.

3. Enterprise Sales

Enterprise sales are about offering complex solutions or products to large companies—enterprises. These deals are rarely transactional and require effective sales strategies, deep engagement, and a strong focus on return on investment and long-term value.

So, what are the tips to make sales efforts pay off?

• Create a value-based proposition based on the company’s objectives.
• Use success stories and personalized calculations to support the offer on each stage of your sales pipeline.
• Provide personal interactions, demos, and scalable options.

4. Account-Based Sales

Account-based type of sales targets segmented high-value accounts. Instead of focusing on volume, sales managers work with quality. As a result, some increase the win rate by 38% and deal size by 91%. The key? Building long-term customer relationships with potential clients and fostering their trust.

Here are the main sales approaches to stick to:

• Clearly define the buyer persona and set qualifications.
• Customize and personalize sequences for account-based selling.
• Adjust contact strategies to different decision-makers.

5. Consultative Sales

Consultative selling lies in a deep understanding of the audience and their pain points. It is about building credibility and trust, so instead of selling a product, sales representatives take a consultative approach and provide a solution. 

So, what are the tips successful sales teams use?

• Put the solution over product sales.
• Examine the audience’s needs and build your conversation around questions and recommendations.
• Listen to potential buyers to understand their viewpoint. 

6. eCommerce Sales

eCommerce is one of the common types of sales that refers to offering products or services through digital platforms. Before associating eCommerce with B2C sales, consider this: 80% of B2B buyers prefer online sales through digital platforms, as it provides fast and convenient experiences. This makes eCommerce more relevant than ever.

Let’s take a look at the types of sales approaches that work best for eCommerce:

• Use hyper-personalization to deliver what potential leads need most.
• Try predictive analytics to predict future trends that can benefit your business.
• Focus on customers’ feedback, reviews, and user-generated content for increased trust.

7. Inside Sales & Outside Sales

A place or environment is the main difference between inside and outside sales categories. While inside selling is remote—via calls, emails, and online meetings—the outside requires direct engagement and connections with customers.

So, what are the tips successful salespeople use to get a closed deal?

• Use automated personalized outreach to improve sales performance.
• Consider virtual demos to showcase the product remotely.
• Adapt sales materials for offline meetings to master outside sales.
• Try territory planning based on the target market location to optimize in-person meetings.

8. Direct Sales & Indirect Sales 

The main difference between direct and indirect types of sales lies in your relationships with customers. Do you have direct contact with the audience? Or do you sell through third parties? Each type has its perks: direct selling lets you own the process on all deal stages, while indirect is more scalable.

Let’s see what the recommended tips are to reach team goals in these categories:

• Focus on building trust with the clients through educational materials and success cases for direct interactions.
• Implement AI to personalize sales funnels and make each stage tailored to the needs of the direct audience.
• Choose third parties based on the fit and alignment for indirect selling.
• Offer activities to partners to keep them engaged and involved in indirect sales.

Key Methods to Try Across Sales Types

The next step to excelling in sales is choosing the right communication method. But how can you understand what is best for your sales department? This section will answer the question and review the main approaches to all kinds of sales.

Solution Selling

This approach focuses on problems your prospects have first, and the product itself later. Instead of trying to sell features, sales teams consider problems and how the product solves them.

The method is best for:

• Consultative sales
• B2B sales
• Enterprise sales
• Account-based sales

SPIN Selling

SPIN stands for situation, problem, implication, and need-payoff. This approach uses strategic questioning, which helps move prospects further in the sales funnel. The topics for the questions are encoded into the abbreviation, meaning there are situation-, problem-, implication-, and need-payoff-related questions.

This method is best for:

• Enterprise sales
• Account-based sales

Challenger Selling

The key to this method is to challenge the way prospects think and view some situations and provide a new solution. However, a challenger salesperson not just defies existing perspectives, but also educates customers and controls the conversation flow. 

This method is best for:

• B2B sales
• SaaS sales
• Enterprise sales

SNAP Selling

SNAP selling is perfect when sales teams have to deal with demanding clients who easily get distracted. The abbreviation takes a letter from its key approaches: keep it Simple, be iNvaluable, Align, and raise Priorities.

This method is best for:

• B2B sales

The Role of AI in the Sales Industry

Around 2 hours per day is how much time you can save with AI. Regardless of the sales type you are dealing with and the method you are using, AI can be the answer.

Instead of wasting time handling manual tasks, more sales reps can turn to technology to optimize their workflows.

How Sembly Can Help in Different Types of Business Sales

Recording and transcribing calls is the bare minimum that surprises nobody. Sembly is here to revolutionize the market and level up your productivity. How? Its valuable insights, actionable tasks, and key meeting items make it the right hand for sales professionals. 

Is security sensitive to you? Sembly is DPF-, GDPR-, HIPAA-, SOC 2, and FERPA-compliant. What about languages? Sembly speaks yours and supports 48 languages in total. What if you need other apps? You can easily sync details between platforms, so your notes are exactly where you need them. 

Here is how you can use Sembly for different types of selling based on the meeting location:

• Online meetings: Sembly can join Zoom, Webex, Microsoft, Google Meet, or any other calendar meeting. You no longer need to keep track of all notes and discussed information, as Sembly does the work for you.
• Offline meetings: If the meeting occurs offline, Sembly has you covered. You can record audio live or upload files later. Sembly will provide insights, while you focus on what is important.

Sembly’s unique add-on—Semblian—creates comprehensive AI artifacts based on the meetings it is added to. Starting from reports, sales proposals, and templates to complex marketing strategy plans!