BRL-002 Unit-3 (PERSONAL SELLING) IGNOU STUDY NOTES

Unit-3|PERSONAL SELLING

Structure

3.0 Objectives
3.1 Introduction
3.2 What is Personal Selling?
3.2.1 Evolution of Personal Selling?
3.2.2 Importance of Personal Selling
3.2.3 Advantages of Personal Selling
3.3 Nature of Sales Job
3.3.1 Objectives of Personal Selling
3.3.2 Classifying Selling Roles
3.4 Qualities of a Sales Person
3.4.1 The Ineffective Sales Person
3.4.2 The Effective Salesperson
3.4.3 Recognizing the Effective Salesperson
3.4.4 The Effective Business Salesperson
3.5 Role of Information Technology in Personal Selling
3.5.1 Telecommunications
3.5.2 Customer Information : Storage and Handling
3.5.3 Managing the Sales Force

3.0 OBJECTIVES

After studying this unit, you will be able to:

• Describe personal selling;
• Expalin the importance of personal selling;
• Illustrates the nature of sales job;
• State the qualities of a good salesperson;
• Indentify the different types of selling jobs;
• Discuss the role of IT in personal selling.

3.1 INTRODUCTION

You have studied about the basics of retailing in the earlier units, In this unit we will study the nature and importance of personal selling, nature of sales job, qualities of a good salesperson, different type of selling jobs, the role of IT in personal selling.
Marketing be it for goods or services cannot be said to be complete unless the people in charge do not the tools available properly and adequately.

The most popular tools can be listed as:
• The Product or service
• The Price
• The Place
• The Promotion
• The Physical evidence
• The Process
• The People
• The Packing
• The Pace

The Promotion tools which involves such aspects as Advertising, Sales Promotion Direct Marketing, Personal Selling, Public Relations and Publicity.
The most common and popular among them is personal selling.

3.2 WHAT IS PERSONAL SELLING?

Personal selling is a promotional method in which one person (e.g., salesperson) uses skills and techniques for building personal personal relationships with another person (e.g., a customer or those invloved in a purchase decision) that result in both obtainning value. In most cases the "value" for the salesperson is realized from the benefits obtained by consuming the prodcut. However, getting a customer to purchase a prodcut is not always the objective of personal selling.

3.2.1 Evolution of Personal Selling

Meeting with the requirements of the customers has been required since time immemorial. We had Indian traveling merchant selling diamonds, condimetns and aritfacts right acorss the world. People would go to the shops or bazaars to be attended by the salesperson.
The second World War years resulted in high level of application of technology to production. Suddenly, there were more products to be sold greater variety & large availability because of much larger capacities on offer. This resulted in the mass marketing era when the effort was to offer a large variety of product right across the market.

3.2.1 Importance of Personal Selling

Unlike advertising, personal selling is present in all the three phases of buying namely pre-transactional, transactional and post-transactional. Buying a two-way form of communication, it cultivates the market, negotiaties the transaction and reduces post purchase dissonance. However, it is in negotiaties of transactions that distinguishes it from advertising and makes personal selling an effective medium of selling.
Besides there are other strengths of personal selling some of which are:
Personal selling is more flexible and adaptable to the varying purchase situations. It is possible for a salesman to adapt himself to the needs, motives, impulses and other behavioral traits of the prospective consumers so as to communicate the message and clinch the deal.

3.2.3 Advantages of Personal Selling

One key advatage personal selling has over the promotional methods is that it is a two-way form of communication. In selling situations the message sender (e.g., salesperson) can adjust the message as they gain feedback from message receiveres (e.g., customer). So if a customer does not understand how the product works) the salesperson can make adjustments to address questions or concerns. Many non-personal forms of promotion, such as a radio advertisement, are inflexible, at least in the short-term, adn cannot be easily adjusted to address audience questions.

