Chapter 16: Personal Selling and Sales Promotion
16.1 Personal Selling
Personal selling (also called sales people, sales representatives, agents, etc) is one of the oldest
professions in the world.
Salesperson: An individual who represents a company to customers by performing one or more of the
following activities: prospecting, communicating, selling, servicing, information gathering, and
relationship building.
Personal selling = interpersonal part of the promotion mix.
Interactions occur face-to-face, by phone/email, social media, or video.
They are the critical link between the company and its customers. They serve two masters:
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Represent the company: find customers, present solutions, negotiate, close sales, service
accounts.
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Represent the customer inside the company: relay needs, concerns, and help improve
offerings.
To many buyers, “the salesperson is the company.”
Customer Relationship Impact:
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Strong salesperson relationships → strong company/product loyalty.
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Poor salesperson relationships → damaged customer trust and lower loyalty.
Marketing & sales alignment is crucial. Fix disconnects through communication, joint goals,
collaboration, and unified leadership.
16.2 Managing the Sales Force
Sales force management: analyzing, planning, implementing, and controlling sales force activities
Major Steps in Sales Force Management
1. Sales Force Structure
Sales forces may be organized into:
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Territorial structure: each rep assigned an exclusive geographic area and sells full product
line. Improves accountability, customer relationship building, and reduces travel costs
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Product structure: reps specialize by product line—necessary when product portfolios are
large or technical
.
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Customer/Market structure: reps specialize by industry or customer type (e.g., major
accounts vs. regular accounts). Helps build close relationships with important customers.
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Complex structure: combinations of the above—used by companies with broad product
ranges and diverse customer types.
2. Sales Force Size
Companies often use the workload approach to determine force size, multiplying number of accounts
by number of required annual calls and dividing by annual call capacity per salesperson.
3. Inside vs. Outside Sales Forces
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Outside salespeople visit customers in the field.
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Inside salespeople sell from the office by phone, online, or video; provide research, lead
management, and service support.
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Inside selling is growing rapidly due to technology and lower cost.
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COVID-19 accelerated the rise of virtual selling and hybrid sales reps—a mix of
inside and outside roles
4. Team Selling
Used for large or complex customers. Includes cross-functional teams of specialists. Benefits:
uncovering deeper opportunities. Downsides: potential customer confusion and difficulty evaluating
individual performance
5. Recruiting and Selecting Salespeople
Top salespeople possess:
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intrinsic motivation
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disciplined work style
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ability to close
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strong relationship-building abilities
Gallup notes that top reps are purpose-driven, empathetic, good listeners, and strong problem solvers
Selection uses interviews, tests, references, and analysis of traits shown by top performers.
6. Training Salespeople
Training covers:
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customer types, buying motives, habits
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selling process
company history, organization, products, competitors
Companies increasingly use online and mobile training and digital simulations for efficiency and
consistency
7. Compensating Salespeople
Compensation includes:
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fixed salary
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variable commissions/bonuses
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expenses
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fringe benefits
Plans must motivate, reward, and direct reps toward company goals. More companies now prioritize
relationship-building incentives over aggressive short-term commissions
8. Supervising and Motivating Salespeople
Supervision helps reps work smart; motivation helps them work hard.
Tools include:
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call plans
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time-and-duty analysis
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sales force automation systems (CRM, mobile tools, videoconferencing)
These technologies improve time use, customer service, cost efficiency, and performance
Motivation tools include quotas, sales contests, recognition programs, and positive organizational
climate.
9. Evaluating Salespeople
Sources include:
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sales reports
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call reports
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expense reports
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customer surveys
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personal observation
Top metrics: customer satisfaction and retention, followed by team and individual quotas
Social Selling
Social selling = using digital platforms and sales tools to engage customers, build relationships, and
augment sales performance
.
Customers now research independently; sellers must adapt by:
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engaging earlier in the buying process
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using social media, online content, blogs, video, virtual meetings
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solving problems rather than reciting product information
Digital tools augment salespeople rather than replace them.
16.3 The Personal Selling Process
Selling process: steps that salespeople follow when selling, which include prospecting and qualifying,
preapproach, approach, presentation and demonstration, handling objections, closing, and follow-up.
Steps in the Selling Process:
1. Prospecting and Qualifying:
The sales step in which a salesperson or company identifies qualified potential customers. Qualifying
involves identifying good leads and screening out poor ones based on financial ability, size, and
needs.
