UNIT 1: INTRODUCTION TO PERSONAL SELLING

Structure

1.0 Objectives
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Personal Selling
1.3 Characteristics of Personal Selling
1.4 Types of Selling Situations
1.5 When to Use Personal Selling
1.6 Different Roles of Personal Selling
1.7 Advantages and Disadvantages of Personal Selling
1.8 Objectives of Personal Selling
1.9 Diversity of Personal-Selling Situations
1.10 Process of Personal Selling
1.11 Let Us Sum Up
1.12 Key words
1.13 Answers to Check Your Progress
1.13 Terminal Questions

1.0 OBJECTIVES
After studying this unit, you should be able to:
 describe personal selling, its characteristics and types;
 explain advantages and disadvantages of personal selling; and
 discuss objectives and process of personal selling.

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1.1 INTRODUCTION

You have read about 4Ps of the marketing mix and one of them is Promotion. The ultimate
purpose of promotion is to communicate with consumers to persuade them to buy and hence
contribute to company’s sales. It is also referred as promotion mix or communication mix.
Various tools of promotion mix are: Advertising, Personal selling, Sales Promotion and Public
relations. Out of these, the major elements of communication are: Advertising and Personal
selling.

Advertising is non-personal way to communicate with large number of consumers through mass
media like TV, newspaper, hoardings, radio, digital media etc. to sell the product.
Personal selling is personal communication to sell the product. It is a process wherein
salesperson attempts to sell the products to the customer by interacting with consumers either
face-to face or contacting them through online medium like email, videoconference etc. It
involves direct and personal communication with one or few prospective customers to influence
them to purchase goods and services.To summarize, Personal selling is a part of promotion mix,
which involves person-to-person, two-way communication for the purpose of creating awareness
and selling the product and services. In this unit, you will learn

1.2 PERSONAL SELLING

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According to American Marketing Association, “Personal selling is the oral presentation in a
conversation with one or more prospective purchasers for the purpose of making sale; it is
the ability to persuade the people to buy goods and services at a profit to the seller and benefit to
the buyer”.

Philip Kotler defines “Personal selling is a face-to-face interaction with one or more prospective
purchasers for the purpose of making presentations, answering questions and procuring
orders.”

Nature of Personal Selling

Personal Selling is a two-way communication, in which the salesperson educates the customer
about the features, benefits, price, delivery etc. of the product and apply persuasive skills to sell
the product while handling queries and objections of buyers. The salesperson can customize the
communication according to the requirement of every buyer. Salespeople stimulate consumers to
purchase by matching product benefits with their needs, convincing them about product benefits
and reducing people's inherent reluctance to make purchase decision.

1. Personal selling fulfils the objectives of (i) selling the product and (ii) developing long-
term relationships with customers.

2. B2B and B2C selling: Personal selling is generally used as major element of promotion
mix in B2B selling situations. Whereas advertising is used as major element in B2C
selling situations. Personal selling may be used as minor element in B2C selling and
advertising may be used as minor element in B2B selling.

3. Art and Science: Personal selling is both art and science. It is considered as an art
because salesperson applies the creative abilities in making final sales presentation before
each customer in a unique way. It is considered as a science because salesperson applies
the principles of consumer behavior and stages of selling process as a basis of sales
presentation to persuade buyers for purchase.

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 4. Salespeople may be called as: sales representatives, salespersons, account executives,
sales consultants, sales engineers, field representatives, agents, service representatives,
marketing representatives etc.

5. Offline methods: Salespeople can reach the prospective customers through offline
methods such as face to face meeting or through a telephonic call.

6. Online methods: connecting with customers through emails, social media and other
digital platforms. It may be comparatively difficult to keep the customer engaged and
interested through online methods.

7. Selling and Non-Selling activities: Personal selling may include both selling and non-
selling activities. Activities like finding potential customers, contacting them, making
presentation, and taking sales orders from them are selling activities. Activities like
maintaining records, writing reports, attending meetings, training dealers’ salespeople,
building relationships with customers, providing after-sale services etc. are non-selling
activities.

Growing importance of personal selling

The technological advancements have allowed the interactive contact between buyer and seller to
be made through video conferencing, email etc. Now, it is possible for the companies to apply
personal selling to the customers spread across the globe.
With increase in use of technical aspect in the new products being launched, role of personal
selling is increasing for educating the customers about such new technicalities of the products.
For example, use of micro chips, artificial intelligence, online services etc.

