Unit – 1: Introduction to Personal Selling

(These Questions are subject to modification. Download DTS Application for Complete Notes)

1. Define personal selling. Discuss its nature and objectives.

2. Do you think that personal selling is important for business, customers, and society? Give explanation.

3. Explain the relationship between personal selling, salesmanship, and sales management. Also distinguish between them.

4. What do you mean by sales management and salesmanship? Discuss the importance of sales management and salesmanship.      2022

5. Explain various essential characteristics of a good sales-person.

6. What are different selling situation. Discuss briefly.

7. Write a brief note on personal selling as a career together with difficulties in sales career.

8. Write short note on Relationship between marketing and personal selling

9. Explain various types of salesperson.

10. Discuss the myths of personal selling.

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Introduction to Personal Selling

Personal selling is a face-to-face selling technique by which a salesperson uses his or her interpersonal skills to persuade a customer in buying a particular product. The salesperson tries to highlight various features of the product to convince the customer that it will only add value. However, getting a customer to buy a product is not the motive behind personal selling every time. Often companies try to follow this approach with customers to make them aware of a new product.

Personal selling (or salesmanship) is the most traditional method, devised by manufactures, for promotion of the sales of their products. Prior to the development of the advertising technique, personal selling used to be the only method used by manufacturers for promotion of sales.

According to Philip Kotler, ““Personal Selling is the face to face interaction with one or more perspective purchasers for the purpose of making presentations, answering questions, and procuring orders”

According to Duncan, “Salesmanship is the art of presenting an offering so that the prospect appreciates the need for it and a mutually satisfactory sale follows.”

W. Major Scott, “It is the part of a salesman’s’ business to create demand by demonstrating that the need does exist, although before his visit there was no consciousness of that need.”

Personal selling is an art of selling. The personal selling is called an art of selling because it makes presentation to convince the other persons. The salesman must have the knowledge about the customer perceptions, attitudes and must have the skills to customize the demonstration according to the situation.

Advertisements’ done by the companies focus on a large group or segment of perspective customers. On the other hand, the personal selling is directed at a single perspective customer only and is aimed to influence that customer only. A salesman modifies his presentation according to the attitude, perception and requirements of the customer. Personal selling involves the following attributes:

1. Face to Face Communication: Personal selling involves communication between the salesman and the perspective customer face to face. This is one of biggest advantage of personal selling that the salesman can modify his demonstration according to the customer and customer can ask his queries more conveniently.

2. Different Types of Selling: Personal selling involves different types of selling depending on the situation to situation. As per the nature and requirements of the customers, sales force can adopt cold selling, soft selling, retail selling etc.

3. Different Personal Selling Techniques: As the businesses differ in their size and resources, different size of sales force and different personal selling techniques are applied depending upon the different marketing strategies of each organization.

4. Personal Selling Analysis Major Policy: Personal selling sales persons are more aware of the major policies and the managerial problems of the organization and help the organization in communicating the benefits of their products to the perspective customers.

5. Different Levels of Personal Selling: There are different levels of personal selling at the initial level of personal selling, the salesman only work as order takers and when they gain experience they give presentation and demonstrate the product.

6. Persuade: Personal selling also persuades different market intermediaries to stock more of the company’s product with their personal inter mediation.

7. Personal Relationship: Under personal selling, the company through its salesmen tries to make personal relationships with the customers.

8. Professionals: Sales force is well educated and professional. Sales persons, through their professional presentation, try to make long term relationships with the customers. They know the art of opening sales, making demonstrations and of closing the sales.

9. Solve Customers’ Problems: Personal selling is a technique of selling that better solves the problems and doubts of customers. As the salesman is doing direct face to face talk with the customers, he is able to handle the situation in a better way.

10. Participation of Buyers: Personal selling is that medium of communicating with the buyers that involve buyers in the transaction process. Prospective customers clear out their doubts and involve themselves in the demonstration given by the salesman.

11. Integrated Strategies: Personal selling when integrated with the other forms of communicating message to the consumers brings maximum communication effects which lead to more sales.

