Performance Terms

Sales
A company's sales are the total amount of items it sells.
They can increase sales by improving their products or advertising.
The company's sales didn't meet expectations this quarter.
The company's sales have been falling since this year.
Its sales in July have grown by ten percent over last month.

Profit
A company's profit is the total amount of money it makes after paying its costs.
For a company to earn a profit, it needs to make more money than it spends.
A company can increase its profits by selling more goods or lowering its costs.
Its profits were up by 30% over the last year.
The company reported a 15% rise in monthly profit.
Last year, the company made a profit of nearly 500 million dollars.

Turnover
Turnover is how fast a store's products are sold and replaced by others.
For a business to have high turnover, it needs to sell things quickly.
Large supermarkets usually have high turnover because they sell many items every day.
We have a fast turnover of stock.
Our inventory turnover increased by 20% last year.

Customer Base
A company's customer base is a group of people that buys its goods or services.
Companies usually make most of their sales from their customer base.
They have a much larger customer base than their competitors.
The company built up a customer base of 5 million.
The company lost about 10% of its customer base last year.

Competitor
Competitors are companies in the same industry that compete for customers.
Companies want to get more sales than their competitors.
The quality of their products is better than their competitors'.
They always keep one step ahead of their competitors.

Market Segment
A market segment is a group of customers that share something in common.
Market segments can be based on many things, such as needs, age, and income.
They have the largest business in this market segment.
Teens is one of the fastest-growing market segments.
Exercises beyond the original
Q: Why is it important for a company to grow its customer base?
A: It increases sales.
Read the Sentence
Companies try to grow their customer base because most of their sales come from it.