1.3 CHARACTERISTICS OF PERSONAL SELLING

Let us know about the key characteristics of personal selling and how are these different from
advertising.

1. Buyer-seller interaction: In advertising, communication is one-sided, from seller to

consumers whereas, in personal selling, it is two-way communication between salesperson and

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the prospective buyer.
The interaction is not just limited to geographical boundaries as the technological advances have
made it possible to interact through video conferencing, email etc.

2. Direct communication: In advertising the message is conveyed in non-personal manner

through mass media like TV, newspaper, hoardings, radio, digital media etc. but in personal
selling, salespersons convey the messages personally to the consumers.

3.Push strategy: In personal selling, salespeople present the product and information about it
and persuade consumers to buy it. It is referred as ‘push strategy’ as the product is pushed
towards consumers. In advertising, consumers get drawn towards the product through ads which
capture their attention, get them interested and persuade them to buy the product. It is referred as
‘pull strategy’ as consumers get drawn towards product.

4. Customization and personalization: In advertising, message sare standardized i.e., same

message is conveyed to all the consumers through ads wherein the salesperson can modify the
message to make it suitable to each of the prospective buyer.

5. Human element: Person engaging in personal selling serves as the personal connection
between a company and its customers. So, along with verbal communication, it also includes use
of non-verbal communication of body language, tone, appearance etc. in conveying messages to
the buyer.

6. More engaging: The real time sales presentation and demonstration makes it more engaging
and experience for buyers.

7. Quick response: Direct communication in the case of personal selling, allows the seller to
gauge the response and purchase intention of prospective buyers. It helps seller to keep adapting
the sales talk accordingly, which may positively influence buyer’s purchase intention.

8. Customer feedback: Two-way communication makes it possible for the buyers to express the
feedback about product, price, its comparison with competing products, etc. This information

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from prospective and existing customers can be useful for the company for making
improvements in the marketing strategy.

9. Cultivating relationships: It is possible for the seller to use personal interactions with buyers
for developing and strengthening relationships and building goodwill for the company.

Check Your Progress A

1. State whether the following statements are True or False.

i. Personal selling is one of the promotion tools in the promotion mix.

ii. In personal selling, meeting with prospects can be face to face or through online
media.

iii. Personal selling function may involve non-selling activities also.

iv. Personal selling can be used for both B2B and B2C markets.

2. Fill in the blanks.

i. Personal selling is a ………strategy.

ii. Personal communication includes verbal and ……….communication.

iii. Flexibility of personal selling makes it possible to ………sales presentations.

1.4 TYPES OF SELLING SITUATIONS

Salespeople work in variety of selling situations, which can be classified broadly as follows:

1. Based on type of consumers:

Existing customers and New customers

Selling to acquire new customers who have not been using the product or have been
using competitor’s product. It is called developmental selling situation. It is a more

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 challenging job as compared to selling to existing customers.
Existing customers are targeted for repeat orders from existing customers of the
company. It may also involve maintaining relationships with old customers to continue
selling them. It costs lesser money and efforts to sell to existing customers. It is also
called service selling situation.

2. Based on type of market:

Business to Consumer (B2C) and Business to Business(B2B)

In B2C, salesperson sells the product to consumers for their personal use and in B2B,
salesman sells to other companies, which will be using the product for use in
manufacturing of goods or carry out their business operations (such as office supplies), or
for resale to other consumers, such as wholesalers or retailers. In B2B, salesperson tries
to meet rational buying criteria of the customer, wherein B2C, selling can be done on
emotional or mix of emotional and rational buying criteria.

3. Based on type of product:

Consumer products and industrial products

Personal selling plays major role in the communication mix for selling of industrial
products to other companies. It may involve frequent visits of salesperson, negotiations,
greater emphasis on developing relationships with customer companies. In the case of
consumer non-durables like shampoo, bread, salesperson hands over the product required
by the customer and there is not much scope for use of persuasion for such products.
Comparatively, role of salesperson is more in selling of consumer non-durables like TV,
Laptop, car to customers. Salesperson makes presentation, demonstrates product, answers
queries, persuades customer for closing the sale.

1.5 WHEN TO USE PERSONAL SELLING

Personal selling is not an appropriate tool for every product or service, and its use also depends
on marketing strategy/business model of the company. In general, use of personal selling is more

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in B2B market and use of advertising is more in B2C market. when their products or services are
highly technical, specialized, or costly—such as complex software systems, business consulting
services, homes, and automobiles.