The objectives for which the personal selling exercise is undertaken can be outlined as follows

1. Identifying prospective buyers: The primary objective of personal selling is to identify and search the prospective buyers for the products. The direct communication between the buyer and seller helps to recognize the most suitable prospects for carrying out the personal selling activities. Personal selling enables to connect and engage with those persons who are interested in the offerings of company.

2. Stimulating demand: Once the prospects have been identified, the next step is to push the products by convincing efforts of salesperson. The interaction with the potential buyer helps in determining the specific needs and requirements. The salesperson has to present and demonstrate in such a manner that arouses the interest and desire for acquisition of product.

3. Informing, educating and guiding: The task of personal selling involves providing information and assistance, promoting, educating and guiding the customers throughout their journey of seeking the solution to their problem. The information about the new products and services, educating the potential buyers with respect to handling and disposal of products, and guiding them in finding the best solution to their requirements are embedded as goal of personal selling exercise. It also includes supplementary services like installation, repairs and maintenance that can be made available to buyers.

4. Persuading and reinforcing prospects: The persuasion and positive reinforcement is the key objective of personal selling. The reinforcement with respect to finding or suggesting products/services to the best interest of potential buyer helps to create a satisfying experience. The features, advantages, benefits and competitive edge of products must be communicated to the prospects and customers. the need- benefit linkage must be established through personal selling.

5. Building long term relationships: The personal selling efforts are undertaken to cultivate relationships with buyers. Even if the salespersons may not be able to close the sale successfully.it cannot be considered as failure of person selling rather it should be seen as an opportunity to understand the needs better and provide solution accordingly. The strength and conviction of personal selling helps in building the trust and confidence in the minds of customers.

Personal selling is the personal communication of information about goods, services and ideas to the prospective buyers or existing buyers to meet their needs or requirements. The importance of personal selling can be grouped under three heads for businesses, customers and society respectively.

Importance of Personal selling for business

1. Immediate feedback: The sellers get quick response or feedback of the performance of products in the market. All other tools of promotion mix like advertisement and sales promotion have certain time lag in communicating the results of progress of various products and services. The immediate and real time feedback helps the business to keep the information generated through personal selling in consideration to improvise products for future use.

2. Minimum wastage of efforts: Personal selling identifies and search the most appropriate prospects for selling goods and services. The effective prospecting assists in focusing the efforts only on those who have the higher probability of making a purchase. It helps in minimization of sales force efforts on interested potential buyers only.

3. Cost Control: Personal selling plays an important role in reducing the selling expenses and thereby bringing more profits for the company. The selling expenses are controlled by emphasizing only on those prospects who have higher probability of making a purchase decision.

4. Customer confidence: The collaborative or partnering nature of personal selling in finding the right solution at the right place, delivering better products and services ultimately results in winning the customer confidence and gaining larger share in the market.

5. Goodwill: The objective of personal selling is to bring revenues for the company along with winning customer on continual basis. The goodwill and reputation of the company is developed through satisfying the needs of the target segment in an effective manner.

Importance of personal selling for Consumers

The customer centric approach is embedded in the personal selling. The various benefits of personal selling can be outlined as follows:

1. Assists in identification of needs: The salesperson provides information about the different products for different needs of potential buyers. Personal selling efforts are more about understanding the demands and enlightening the potential buyers by providing them information of new arrivals, modifications in products and identifying the right kind of product to meet their needs.

2. Personalization and customization: Personal selling is highly customized form of communication. The customized information for different customers is designed keeping in consideration the various factors affecting their buying behaviour. It differs from advertisement in the mode and manner of communication. Advertisement is unilateral whereas personal selling is bilateral and personalized according to the requirements of different buyers.

3. Provides consultation and guidance: The personal seller also provides follow up services to maintain the relationships with customers. The after-sale services such as installation, repairs, maintenance with respect to use and disposal of services are also ensured in personal selling.

4. Source of information: The feedback or the responses of the customers for company’s offerings can be easily gauged by the salespersons. Personal selling acts as interface between the customers and top management of the company. The feedback received from the customers’ act as an input for further improvisation, modification or removal of products in future.

