Marketing Essentials
n Chapter 12 Preparing for the Sale
Section 12.1 Selling
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SECTION 12.1
Selling
What You'll Learn
 The definition and goals of selling
 The various sales situations encountered
in the business world
 The definition of feature-benefit selling
 How customers make decisions and the
difference between rational and emotional
buying decisions
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SECTION 12.1
Selling
Why It's Important
Learning how to research products and
customers is helpful when selling any type of
product or idea. Learning how to find customers
is also essential. In this chapter you will be
exposed to key selling concepts that link
products to customers.
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SECTION 12.1
Selling
Key Terms
 personal selling
 customer benefit
 business-to-business
selling
 rational motive
 telemarketing
 extensive decision making
 feature-benefit selling
 limited decision making
 product feature
 routine decision making
 emotional motive
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SECTION 12.1
Selling
Knowing Your Product and Your Customer
Personal selling is direct contact between
a salesperson and a customer.
Business-to-business selling may take
place in a manufacturer's or wholesaler's
showroom (inside sales) or a customer's
place of business (outside sales).
Telemarketing is the process of selling over
the telephone.
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SECTION 12.1
Selling
Knowing Your Product and Your Customer
The goal of selling is to help customers make
satisfying buying decisions.
Salespeople accomplish this by solving
customers’ problems and by understanding
their needs and wants.
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SECTION 12.1
Selling
Feature-Benefit Selling
Matching the characteristics of a product
to a customer's needs and wants is called
feature-benefit selling.
 Example: A computer is purchased
to increase productivity.
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SECTION 12.1
Selling
Product Features
Product features are the basic, physical,
or extended attributes of the product:
 Basic features are a product’s intended use.
 Physical qualities differentiate it from
competing brands and models.
 Additional features add value and justify
price differences between models.
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SECTION 12.1
Selling
Customer Benefits
Customer benefits are the advantages or personal
satisfaction a customer will get from a good or service.
To determine customer benefits, salespeople need to
answer two questions about each product feature:
1. How does the feature help the product’s
performance?
2. How does the performance information give the
customer a personal reason to buy the product?
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SECTION 12.1
Selling
Feature-Benefit Chart
A feature-benefit chart combines a product
or extended feature with its corresponding
customer benefit to create selling points.
One without the other is not sufficient.
Feature-benefit charts help customers make
buying decisions.
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SECTION 12.1
Selling
Customer Buying Motives
Salespeople must know what motivates
customers to buy and what decisions
customers make before the final purchase.
Customers' motives fall into the following
categories:
 rational
 emotional
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SECTION 12.1
Selling
Customer Buying Motives
A rational motive is a conscious, logical
reason for a purchase, such as dependability
or time savings.
An emotional motive is a feeling
experienced by a customer through
association with a product, such as social
approval, recognition, power, or prestige.
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SECTION 12.1
Selling
Customer Decision Making
There are three distinct types of decision making:
 extensive
 limited
 routine
Decisions are based on a person’s previous
buying experience and the importance and
perceived risk of the purchase.
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SECTION 12.1
Selling
Extensive Decision Making
Extensive decision making is used when
there has been little or no previous experience
with an item.
 Extensive decision making is used when
there is a high degree of perceived risk.
 It is usually used for goods and services
that are very expensive or have high value
to the customer.
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SECTION 12.1
Selling
Limited Decision Making
Limited decision making is used when a
person buys goods and services that he or
she has purchased before but not regularly.
 In limited decision making, there is a
moderate degree of perceived risk.
 When making this type of decision,
the customer often needs some information
before buying.
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SECTION 12.1
Selling
Routine Decision Making
Routine decision making is used when a
person needs little information about a product.
 In routine decision making, there is a
high degree of prior experience.
 It is usually used for goods and services
that have a low perceived risk (because
an item is inexpensive, is bought
frequently, or satisfaction with the
product is high).
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12.1 ASSESSMENT
Reviewing Key Terms and Concepts
1. What is personal selling?
2. Name three settings where personal selling
may occur.
3. What are the goals of selling?
4. Explain the concept of feature-benefit selling.
5. What are the three levels of decision making
that customers may use when purchasing
goods or services?
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12.1 ASSESSMENT
Thinking Critically
Think of a purchase you or your family
recently made that required at least limited
decision making. Use that product to
explain the meaning of this statement:
Customers do not buy products, rather they
buy what the products will do for them.
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12.1 Graphic Organizer
Types of Customer Decision-Making Processes
CUSTOMER
Expensive
or Highly
Valued Item
No
Experience
with Item
Information
Needed
Some
Experience
with Item
High
Product
Satisfaction
Much Prior
Experience
with Item
High
Perceived Risk
Moderate
Perceived Risk
Low
Perceived Risk
Extensive
Decision
Making
Limited
Decision
Making
Routine
Decision
Making
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Marketing Essentials
End of Section 12.1
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