Marketing
Personal Selling
Personal selling involves the direct interaction between a salesperson and a potential customer, with the aim of persuading the customer to make a purchase. This method allows for personalized communication and tailored product presentations, enabling the salesperson to address specific customer needs and concerns. It is often used for high-value or complex products and services.
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11 Key excerpts on "Personal Selling"
eBook - PDFCross-Cultural Personal Selling
Agents' Competences in International Personal Selling of Services
- Anna Antczak, Barbara A. Sypniewska(Authors)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Palgrave Macmillan(Publisher)
Personal Selling performs the following functions: 1. Providing information about the product, its properties, cost of use, conditions of purchase, etc. 2. Gathering information about the demand as well as the needs and preferences of the customers. 3. Obtaining feedback. 4. Winning over buyers for the company (submission of tenders, taking orders, networking). 5. Convincing customers and supporting sales through help, advice, instructions, explanations, presentations and minimizing the risks associated with the purchase, etc. 6. Creating the image of the company and a positive attitude in cus- tomers towards the enterprise (the style of interpersonal relations, service quality, etc.). 7. Organizing logistics activities—warehousing, transportation, etc. Personal Selling often constitutes a link between the company and the customer enhancing customer loyalty (which is often called salesperson- owned loyalty, which means that the customer is loyal to the company due to and through the salesperson). Salespeople also represent the company to the customer as well as the other way around through managing the relationship and introducing customers to the company. All these activities are of course linked to the coordination of marketing and sales, and management of the sales force, which can be defined as “planning, organizing, leading and controlling personal contact programs designed to achieve profitable customer relationships” (Armstrong and Kotler 2013: 423). The process includes designing sales force strategy 42 A. Antczak-Barzan and B.A. Sypniewska and structure which is in turn linked with recruiting, selecting, training, compensating, supervising and evaluating salespeople. Personal Selling has certain attributes compared to other promotional tools. It is the only marketing communication tool which requires per- sonal contact making it a two-way communication model.
eBook - ePub- Paul Copley(Author)
- 2007(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
Sometimes the sales people are information providers and representatives of the organization, sometimes order-takers and at other times order-makers. The main difference between Personal Selling and the other types of marketing communication is that this form of communication is two-way, enabling immediate feedback and evaluation of transmitted messages. Personal Selling messages can be tailored to the consumer's individual needs. A key part of Personal Selling is that objections can be overcome by providing explanation and, if needs be, information, quickly. As will be discussed later, another important part that Personal Selling has to play is the encouragement of the placing of orders and closing the sale. This is not something that can be done with much of the rest of the communications mix, but it is set against a backdrop of recently introduced consumer protection by way of cooling-off periods and so on. As the environment has changed so, too, have selling styles. The old, ethical, position that once dominated and that followed the marketing concept of meeting customer need and so on, was superseded by a much more aggressive approach during the 1980s and beyond. The links have now been made with the relationship marketing (and indeed the customer relationship management, CRM) paradigms. Here long-term cost-effectiveness is linked with mutual benefit as opposed to what can be termed transactional marketing. Personal Selling activities have changed, although the nature of Personal Selling in essence has not, as indicated above. What have changed are the methods of contact with the advent of e-mail, video conferencing, voice mail and the virtual office but also team meetings, PowerPoint-type presentations, the ubiquitous mobile phone and the laptop
eBook - ePubMarketing Communications Management
Analysis, Planning, Implementation
- Paul Copley, Author(Authors)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications Ltd(Publisher)
16 Personal SellingChapter Overview
Introduction
This chapter deals with Personal Selling's role in the marketing and marketing communications mix. This book acknowledges the traditional marketing concept-type view of selling (satisfaction of customer needs) and the relationship selling approach but also recognises the more aggressive variants of selling that exist that could be considered selling orientation rather than marketing or relationship marketing orientation. The approach taken in this book is to treat Personal Selling as part of the marketing communications mix. The differences between Personal Selling and representation are made. Personal Selling is put into the context of the selling/buying process. The nature and role of Personal Selling are obviously changing over time to reflect changes in the communications mix as well as society. Technological advances that threatened to mean less jobs in terms of what were conventional sales forces may now play a more supportive role to the salesperson/representative who can concentrate more on interpersonal skills. Selling is portrayed here in terms of ideas around motivation, objectives and the role of sales training rather than other related topics such as sales force management that are left to more general marketing or sales management texts.Learning objectives
The chapter seeks to explore and explain the nature of Personal Selling and its role within the marketing and communications mix. More specifically, after reading this chapter the student will be able to:
eBook - PDF- Chris Fill, Scot McKee(Authors)
- 2011(Publication Date)
- Goodfellow Publishers(Publisher)
Personal Selling is the most expen-sive element of the communications mix, so the use of a sales force should be a very carefully considered element of an organisation’s promotional activities. In terms of the DRIP framework (see Chapter 9), Personal Selling may fulfil dif-ferent tasks. Where the relationship between organisations is new or basically discrete in nature, information and persuasion will tend to be the predominant roles. Where the relationship is established and more collaborative, information and reinforcement will be the more prominent roles. Personal Selling and Key Account Management 11 307 In B2B markets it is often assumed that sales personnel operate at the bound-ary of the organisation. They provide the link between the needs of their own organisation and the needs of their customers and in this sense they perform an important representational role. This linkage is absolutely vital, for a number of reasons that will be discussed shortly, for without Personal Selling, commu-nication with other organisations would occur through impersonal, electronic or print media, probably to the detriment of relationships. However, the notion that there is a boundary between organisations who operate within a close net-work or within a collaborative relationship is both tenuous and contradictory. Boundaries may exist where market exchanges predominate but in situations where trust, commitment and reciprocity are fundamental, it is unlikely that a boundary could, or should, be identified. When these factors are brought together, the salesperson is not only expected to act as a manager of customers (Wilson, 1993) but increasingly also as a person responsible for, among many other elements, the development of customer relation-ships (Marshall et al ., 1999).
eBook - PDFSales Management N5 SB
TVET FIRST
- N Horn(Author)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Macmillan(Publisher)
2 In the personal sales process, the following also happens: • You, the salesperson, build a relationship with your customer. • An exchange of value takes place – your customer pays money and receives a product or service. • You, the salesperson, rely on personal contact with your customer to achieve the sale. In other words, you promote your product using Personal Selling. You can therefore see that Personal Selling involves personal interaction with your customers – you engage with your custom -ers on a personal level. The importance of personal sales Personal sales are important as the sales-person has direct contact with customers and can therefore determine: • what customers’ feelings are about the product/service • what products/services customers are interested in • how customers feel about the company • when customers are ready to commit to the purchase. This means that personal sales is an impor-tant aspect of the marketing strategy of a company as it can use this type of sale to stimulate customers’ interest and therefore also increase the sales of goods or services. The benefits of personal sales The first and possibly most important advantage of personal sales is that you, the salesperson, engage in direct communica-tion with your customers. Being in direct communication with your customers enables you: to obtain feedback from your customers to adjust your sales message so that you can answer your customers’ questions and concerns to make your customers comfortable about buying your product or service Figure 1.3 Benefits of personal sales Personal sales also allow the salesperson to build a long-term relationship with cus-tomers. Once you have built a relationship with a customer, you know what this customer wants and can recommend other or new products. This increases sales of different products or services to the same customer. When a salesperson has to generate busi-ness-to-business sales , Personal Selling is a valuable tool.
eBook - PDF- Cathy H. C. Hsu, Tom Powers(Authors)
- 2002(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
Personal Selling and the Sales Process Selling is something we all have to do. We have to sell our abilities and personality in order to be employed and sell our ideas to have a successful career. Selling to customers, or having direct contact with customers, is often part of the jobs of entry- level hospitality employees and managers. As people work their way up in an orga- nization, they reach a stage at which they must represent their organization to the public—another form of selling. Therefore, directly or indirectly, selling is something we all do at one time or another. Although the main concern of this discussion is the work of a sales staff, the total sales effort is contributed by the entire crew, especially those guest-contact employees, or “marketing ambassadors,” such as front office agents and food and beverage serv- ers. A 180-room hotel, with a 75 percent occupancy and 1.2 persons per occupied room, caters to approximately 60,000 guests a year. There is no way for the sales staff to deal with that many people, yet all guests are targets of selling while in the hotel. Therefore, front office agents should try to upsell rooms to increase the average room rate, and servers should make an effort to raise the check average by selling drinks and desserts as well as meals. Moreover, the quality of guests’ interactions with service staff is what sells repeat visits. 308 Chapter 13 / Marketing Communication: Sales Promotion, PR, and Personal Selling Personal Selling is a very expensive medium for getting an operation’s message across. Costs include the overhead required to support a sales staff, their training, travel, entertainment, and office space and supplies. The actual “selling” time, when a salesperson has face-to-face contacts with potential customers, is relatively brief. Most of a salesperson’s time is spent in preparation and follow-up, which makes the actual “contact time” even more expensive.
