Personal Selling and Sales Force Management Assignment

Ans 1. Selling is a marketing function that involves determining client needs and wants, and
responding to them through planned, personalized communication that influences purchase
decisions and enhances future business opportunities. Selling isn’t mere order taking or customer
services but rather a combination of planned communication that enables a business to conduct
sales.

Following are a few different types of selling:

1. Transactional Selling: Transactional selling is mainly concerned with making quick

sales. Such form of selling tends to be simple and effective as a number of times a
customer does not want to form an extended relation but rather wants a simple
transaction. This form of selling is pretty common in retail shops.
2. Consultative Selling: This form of selling is also known as relationship selling as it
thrives developing a long term relationship with the customers. The salesperson's goal is
to get to know the customer's needs and wants so he or she can provide the customer with
what they want.
3. Collaborative Selling: This type of selling thrives on the partnership mentality on the
part of both seller and the buyer. It takes the concept of relationship selling one step
further. Collaborative selling makes use of this relationship as buyers can be flexible in
areas such as payment terms, inventory levels, and other items that help the bottom line
of the seller. This is appealing to buyers especially when they have found a supplier they
know and trust.
4. Value Selling: Value selling mainly depends upon building on the inherent value of a
product or service and communicating the said value to the customers in an effective
way. Value selling technique is a much more flexible and customized selling approach
that requires input from a number of prospective customers.

There are several other types of selling such as:

Industry Selling: Industry selling refers to selling of goods and services from one business
to the other. In other words, it refers to all forms of personal selling to organizational and
industrial buyers of products for resale, or for use in manufacture, or for use in the operation
of their businesses. Industrial selling has become a widely accepted alternative to direct
forms of distribution such as retail selling.

Service Selling: Service selling refers to selling the intangible services to the customers
from businesses. It essentially refers to the advancement of the economic activities of a
business to its customer. It is vital to recognize the needs of the customer and find an
ideal way to satisfy their needs. Providing the right market performance is the
foundation, but by no means a guarantee for success. Service selling requires a
powerful organization to establish a successful market output with the customers.

Retail Selling: The retail industry is pretty widespread, ranging from outlets such as
Easy Day to online stores such as Amazon. A retail sale occurs when a business sells a
product or service to an individual consumer for his or her own use. The transaction itself can
occur through a number of different sales channels, as stated above. Such form of selling is
concerned with satisfying the individual consumption needs of a customer.

Ans 2. As the name implies relationship selling thrives on the ability of the salesman on
building relationships with his current and prospective customers. The priority of the
salesman is to build a connection and gain the trust of the prospective customer through the
effective use of interaction.

This form of selling generates long term revenues as the seller shifts focus from the details
about the product such as pricing to building a rapport with the customer and generate
multiple sales. Relationship selling is generally used by companies that have longer sales
cycles, expensive products or services, or items that require more assurance when it comes to
purchasing. Typically, it is used by businesses using the B2B channel to garner long
standing relationships with their customers.

By being considerate about building relationships with potential customers and taking an
interest in their world, it can significantly improve the chances of acquiring a sale and
retaining that customer for the long-term. Many companies nowadays want to utilize
relationship marketing in order to maximize market share.

Relationship selling provides certain advantages to business, some of them are as follows:

 Customer satisfaction is effectively maximized through the use of this technique

as customer centric approach makes them feel valued and enables a firm to know
the requirements of customer in a much more comprehensive way.
 It maximizes revenue as it focuses on customer retention for extended periods
thereby allowing a business to not only sustain itself but also grow effectively.
 Customer feedback enables a business to focus on making better decisions and
this is only possible through the effective communication established via
relationship selling.
 Relationship selling creates customer advocates. Happier customers are more
likely to recommend a particular brand to their friends and family. Such word of
mouth plays a vital role in growing a brand.
  Relationship marketing not only translates to higher customer retention but also
enables a firm to generate higher revenue from a particular customer on a single
order.

Ans 3. The pharmaceutical company intends to automate the process of information

handling and customer account data for a field salesperson, incurring a cost of Rs. 35,000
per sales person comprising of the cost of hardware, telecom equipment and insurance for
the said equipment. Business process automation automates time-consuming day to day jobs
through software technologies. This frees up the valuable human resources and enables them to
focus on the jobs that require a greater degree of human engagement.

The cost incurred through such automation is very small when compared to the mammoth
benefits that such automation provides. The most important aspect of business process
automation is that it makes the organization more efficient. Software systems have reached a
certain level of universal usage and availability that they provide considerable competitive edge
to the businesses that make use of them.

I would draw the attention of the sales vice president to the glaring opportunities that such
automation provides to the company and how such benefits justify the initial costs of the
equipment that will be used for years to come.

The use of automation will enable the salesmen to focus on the actual process of selling by
unburdening them from the tasks of information handling and maintaining accounts. This will in
turn help the firm capitalize on its market share and breed creativity through the organization.
Furthermore, the increased man hours with a reduced need for redundant tasks will reduce the
overall cost of business in the longer run.

Automation can also improve the overall operation by reducing the number of human errors
thereby saving the business a fortune from misreported sales. At complex projects, monitoring
every team member and ensuring proper flow of information often turns out to be a difficult
task. Automation enables the company to keep a track of such information and it can be
dispersed at the discretion of the supervisors.

Automation also gives the business an opportunity to analyze the sales data and generate
possible leads for the salesmen to pursue. Therefore, the overall cost of incurring such a project
gets economized when we consider the number of benefits that come from the process of
automation.

This will be good for the overall growth of the company that can sustain such an expense for one
year. It will not only reduce cost in the longer run but will also help the management make better
decisions in the future.
Ans 4. 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.
This form of selling is more prevalent in retail selling but it is also taking hold in the industry
segment.

Personal selling proves to be an effective method as the sales person can communicate the value
that his/her proposition possesses better than anyone. Moreover, an important aspect of personal
selling is the use of effective feedback. Such sales calls are very personalized and can be
adjusted according to the need of the prospective customer. Therefore, building on effective
feedback helps the salesperson to convey his proposition in a better way.

Personal selling in the steel scrap industry can prove beneficial to Ispat Alloys, particularly at a
time when the other firms are adopting the method of downsizing in order to stay afloat because
such downsizing of the sales staff implies that the other firms would be reducing the number
of sales calls. This is where Ispat Alloys can capitalize through personal selling as it will help
them establish a relationship with their customers and in turn make them feel valued through
repeated interactions.

The indigenous sales staff will also be able to establish trust and rapport with customers in a
much better way than foreign companies can. This will also provide Ispat Alloys an edge as
they would undermine the price competition with the Chinese companies through an effective
use of personalized selling.

Through these individualized sales calls Ispat Alloys will be able to provide customized plans to
various businesses according to what is of paramount importance to such clients. Such a strategy
will not only help Ispat Alloys gain market share but will also enable the company to retain a
comprehensive amount of market share in the long run. Thereby satisfying the desire of
management to acquire additional market share.

SANCHIT GAMBHIR

5032

BMS 3rd Year