In addition, there are certain conditions that favor personal selling:

1. Product situation: Personal selling is relatively more effective when a product is of a

high unit value (expensive office equipment-digital Xerox machine),highly technical
product (complex software), when a product is in the introductory stage of its life cycle
and requires consumers to be educated (robotic machinery), when it requires personal
attention for consumer needs (real estate), or when it requires product demonstration or
after-sales services (manufacturing machinery).

2. Market situation: Personal selling is appropriate when a firm has small number of large-
size buyers (selling machinery to textile manufacturing companies only) or when selling
is small/local market only (selling tiffin box facility to nearby customers only). Also, it
can be used for selling to middlemen when a company is using an indirect channel of
distribution for selling the products to consumers (PepsiCo selling its products through
wholesalers and retailers)

3. Company situation: Personal selling is best utilized when a firm cannot afford to have a
large and regular advertising budget.

4. Consumer behavior situation: It is suitable to use personal selling when it is a valuable

and infrequently bought product by the customer. For example, customers like to interact
personally at car showroom before buying a car. Personal selling is also appropriate to
use when consumers require more persuasion like in selling of interior design services.

Check Your Progress B

1. State whether the following statements are True or False.

i. Personal selling is used more in selling of industrial products.

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 ii. Role of personal selling is more in selling of consumer non-durables in comparison to
consumer durables.

iii. Acquiring new customers is called service selling.

2. Fill in the blanks.

i. Personal selling is more suitable for selling of ………priced products.

ii. Personal selling is more suitable for selling to …………. sized customers.

iii. Personal selling is more suitable for selling of ………….products to the customers.

1.6 DIFFERENT ROLES OF PERSONAL SELLING

Wide variety of selling situations call for different selling strategies and changing role of
salespersons. These are broadly grouped as:

1. Communication strategies: Role of salesperson mainly involves with information about

product, its price, delivery, service strategies to help prospective customer take the
purchase decision.
2. Persuasion strategies: In salesperson’s role, there is more emphasis on convincing the
prospective customer by matching the product benefits with need and satisfaction of the
customer for persuading the customer to buy.
3. Negotiation strategies: In some situations of selling to other companies, negotiating the
product specifications to be provided and other terms like prices, after sale-service etc.
become more important. For example, if a manufacturing ingredient is to be supplied
regularly to a company over a longer period, the negotiations between buyer and seller
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 become more important as it will be influencing costs for buyer and profits for seller over
extended period of time.
4. Client-profit planning strategy: In industrial selling of high priced, technical products,
there is sharing of information by the buyer company with the salespersons about its
different areas of operations, future plans, R&D, finance, logistics etc. Then, the
salespeople along with higher authorities suggest and develop products within suitable
price, which can help increase the profits of the client.

1.7 ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF PERSONAL SELLING

1.7.1 Advantages: The advantages of the personal selling are as follows:

1. Two-Way communication: In personal selling, it is possible to have communication

from seller to buyer and from buyer to seller. Salesperson can provide information to the
prospective customer, ask questions from the customers and customer can also raise the
queries and get them clarified.
2. Flexibility in communication: The significant advantage of personal selling is its
flexibility to customize sales presentations for different customers and different
situations. Salesperson can tailor their presentation to fit the needs, motives, and behavior
of individual customers. A salesperson can also go on assessing the customer’s reaction
while making sales presentation and immediately adjust the message to facilitate better
connection between the message and the needs of the customer. Thus, it helps in
increasing the probability of getting the sales order.
3. Sharp focus on target customers: Through personal selling, effort to sell is focused on
potential customers only. Thus, it minimizes wasted effort whereas it is not possible in
advertising. Ads reach much larger number of audiences which may include many people
outside the target market of the product. A lot of time and money gets wasted in
advertising that reaches many people outside the target market (who are not likely to
buy). In personal selling, the salesperson identifies the potential customers who have the
need, ability and desire to buy the product and focuses selling effort on them only.
4. Personal attention and detailed presentation: Needful information is gathered about
every prospect to plan and make sales presentation. Every customer is given personal

