Is Sales an Investment or an Expense?

How you answer this question determines how you view the customer. Tesla recently announced that they were going to close their stores, move sales online and in doing so be able to cut their prices by 6%. You would probably say that this is an expensive move on their part. Tesla soon took back their statement and shared that they would not close as many stores and as a result, only have to reduce their prices by 3%. Would you say that Tesla is now calling sales an unnecessary expense that could actually be totally avoided? Here’s the link to the full article.
Tesla sees sales as an activity required to handle transactions. Clearly, they don’t view sales as something that is able to generate incremental opportunities.
Sales is not about servicing the business, taking care of orders that roll in, etc. If you view sales this way, it is truly an