Personal selling

Personal selling—direct interaction between a seller and a buyer—is a critical component in marketing communications. Salespeople help to generate a company’s revenue by providing information to consumers and feedback to manufacturers. Personal selling includes field sales; making calls on existing and potential customers at their businesses; over-the-counter sales in retail or wholesale locations; and electronic sales, telephone, or internet communications with customers. Personal selling, especially field sales, can be expensive, which is why companies are using electronic sales communications whenever appropriate.
The stereotypical salesperson is someone who uses high-pressure, fast-talking tactics. But selling has many facets, most of which are ethical and beneficial to society. Increasingly businesses attempt to build relationships with customers though their sales representatives. Selling involves listening to customers and helping them solve problems even if it does not immediately result in a sale. Selling is often a team process, with many specialists contributing to the organization’s overall goal.
Personal selling is also part of nonprofit marketing. People who believe in their organization’s goal can often be very effective representatives when soliciting donations. Personal selling is a seven-step process. Individual salespersons may or may not be involved in all seven steps, but someone in an organization needs to be responsible for accomplishing each step in the process, as follows.
• prospecting and qualifying
• approach
• presentation
• demonstration
• handling objections
• closing
• follow-up
Prospecting—identifying potential customers—is sometimes managed by company headquarters, which provides leads for its salespeople. Prospecting and then qualifying customers can be time-consuming, but it is a critical first step, since it reduces wasted effort by determining which prospects are potential customers. Real-estate agents will often offer to prequalify buyers before showing them properties. Buyers give the agent income and expense information, allowing the agent to estimate the maximum loan the buyer will likely be able to get from a lending institution. This eliminates wasted time showing customers properties they cannot afford and also provides the agent, a representative of the seller, valuable information about what buyers can afford to pay.
Once a salesperson identifies a qualified prospect, she or he makes initial contact with the prospective customer. The approach stage is carefully planned utilizing whatever information the salesperson can obtain. Business salespeople will often spend considerable time learning about a company before approaching the firm. Retail salespeople frequently have limited information about prospects but will quickly engage potential customers to better define their approach.
Presentations, describing a product’s features and benefits to customers, are designed to stimulate interest. In some sales organizations, representatives memorize and use canned presentations. Others use a features-benefits framework, in which the seller presents the product in terms of how the features of their product will meet the customer’s needs.
In face-to-face personal selling, the seller can demonstrate the good or service to a potential buyer, which reinforces the benefits that the salesperson has already discussed. Auto sales almost always involve test-driving vehicles. Television infomercials and shopping networks show consumers how to use and benefit from the product being sold. Sometimes, however, demonstrations can fail. In 2000, Microsoft’s chief executive officer, Bill Gates, attempted to demonstrate one of his company’s new products at the important Comdex Trade show, only to have the product fail in front of thousands of technology industry customers and competitors.
Handling objections is the next stage in the selling process. Well-trained salespeople know in advance most of the objections potential customers will have and are prepared to address those objections. Once objections are answered, the “moment of truth” in the sales process, the closing, takes place: The salesperson asks the customer to buy the product. Salespeople have learned a number of techniques to close a sale, including
• the “if I can show you . . .” suggestion
• the “which do you like better” alternative decision
• the “buy now or it might not be available later” teaser (called the Standing Room Only technique)
• the sweetener—adding something to the offer
• silence
Salespeople generally use one or more of the above techniques. However, one study found salespeople often fail to close when the buyer is ready.
The last stage in the sales process is follow-up. Postsales efforts often determine whether the customer will become a repeat customer. In most marketing situations, it is much more expensive and time-consuming to find new customers than it is to sell to existing customers. Followup also cultivates word-of-mouth referral, which is almost always the best form of promotion a company can get. Good follow-up practices make personal selling easier.