Personalselling: A Collaboration by jb

A product that is well conceived and produced through
the
Combination of the most modern technologies and the
best of inputs cannot sell itself.
There is the need for the existence of such product to
be made known to the target market.
A good or service should respond favorably to the
marketing mix which will result to the full performance
of any good or service in the market. However, an
important element of the marketing mix is promotion,
otherwise known as marketing communication.
This is the element that brings the existence of product or service
to the awareness of consumers or clients. It further educates potential
and actual buyer of a product on the Selling benefits, availability, price and
9/24/2012 Promotional Mix: Personal
usage, 2

 Personal Presentation by the firms’ sales force for the purpose
of making sale and building customer relationship.
Personal selling consists of interpersonalinteractions with
customers and prospects to make sales and maintain
customer relationships.
 (Marketing management, 12th edition)
By P. Kotler and Armstrong
 Personal selling is a promotion via sales pitch by a sales
representation to
aprospect or by a retail assistant to a customer, guaranteeing e
xposure to self-selected member of a target market.
 Marketing By Crosier, 1994)

9/24/2012 Promotional Mix: Personal Selling 3

 Personal selling is oral
communication with
potential buyers of a
product with the intention
of making a sale.

 The personal selling may
focus initially on
developing a relationship
with the potential buyer,
but will always ultimately
PERSONAL end with an attempt to
"close the sale".
SELLING


 Personal selling is one of the
oldest forms of promotion. It
involves the use of a sales force
to support a push strategy
(encouraging intermediaries to
buy the product) or a pull
strategy (where the role of the
sales force may be limited to
supporting retailers and
providing after-sales service).

 Generally Insurance Companies
and Direct Sale Markers use
personal selling to promote their
products and services by the help
of his commissioned based
individual distributors.


Kotler and Armstrong, (2008)
posits that personal selling is the
personal communication
between a firm’s sales force and
customers for the purpose of
making sales and building
customer relationship.


Is the interpersonal part of the
promotion mix that can include:
 FACE- TO- FACE COMMUNICATION
 TELEPHONE COMMUNICATION
 VIDEO OR WEB CONFERENCING


 Personal Selling involves selling through a person-to-
person communications process.

 The emphasis placed on personal selling varies from
firm to firm depending on a variety of
factors, including the nature of the product or service
being marketed, size of the organization, and type of
the industry.


Wotruba has identified five distinct stages of
personal selling evolution:
1. Provider Stage: Activities are limited to accepting orders
for the suppliers available offering and conveying it to
buyer.
2. Persuader Stage: Selling involves an attempt to persuade
market members to buy the supplier’s offerings.
3. Prospector stage: Activities include seeking out selected
buyers who are perceived to have a need for the offering
as well as the resources and authority to buy it.


4. Problem-solver stage: Selling involves obtaining the
participation of buyers to identify their problems, which can
be translated into needs, and then presenting a selection
from the supplier’s offerings that corresponds with those
needs and can solve those problems.
5. Procreator stage: Selling defines the buyer’s problems or
needs and their solutions through active buyer-seller
collaboration and then creates a market offering uniquely
tailored to the customer.


The four types of personal
selling are:  TRADE SELLING involves the
 1. trade selling, increase in the volume of
 2.missionary the company’s sales by
 3.selling, technical providing promotional
selling assistance to the
 4.new business selling intermediaries. This is useful in
a situation when
intermediaries are finding it
difficult to sell-out their stock
of a firm’s products.


MISSIONARY SELLING TECHNICAL SELLING

is an attempt to boost the could be referred to as creative
company’s sales by allowing selling. It involves the provision of
the intermediaries to technical assistance and advice to
use the goodwill of the firm. customers by salesmen. This type of
It could be achieved by personal selling is most suitable for
combining the producers technical products like insurance
sales force with the services. Technical selling requires
distributors salesmen and analytical and persuasive ability
then pass all orders on the part of the seller in order to
received through the convince the customer by making
distributor. him to know the worth of the
product purchased (Osuagwu, 2002).

