PRINCIPLES AND PRACTISE OF PERSONAL
SELLING
STUDY PACK
PERSONAL SELLING AND SALES MANAGEMENT
Objectives
On completion of this lesson, you should be able to
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1.1
Explain the nature and role of personal selling
List different types of sales positions
Describe the steps involved in selling process
Learn about the growing importance of personal selling
Introduction
In contrast to other promotional tools, personal selling makes use of direct personal
communication to influence target customers. It makes use of oral presentation in conversation
with existing and potential customers, for the purpose of making a sale
Though it is the most expensive method of promotion, we see an increasing number of firms
making use of it, and a good number of them realize they cannot live without it. Increasing
competition, growing sophistication of the buyer and his buying process are making personal
selling more or less indispensable
1.1
Definition:
Personal selling: - Process of informing customers and persuading them to by products through
personal communication in an exchange situation (Dibbs etal 1998)
Personal selling is about finding, informing, persuading and at times servicing customers to
articulate their needs, tailoring persuasive messages to answer those needs, them handling
customers’ responses or concerns in order to arrive at a mutually valued exchange.
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Increased competition as a result of freeing of trade barriers means companies must face the
following challenges.
1.
Ability to distinguish between similar products and services sales person must capitalize
our advantages of their products over competitors’ products.
2.
Capability to put together groups of products to form a business solution customers needs
are complex thus need to package products / service.
3.
the ability to sell to more educated buyers i.e. knowledgeable customers
4.
The need to master the art of consultative selling need for work with customers to
discover the needs and work out acceptable solutions.
5.
The requirement to manage a team selling approval especially complex sales, team
selling involving sale people, financial experts, marketing and service staff.
6.
The ability to know the customers business and capability to build relationships.
7.
C0apability to add value through service i.e. adding value through customer service e.g.
business consultation, ongoing product support etc.
1.2
The role of personal selling
Personal selling as the name implies is an individual to individual selling. It carries the
distinctive advantage of flexibility in terms of tailoring the sales presentation to the needs of the
buyer. Another advantage is the two way communication and human interaction thus providing
instant feedback. These two advantages make personal selling the most result oriented promotion
method
Generally, the nature of goods and the distribution system adopted, determines the role of
personal selling ion a firm, therefore personal selling is used extensively in the case of industrial
goods, where the sales person performs functions uch as assisting the customer in designing the
product specifications , product installations, product commissioning, solving technical problems
through providing service after sales and helping customer to have optimal utilization of the
product in the case of consumer goods. The role of personal selling gets restricted to the dealer
level. The scope of the tasks performed include
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Obtaining periodic orders
Ensuring supplies
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Offering tips to dealers on product displays
Attaining desired levels of stock movement
Similarly, the role of personal selling is more in a firm which uses door –to – door selling
method through its sales force than the firm which sells through large stockists, distributors or
sole selling agents
Notwithstanding the varying role of personal selling, in the strategies followed in different
companies, the nature of the selling function, require s that the following tasks be performed
1. Sales generation
2. Feedback and market information collection
3. Provision of customer service aspects such as delivery of goods, warranty administration,
timely availability of repair and spares etc
4. Performance of sales support activities such as monitoring distribution function, credit
collection,
improving
manufacturer-dealer
relations,
implementing
promotion
programmes etc
In practice, complexity of the selling task actually performed varies from industry to industry
and company to company even under the above four categories
Exercise
The importance of personal selling varies from industry to industry and from company to
company. Explain why this variation occurs. Give examples of industries/companies which rely
primarily on personal selling and give reason for doing this
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From the foregoing discussion we understand that while sales as a function has a common
purpose, that is. To effect sales, the selling situations differ due to interplay of various factors.
These factors are
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Nature of goods sold
Type of distribution system used
Nature of demand
Type of sale strategy followed by the firm
These factors require that the sales force should possess different traits and abilities suitable to
the selling situation with which they are associated. To underscore the differences, Robert N.
McCurry in “the mystique of super-salesmanship” classifies individual sales position based on
the degree off creativity required into the categories. Described below:
1.3
TYPES OF SELLING
A.
Order - takers
i)
Inside orders takers e.g. retail assistants customers chooses product without presence of
sales person.
1.1
Sales assistant receives payment and passes over the goods.
Tele marketing team – order takers assist field sales team – take orders over
telephone.
ii)
Delivery sales people e.g. delivery of newspapers changes in order size is customer
driven.
iii)
Outside order takes – These sales people visit the customer but merely respond
customer requests rather than seek to persuade.
B
Order creators
Missionary sales people
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- Task in pharmaceutical industry is to persuade customer to specify sellers products e.g Doctor
doesn’t buy drugs personally but prescribes (specifies them for patients. Building industry –
Architect specifies rather than buying- objective of sales person to educate and build goodwill.
C
Order-getters
Major objective – persuade customers to make direct purchase i.e. frontline sales people
i)
New business sales people
Task is to win new business by identifying and selling to prospects (people) or organizations
who have not previously bought from the sales persons company.
ii)
Organizational sales people
Job is to maintain close long term relationships with organizational customers. i.e industrial
buyers; buying for resale and institutional buyers – e.g educational establishments produce
service, local authorities selling job – team selling – sales people supported by product and
financial specialists.
iii)
Consumer sales people
These people sell physical products / services such as security equipment, cars, insurance,
and pension plans to individuals. Tends to be “one – off” sales people rewarded through
commission.
iv)
Technical support sales people
They provide sales support to front-line sales people incase product is highly technical and
negotiations are complex, a sales person may be supported by product and financial
specialists who can provide detailed technical information required by customers.
v)
Merchandises
Provide sales support in retail and wholesale selling situations sales to individual outlets are
supported by merchandisers who give advice on display, implement sales promotions, check
stock levels and maintain contact with store managers
Defining the sales person’s job: the foregoing classification of the sales positions on the
basis of degree of creativity required in the performance of each job is only general in nature.
Depending upon the organizational need, each company should clearly define what it expects
from a salesperson in terms of tasks to be performed by him. It should broadly specify how
much of a sales person time should be spent on
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developing new accounts versus servicing existing accounts
large accounts versus small accounts
bulk orders versus small orders
selling individual products versus product lines
selling old products versus new products; etc
A lack of definition regarding the selling tasks to be performed, often results in disproportionate
spending of time between the tasks as well a sin imbalances in the goals achieved. To avoid this
type of loss in productivity of the sales force it is worth repeating that the job of the sales person
should be defined with sufficient specificity, so that he can use it as a guideline to keep himself
in the right direction
1.4
Selling as a career
Key qualities of selling are:
1.
Empathy and an interest in people
- Crucial in identifying customers real needs and problems in terms of thinking on self into the
other person’s mind and understand why the customer feels as he or she does.
2.
Ability to communicate
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Ability to get message across to customer
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Ability to listen and understand
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Skill to know when to stop talking and when to listen
3.
Determination
Determined sales people have a need and a will to succeed and success can mean closing a sale.
Nb. Customer may say no when they really mean maybe which can ultimately lead to yes.
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This is a SAMPLE (Few pages have been extracted from the
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