Importance of Personal selling to society

Personal selling plays a constructive role in the progress of society. The importance of personal selling for selling can be illustrated as follows-

1. Improvement in standard of living: Personal selling enables educating buyers about the about new improved products. It assists in maintaining equilibrium by reducing the fluctuations in price. Salesperson acts as an interface between the company and customers at large. The inputs of the customers and society at large are communicated for developing better products at affordable prices.

2. Employment opportunities: The scope of personal selling also entails creating employment opportunities for people. The working conditions are also changing because of the online presence of the companies, salesmen need not to go door to door but now assist customers in choosing a final product out of all the available options.

3. Opportunities for career advancements: Personal selling enables creation of opportunities for career advancements. From starting his career as a field salesman, a person can raise his level till the CMO too passing through the stages of area sales manager, regional sales manager among others. Moreover, competitors are also looking for a start sales performer. Hence, he can always be showered by the offers from the competitors.

4. Free Movement in any industry: Each industry is engaged in selling activity, hence, selling skills give a person an additional advantage to move across industries without having any kind of specialized degree. A small training is sufficient to make him understand about all the technical jargons of that industry.

All is not well with the process of personal selling. It has certain inherent limitations. These are:

1. Expensive: A full-fledged personal selling efforts is costly. No doubt, personal selling minimizes wasted effort, but the cost of developing and operating a sale force is quite high. Further it becomes difficult to attract and retain the quality sales force.

2. Customer Loyalty at Stake: The relationship between the sales company and the clientele is built by the efforts of sales person. The clientele starts developing loyalty withy the sales person. The moment the sales person moves out; the clientele drops down to the determent of the company. Thus with personal selling, the fortunes of the company and tied to the loyalty of the consumers which, in turn, depends on the very presence of sales person.

3. Difficulty of getting right kind of salesmen: Though, theoretically certain guidelines are prescribed for getting right kind of salesmen from the potential candidates, it is really very difficult to get suitable salesmen from company’s point of view. The potential salesmen so selected, trained and placed, do not guarantee loyal service to the company.

4. Administrative problems: Personal selling involves more of administrative problems than impersonal selling. Since, the firm is to deal with manpower a driving force behind sales the company has to meet the challenges in the areas of manpower-planning, organizing, directing, coordinating, motivating and controlling. The solutions to these problems, even if found out, are not everlasting because, human content in management is unique.

5. Little Respect as a profession: Salesmanship as a profession commands very little respect not only in India but all over the world. Many go in for salesmanship as it has easy entry points. Many incompetent people try their hands and heads. As, it is, every Tom, Dick and Harry’s line, it has become a profession of last resort. Again, the easy entry is there because, there are no need of high standards of academic achievements nor any criteria which is universally applicable. These salesmen, all of them, do not have minimum of educational qualifications nor training. Those who are gifted or have aptitude are rare to find.

6. Chances of Fraud: In salesmanship, there are good chances of fraud and deception.

7. Limited Reach: One disadvantage is that our customer reach is limited through personal sales. As a result, it will require extended time period to create product awareness, particularly if we don’t use other forms of advertising. Sales representatives have to cover up one region or place at a time.

There are different types of selling that are applied to sell the goods and services directly to the customers. There are different requirements of different customers which are fulfilled by the use of these different approaches to selling. The different types of selling are explained as follows:

a) Cold Selling: This type of selling involves a sales person who walks on street to street and calls the customers. The success of this kind of selling depends on the skills and abilities of the sales person that how much interest he can create in the minds of customers for the given products.

b) Department Selling: This type of selling includes maintenance of goods and long term relationships with the companies and then using long term relationships in the process of distribution of goods and services to the ultimate consumers.

c) New Product Selling: This type of personal selling is applied when company introduces a new product line when their existing product lines are already in the market. For example, Hindustan Unilever Limited introduces a new line of shampoos. It creates demand by distributing shampoos pouches free through personal selling.

d) Service Selling: This type of personal selling is applicable in case of services. Here, the task of the sales person is to sell the company services to different users.

