Marketing
Personal Selling Process
The personal selling process involves a series of steps that salespeople follow to engage with potential customers, understand their needs, and ultimately persuade them to make a purchase. It typically includes stages such as prospecting, approaching, presenting, handling objections, and closing the sale. This process is crucial for building relationships and driving sales in a personalized manner.
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11 Key excerpts on "Personal Selling Process"
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 - PDF- Daniel Padgett, Andrew Loos(Authors)
- 2023(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
The process of making purchases may take extended periods of time Listen to Author Podcast 12.2 Personal Selling 269 and involve sales presentations and negotiations. In supply chain contexts, communication is interpersonal and customized. This is the world of personal selling. We define personal selling as any selling activity that involves direct interaction between buyer and seller. As such, personal selling is distinguished from mass market promo- tion tools, such as advertising, in that advertising entails a one-way flow of information from seller to buyer through some media-based communications channel. With personal selling, the interaction is direct and two-way, the selling message may be adapted to meet changing circumstances, and feedback is immediate. The richness of communication that occurs face- to-face is not easily duplicated through other channels, even social media. Nonverbal com- munication, intonation, and simply the proximity of other human beings during the selling process give personal selling communications an immediacy and salience that technology has yet to replicate. personal selling Any selling activity that involves direct interaction between buyer and seller. Personal Selling Gets a Bad Rap When most people think of a salesperson, they immediately think of the stereotypical used car salesman. While there are certainly some salespeople who might reflect this negative image, most salespeople are dedicated professionals who work hard to help customers solve problems (Figure 12.2). This is particularly true in B2B markets. A career that starts off in sell- ing often opens doors to management and more advanced roles in the company. You might say that all of us are actually sales- people whether we know it or not. You are constantly selling, whether it be selling your talents to land a summer internship or selling your idea for spring break to convince friends to take a specific trip.
eBook - ePub- Paul Copley(Author)
- 2007(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
disadvantages are the aforementioned high cost per contact, low reach, frequency and control over the message in terms of being told by the organization what to say and not say. There are some situations therefore that arise whereby the reason for using the personal approach in the first place is defeated. Some of these problems, such as motivation, can be solved through training and development as discussed later in this chapter.The Nature of Personal Selling
Personal selling is a form of personal communication, or forms, since personal selling varies a lot in its style. It is sometimes described as the ‘hard sell’ that is epitomized by the ‘foot in the door’ sales type, characterized by unscrupulous timeshare operators or the archetypical second-hand car salesman. Clearly this is not the case for the most part. Selling activities take many forms in the buying/ selling process, depending upon the context in which selling takes place. 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
eBook - PDF- Joseph F. Hair, Jr., Rolph Anderson, Rajiv Mehta, Barry Babin(Authors)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
(2007). Personal Selling: Building Customer Relationships and Partnerships, 2nd ed., 105. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 102 Chapter 4 The Selling Process manufacturers (Figure 4.2). One of the most direct ways to obtain information is a low- profile preliminary call at the prospect’s business location. While there, salespeople can talk to receptionists or other employees, gather company brochures and materials, and simply observe the way the business operates. Such efforts should be low-key, dip- lomatic, and gracious, though, to avoid the impression of spying or snooping. Often- times, you can simply ask the business prospect’s permission to visit and gather basic 1. Prepare the prospect for the initial sales call (for example, by using the “seeding” technique). 2. “Sell” the sales call appointment to the prospect through “prenotification.” 3. Gather and analyze information about the prospect. 4. Conduct a Problems and Needs Assessment for the prospect. 5. Identify the product Features, Advantages, and Benefits likely to be of most interest to the prospect, with major focus on the benefits. 6. Select the best sales presentation and demonstration strategy for the prospect. 7. Plan and rehearse your approach to the prospect. Seven Steps in Preapproach Planning TABLE 4.3 Source: Adapted from Anderson, R.E., Dubinsky, A.J., and Mehta, R. (2007). Personal Selling: Building Customer Relationships and Partnerships, 2nd ed., 139. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. M_a_y_a/E+/Getty Images The more information salespeople have regarding a prospect, the better prepared they will be to handle any situation during a sales call. What Salespeople Do: The Stages of the Selling Process 103 information about product or service needs, so you can develop appropriate problem solutions for a later sales call. Approaching the Prospect Salespeople make their critical, often long-lasting, impressions in the approach stage.
