A sales strategy consists of a plan that positions a company’s brand or product to gain a competitive advantage.
Businesses employ one of two basic types of sales strategies to their overall plan:
direct or indirect.
With the direct sales strategy, sales people attack the competition head on when talking to the customer. They talk about each feature of the competition’s product and compare it to theirs. The term "negative selling" refers to the direct sales approach.
Indirect sales approaches apply more subtle techniques by demonstrating features and benefits not available with the competition’s products or services without ever mentioning them by name. This more sophisticated, positive sales strategy requires research and analysis of the competition.