e) System Selling: In this type of personal selling, the salesman has in depth knowledge about the company’s product line. He not only has the knowledge about the product, but he also has in depth understanding about the technical details of the product. He can demonstrate to the customers not only about the company’s product but can also compare the product with that of the competitors and can explain the different attributes of the products to the customers.

f) Team Selling: Team selling includes a team of salesmen, engineers, technicians and people from various departments who have all the knowledge regarding company’s products. This is an emerging type of selling which is very effective because it involves people from various departments.

g) Retail Selling: Retail selling includes a sales person who is a direct link between the company and the final customers. The retail salesman gets compensation on various basis. Some salesmen get fixed salary and others gets commission of the sales made by them.

h) Relationship Selling: It is also known as Consultative Selling. This is a new trend in personal selling. It emphasis on building long term relationships with the customers and then selling new products to them. Research has also provided that cost of selling to the existing customers is only 10 percent of the cost of selling to the new customers.

i) Sales Force Automation (SFA): Sales force automation includes using computer technology in the process of selling to make the whole process convenient and more effective, for example, order processing, information sharing, inventory monitoring, inventory control is done conveniently through computer application and software. With the sales force automation now the customers can track their orders online also.

In this career, there are many challenges that the salesman will have to face. But there are also immense opportunities for growth that attracts many people to this challenging career.

1) Job Security: The salesmen will receive their salary even if the company is in losses. Companies will never losses their good salesmen because they are the one who contribute sales revenue and value to the company directly.

2) Attractive Salaries: Salesmen receive attractive salaries. They get their fixed salary and also the commission on the extra efforts put in by them. This provides an opportunity to the sales persons to earn higher than the other employees of the company.

3) Psychological Satisfaction: Sales persons will receive more recognition if they put in their best efforts. They get awards and many monetary benefits for their direct contribution in the enhancement of company’ turnover.

4) Opportunities for Growth: Sales persons will have to work in different situations and different markets each time. It will provide opportunity to develop and ultimately the skills of the sales person will develop. They will get many opportunities for their growth in selling career.

1. Daunting Profession: A sales person’s job is a very challenging. He needs to put in much effort to complete the sales. In today’s busy life, no one pays much attention to the sales persons at the doorstep. A sales person needs to complete the sales of the product from the very initial contact with the prospective buyers.

2. Little Respect for Beginners: The beginners in these fields do not get recognition easily. A reason for this is that, this profession does not require any professional qualification. So it also attracts a lot of incompetent persons in this field. No minimum qualification makes a perception in the minds of people that this is not a respectable job.

3. Target Based Environment: Generally, the sales persons do not have any fixed salary income. Their salary level depends on the sales done by them. So their job is basically target based. Sometimes sales persons may not achieve their targets, which make them frustrated.

4. Rude Customers: Sales persons may not get good mood customers all the times. Customers behave rudely with the sale persons. Different types of customers need to be handled differently. The rude and un respectful behaviour of the customers towards sales persons discourages people to enter this profession.

5. Layoffs of Unproductive Sales persons: Company usually layoff the unproductive sales persons. Personal selling is not a secured job. So persons usually do not enter this field. To save his job, a sales person is required to put his best in every situation to promote the sales of the company.

There are many career opportunities in selling, as sales is a vital function in almost every industry. Some common career paths in sales include:

1. Retail salesperson: Retail salespeople work in stores and sell products directly to customers.

2. Sales representative: Sales representatives sell products or services to businesses or organizations.

3. Telemarketer: Telemarketers make sales over the phone.

4. Inside salesperson: Inside salespeople sell products or services over the phone or online, rather than meeting with customers in person.

5. Outside salesperson: Outside salespeople meet with customers in person, often traveling to visit them at their place of business.

6. Sales manager: Sales managers oversee a team of salespeople and are responsible for setting sales goals, developing sales strategies, and analyzing sales data.

7. Sales director: Sales directors are responsible for the overall sales strategy and performance of a company.

8. Sales trainer: Sales trainers teach sales techniques and strategies to sales teams.

9. Sales consultant: Sales consultants work with clients to identify their needs and develop sales solutions.

10. Sales engineer: Sales engineers work with technical products or services and often need a background in engineering or a related field.