eBook - PDFPrinciples of Integrated Marketing Communications
An Evidence-based Approach
- Lawrence Ang(Author)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Cambridge University Press(Publisher)
Advantages and disadvantages of Personal Selling Personal Selling can be defined as a dyadic (two-way) communication between the sales agent and the prospective buyer, in which the sales agent tries to influence the buyer to buy the product or service. This communication can be face-to-face or over the telephone. One main advantage of Personal Selling is that the attention of the buyer is virtually guaranteed once he or she has chosen to interact with the sales agent. Another advantage is that, unlike with other IMC tools, the feedback (good or bad) from the buyer takes place during the sales presentation, without any delay. This allows the sales agent to adapt his or her style, customise the offer and, if necessary, provide additional information immediately to respond to any queries and allay any concerns the buyer might have. This is called ‘adaptive selling’ . 1 An extension of this dynamic, adaptive selling concept also occurs in industrial selling, when the sales agent also acts as consultant to solve the client’s technical problems, which is called ‘consultative selling’ . The key is to adapt the sales message and update the arguments in real time in response to the buyer’s reaction. It is therefore an inherently dynamic influence process, 2 which has been associated with higher sales performance. 3 Personal Selling is essentially a very effective communication tool, especially when it comes to showcasing new products. It has an elasticity of 0.31, 4 which is higher than that of advertising (0.22), 5 though less than that of price promotion (–2.62). 6 Personal Selling also has disadvantages, however. First, it is an expensive tool, and so it is generally suitable only for high-involvement products or services. Second, its reach is extremely poor, since the travelling time between contacts can be lengthy. Even if phone contact is the Figure 10.1 A house advertised for sale 362 Principles of Integrated Marketing Communications
eBook - PDFVisualizing Marketing
From Abstract to Intuitive
- S. Umit Kucuk(Author)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Palgrave Macmillan(Publisher)
6.7 Alternative explanations of lack of post-promotion dip 70 VISUALIZING MARKETING Personal Selling AND DIRECT/INTERACTIVE MARKETING Personal Selling can be the most effective way of influencing the behaviors of buyers or message recipients as it is a direct face-to-face interactive selling technique. It is, however, a very expensive tool to be applied across the board rather than one that seeks to impact key buyers. It is a method now widely used in business-to-business interactions. During the 1960s and 1970s it was very popular, with personal sellers knocking on every household’s door to demonstrate and sell their products effectively. Today, this technique has been replaced by e-mail marketing and the interactive marketing tools of the digital world. Because it can easily be personalized and is very interactive, Personal Selling is very effective at generating customer attention and can be highly persuasive. However, it can also trigger privacy concerns if it is not conducted appropriately. Every Personal Selling process starts by defining the needs and wants of buyers, then proposes and implements a solution for the buyer and finally follows up the buyer at the post-purchase stage. Personal Selling is a very persuasive technique that can be perceived as highly manipulative. In tradi- tional selling, success was measured by the amount of sales made, but these kinds of sales tactics can be seen as pushy. It is important to look at the various stages of Personal Selling in order to develop non-manipulative and truthful experiences for both seller and buyer (see Fig. 6.8). As can be seen from Fig. 6.8, there are four main steps in Personal Selling: determining the buyer’s needs; finding solutions; implementing and demonstrating solutions; and following up with the buyer post pur- chase. In a traditional or manipulative selling mentality, as illustrated by the red lines in Fig.