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 attention and it is possible to give detailed demonstration about the product, answer
customer queries. For example, salesperson gathers data about size of the company,
priority of needs, purchase department policies, type of customers of the company etc. to
develop right presentation for the company.
5. Instant feedback: Salesperson gets instant feedback from customers about their intention
to buy or not to buy and may also know the reason for not buying.
6. Measuring effectiveness: Another advantage of personal selling is that it is easier to
assess the results of time and money spent in personal selling efforts. Results can be
measured in terms of number of sales calls made, number and size of sales orders,
expenses incurred, and profits earned. So, measuring sales effectiveness and determining
ROI are easier for personal selling than for other promotion tools.
7. Getting customer’s attention: The one-on-one interaction of personal selling makes it
easier to get customer’s attention, to respond to questions and to motivate the customer to
buy. However, all the people getting exposed to an ad (watching TV, reading newspaper
etc.) may not pay attention to the ad or may forget it or may not get persuaded enough to
buy.
8. Performing additional tasks: Through personal selling, it is possible for the salesperson
to perform multiple tasks. For example, in addition to selling, a salesperson can perform
non-selling tasks like: provide after-sales service, collect payments, and collect customer
feedback for the company.

1.7.2 Disadvantages of Personal Selling: The disadvantages of personal selling are as follow:

1. Higher costs: One of the disadvantages of personal selling is high cost due to hiring,
training, compensation costs of salespeople, selling expenses of travel and lodging of
salespeople. Though many companies try to control costs by paying salespeople through
sales commissions alone, thereby paying them only if they generate sales. However,
commission-only salespeople may indulge in persuading customers aggressively to get
the sale without paying much attention to their need satisfaction. It may result into bad
word of mouth and loss of repeat sale for the company. Another way to reduce costs is
that companies can use telemarketing, direct mail, and online communication with

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 qualified prospects to reduce the costs of personal selling but their effect in getting
customers’ attention and persuading them for sale can be much lesser.
2. High turnover: Another disadvantage of personal selling is the issue of high turnover
rate among salespeople due to its problems of travelling, no fixed hours, stress of
obtaining sales, problem of handling difficult customers etc. As a result, it increases the
cost of hiring and training new salespeople. Also, companies face the difficulty of finding
suitable good quality salespeople.
3. Lack of standardisation in communication: Another weakness of personal selling is
that salespeople of a company may differ from each other in their communication with
customers. As customers differ from each other, salespeople vary in their final
communications made to them. Even the same salesperson may differ in handling of
similar customers each time due to differences in circumstances. As a result, there may be
variations in results, and it may also influence the coordination of selling efforts with rest
of the marketing mix.
4. Salespeople may vary in their abilities and motivation: Members of sales team may
vary in their levels of motivation leading to variations in their selling efforts. For
example, salespeople may vary in their ability to make the desired number of sales calls
each day or in their willingness to put enough efforts to prepare for presentations etc.
Sales manager needs to put in extra efforts in managing each member of the sales team to
get the best from them.

Check Your Progress C

1. State whether the following statements are True or False.

i. It is not possible to measure the results of selling efforts of salespeople.

ii. In personal selling, effort to sell can be focused on potential customers only.

iii. There is standardization in communication in personal selling.

iv. Members of a sales team may vary in their abilities and motivation.

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1.8 OBJECTIVES AND FUNCTIONS OF PERSONAL SELLING

There is wide variety of functions that are performed by salespeople across different types of
products, type of customers, types of selling strategy. For example, a salesperson selling large
machinery or a salesperson selling small stationary items of companies will be different in their
specific selling functions. Travel Company selling tickets to individual walk-in customers or
selling to big companies will differ in its selling functions. These functions contribute to
achieving of personal selling objectives of the company.

Ultimate objectives of all the functions/activities of sales department is getting sales, growth in
sales and to contribute to profits of the company. At specific level, these objectives can be
divided into two categories: quantitative and qualitative. whereas qualitative objectives are long-
term.

The qualitative personal-selling objectives are set for the long term and contribute to achieving
long term company objectives. These objectives are related to selling strategy of the company
and thus carried over from one promotional program to the next one. Quantitative objectives are
set for the short-term and are adjusted from one promotional program to the next one. Let us
learn them in detail.

1.8.1 Qualitative Objectives

The qualitative objectives are as follow.