Sales careers can be found in a wide range of industries, including technology, healthcare, finance, and retail. Many sales roles also offer the opportunity to earn commission-based pay, which can be a strong incentive for those who excel at selling.

The role of salespersons become crucial in sales and distribution of goods or services. Such sellers are different such as producers’ salespersons, wholesalers’ salespersons, and retailers’ salespersons. Different types of salespersons can be explained as follows:

1. Producers’ Salesperson

The sellers appointed by producers are called producers’ or manufacturer’s salespersons. They sell goods or services to wholesalers, retailers and final consumers. They get remunerations directly from producers. The types of producers’ salespersons are as follows:

a. Pioneer salespersons: Pioneer salespersons give information to consumers about new goods or services of manufacturers. They present themselves active, influential and decisive to introduce new products in markets. Their role becomes important to introduce new product in markets. Their role becomes important to create demand for new products.

b. Merchandising salespersons: The sellers who are skilled in selling special types of goods like medicines, scientific materials and equipment, electronics goods etc. are called merchandising salespersons. Appointed by manufacturers can have good knowledge about the products.

c. Dealers servicing salespersons: The sellers appointed by manufacturers to establish living contact with distributors, wholesalers, middlemen or dealers to receive purchase orders from them are called dealer servicing salespersons.

2. Wholesalers’ salespersons:

The sellers appointed by wholesalers are called wholesalers’ salespersons. Their main function is to help wholesalers to supply needs of retailers by keeping regular contact with them. Such salespersons go to retailers’ shop, check the stock of goods, collect purchase orders, make arrangement of delivery etc. They give advice and suggestions to retailers about, decoration, display of goods, promotion etc. They also give wholesalers about market situation, retailers’ problems, competition etc. and help them.

3. Retailers’ salesperson:

The sellers appointed by retailers for the purpose of taking help in distribution and sales of goods or services are called retailers salespersons. They find prospective customers, contact them, help them in selection of goods and deliver goods to them.

It is very difficult to enlist the qualities of people engaged in personal selling. The quality will vary from time to time and from situation to situation. It also depends upon the customers’ demand and nature of the product. Again a salesman may be effective in one situation but may fail in another situation. So in real life certain qualities may be suitable for a particular line of product and may be irrelevant in any other case. However, there are certain common qualities, which every salesman should possess in order to become successful in their life. These qualities are listed below.

1. Physical quality: A salesman should have a good appearance and an impressive personality. He should also have a sound health.

2.Mental quality: A good salesman should possess certain mental qualities like imagination, initiative, self-confidence, sharp memory, alertness etc. He should be able to understand the needs and preferences of customers.

3. Integrity of character: A good salesman should possess the qualities of honesty and integrity. He is to gain the confidence of the customers. He should be able to understand their needs and guide them how to satisfy those needs. His employer too should have faith in him. A salesman should be loyal both to the employer and to the customers.

4. Knowledge of the product and the company: A salesman should have full knowledge of the product and the company he is representing. He should be able to explain each and every aspect of the product i.e. its qualities, how to use it, what precautions to be taken, etc. He should be able to explain the business and service record of the company. He should also have knowledge of products of rival companies. So that he can put across the superiority of his own products.

5. Good behaviour: A salesman should be co-operative and courteous. Good behaviour enables one to win the confidence of the customers. He should not feel irritated if the buyer puts up many questions even if the questions are irrelevant. It is also not necessary that the person he is trying to convince buys the product. The salesman has to remain and courteous in every case.

6. Ability to persuade: A good salesman should be good in conversation so that he can engage the person he is attending in conversation. He should be able to convince him and create the desire in his mind to possess the commodity.

These are the certain myths associated with personal selling that affect the perception of a salesperson during the entire process of personal selling.

1. Myth 1-Anyone can be a buyer: The first myth about personal selling is related with the buyers. It is not right to think that each consumer may buy everything. Many different factors are considered by the consumers before making any purchase decision. However, there are few exceptions to it. For example, a consumer may be induced for impulse buying by offering him a steal deal or deep discounts. In order to make efficient use of the efforts a salesman should carefully assess the attributes of the product and accordingly target the market.