eBook - PDF- Alexander Hiam, Linda G. Rastelli(Authors)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
Your presentation should inform while also making the prospect comfortable. Decide which type of approach best fits your company: ▲ A consultative approach. Begin with many questions to figure out what the customer needs, and then propose a somewhat customized solution, not just a generic purchase. This is good if you sell complex services. ▲ A canned approach. Write a detailed, specific script that you or your sales force follow every time you give a presentation. Use this if you have the ability to solve customers’ problems, but not the time to bring a salesperson up to speed about a business. 242 MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS AND Personal Selling FOR EXAMPLE Networking at Home At Avon, they reach households by networking, using personal and profes- sional contacts, in order to set up appointments — usually after working hours. This strategy gets through people’s natural suspicions and busy schedules. In North America alone, Avon has about half a million salespeople — evidence that person-to-person selling isn’t dead in the retail industry. Mary Kay uses a similar strategy with success. Its salespeople typically schedule a personal showing or a neighborhood event through their network of contacts, allowing sales representatives to sell cosmetic products in the home with success. KEY TERMS 243 If you do not have obvious ways to sell customized services along with your prod- uct and you just want to deliver an excellent product and let the customer worry about what to do with it, the last thing that you want your salespeople to do is to pretend that they’re consultants. You can use a simple, canned approach as effectively as a sophisticated con- sultative approach. Be sure to tailor your sales style to accommodate your cus- tomers’ needs, purchase preferences, and habits. S E L F - C H E C K • Define qualifying and networking.
eBook - PDF- David C. Bojanic, Robert D. Reid(Authors)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
318 Chapter Objectives After studying this chapter, you should be able to: 1. List the types of sales roles in the hospitality industry. 2. Identify the basic markets for hospitality group sales and discuss their decision factors. 3. Describe the four stages of the Personal Selling process. 4. Explain how to use common Personal Selling tools. 5. Discuss ethical issues related to Personal Selling. Personal Selling 15 Courtesy of Pacific Edge Hotel, A Joie de Vivre Hotel, Laguna Beach, California. Introduction 319 15.1 INTRODUCTION In the competitive world of hospitality sales and marketing, the ability to effectively identify potential business, qualify the prospects, engage in Personal Selling activities, and eventually book the business is critical to the success of the property. The term selling is often used synonymously with the term marketing. Marketing encompasses all of the activities that are necessary in creating an exchange between a buyer and a seller. These activities include promotion, pricing, product design, and distribution. Personal Selling is merely one component of the promotion mix, which refers to the personal communication of information to persuade a prospective customer to buy something (e.g., a product or service) that satisfies that individual’s needs. 1 The range of activities that are under the umbrella of Personal Selling is quite broad. Sales managers communicate with clients and prospects by means of the telephone, personal sales calls resulting from appointments, cold sales calls without appointments, and contacts with clients at trade shows, professional meet- ings, and conventions. 15.1.1 Sales Roles Sales jobs can vary widely in their nature and requirements, even within the same company or industry. This chapter focuses mainly on hotel sales, but the fundamentals and techniques can apply to any type of hospitality or tourism sales.
eBook - PDF- Louis Boone, , David Kurtz, , Louis Boone, David Kurtz(Authors)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Cengage Learning EMEA(Publisher)
Describe the four sales channels. Personal Selling occurs through several types of com-munication channels: over-the-counter selling, field selling, telemarketing, and inside selling. Explain how each step in the sales process relates to the AIDA concept. The selling process includes a series of steps which can be aligned with the AIDA concept to be in sync with the consumer’s decision process and enable the seller to achieve their sales objectives. Summarize the seven steps of the sales process. Professional sales representatives utilize a sequen-tial sales process that typically includes seven steps: (1) prospecting and qualifying, (2) approach, (3) pre-sentation, (4) demonstration, (5) handling objections, (6) closing, and (7) follow-up. Describe the seven key functions of a sales manager. The sales manager performs seven basic managerial functions: (1) recruitment and selection, (2) training, (3) organization, (4) supervision, (5) motivation, (6) compensation, and (7) evaluation and control. Summarize eight types of sales promotion. Sales promotion techniques are classified as consumer- oriented or trade-oriented and several forms for each technique are utilized by marketers. Given an example of market conditions and promotional objectives, identify the most effective promotional tactic. Determining the most appropriate promotional tech-nique involves analyzing the situation and selecting the option that best achieves the firm’s goals in an efficient and cost-effective manner.
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