Personal Selling

Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, and

Mother Theresa were all sales people
Avon

Challenge: Recruit
Recruit aa new
new generation
generation of
of Avon
Avon
salespeople
salespeople

An
An IMC
IMC program
program featuring:
featuring:
Answer: •• The
The introduction
introduction of
of aa new
new youth
youth brand,
brand, mark
mark
•• Joint
Joint sales
sales training
training program
program with
with University
University
of
of Phoenix
Phoenix
•• New
New magazine/catalog:
magazine/catalog: meetmeet mark
mark

•• To
To early
early to
to tell,
tell, but
but the
the target
target audience,
audience,
young
young women
women 16-24,16-24, is
is aa huge
huge potential
potential
Results:
market,
market, spending
spending approximately
approximately $24$24
billion
billion on
on beauty-related
beauty-related products
products
How Does Personal Selling Work?

Personal selling: Person-to-person

interactive communication used to
ultimately persuade a current/
prospective customer to buy something

The Oldest
Marketing
Communication
Function
Acquiring New Customers

Problem: 15-20% customer turnover rate each year

Prospecting
Prospecting

Ways
Ways to
to
Following
Following up
up on
on Sales
Sales Leads
Leads
Respond
Respond

Toughest
Toughest Challenge:
Challenge:
Cold
Cold Calling
Calling
Retaining Current Customers

Problem: often overlooked in favor of

attracting new customers

Build
Build Trust
Trust By:
By: Being
Being Customer-
Customer-
oriented,
oriented, Demonstrating
Demonstrating
Dependability,
Dependability, Being
Being Honest
Honest
Ways
Ways to
to
Respond
Respond
Treating
Treating Current
Current
Customer
Customer Like
Like New
New Ones
Ones
Personal Selling Objectives

Typical
Typical
Measurable
Measurable
Examples
Examples

Increase
Increase
Identify
Identify YY Current
Current
Make
Make XX Cold
Cold Qualified
Qualified Sales
Sales Customers’
Customers’
Calls
Calls Leads
Leads Business
Business by
by ZZ
Percent
Percent
Personal Selling Strategies

Solution
Solution (enterprise)
(enterprise) Partnering
Partnering
Selling
Selling

•• Helping
Helping ••Working
Working with
with
customers
customers solve
solve prospects
prospects and
and
problems
problems or
or take
take customers
customers as
as
advantage
advantage ofof business
business partners
partners
opportunities
opportunities
Strategies such as CRM (Customer
Relationship Management)

Provides
Provides Salespeople
Salespeople With
With an
an
Automated
Automated System
System for
for Organizing
Organizing
Their
Their Sales
Sales Activities
Activities

CRM
CRM

CRM
CRM Databases
Databases Integrate
Integrate
Organization
Organization and
and Client
Client Data
Data
4 Steps in the Selling Process

Step 1: Generating and qualifying leads:

• Leads may come from direct-response
ads or from publicity about the brand
• Can include “bingo cards”
• Leads may also come from referrals
• Can include satisfied customers and
employees
4 Steps in the Selling Process

Step 2: Making the sales call:

• Can occur in the following ways
• During a visit to a prospect’s home or office
• During group meetings like Avon Mark parties
• By inside salespeople
• Used to call on accounts whose average size
orders are not large enough to cost-justify an
in-person sales call
• Typically employs sales literature
What is The Personal Selling Process?

Step 3: Handling objections:

• Handling objections is key to closing the
deal
• Some examples to “I can’t afford to buy
now”:
• Offer more favorable credit terms
• Point out how the brand can reduce
costs—and pay for itself
What is The Personal Selling Process?

Step 4: Closing and following up the sale:

• Once objections have been successfully
addressed…
• …the next step is to close the sale
• determining the terms of the transaction and
getting the prospects agreement to those
terms
• But don’t forget to follow up
An Example of Sales Literature

+
Follow-Up Postcards After The Sale

+
Sales Management Issues

Salesperson’s
Salesperson’s
Call-to-sales
Call-to-sales Ratio
Ratio
5-1
5-1 == 11 sale
sale for
for every
every 55 calls
calls

Measuring
Measuring Sales
Sales and
and Profitability
Profitability of
of
Success Salesperson’s
Salesperson’s Accounts
Accounts
Success

Number
Number of
of Referrals
Referrals Made
Made by
by aa
Salesperson’s
Salesperson’s Accounts
Accounts
Other MC Functions Support Sales

Public
Public Direct
Direct
Relations
Relations Response
Response

MC
MC
Functions
Functions

Sales
Sales
Advertising
Advertising Promotion
Promotion
Tales From the Real World

It’s amazing, but true, that many sales

people feel totally disconnected from the
remainder of the MC functions.

In fact, in many organizations, “sales” is a

separate department, and views marketing
communications as a rival. As a result, in the
real world, there is sometimes very little
coordination between a salesperson’s pitch and
what the organization is saying in its advertising,
direct marketing, or public relations.
How Does it Relate to An IMC Program?

Strengths
Strengths Limitations
Limitations

•• Customized
Customized ••High
High cost
cost
two-way
two-way ••Image
Image of
of being
being
communication
communication Vs. high-pressure
high-pressure
•• Very
Very measurable
measurable
•• Very
Very flexible
flexible about
about
pricing
pricing and
and
customer
customer needs
needs
Think About It

• Would you like

to work in the
personal selling
field?
Final Note:

The critical balance of personal sales:

It’s
It’s the
the most
most …It
…It has
has the
the
costly
costly way
way to
to most
most powerful
powerful
reach
reach one-on-one
one-on-one
customers…
customers… impact
impact