Marketing Ch 13
What is Selling?
Knowing your product and your
customer
• Selling – Helping customers make satisfying
buying decisions
– Do this by communicating how products and their
features match customers needs and wants
Why do we want customer satisfaction
• We want repeat customers
Goal of selling
1. Help customers decide on purchase
2. Ensure customers are satisfied and become
return customers
Feature-Benefit Selling
• Process of matching the features of each
product to a customer’s wants and needs
• Two types
1. Product Features
2. Customer Benefits
Product Features
• Salesperson needs to learn how a product
features will benefit the customer.
• Product Feature – Physical characteristics or
quality of a good or service that explains what
it is.
• Most basic feature is its intended use
Tangible Product Features
• Certain qualities in the product that
differentiates competing brands and models
• Physical characteristics of the product
– Examples in a car
•
•
•
•
Color
Automatic Transmission
Stereo
Anti-lock breaks
Tangible Product Features
• Additional features add value to a product
• Physical features help provide the reason for
price difference among product models
Extended product features
• Not always physical part of the product but
they are important to the purchase decision
• Example:
– Warranties
– Service Policy
– Available financing
– Reputation of Company
Customer Benefits
• Advantages or personal satisfaction a
customer will get from a good or service
• A salesperson will 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?
•
What value is it to the customer
Product Information
• Product knowledge is essential for success in
selling.
• Knowing about product helps explain why one
product is better than another
• Know how to use (demonstrating) and care for
a product is essential when educating
consumers
Customer Buying Motives
• What motivates people to buy a product
• Is their motive Rational or Emotional
Rational Motive
• Conscious, factual reason for buying
– Include:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Product Dependability
Time or Monetary Savings
Convenience
Comfort
Health or Safety Considerations
Recreational Value
Service
Quality
Emotional Motive
• Feeling experienced through association with
a product
– Social approval
– Recognition
– Power
– Love
– Affection
– Prestige
Motives
• Both rational and emotional motives can
present in the same purchase
Customer Decision Making
• Three distinct types of decision making
1. Extensive
2. Limited
3. Routine
Extensive Decision Making
• Used when there has been little or no
previous experience with the item because it
is infrequently purchased
• High degree of risk and very expensive
• Examples
– Expensive Machinery
– Land for a new building site
– First home
Limited Decision Making
• Used when a person buys goods and services
that he or she has purchased before but not
on a regular basis.
• Moderate degree of risk
• Examples:
– Second car
– Furniture
– Vacation
– Household appliances
Routine Decision Making
• Used when a person needs little information
about a product because of a high degree of
prior experience
• Low degree of risk
• Customer have develop brand loyalty
Is Selling the Career for You?
• Type of Sales positions
– Retail Sales
• Sales Associates
–Know their products and how to sell
• Salesclerks
–Simply order takers or cashiers
• Sales Representatives
–Extensive Training and product knowledge
Is Selling the Career for You?
• Type of Sales positions
– Retail Sales
• Sales Associates
• Salesclerks
• Sales Representatives
• Telemarketing
Sales Associate
• Expected to know their product and how to
sell
Salesclerk
• Simply order taker or cashier
Sales Representative
• Requires extensive training and product
knowledge
• Often requires college degree
• Command high salaries and commission
Telemarketing
• Process of selling over the telephone
• Items sold over the phone:
– Magazine subscriptions
– Service contracts
Characteristics of Effective Salespeople
• Good Communication skills
– Excellent listening and speaking skills
– Read between the line when listening
– Know proper grammar and pleasant speaking
voice
Characteristics of Effective Salespeople
• Good Interpersonal skills
– Know how to get along with different people
– Be able to handle customers who are demanding
as well as those who are reserved
– Know what to say and how to say it
Characteristics of Effective Salespeople
• Solid Technical Skills
– Good math and computer skills and product
knowledge
– Be an expert in your field
– Read trade magazines/papers to keep up with the
trends
– Study company products and competitors
Characteristics of Effective Salespeople
• Positive Attitude and Self-Confidence
– Involves learning from your mistakes and looking
for something useful in all situations
– Be secure enough to accept rejections
Characteristics of Effective Salespeople
• Goal Orientation
– Keeps effective salespeople focused and striving
for success
– Persistence is needed
– Do not give up on a customer
Characteristics of Effective Salespeople
• Empathy
– The essence of customer-oriented selling
– Be able to see things from a customer’s point of
view and be sensitive to their problem
– Learn the says “I can understand why you feel that
way. I would feel the same way.”
– Have the customers best interest at heart
Characteristics of Effective Salespeople
• Honesty
– Salespeople are honest because they know
integrity is the cornerstone of professional selling
– Salespeople want repeat sales and customer
relationships
Characteristics of Effective Salespeople
• Enthusiasm
– Be excited about the products you sell
– Believe in the products
– Lack of enthusiasm will come through
Fact and Idea Review
• Complete and Fact and Idea Review on page
184
• And Critical Thinking