1. To search out prospects: For any company to grow in its sales and market share, it is
required to keep adding new customers. Thus, it is important objective of personal selling
to keep finding new prospects for putting selling efforts to convert them into new
customers.
2. Stimulating demand: Salespeople interact with them to perform activities such as:
informing and educating them about the product. They answer their questions and

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 convincing them about how the product matches with their need and how its benefits will
satisfy their needs in order to stimulate demand for the product.
3. Informing, educating and guiding: Salespeople may be assigned with objectives to
perform the task of helping prospects identify their needs, providing information to create
awareness about the new products and services, educating the potential buyers with
respect to using the product, guiding them about benefits of products. It may also include
other services like installation, repairs and maintenance that can be made available to
buyers.
4. To serve the existing customers: The objective of personal selling effort of salespeople
can be to keep in touch with existing customers to serve them in different ways. It can be:
for after-sale services, training of company’s employees about using new software, to
provide technical assistance, to check on their need satisfaction by company’s product
etc. Meeting them regularly and to continue serving them helps to increase customer
loyalty. It costs less to serve the existing customers to get the sales as compared to
acquiring new customers for getting the sale.
5. To do the entire selling job: When personal selling is the only tool being used in the
promotion strategy of the company, its salespeople may be assigned with objective of
performing all the sales related functions from locating prospects to selling the product,
serving existing customers, providing after-sale service and follow-up. They may also be
assigned with other non-selling tasks like for after sale service, meeting regularly to
maintain relationships with customers, collecting payment etc.
6. Developing long-term relationships with customers: Salespeople may also be assigned
with the objective of putting the required effort for developing and maintaining long-term
relationships with customers. Activities like meeting and communicating regularly with
existing customers, to arrange for any after-sale support required by them etc. can help to
retaining the customers for long. It is important for getting repeat orders from the
customers. Serving existing customers costs less to the company as compared to
acquiring new customers. Thus, developing long-term relationship with customers is
more profitable for the company. For example, getting repeat sales for office stationery
from existing corporate customers or renewing of maintenance contracts from existing
customers.

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7. To collect and report market information: Salespeople work in the field and are in
direct contact with the customers. Hence, salespeople may also be assigned with the
objective of gathering information about customers’ feedback regarding company’s
products and competitors’ products to help the company make improvements in its
marketing strategy.
8. Strengthening brand image, building company goodwill: Salespeople through their
interactions with customers can help with the objective of building and improving brand
image. For example, Sales people may emphasize it as a prestige product, and may link
it with certain lifestyle of customers. Salespeople can also contribute to building
company’s goodwill through their efforts like company’s policies to care for customer
satisfaction.
9. Help in launching new products in the market: In certain situations, instead of using
advertising for informing prospects about the new product, salespeople may be assigned
with the objective of introducing new product to the prospective customers. For example,
salespeople may be given the objective to inform farmers about new brand of fertilizer
and educate them about its benefits. He/she may compare it with competing products to
show it as a better solution. Customers may buy it through retailers.
10. Help in establishing market positioning: salespeople through their interactions with
customers can communicate about the brand positioning of the product to prospective
customers. For example, salespersons can stress in their communication about better taste
of water from their brand of RO water filter system as compared to other brands. Thus,
personal selling may help with the objective of communicating its positioning on better
taste of water.
11. Provide support to middlemen of the company: Large number of companies sell their
products through indirect distribution channel involving middlemen like wholesalers,
retailers, agents etc. Such companies often employ salespeople to serve these middlemen.
Salespeople are assigned with various objectives of performing functions aimed at
middlemen to help increase company’s sales. Company’s salespeople may be assigned
with objectives to perform functions like:

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 (i) To maintain enough stocks of the product, providing enough shelf space for the
product, desired display of the product, advertising and sales promotional materials like
point of purchase display material and guidelines on how to use it, collecting payments
etc.

(ii) To keep customers informed of changes in the product line like addition or deletion of
product item or modification of a product in the product line.

(iii) To guide customers in selling optimum mix of products from the company’s product
line.

(iv) To provide technical assistance and training to middlemen for selling the products if
company products are technical in nature.

(v) To provide assistance to middlemen by guiding them on ‘how to sell’ its products.

1.8.2 Quantitative Objectives

In addition to the qualitative objectives mentioned above, certain quantitative objectives are also
assigned, which are short-term objectives, to personal selling. These objectives are as follow:

1. To obtain a specified sales volume.

2. To obtain sales volume in specified numbers of different products for selling proper mix
of products to contribute to profit objectives.
3. To keep the personal selling expenses within specified limits.
4. To secure and retain a specified share of the market.
5. To obtain some number of new customers of given categories.