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 - ePubSales Management
Analysis and Decision Making
- Thomas N. Ingram, Raymond W. LaForge, Ramon A. Avila, Charles H. Schwepker Jr, Michael R. Williams, Charles H. Schwepker Jr.(Authors)
- 2024(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
In addition, there are excellent books on professional selling available through university libraries and commercial bookstores for those who want to explore various dimensions of selling and sales management. SUMMARY Describe the role of personal selling in marketing. Personal selling involves interpersonal communications between buyers and sellers to initiate, develop, and enhance customer relationships. It is widely used in consumer goods companies, and plays an especially critical role in business-to-business markets. More money is spent on personal selling than any other form of marketing communications, including advertising and sales promotion. Some salespeople, referred to as hunters, pioneers, and order-getters, focus more on building market share with new customers, while others (e.g., missionary salespeople, detailers, and merchandisers) focus more on selling to existing customers. In many companies, salespeople have a combination of responsibilities to attract new customers, enhance relationships with existing customers, and perform some service activities to support the overall sales effort. Discuss the key roles of salespeople as financial contributors, change agents, communications agents, and customer value agents. Salespeople perform a key role by making sales and thus generating revenue for their employers. Increasingly, salespeople are also expected to contribute to the bottom line by being more productive with their sales activities. Salespeople are change agents, meaning, when added to the process, they are expected to make positive things happen. In this role, salespeople facilitate diffusion of innovation and improved business practices. As communications agents, salespeople are involved in the two-way flow of information between their customers and their employer. Salespeople do more than communicate customer value. They can be part of customer value by impacting the value received by the customer
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- Harvard Business Review, Alvin J. Silk(Authors)
- 2006(Publication Date)
- Harvard Business Review Press(Publisher)
These are the same activities that a farmer needs to do to successfully retain customers and grow the business. Support Personnel Salespeople whose job is primarily to facilitate the selling func-tion can be further subdivided as follows. Missionary salespeople. These sales reps distribute information about new goods and services and describe product attributes to and educate customers. They do not typically close sales. A classic ex-ample of such a sales job is the pharmaceutical industry detailer who visits and tries to persuade doctors to prescribe a firm’s products. Trade salespeople. Consumer packaged goods firms deploy sales reps to help customers, especially retail stores, promote their products, restock shelves, set up displays, and so forth. Trade salespeople might on occasion be asked to be order takers as well. Technical salespeople. Firms that sell technology-intensive prod-ucts employ salespeople to provide technical assistance to existing customers. These sales support personnel are usually trained engi-neers whose primary task is to help the field sales force manage customer relationships. Elements of the Personal Selling Process Although no two salespersons approach the task of selling in pre-cisely the same way, sales is generally a multistage process that in-cludes some or all of the following steps. 172 Implementing Marketing Strategies Prospecting Prospecting—that is, generating qualified leads or finding new opportunities among the existing customer base—is the first step in the sales process. Depending on the type of business, prospect-ing can take many forms, including networking, seminars, market-ing, trade shows, and cold calling. The purpose of this step is to identify a qualified decision maker or an ally in the organization who can help the sales rep reach the decision maker. Evaluating and Preapproach The next step generally is to size up the customer revenue po-tential and cost to pursue the opportunity.