3.3 NATURE OF SALES JOB

We need to understand that any sales job requires total and complete 2 way communication between the buyer and the seller.
This can be looked at in the following manner:
• Retail
• Direct
• Wholesaler
• Manufacturer
• Retail Selling

□ A retail salesperson sells goods or servies to consumer for their personal, non-business use

• Direct Selling

□ Face to face sales to consumer, typically in their homes, who use teh products for their non-business personal use

• Selling for a Wholesaler

□ For resale
□ For use in proudcing other goods
□ For use within an organization

• Selling for a Manufacturer

□ Working for the firm who mancufacture the prodcut
□ Usually one of the most prestigious jobs to hold

Putting the Customer First Requires Salespeople to Have Personal Characteristics That Allow Them To:
• Care for the customer
• Take joy in thir work
• Find harmony in the sales relationships
• Have patience in closing the sale
• Be kind to all people
• Have high moral ethics
• Be faithful to one's word
• Be fair in the sale
• Be self-controlled in emotions

What Does a Salesperson Do?
• Creates new customers
• Sells more to present customers
• Builds long-term relationships
• Provivdes solutions to customer's problems
• Provides servies t customer

Given below are the different natures fo sales jobs:
• The sales force is largely reponsible for implementing a firm's marketing strategies in the field.
• Sales people are among the few employees authorized t spend company funds.
• Sales people represent their company to customers and to society in general.
• Sales operate with little or no direct supervision and require a high degree of motivation.
• Sales people are frequently required to develop innovative solutions to difficult problems

3.3.1 Objectives of Personal Selling

Personal selling is used to meet the five objective of promotion in the follwoing ways:
• Building Product Awareness.
• Creating Interest
• Providing Information.
• Providing Information.
• Stimulating Demand.
• Reinforcing the Brand.

Difference between personal selling and direct selling
Direct selling, which ususally means one-on-one, rep-to-conusmer sales. That used to mean going door-to-door. Today's it may also mean setting up personal sales visits or product demonstrations by phone. Avon Product, Tupperware, Amway are some of the best-known example fo one-of-one selling.

3.3.2 Classifying Selling Roles

As we noted above wordlwide millions of people have careers that fit in the personal selling category.

Order Getters

• New Business Development.
• Business Equipment Sales.
• Telemarketing.
• Consumer Selling
• Account Management
• Business-to-Business Selling
• Trade Selling

Order Takers

• Customer Serivce Exective - While soem retail salespeople are invloved in new business selling, the vast majority of retail employees handle order taking tasks, which from directing customer to products to handling customers checkout.

• Industrial Disrtibutor - Industrial purchase situations, such as distributors of building products, will also have clerks to handle customer purchase.

Order Influencers

• Missionary - These salespeople are used in industries where customers make purchase based on the advice or requirements of others. Two industries in which missionary selling is commonly found are pharmaceuticals, where salepeople, known as product detailer, disucss with doctors (influencers) who then write prescriptions for their patients.

• Suggestion selling - Occurs when the salesperson points out available complemenatary items in line with the selected item(s), in order to encourage an additional purchase.

Sales Support

• Technical Specialists - When dealing with the sale of technical products, particularly in business markets, salespeople may need to draw on the expertise of others to assist with the process. In business selling many people from different functional areas may be invloved in the purchase decision.

• Office Support - Salespeople also may receive assistance from their company's office staff in the form of creating promotional materials, setting up sales appointmets, finding sales leads, arranging meeting space or organizing trade shows exhibits.