1.9 Diversity of Personal-Selling Situations

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Consumers buy wide variety of products and services leading to different kinds of selling
situations and selling jobs. Each kind of selling situation requires different kind of selling style
involving different selling activities. These are namely:

1. Delivery salespersons: Primary job of salespeople is delivering the products to

customers to make the sales. For example, vegetable vendor, person going to residential
areas to sell bread, milk, delivering Pepsi to retail shops etc. Such salespeople need to be
regular in visiting customers and be courteous to them. They do not have much scope of
using selling skills to influence the customers.
2. Inside order-taker: Retail salespeople behind the counter are inside order-takers.
Customers visit retail stores with an intention to buy certain products and salespeople
need to serve customers with their requests. Customers are free to choose any product.
Salespeople have little scope of using their selling skills in influencing their purchase
decisions by suggesting other products and brands to them.
3. Outside order-taker: salespersons visiting wholesalers and retailers to take sales orders
and support them in their selling activities. Salespeople call on retailers to motivate them
to keep and sell their products. Their primary role is to take requests for stocks. In
addition, salespeople can educate middlemen about new products and use some selling
skills to persuade them to keep it in their stores. Salespeople may also need to inform
middlemen of any changes in products, prices etc. For example, asking the retailer to
keep and sell new brand of chips or taking order for supplying of soft-drink or chips,
which are already being sold by the retailer. The Salesperson will keep on updating them
about the new products as well as existing products.
4. Missionary salespeople: Salesperson's role is to inform and educate those individuals
about benefits of the products, who influence buyers in their purchase decision for the
product. Missionary salespeople do not take purchase orders and do not call on ultimate
customers. Goal of missionary sellers is not to complete a transaction and get the sales
volume. This is a form of indirect selling as they do not make a direct sale to consumers.
For example, a pharmaceutical representative might call on a physician to provide the
doctor with clinical information about a medication’s effectiveness. The salesperson
hopes the doctor will prescribe the drug. Patients, not doctors, actually purchase the

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 medication. Or salespeople of book publisher do not sell books directly to students
instead work with educators to inform them about the books.

5. Support salespeople: These can be: Technical salespeople, Merchandisers, Customer

service salespeople.

Technical salespeople: when a product is highly technical and negotiations are complex,
salesperson need to be technical specialist to provide detailed information to the client,
help in installation, provide training in using the product. For example, sales engineers.
Merchandisers provide with assistance retailers on shelf display, implementing
promotion schemes, ensuring stock levels etc.
Customer-Service salespeople: such people look after maintenance of products and
solve customers’ problems if any, after the purchase of the product.

6. Creative salespeople or order-getters: such salespeople create demand for the

product by using their creative skills. They sell a new product to the customers who do
not know about it or who have no interest in it. They use creative skills for making the
customers aware of their needs and show how the product can solve the problem or how
new product can solve their problem better than from the products they are using and
make sell the product. They get new customers for the company by getting them
interested in the product, making them desire for it and helping them decide to buy it.
There is lot of scope for use of selling skills in persuading the prospects. Such
salespeople may be involved in selling tangibles like vacuum cleaners, digital cameras,
paintings or intangibles like consulting services, insurance policies. This is a form of
direct selling as they make a direct sale to consumers. Such Salespersons require to have
detailed knowledge about the product as well as robust selling and negotiation skills.

Based on above type of Salespersons, different selling styles can be:

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 i. Door-to-door selling: The Salespersons visit customers at their place to interact with
them and sell the products.
ii. Trade selling: They perform sales and other related functions for customers like retailers,
wholesalers, agents.
iii. Missionary selling: Salespersons educate an individual with the power to influence
buying decision of others to buy a product.
iv. Technical selling: They provide technical advice and look after the technical problems of
the customers.
v. New business selling: They make effort to find and persuade new customers to sell the
products.

1.10 PROCESS OF PERSONAL SELLING

A sales process is a set of steps that a sales team takes to convert a prospect into a customer.
Having a standardized sales process adds structure and accountability to sales activities, leading
to a higher rate of successful sales.