eBook - PDFFashion Wholesaling
From Manufacturer to Retailer
- Linda B. Tucker(Author)
- 2022(Publication Date)
- Bloomsbury Visual Arts(Publisher)
Finally, the manufacturer’s role in fulfilling the order and communicating with the sales rep are significant aspects in continuing a professional relationship with the retail buyer and the manufacturer. The methods presented in this chapter are fundamental to the art of selling. Over time, technology may enhance these practices, but the basic principles remain the same. Making the sales presentation The fundamental selling process intro- duced in this chapter is based on the framework described by Moncrief and Marshall 1 and Dubinsky, 2 which was iden- tified as the PSP, Personal Selling Process. The changes Moncrief and Marshall made to Dubinsky’s research reflected the changes in the economy and the develop- ment of technology. Moncrief and Marshall emphasized a focus on relationship selling, which is the foundational approach of the selling techniques presented in this chap- ter. 3 The steps discussed here incorporate modifications to the basic model to more directly apply to the wholesale selling process of fashion merchandise. Tens steps of the wholesale selling presentation Futrell added three steps to the research of Moncrief and Marshal creating a ten-step Figure 4.2 Ten steps in the fashion wholesale selling process. Prospecting Preapproach Approach Sales Presentation Trial Close Determine Objections Meet Objections Trial Close Close Follow-up THE WHOLESALE FASHION SELLING PROCESS 87 Referrals may come from other wholesale sales reps or existing retail accounts. Occasionally, a sales rep may refer a store buyer to a sales rep who carries a sought-after product or price point. This emphasizes the necessity for wholesale sales reps to have congenial relation- ships with each other. Reps need not be competitive but can help each other in this way. Networking, with either other sales reps or with retail store buyers, is another method to gain referrals and to find prospects that may ultimately become new customers.
eBook - PDF- David C. Bojanic, Robert D. Reid(Authors)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
The Personal Selling Process 331 advertising and direct mail can help get the consumer’s attention or create awareness and, to some extent, interest, but it is the responsibility of sales managers to create desire and action. Before making the sales call, a sales manager should develop an outline of the presentation. What are the prospect’s needs and objectives for the meeting or function? How can the firm’s products and services help the organization meet its needs and objectives? It is important to make the products and services offered by the firm as tangible as possible and to link them directly with the stated needs and objectives of the prospect. What points should be stressed? How should they be presented so that the firm is perceived positively? What should the sales call accomplish? It is not advisable to prepare a canned sales pitch that is merely replayed for each new pros- pect. Instead, a sales manager should be natural and straightforward, not waste words, and get right to the point. The sales presentation should begin with a formal introduction, followed with questions probing the prospect about his or her needs and objectives. These needs and objectives can then be used as the basis for the remainder of the sales presentation, focusing on how the property’s features and performance characteristics match the buyer’s needs. It is important to let the prospect know that the firm values, wants, and deserves the prospect’s business. It may be best to use a checklist of points to be covered, for it is better to refer to a list than to appear disorgan- ized during the presentation. It is also important to be aware of the nature of the prospect. Some individuals have time to sit and talk; others are too busy. A sales manager should be able to vary the presentation to suit the needs of the prospect. Every effort should be made to make the prospect comfortable by establish- ing rapport.
eBook - PDFEntrepreneurial Marketing
A Blueprint for Customer Engagement
- Beth Goldstein(Author)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications, Inc(Publisher)
In the next chapter, we’ll do a deep dive into sales skills that you personally need to develop to be successful. We will also dis- cuss the various sales stages that many individuals go through to be successful, such as phone call preparation, in person appointments, and follow-up and servicing accounts. SALES AND MARKETING DATA FLOW When sales and marketing teams don’t communicate or understand each other’s unique perspectives, the business suffers and is put in a position where success is harder to achieve. This applies to small companies as well as larger, established organizations in a range of industries. There are numerous companies that have spiraled downward and failed. We are sure that you can name a few. Perhaps CHAPTER EIGHT CREATING SALES PROCESSES AND SYSTEMS CHAPTER 8 • CREATING SALES PROCESSES AND SYSTEMS 185 Blockbuster, Toys “R” Us, or Sears comes to mind. They are among many that might come to mind. If you study these companies, you will see that they were clearly not tuned into the changes taking place in their market space as customer needs evolved. They were enormously successful at one point in their business but failed to maintain a clear understanding of customers’ needs. Let’s take the sales challenge to the small business level. Sales people often com- plain that the marketing people simply don’t “get it” and often ask “Why don’t they spend some time in the field with us so they can see what it’s really like to work with customers and then produce material that helps us sell?” Likewise, the marketing team can oftentimes be heard grumbling about how the salespeople are never satisfied with the material and messaging that they produce and ask “Why can’t they just go out there and sell? They have all the tools they need!” Who’s right in this situation? Possibly both, but we would obviously need more information to really be able to answer that question.
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