2. Myth 2-Price is the most important criterion for buying a product: Sellers may be misguided if they believe this myth. There is no denying fact that price plays an important role in making any purchase decision but not always a primary factor. There are many exceptions to this assumption. First in case of luxury goods, prices of the product hardly matter. Rather people look for expensive items to show their status. Second for quality conscious customers, quality or features of the product matter than prices. Finally, in case of brans loyal customers, the users of particular brand will rarely compare the prices of the substitutes and shift just because of lower prices offered by the competitor.

3. Myth 3-Same sales techniques will work for everyone: All customers are different individuals hence they are driven by different needs, motivations, and goals. Hence, a single sales strategy may not be helpful for everyone. The marketers have well understood this and now they are focusing on Segment of One where each individual is considered as a segment and customized products being offered to every one based on their unique requirements.

4. Myth 4-Finish the selling process soon as possible: This myth is guided by the selling concept where the selling of unit is more important than customer satisfaction. However, in today’s time the swiftness in closing the deal may not help much as in case of any dissatisfaction consumers may use social media to spread the negative word of mouth. Besides this, it’s going to cost goodwill in the long run.

5. Myth5-Explore everything to close the sale: This myth may lead salespersons towards unethical selling behaviour too. It is unethical on the part of seller to misrepresent the facts or misinform about the product quality or capabilities of the product to the consumers just to increase the sales number or match the sales quota. Following this myth salesman can adopt manipulative and aggressive sales approach. In long run, a company may fail because of such salespersons who believe in this myth.

6. Myth6- Extrovert salesman perform better than introvert one: Few people think that salesmanship is the cup of tea only for those who are outspoken. But it is not true. The task of salesperson is to understand the needs of its potential customer and present the solution of his/her problem. Salesperson should try to overcome this misconception by adopting professional approach that will be appreciated by customers. Salesperson should try to refrain from being overly friendly.

7. Myth 7- “fake it, fill it and make it”: The long term goal of every salesman should be establishing relationship with its customer rather than just seeing a buyer as an account. Therefore, sales representative should not hide any information or fact from the customer just for closing the deal. Rather, all the crucial points should be well communicated to the customer.

8. Myth 8- A customer “no” is “never”: A salesman should not be disheartened after hearing a “no” from the customer. Rather he should try new ways to address the customer struck points and find new ways to pursue them more. Salesman should be hopeful towards converting the “no” of the customer into “yes”.

9. Myth 9 The customer is always right: This is an old saying in business that “customer is always right”. This line has largely been misinterpreted. It is not necessary that customer is always correct in understanding his innate needs. Sometimes a customer gets confused in identifying about his preferences. In that situation he needs guidance of the salesman. Moreover, in the era of over exposure to information, consumer may form some misconception about products. Here the role of salesperson is to make him aware about the true facts related to products. Salesperson has to figure out what information customer possesses and what he is missing out and bridging the information gap for making rational decisions.

10. Myth 10- Sales is all about numbers: Sales in the quantifiable number is the most important. Though numbers are important but they are not the only thing. the quality of interaction is going to determine is going to play important role in translating the prospect into potential buyers.

Sales management, salesmanship and personal selling are interlinked and have lot of commonalities. The interlinkages and interrelatedness help to provide value added relationships to both company and customers. Customer is going to have winning proposition in terms of best purchase solution for his need. The company gains by selling satisfied product not just the revenue but also take forward the long-term relationship, positive word of mouth, recommendation. The differences among the terms can be understood in scope and functions of each activity. Personal selling is the interaction between buyer and seller. The techniques used in personal selling can be referred as salesmanship. The recruitment, training, motivation, compensation or any other activity for managing sales force is a part of sales management.

Personal Selling

Personal selling is a broader concept than salesmanship. It is direct interaction between buyers and sellers which involves informing and persuading the prospect to close the sale. The interaction encompasses the details about the product, its features, attributes, benefits, advantages. The aim is to inform, educate about company’s offering and persuade to make a purchase decision. Personal selling now goes beyond than merely selling products. The objective of personal selling also includes developing and nurturing long term relationships with customers for future revenues and goodwill of the company.

