Sales Oriented Stage : In this stage, the focus shifted from production to selling. 'How to Sell' became a problem and the new motto was to 'get rid of what you have'. Products cannot be sold without an effective sales force. It required emphasis on increasing the sales even at the cost of consumer satisfaction. Thus, the sales-oriented stage was characterised by hard selling. In this stage, the assumption was "consumers buy what you sale". The sales concept paid little attention to whether the product was actually needed or not.
Product Oriented Stage : In this stage, marketers believed that customers will buy the product if its quality was good. Therefore, the focus shifted from promotion to product improvement. Firms made efforts to improve product features and performance. The overemphasis on product quality sometimes overlook other aspects which resulted is marketing myopia.