BA230-Marketing Communication
Advertising
Public Relations
Integrated
Marketing
Sales PromotionCommunications
Personal Selling
Mix
Direct
Marketing
Personal Selling
Person-to-person interactive
communication used to ultimately
persuade a current/prospective
customer to buy something
The Oldest Marketing Communication Function
• # potential customers decrease
• Complexity of product increases
• Value of the product grows
Personal Selling
Involves two-way,
Personal communication between salespeople and
individual customers whether:
• face to face,
• by telephone,
• through video conferencing,
• or by other means.
Salesperson / people
An individual acting for a company by
performing one or more of the following
activities: prospecting, communicating,
servicing, and information gathering.
Salespeople have many names
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Agents
Sales consultants
Sales Representatives
Account Executives
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Sales Engineers
District Managers
Marketing Representatives
Account Development
Representatives
Duties/Responsibilities:
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selling,
service,
prospecting,
presentations,
pricing quotes,
terms,
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orders,
marketing research,
advising,
study,
travel,
meetings,
paperwork.
Satisfied customers repeat their purchases
because they are satisfied with the value of the
relationship
– Taking care of existing customers reduces
sales cycle time and increases efficiency
The Role of the Sales Force
Sales force serves as critical link between
company and its customers.
– They represent the company to the customers.
– They represent the customers to the company.
– Goal = customer satisfaction and company profit.
Qualifications And Skills Required For Success By
Salespeople
• Empathy: To see things as others would see them
• Ego Drive: Determination to achieve goals
• Ego Strength: Self-assured and self-accepting
• Interpersonal Communication Skills: Including listening and questioning
• Enthusiasm: In general, and for sales as a career
• Customer Orientation
• Use of Truthful and Nonmanipulative Tactics
• Focus on Long-Term Satisfaction of Customer and Selling Firm
• Understand general business and economic trends,
• Provide guidance throughout the sales process
• Help the buyer to solve problems
• Have a pleasant personality and a good professional image
The Four Sales Channels
• Personal selling occurs through
several types of communication
channels including these four:
– Over-the-Counter
– Field Selling
– Telemarketing
– Inside Selling
Advantages
Disadvantages
• Build, maintain and enhance interactions
with customers to develop long-term
satisfaction through mutually beneficial
partnerships
• More than just a transaction or one-time
sale
• Detailed explanation/demonstration of
product
• Sales message can be varied according to
motivations/interests of prospect; can
respond to objections
• Directed only to qualified prospects
• Costs can be controlled by adjusting size of
sales force in one-person increments
• More effective in gaining a sale!
• Can not reach mass
audience
• Expensive per contact
• Numerous calls needed
to generate sale
• Labor intensive
How salespeople spend their time
Face-to-Face Selling
33%
Account
Service
Coordination
Phone Selling
16%
16%
Administration
10%
SOURCE:
Travel
Internal
Meetings
20%
5%
William A. O’Connell and William Keenan, Jr., “The Shape of Things to Come,” Sales &
Marketing Management, January 1990, pp. 36-41.
The Sales Process
Prospecting &
qualifying
Identify qualified
potential customers
Preapproach
Learn as much as
possible about
customer
Handling
objections
Closing
Overcome customer
objections
Ask for
an order
Approach
Make a
relationship
Follow-up
Presentation &
demonstration
Tell the product “story” & focus
on customer benefits
To insure customer
satisfaction & repeat
business
The Sales Process
• The AIDA Concept and the Personal Selling Process
Step 1. Prospecting & Qualifying
P: Salesperson identifies potential customers.
– Developing lists of potential customers
Q: Process of identifying good prospects
• Finding and analyzing information about prospects
• Evaluating a prospect’s potential
Step 2. Preapproach
Salesperson learns as
much as possible about a
prospective customer
before making a sales call.
Step 3. Approach
Salesperson meets the buyer and gets the
relationship off to a good start.
HOW DO WE MAKE THE
INITIAL CONTACT & BUILD
RAPPORT
There is only one
time to make a first
impression
Step 4. Presentation &
Demonstration
Salesperson tells the product “story” to the
buyer using the need-satisfaction
approach.