3.4 QUALITIES OF A SALESPERSON

The Sales team of a company is its backbone. After all it is the sales person who is the face of the firm and interacts with prospective consumers. Whether we talk about door to door selling ro over the counter sales, the sales person is always under pressure to meet rising sales targets.
The sales presentation requries a sales man to be a friend, a guide, an advisor and sometimes a reformer to the customers.
Here are few qualities that define an effective sales person -

• Goal Oriented
• Confident
• Patient & Courteous
• Team Player
• Complete Product Knowledge
• Pleasing Personality

3.4.1 The Inefficetive Salesperson

In the sales profession one meets many 'personalities', some more successful than others. Can you recogize any of the follwoing?
• Hard workers
• Creatives
• Enterepreneurs
• Naturals
• Heavies
• Logicians
• Systems expertis
• Technicians
• Nice Guys.
• Comfort-zoners
• Big spenders
• Senior statesperons
• Barricade builders
• Cultchers at straws
• Perpetual students
• Drifters

3.4.2 The Effective Salesperson

• Believing
• Caring
• Asking
• Listening
• Showing
• Helping
• Servicing

The following personality trait descriptions will help you to indentify your own major trait:

• Sefl-contained---direct. This type of person has dominant personality, is business-like, formal, works adn thinks fast, likes authority, gets on with the job, is assertive, decisive, deals with facts, gets to the point, likes to set goals.
• Open---direct. This type of person is conforming, stead, friendly, works at relationships, avoids confrontation, goes along with the majority, wants attention, is pleasant, sensitive patient.

3.4.3 Recognizing the Effective Salespeople

Highly effective salespeople are the 'quiet achievers'. You will know them because they:
• Study
• Practive
• Apply
• Are strong Self-leaders
• Align themselves to markets
• Sell concepts, not products
• Concentrate effort on productive time.
• Package their recommendations to provide for their clients ideas needs and wants.
• Work to daily goals
• Believe, care and help
• Stive for Personal Excellence
• Support others in the team with advice and encouragement
• Regard their job as their career
• Place and emphasis on client service

3.4.4 The Effective Business Salesperson

At a personal level, highly effective business salespeople need more patience. They reflect this thourgh a quiet adn courteous persistence. At a professional level they alos need:
• A thourgh knowledge of their competitors products.
• A general knowledge of the fundamettals of running a business
• An understanding of the market in which they operate.
• A good knowledge fo their client's industry and of the general state of has industry.
• Knowledge of thier clients's business and where it fits into the industry.
• Where the prodcut is a technical one, such as mining equipment or computers, to be highly effective, might require a university degree and experience in the specific industry.

3.5 ROLE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN PERSONAL SELLING

The application of information technology and its imprint can be seen everywhere and selling is no exception. The pace with which the modern business and sales has grown is phenomenal thanks to IT.

3.5.1 Telecommunications

Over the last decade or so, the world especially, India has been a witness to the phenomenal growth fo mobile telephony, All in ones, sophistication in printing technology and other modern means of communication as PC to PC chat, video conferencing etc.
The telephone for long has proved to be the most dependableally of the sales person, be it in hte field or at the office. Message can be relayed, information can be coanveyed thanks to the ubiquitous telephone.

3.5.2 Customer Information : Storage and Handling

Another area that has been a witness to some remarkable progress especially in the selling arena. The business today is as much concerned with the storage of information, as its securtiy and application for better gains. Database and its management can have some serious implications if not handled properly. The primary concern today is to utlilize it in such manner so as to increase both effeciency and effectiveness.
The database can be explotied further by working it thourgh the 'lead tracking system'. The response can be measured in terms of the shrot term and long term value which the organization derives from say, a particular advertisement or advertising medium.

3.5.3 Managing the Sales Force

Sales force management technology has been introduced into the area of organizing as a way to reduce the amount of time spent on such activites as managing contacts, scheduling sales calls, developing sales plans, and planning sales routes.
Managing contacts can include information about current customers as well as potential customers and influential peole in a network. Schuduling is another important task that has affected by the introduction of sales force technology. There are several benefits that can be realized from using technology, including fewer missed meetings due to audible or vibrating alarms; being able to back up important scheduling information; and allowing the sharing of information with managers, other salespeople, and administrative peresonel.
• Presenting
• Reporing
• Informing
• Communicating