Sales Management

Sales management can be defined as “the planning, direction and control of personal selling, including recruiting, selecting, equipping, assigning, routing, supervising, paying and motivating as these tasks apply to personal sales force”. Sales management comprises of all the activities related to management of sales force. The planning, directing and controlling the sales force involved human resource functions such as recruitment, selection, training, compensating, motivating in a particular sales territory. The objective of sales management is to develop effective sales team. It is the process of attaining the sales force goals in an effective manner through planning, staffing, training, leading and controlling organisational resources. It is giving direction to sales force to attain sales force. Sales management is a broader concept and includes personal selling.

Significance of sales management:

1. Setting sales goals: Sales managers are responsible for setting realistic and achievable sales goals for the team, which helps to ensure that the team is working towards a common objective.

2. Developing sales strategies: Sales managers work with the team to develop strategies for achieving sales goals, which can include identifying target markets, developing marketing campaigns, and identifying new opportunities for sales.

3. Analyzing sales data: Sales managers use data and analytics to track the team’s performance and identify areas for improvement.

4. Providing coaching and support: Sales managers help to support and develop the skills of the sales team through training, coaching, and feedback.

5. Managing customer relationships: Sales managers are responsible for managing relationships with key customers and ensuring that their needs are met.

6. Controlling expenses: Sales managers are responsible for controlling expenses related to sales activities, such as travel, marketing, and training costs.

Salesmanship

It is an art and skill to influence the prospective buyer or the actual buyer to enter into sale. Salesmanship is one aspect of personal selling. It is one of the skills used in personal selling. Salesmanship is the art of persuading people to buy the products. The skill is also used for developing long term relationships with customers, creating goodwill for the organisation in the minds of customers. It includes efforts for motivating prospective buyers to decide in favour of sellers’ products and services. Salesmanship skills includes skills such as interpersonal skills, conceptual skills, listening skills, to influence prospects to make a sale.

Significance of salesmanship:

1. Increased revenue: Effective salesmanship can help to increase a company’s sales, which can lead to increased revenue.

2. Customer satisfaction: Salesmanship can help to ensure that customers are happy with the products or services they purchase, which can lead to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

3. Stronger relationships with customers: Good salesmanship can help to build strong relationships with customers, as salespeople are able to identify and address their needs in a professional and effective manner.

4. Improved product knowledge: Salespeople who are skilled in salesmanship often have a deep understanding of the products or services they are selling, which can help them to better serve their customers.

5. Greater market share: Effective salesmanship can help a business to stand out from its competitors and capture a larger market share.

6. Increased business growth: By generating increased revenue and attracting more customers, salesmanship can help to drive business growth.

Difference Between Sales Management, Personal Selling and Salesmanship

The sales management, personal selling and salesmanship are interrelated with each other. The sales management administers the personal selling efforts and personal selling is enacted through salesmanship.

Relationship Between Marketing and Personal Selling

Relationship marketing is creation of long-term collaborative relationships for a maintaining a large and loyal customer base. Personal selling is an integral component of promotion mix. It is about educating, influencing and successfully persuading both prospective and actual buyers to become and remain satisfying customers of the organization. The goal of personal selling is not restricted to merely seeking sales rather it focusses on developing and nurturing long term relationships with its prospective and actual buyers. Relationship marketing is based on the customer centric approach. The salesperson can act as interface between seller and customer. The discussions, opinions, feedback obtained with the help personal selling are transmitted to sellers for further improvisation and management of relationships. Timely complaint redressal is another component of relationship marketing. The relationships with the customers can be strengthen by understanding the customer needs and customizing the solution as per the specific needs of customers. The essence of any relationship is communication and personal selling is the most direct form of communication with potential and actual buyers. The task of relationship marketing is implemented by the salesperson in following ways:

1. Implementing customer contact programs: The various customer contact programs can be developed by an organization to get in touch with user base and seek their feedback on products/services.

2. After sale services: The services received post sales in form of installation, servicing, repairs, handling of complaints etc. constitutes an important role in relationship building. The customer experience about the products and services play a pivotal role in taking decision of patronizing the organization products in future. The way of handling and redressing complaints by the sales representative help in maintaining a better brand image.

