Without sales a company could not continue in business very long, its continue depends primarily on the orders that the sales department gets. During periods of depressed business conditions, the difficulty in getting orders that is, finding buyers of the product or service immediately shows the importance of the sales department. When business drops off, that is when sales decline, workers are laid off. Only those concerns survive and keep going that can sell their goods. The others go out of business or wait until business conditions improve.
Some concerns take advantage of depression periods to bring our new products or improve their present ones. Other concerns cut their prices in a frantic effort to get business. Whatever methods the successful concerns use. There always concerns somewhere that are having good business, that is their secret sales departments are securing orders.
Most business concerns have a sales department in some form or other. Even a bank has its new business department. An investment banker has a loan department which locates people to whom money can be lent safely and persuades them to borrow money, perhaps for expansion, which may run into millions of dollars. When the loan has been arranged, the investment banker’s salesmen sell to investor stocks or bonds representing the loan.