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Making the sales presentation
Using persuasive communication
Hold attention
Stimulate interest
Desire
“Tell the product’s story”
Step 5. Handling Objections
Salesperson seeks out, clarifies, and overcomes
customer objections to buying.
– Questions
– Reservations
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Understand Concern
Counterarguments
Acknowledge concern
Clues to process
Step 6. Closing the Sale
Determining the terms of the transaction
and getting the prospects agreement to
those terms. Salesperson asks the customer
for an order.
• Closing signals
• Trial close
• Asking the prospect to buy
Step 7. Following Up
Occurs after the sale and ensures customer
satisfaction and repeat business.
• Commitments met
– Shipment
– Performance
• Satisfied customers rebuy & recommend
• Supporting the buying decision
• Managing implementation
• Dealing with dissatisfaction
• Enhancing the relationship
Sales (Force) Management
Activities of planning, organizing, staffing,
motivating compensating, and evaluating and
controlling a sales force to ensure its effectiveness
The analysis, planning, implementation, and
control of sales force activities.
Major Steps in Sales Force Management
Designing Salesforce Strategy and Structure
Recruiting and Selecting Salespeople
Training Salespeople
Compensating Salespeople
Supervising Salespeople
Motivating Salespeople
Evaluating Salespeople
1. Designing Sales Force Strategy and
Structure
Territorial
Exclusive Territory to Sell the
Company’s Full Product Line
Complex Forms Are a
Combination of Any
Types of Sales Force
Structures
Product
Sales Force Sells Only a Portion of
The Company’s Products or Lines
Customer
Sales Force Sells Only to Certain
Customers or Industries
Other Sales Force Strategy and
Structure Issues
Outside Sales
Force
Travel to Call on
Customers
Sells to Major
Accounts
Finds Major
New
Prospects
Inside Sales
Force
Conduct Business From Their
Offices Via Phone or Buyer Visits
Technical
Support
People
TeleMarketing
Sales
Or
Assistants
Internet
2. Recruiting and Selecting
Salespeople
Recruiting involves:
• Soliciting applications
• Screening candidates
– Interviews
– Sales aptitude, personality, analytical
and/or organizational tests
– References, work history, etc.
Careful recruiting can:
• Increase overall sales force performance
• Reduce turnover
• Reduce recruiting and training costs
3. Training Salespeople
• Average training period is 4 months
• Training is expensive, but yields strong returns
• Many companies are adding Web-based sales
training programs
• Training programs have many goals:
 Learn about different types of customers and their
needs, buying motives, and buying habits.
 Learn how to make effective sales presentations.
 Learn about and identify with the company, its
products and its competitors.
4. Compensating Salespeople
To Attract Salespeople, a Company Must Have an
Attractive Plan Made Up of Several Elements
Fixed
Amount
Usually a
Salary
Variable
Amount
Expense
Allowance
Usually
Commissions
or Bonuses
For Job
Related
Expenses
Fringe
Benefits
Vacations,
sick leave,
pension, etc.
5. Supervising Salespeople
Goal of supervision is to encourage
salespeople to “work smart.”
Effective supervisors provide direction to the
sales force
• Help them identify customers & set call norms
• Develop prospect target
• Use sales time efficiently
Annual Call Plan
Time-and-Duty Analysis
Sales Force Automation
6. Motivating Salespeople
Goal of motivating sales force is to
encourage salespeople to “work hard”
• Organizational Climate
• Sales Quotas
• Positive Incentives
 Sales Meetings
 Sales Contests
 Honors and Trips
 Merchandise/ Cash awards, trips, profit sharing
7. Evaluating Salespeople
• Management gets information about its salespeople in
several ways:
– Sales reports, call reports, expense reports, and
– Personal observations, customer surveys, etc.
• Formal evaluation of performance can be done
qualitatively or quantitatively.
• Evaluation methods of performance include:
– Comparing salespeople’s performance to others,
– Comparing current sales with past sales.
Final Note:
The critical balance of personal sales:
It’s the most
costly way to
reach
customers…
…It has the
most powerful
one-on-one
impact