3. Finding the future needs of customers: The companies that continuously monitor and respond to future needs of customers have more likelihood of adding large customer base to its product. The various loyalty programs, membership cards are few sources of reminding and monitoring customers’ activities.

4. Developing adaptive selling approach: The personalized selling strategy can be developed according to the specific needs of different buyers. The positive word of mouth recommendations and positive reviews is what the organization is aspiring for along with cultivation of long and enduring relationships with its customers.

Selling is a specialized task and the salesman come across many different selling situations while he is in field. These selling situation has been categorized in four broad categories which are mentioned below:

1. Based on the type of consumer

New Customers: Acquiring new customers is always more challenging than the retaining older one. The selling situation in which salesman tries to sell the products to a completely new set of customers is also called developmental selling situation. The target customers are either existing users and buy product from competitor or the completely new users who never bought the product. The sales persons have to use different promotional schemes (discounted prices, better deals etc.) to woo the competitor’s customers. For first time users, salesman need to demonstrate the benefits of the product just to prove its usability.

Old Customers: Retaining the old customers is also not an easy task as competitors’ always try new ways to gain new customers. To sell the products to the existing customers is also called service selling situation. In service selling situation, salespeople focus on building relationships with existing customers and try for cross selling too.

2. Based on the type of market

Business to Consumer (B2C): Salesman make attempts to sell the products either to individual customer of group buyers. However, each selling situation needs different preparation from salesman’s perspective. In the case of individual buyer, the interpersonal skills play a major role. A salesman assesses the personality and motivation to buy of an individual and offers the products. While in case of group buyers, generally the product is pre-decided and the buyers look for a better deal. There is a possibility that group buyers are already in communication with the competitors’ product and evaluating or comparing the product and deal. Hence, for cracking the deal other than interpersonal skills, negotiation skills of the salesman are also important. For example, the strategies used for selling a home to single buyer will be completely different from the deal offered to a group of people together bargaining with the builder. 3

Business to Business (B2B): In B2B setting, the salesman has to be well read and knowledgeable about the working of the target industry. In case of organizational buyer, single or a team of salesmen can give the presentation about the product. The selling situation is completely different than B2C as in most of the cases the company which quotes minimum cracks the sales deed. Hence, salesman put efforts in finding out that magical number which will bring tender in their favour. For example, when pitching for selling of a machinery in an organization a team of salespeople may be required to address different queries of the industrial buyer.

3. Based on the type of products

Consumer non-durable products: Consumer non-durable products are relatively less expensive products and people are not much engaged while buying these products. For example: if a consumer is looking for buying a pack of biscuit he will simply approach to the nearby shop. In this situation salesperson play a role of order taker who simply handovers the required product to the customer and collects payment.

Consumer durable products: The involvement level of customer is comparatively high in this situation compared to the buying of non-durable product. A customer passes through the selling process and need to be pursued by the salesman. The salesman acts here as an order getter as he may require to make presentations or demonstrate the product. Salesman also answers the queries of the customers and address their concerns. For example, when a customer is interested in buying a car then he probably will compare different cars and after evaluating different alternatives he will close the deal.

Industrial Products: In case of industrial product personal selling is very important as salesman need to visit the buyer frequently. Since the investment is big, seller may go through the round of negotiations before finalizing the sales deal.

4. Based on the type of sales medium

Offline methods: Sales representative can reach the potential customers through offline methods such as face to face meeting method or making a telephonic call. The potential customers can also be met a seminar or a referral case from an existing customer. The salesperson offers the product to these leads and tries to convert them into the customers of the company. Salesman can also give live demonstration of the product.

Online methods: Online methods involve connecting leads through emails, social media and other digital platforms. Salesperson maintains the database of the leads and follow up with the them at regular intervals. In online methods, selling situation is comparatively different than offline situations. Online methods provide more flexibility in terms of contact hours and relatively cost effective too. However, the connection level in online sales situations is comparatively lower than online selling situations. Besides this, to keep potential customer engaged and interested is also difficult online medium selling situation.

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