2. Preapproach:
The sales step in which a salesperson learns as much as possible about a prospective customer before
making a sales call. This includes setting call objectives and determining the best approach.
3. Approach:
The sales step in which a salesperson meets the customer for the first time. The goal is to get the
relationship off to a good start.
4. Presentation and Demonstration:
The sales step in which a salesperson tells the “value story” to the buyer, showing how the company’s
offer solves the customer’s problems. This customer-solution approach requires good listening and
problem-solving skills.
5. Handling objections:
The sales step in which a salesperson seeks out, clarifies, and overcomes any customer objections to
buying.
6. Closing:
The sales step in which a salesperson asks the customer for an order. Salespeople should recognize
closing signals and use various techniques to finalize the sale.
7. Follow-up:
The sales step in which a salesperson follows up after the sale to ensure customer satisfaction and
repeat business.
Transactional vs. Relationship Selling
Although the steps help close a specific sale (transaction-oriented), companies increasingly emphasize
value selling—demonstrating and delivering superior customer value and capturing a fair
return—building long-term profitable relationships
16.4 Sales Promotion
Sales promotion consists of short-term incentives to encourage the purchase or sales of a product or
service.
While advertising gives consumers reasons to buy, sales promotion gives reasons to buy now. In
developing a sales promotion program, a company must first set sales promotion objectives and then
select the best tools for accomplishing these objectives.
Sales Promotion Objectives: The objectives vary by target.
1. Consumer Promotion Objectives
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Encourage short-term buying
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Stimulate trial
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Increase brand switching
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Enhance brand engagement
2. Trade Promotion Objectives (Retailers & wholesalers)
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Persuade retailers to carry new items
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Encourage more inventory purchases or buying ahead
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Motivate retailers to promote the product
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Gain more shelf space
3. Business Promotion Objectives
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Generate business leads
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Stimulate purchases
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Reward business customers
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Motivate business buyers
4. Sales Force Promotion Objectives
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Increase sales force support for new or existing products
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Encourage signing up new accounts
Major Sales Promotion Tools:
A. Consumer Promotion Tools
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Samples – trial amounts
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Coupons – price savings at purchase
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Rebates (cash refunds) – money back after purchase
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Price packs – reduced price offers
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Premiums – free or low-cost goods
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Advertising specialties (promotional items)
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POP (point-of-purchase) displays
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Contests, sweepstakes, games – encourage engagement
(General category list based on 16.4 content.)
B. Trade Promotion Tools (To retailers/wholesalers)
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Allowances (advertising, display)
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Discounts
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Free goods
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Push money (cash incentives to dealers’ salespeople)
C. Business Promotion Tools
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Trade shows and conventions – generate leads
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Sales contests – motivate reps or dealers
Chapter 17: Digital Marketing
17.1 Understanding Digital Marketing
Digital Marketing: The use of technology-intensive platforms such as the internet, mobile networks
and devices, and social media to engage directly with carefully targeted individual consumers,
consumer communities, and businesses.
Its rapid growth reflects the fact that digital marketing offers many benefits to both buyers and sellers:
a) Buyer Benefits
Digital marketing is:
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convenient, easy, private
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provides anywhere, anytime access to vast product information
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enables customization and rapid delivery
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increases price transparency and competition
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fosters brand engagement and community
b) Seller Benefits
Digital marketing provides:
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low-cost, efficient market reach
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flexibility to adjust offerings instantly
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ability to create online engagement communities
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real-time marketing tied to trending events
17.2 Preparing for a Digital Marketing Campaign
1. Knowing the Digital Consumer
Marketers create digital consumer personas—detailed, nuanced, tangible representations of
prototypical consumers with insights into:
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information-seeking behavior
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platform preferences
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location-related habits
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motivations and pain points
2. Understanding Consumer Omni-Channel Navigation Behavior
The consumer's use of multiple marketing channels, both digital and nondigital, across stages of the
consumer buying decision process.
Marketers must understand:
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which channels consumers use at each buying stage
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how to deliver timely, relevant content
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how to fuse data responsibly while protecting privacy
3. Using Experimentation (A/B Testing)
Such A/B testing helps refine tactics but requires reducing “noise,” such as control-group customers
resenting lower experimental prices and reducing purchases.
Digital environments allow scalable experiments to test:
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pricing
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product variations
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message formats
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presentation designs
17.3 Employing Digital Channels in an Omni-Channel Strategy
Three key digital marketing platforms: online marketing, social media marketing, and mobile
marketing.
a) Online Marketing: Marketing via the internet using company websites, online ads and
promotions, email, online video, and blogs.