It consists of sequence of steps that a salesperson goes through to sell a product or service. It is:
7-step sales process. These steps are as follow.
 Prospecting.
 Preparation.
 Approach.
 Presentation.
 Handling objections.
 Closing.
 Follow-up.
Now, Let us learn them in detail.
1. Prospecting: Prospect or a potential customer is a person or organization who has a need,
ability, desire to buy a product. Prospecting is the process of searching for prospects.
Objective of prospecting is to find sales leads for making sales call and trying to convert
them into customers. List of prospective customers is generated through various sources
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 like references, publicly available data, company records etc. The Salespersons have to
make sincere efforts to find out the leads. They must interact with the leads and enquire
about their requirement of products or services. They must try to develop good
impression about himself/herself.
2. Preparing: It involves customer research and planning for presentation. It is collecting
all the relevant information about the prospect like size and location of the clients, their
needs, financial resources, purchase policies etc. It helps developing suitable presentation
for each of the client by focusing on needs important to the client and communicating
relevant benefits to the client. The presentation must be very impressive so that the
prospects may get provoked to think about the products or services.
3. Approach: It is the first contact with the prospective client or opening lines at the
beginning of the meeting for about first two minutes. First impression is important to get
the customer interested in listening to the presentation. Salesperson may start by showing
the product or mentioning the most important problem of the client that match the
product. He may inform about special schemes, discounts, offers, etc. for the customers.
4. Presentation: A well prepared sales presentation can keep the client engaged in listening
carefully. It involves talking/showing about features and benefits of the product, how it
meets the need, demonstrating the product. Contents of presentation should be clear and
credible. The Presentation should focus on the detailed features of the product for which
customers may be interested to know. He/she has to arouse the interest of the customers
about the products.
5. Handling objections: These are questions raised by the prospect which can indicate
barriers to purchase or an unwillingness to buy. It is listening to the concerns of the
customer and answering them and providing solutions wherever possible. The objections
of customers can include objections to prices, products, services etc. For example, the
concern can be competing product being offered at a lesser price, which can be answered
by showing the difference in quality or features of the company’s product. Another
objection can be inability to pay for it, which can be solved by offering installment plan.
6. Closing the sale: It refers to the stage of getting the order from the customer. Salesperson
can first go for trial close in different ways like: by asking for choice in payment method,
selection of model or size or after-sale service plan etc. Answers to such questions can

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 indicate if the customer is ready to close the sale. If not, salesperson can ask questions to
know the reasons for it and again try to close the sale.
7. Follow-up: After closing the sale, it is important to keep in touch with customers to
know about their satisfaction with the product or to solve the problem if there is any. It
also helps in building relationship with customers and get repeat sales from them.

You will learn about the Sales Process in detail in Block 3, unit 8,9 and 10.

As with any other marketing communication method, personal selling must be: compared with
other promotion tools and evaluated for its appropriateness in achieving promotion objectives
and its profitability as a component of promotion mix. It also must be evaluated for its
contribution to the overall marketing mix.
Once the decision to use it and its selling strategy gets decided, it must be well coordinated with
other elements of promotion mix for maximizing effectiveness of communication strategy of the
company.

Check Your Progress D

1. Fill in the blanks.

i. Potential customer is a buyer who has……………….

ii. Gathering information about the client is done in…….step of sales process.

iii. Missionary salespeople educate the people who can influence others to……

iv. Trade selling is aimed at…………….as customers.

v. Keeping selling expenses in limits is………………. objective

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 vi. To provide selling support to retailers is ……………objective.

vii. Salespeople can help build…………………….with customers.

viii. Personal selling objectives can be divided in categories namely ……..

1.11 Let Us Sum Up

This unit discusses the concept of personal selling element of the promotion mix. It highlights
that personal selling is a process wherein salesperson attempts to sell the products to the
customer after interacting with them personally either face-to face or contacting them through
online medium. There is direct two-way communication between buyer and seller. Along with
verbal communication, it also uses non-verbal communication of body language, tone,
appearance etc.It is referred as ‘push strategy’ as the product is pushed towards consumers.It has
characteristics of: flexibility of customizing presentation according to the customer, more
engaging, allows for developing relationships with customers, quick response and feedback from
customer.

Salespeople work in variety of selling situations which can be classified broadly as three types of
selling situations based on type of markets, types of consumers, types of products. It is more
appropriate to use personal selling in situations like: B2B selling, high priced product, technical
product, new kind of product requiring educating the customers about it, large and few
customers, for serving middlemen as customers, when company cannot afford to have large
advertising budgets, for high value and infrequently bought products by consumers.