 NEW BUSINESS SELLING

is used to obtain new accounts
for the producer. This involves
the salesmen looking
for new opportunities or new
users for his company’s
product in his territory.
Obtaining new accounts may
be slightly difficult and require
specialists. In
situations like this the
company’s most experienced
salesmen are normally used.
(Achumba, 2004)


 Personal selling process 7
The steps include;
consists of several steps that Prospecting
(Kotler and Armstrong, 2008). 1. Pre-Approach
2. Approach
 The objective of these steps 3. Presentation and
is to get new customers and Demonstration
obtain orders from them. 4. Handling objections
5. Closing the Sale
6. Follow-Up


1. Prospecting: The salesperson identifies qualified potential
customers.
2. Preapproach: The salesperson learns as much as possible
about a prospective customer before making a sales call.
3. Approach: The salesperson meets the customer for the
first time.
4. Presentation: The salesperson tells the “product story” to
the buyer, highlighting customer benefits.
5. Handling Objections: The salesperson seeks out, clarifies,
and overcomes customer objections to buying.
6. Closing: The salesperson asks the customer for an order.
7. Follow-up: The salesperson follows up after the sale to
ensure customer satisfaction and repeat business.


 The responsibilities of a salesperson are categorized under
different head by different authors. One classification divides this
responsibilities into two groups- Service Selling & Developmental
Selling. However, the most widely accepted is the one suggested
by Anderson, which is as follows:
1. Order Taking
 Once the initial sale has taken place, the creative seller may be
replaced (not physically!) by an order taker, whose role is much
more casual.
2. Creative Selling/ Order Getting
 Creative selling jobs may require the most skill and preparation.
In addition to prospecting, the salesperson must assess the
situation, determine the needs to be met, present the
capabilities for satisfying these needs, and get an order.


3. Order Supporting
 They are not directly involved in selling products but acts as a
support staff for the front-line sales personnel. They are of two
types:
▪ Missionary Salespeople
▪ Technical Specialists
 The missionary reps introduces new products, new promotions
and/or new programs, with the actual order to be taken by the
company’s order taker or by a distributor representing the
company’s goods. e.g. Medical Sales Representatives
 Technical Specialists assists the order-oriented salespeople in
selling products by providing technical information about the
product and technical assistance for installation, design of the
product etc.


Likes Dislikes
Knowledgeable Unprepared
Empathy Uninformed
Well-organized Aggressive
Promptness Undependability
Follow-through Poor follow-through
Solutions Presumptuousness (Going beyond what is right or proper)
Punctuality Walk-ins
Hard-work Compulsive talkers
Energetic Problem-avoiders
Honesty Lack of personal respect


 ADVANTAGES:
1. Allowing for two-way interaction- In selling situations the message sender
(e.g., salesperson) can adjust the message as they gain feedback from
message receivers (e.g., customer).
2. Tailoring of the message- It is Flexible . So if a customer does not understand
the initial message (e.g., doesn’t fully understand how the product works) the
salesperson can make adjustments to address questions or concerns.
3. Lack of distraction
4. Involvement in the decision-process
5. Source of research information
6. Has an interactive nature of personal selling that makes it the most effective
promotional method for building relationships with customers, particularly in
the business-to-business market.
7. Personal selling is the most practical promotional option
for reachingcustomers who are not easily reached through other methods.


 DISADVANTAGES
1. Inconsistent messages
2. High cost - It is expensive maintaining this type of promotional
effort due to the high per-contact cost involved. Costs incurred in
personal selling include high cost-per-action and training costs.
3. Poor reach- Can not reach mass audience
4. Potential ethical problems/Intruding nature of the method/
Conflict - The biggest disadvantage of selling is the degree to
which this promotional method is misunderstood. Most people
have had some bad experiences with salespeople who they
perceived were overly aggressive or even downright annoying.
5. Job turnover in sales is often much higher than other
marketing positions
6. Labour intensive/Numerous calls or salestalking needed to
generate sale


 1.
Physical Quality
 2.
Mental Quality
 3.
Integrity of character
 4.
Knowledge of the product and the
company
 5. Good behavior
 6. Ability to persuade


I t is said that selling makes the World go around .
For it is somebody who sold some thing to someone else who in turn sold
it to us .

Let us consider the case of food products .
The fertilizer company sells urea to the farmer who sells his produce to
the food processing firm like Pepsi or Britannia; who after processing the
agricultural produce , sells it to the wholesaler who in turn sells to the
retailers and they sell the same to us .Had it not been for the salesperson,
the standard of living of an average person would have been much lower.

Selling is crucial to economic growth, political systems and an individual’s
and family ‘s life-styles .It is so fundamental that every time we try to
convince others, we sell. In such cases we sell ideas. Politicians sells
ideologies .Research scientists sell researchers Any time we
Advocate an idea, a cause or a product , we sell.


>>> end.


Personalselling: A Collaboration by jb

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