Marketing websites: designed to engage customers and move them toward a purchase
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Brand community websites: present brand content that builds user communities
Online Advertising: Advertising such as display ads and search-related ads that appear while
consumers are navigating websites or other digital platforms.
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Online Display ads: Digital ads that appear anywhere on an internet or mobile user's screen
and are often related to the information being viewed
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Search-related ads: Text- and image-based ads and links that appear atop or alongside search
engine results on sites such as Google, Yahoo!, and Bing.
Email Marketing: Sending targeted and personalized relationship-building or sales-promoting
marketing messages via email.
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Pros: Low cost, high ROI, huge reach, highly targeted and personalized.
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Cons: Lots of spam, low open rates, can feel intrusive.
Online Videos: Brands use instructional videos, promotional content, and viral campaigns.
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Viral marketing: digital word-of-mouth marketing. Involves creating videos, ads, and other
marketing content that are so infectious that customers will seek them out and pass them
along to friends.
Blogs: Online forums where people and companies post their thoughts and other content, usually
related to narrowly defined topics.
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Benefits: Fresh, personal, inexpensive way to engage consumers, build communities, and
gain insights; influencer blogs offer large, impactful reach.
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Downsides: Blog space is cluttered, hard for companies to control messages on consumer-run
platforms.
b) Social Media marketing
Social media: Independent and commercial online social networks where people congregate to
socialize and share messages, opinions, pictures, videos, and other content.
Social media platforms enable marketers to:
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build customer engagement
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create brand communities
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crowdsource ideas
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deliver tailored content
Platforms include: Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, plus niche
communities like CafeMom or Doximity
Types of social media functions:
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Image & Video Platforms: Used for storytelling, product launches, collecting ideas.
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Messaging Platforms: Enable direct two-way communication.
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Blogs/Microblogs: Twitter used for fast announcements, customer service, and cultural
engagement. Companies maintain their own blogs via WordPress or internal platforms.
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Location-based Platforms: Instagram location stickers, Foursquare/Swarm for check-ins and
geotracking. Brands use these for context-sensitive promotions and understanding consumer
movement patterns.
c) Mobile Marketing: Features marketing messages, promotions, and other marketing content
delivered to on-the-go consumers through their mobile devices.
Mobile marketing leverages smartphones and tablets to:
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deliver personalized messages
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provide real-time offers
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integrate with apps, QR codes, location-based services
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support mobile search and mobile commerce
The chapter emphasizes that mobile is now central to consumer behavior
Omni-channel marketing: the integration of all channels into one seamless customer experience
What Omni-Channel Marketing Does
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Coordinates physical store, website, app, social media, email, and online advertising roles.
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Ensures consistent product info, pricing, and brand messaging.
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Supports transitions such as:
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mobile → store
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store → website
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social media → website
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search ad → app
Why It Matters
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Consumers no longer buy in linear paths.
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They research online, compare in stores, browse on mobile, follow influencers, and use apps
for checkout.
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Companies must present integrated touchpoints or risk losing customers mid-journey.
17.4 Public Policy Issues in Digital Marketing
Digital marketing brings many benefits, but also presents four major areas of concern: consumer
privacy; irritation, deception, and fraud; data integrity and security; and antitrust concerns.
1. Consumer Privacy
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Consumers worry about how much personal data companies collect and how it is used.
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Tracking tools (cookies, apps, location data) can feel intrusive.
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Regulations like the GDPR require informed consent, transparency, and strict data protection.
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Companies increasingly rely on permission-based marketing.
2. Irritation, Deception, and Fraud
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Digital ads can irritate consumers when they are excessive, intrusive, or repetitive.
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Deception can occur through misleading ads, hidden fees, manipulated reviews, or fake
scarcity.
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Digital fraud includes phishing, identity theft, malware, and fake online sellers.
3. Data Integrity and Security
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Marketers must protect customer information from unauthorized access or hacking.
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Breaches compromise personal data, damage trust, and cause financial harm.
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Secure data systems, encryption, and audits are expected.
4. Antitrust Concerns
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Large digital platforms may dominate markets, raising concerns about reduced competition.
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Issues include exclusive control of data, unfair algorithmic advantages, and mergers that
reduce consumer choice.
How Issues Are Addressed
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Regulation: Governments enforce privacy, security, and fair-competition rules.
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Self-regulation: Companies and industry groups create ethical standards to ensure
transparency and consumer protection.