Different roles performed by personal selling for different situations can be: communication,
persuasion, negotiation, client-profit planning strategy. Like other communication tools, personal
selling also has certain advantages and disadvantages. Its advantages include-two-way
communication, flexibility in communication, sharp focus on target customers, personal attention
and detailed presentation, instant feedback, measuring effectiveness, getting customer’s

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attention, performing additional non-selling tasks. Its disadvantages include- higher costs, high
turnover, lack of standardisation in communication, salespeople may vary in their abilities and
motivation.

Personal selling is used to fulfill qualitative objectives like-to search for prospects, stimulating
demand, to serve the existing customers, developing long-term relationships with customers, to
collect and report market information, to serve middlemen, building relationships with
customers, providing support to the middlemen of the company, strengthening brand image, and
building company goodwill. Along with such qualitative objectives certain quantitative
objectives are also assigned to personal selling, which are short-term objectives. These can be:
to obtain a specified sales volume, sales volume in specified numbers of different products for
selling proper mix of products to contribute to profit objectives, to keep the personal selling
expenses within specified limits, to secure and retain a specified share of the market, to obtain
some number of new customers of given categories. There is vast diversity in personal selling
situations resulting in different selling functions which are: Delivery salespersons, inside- order-
taker, outside- order-taker, Missionary salespeople, support salespeople like technical
salespeople, merchandisers, customer service salespeople, creative salespeople or order-getters.

Process of personal selling consists of sequence of steps that a salesperson goes through to sell a
product or service. These are: prospecting, preparation, approach, presentation, handling
objections, closing the sale, follow-up.

Personal selling must be evaluated based on its contribution to the overall marketing mix. In
addition, it can be very effective when personal selling is well integrated with other elements of
communication strategy,

1.12 KEY WORDS

Promotion mix: Mix of different communication tools, which are advertising, personal selling,
sales promotion and public relations

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B2B: Selling industrial products and services to other businesses in facilitating manufacturing
their products and services

B2C: Selling products to customers for their final consumption

Prospect: Potential customer having need, ability to pay and desire for the product

Push Strategy: Salespeople present the product or information about it and persuade consumers
to buy it.

Door to door selling: Visiting customers at their place to interact with them and sell the
products.

Inside-order taker: Salesperson behind the retail counter taking customers’ orders

Outside-order taker: Salespersons visiting wholesalers and retailers to take sales orders and
support them in their selling activities.

Missionary selling: Educating people who influence buying decision of others. Like medical
representatives persuade doctors to prescribe and influence the customers to purchase the
product.

Technical selling Providing technical advice and assistance as part of sales job.

New business selling: To seek out and persuade new customers for

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selling the product

1.13 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

A.1. i. True ii. True iii. True iv. True 2. i. Push ii. non-verbal iii. Customize

B.1. i. True ii. False iii. False 2. i. High ii. Large iii. Small

C.1. i. False ii. True iii. False iv. True

D.1. i. Quantitative ii. Qualitative iii. Relationships iv. Quantitative and Qualitative v. Need,
ability to pay and desire vi. Preparation vii. Buy viii. Wholesalers and Retailers

1.14 TERMINAL QUESTIONS

1. What do you understand by the term Personal Selling and how is it different from
advertising?

2. What are the advantages and disadvantages in using personal selling as a promotion tool?

3. Explain the various qualitative and quantitative objectives of personal selling.

4. Can the same selling style be used in all the selling situations? Explain the diversity of
selling situations.

5. Do you think it is important to use selling process steps in personal selling? Discuss the
various steps of selling process.

6. Suggest why would the use of personal selling be more appropriate for selling the
following products:

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 (i) Ultrasound machines
(ii) Customized business software

7. (i) What is the type of personal selling used by pharmaceutical companies for selling their
medicines?
(ii) What is the type of personal selling used by companies selling their products through
retailers?

SOME USEFUL BOOKS

Thomas N. Ingram, Raymond W., LaForge, Ramon A Avila, Charles H. Schwepker, Michael R.
Williams.(2018).SELL: Trust-Based Professional Selling, (5th ed.).Cengage Learning India Pvt.
Ltd.

Krishnamoorthy, R. (2015). Personal selling and sales management, (1st ed.).Himalaya

Publishing House

Tracy, B. (2006). The Psychology of Selling: Increase Your Sales Faster and Easier
Than You Ever Thought Possible. HarperCollins Leadership (20 June 2006)
Gupta, C.B. (2017). Advertising and Personal Selling. Sultan Chand &Sons

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