I do agree though that they tend to be examples of customer service (assisting a customer to place an order), rather than sales (generating interest in ordering).
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that all sales is “manipulative, high-pressure sales!”. This appears to be a mental stumbling block for many technical-type people.
Here’s a fictional, non-strawman example of sales activity:
I sell steel manifolds (blocks of steel with ‘pipelines’ cut out). A lot of potential customers don’t use manifolds in their manufacturing equipment, they use plastic pipes to transfer fluids… these are prone to breaking, and causing production delays. Switching to a steel manifold is a larger cost upfront, but will keep them operating seamlessly for many years with no issues… saving them time and money. This is a great buying decision, but due to inertia, there aren’t customers beating our doors down to buy our manifolds! It is my job as a salesperson to contact a potential customer, alert them to the sub-optimal state of their current situation (a lot just accept it!), talk to them about the benefits of using steel manifolds, and walk them through the decision-making process. This is very much salesperson-driven, not customer-driven, and ends with both happy.
These business writing emails are great.
I do agree though that they tend to be examples of customer service (assisting a customer to place an order), rather than sales (generating interest in ordering).
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that all sales is “manipulative, high-pressure sales!”. This appears to be a mental stumbling block for many technical-type people.
Here’s a fictional, non-strawman example of sales activity: