SUMMER INTERNSHIP PROJECT REPORT

ON

PERSONAL SELLING EFFECTIVENESS WITH

REFERENCE TO LIGHTINGLIVES CONSULTANTS

In partial fulfilment of the requirement for the award of the

Degree of Master of Business Administration

Under the guidance of: Submitted By:

Dr. Saurabh Banerjee MOHD IBRAHIM
Professor MBA (MARKETING) 3rd Sem
Roll No. 200012135044

INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT SCIENCES,

UNIVERSITY OF LUCKNOW
2020-2022
2
 DECLARATION

I MOHD IBRAHIM student of MBA (MARKETING) 3rd SEM

INSTITUTEOF MANAGEMENT SCIENCES, UNIVERSITY OF

LUCKNOW Here by Declare That I Have Completed This Project On

“PERSONAL SELLING EFFECTIVENESS WITH REFERENCE TO

LIGHTINGLIVES CONSULTANTS” In The Academic Year 2020 –

2022.

The Information Submitted Is True And Original To The Best Of My

Knowledge.

MOHD IBRAHIM
Roll No. 200012135044
MBA (Marketing) 3rd Sem

3
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

For the successful completion of this project I am thankful to several intellectuals for their
guidance and friends for their support. First and foremost, sincere gratitude is extended to
the faculty, management and staff of I.M.S. for their expeditious arrangement to do this
project work as a part of my MBA Course.

I would like to express my very great appreciation to Dr. Saurabh Banerjeesirfor his
valuable andconstructive suggestions during the planning and development of this
research work.

I am highly indebted to Mr. Mohammad Rizan for his guidance and constant
supervision as well as for providing necessary information regarding the project &
also for their support in completing the project.

I am thankful to “ Lightinglives Consultants Pvt. Ltd.” for giving me helpful

information to complete this project report.

My heart full thanks to whole staff of “Lightinglives Consultants Pvt. Ltd.”,

who gave me continuous support in all possible manners to gain practical
knowledge in the industry.

Finally I would like to thank all lecturers, friends, family for the kind support and
to all who directly or indirectly helped me in preparing this project report.

4
 PREFACE

The research provides an opportunity to a student to demonstrate application of his/her

knowledge, skill and competencies required during the technical session. Research also

helps the student to devote his/her skill to analyze the problem to suggest alternative

solutions, to evaluate them and to provide feasible recommendations on the provided

data.

The research is on the topic of “PERSONAL SELLING EFFECTIVENESS WITH

REFERENCE TO LIGHTINGLIVES CONSULTANTS” Although I have tried my

level best to prepare this report an error free report every effort has been made to offer the

most authenticate position with accuracy.

5
 TABLE OF CONTENT

1. INTRODUCTION

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

3. COMPANY PROFILE

4. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

5. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

6. SUGGESTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

7. CONCLUSION

8. Bibliography

6
 INTRODUCTION

Personal selling is a promotional method in which one party (e.g.,

salesperson) uses skills and techniques for building personal relationships
with another party (e.g., those involved in a purchase decision) that results in
both parties obtaining value. In most cases the "value" for the salesperson is
realized through the financial rewards of the sale while the customer’s
"value" is realized from the benefits obtained by consuming the product.
However, getting a customer to purchase a product is not always the
objective of personal selling. For instance, selling may be used for the
purpose of simply delivering information.

Because selling involves personal contact, this promotional method often

occurs through face-to-face meetings or via a telephone conversation, though
newer technologies allow contact to take place over the Internet including
using video conferencing or text messaging (e.g., online chat).

One key advantage personal selling has over other promotional methods is
that it is a two-way form of communication. In selling situations the message
sender (e.g., salesperson) can adjust the message as they gain feedback from
message receivers (e.g., customer). So if a customer does not understand the
initial message (e.g., doesn’t fully understand how the product works) the
salesperson can make adjustments to address questions or concerns. Many
non-personal forms of promotion, such as a radio advertisement, are
inflexible, at least in the short-term, and cannot be easily adjusted to address
audience questions.

What is Personal Selling?

Personal selling is one of the oldest forms of promotion. It involves the use
of a sales force who orally communicates about the company’s products or
7
services to the potential buyers with an intention to make a sale. Personal
selling is the primary demand stimulating force in the industrial marketer’s
promotional mix. Its role is very dominant in industrial markets because of
less number of potential customers present compared to the consumer
markets and the large amount of money purchases involved. As the cost per
sale through personal selling is too high, industrial marketers have to
carefully manage and integrate personal selling into organization’s
marketing mix. This will also lead to maximize its effectiveness and
efficiency. The job of personal selling starts after determining the target
segment in the organization’s market. The sales force in most of the
industrial organizations follow the “systems selling” approach where they
recognize the entire problems faced by their buyers and offer them total
solutions rather than just selling the product. This is advantageous to the
industrial buyers as all their problems are solved in a single go by one party
who would take the responsibility if anything goes wrong. The industrial
marketers too have competitive advantage by adopting this strategy.

Personal Selling Process

There are different steps that are involved in a selling process and the
salesperson has a significant role to play in each of the steps. It is the role of
the salesperson that helps the organization to increase its sale and reach its
objectives. It therefore becomes important to understand their role during
each of the steps in order to further enhance their performance and clinch
any deal successfully.

Prospecting: Prospecting is the first step in the sales process that refers to
identifying a list of potential organizational buyers. There are various
sources from which salespeople get the list of prospective buyers. Some of
the sources include referrals, directories, commercially-available databases
8
or mail lists, company sales records and in-house databases, public records,
trade shows, and a wide variety of other sources. The salespeople have to
systematically structure the prospecting activities in order to identify only
those potential customers who fit the profile and have genuine interest to
buy the product or service.

Communicating: This step involves the sales professionals communicating

with the organizational buyers and trying to understand their current needs,
their current use of products, identifying key decision makers among the
buyers, planning and creating a sales presentation to address the identified
and likely concerns of the prospect, and setting call objectives. During this
phase, the sales people also develop a preliminary overall strategy for the
sales process keeping in mind that the strategy may have to be refined as
they learn more about their prospects.

Handling Objections: The course of objection handling includes the

prospective buyers holding, inspecting or testing the product directly. The
product is demonstrated by the sales people by means of audio visual
presentations such as slide presentations or product videos. It should be the
endeavor of the sales person to let the prospect do most of the talking during
the presentation. Their responsibility should be restricted to address the
needs of the organizational buyers as far as possible. They should have the
ability to convince them by showing that they truly understand them and
care about their needs.

Selling: Selling is the process of delivering the products or services to the

customer’s satisfaction and receiving the payment after adequately
addressing any of their final objections or obstacles. Many sales people are
weak and hesitate or lack the confidence to ask for the order. They should
know that closing does not involve literally asking for order. They can ask
9
some related questions like what color the buyers like, which model or size
they would prefer, when they would like the delivery to happen or what they
would lose if they do not place the order now. Depending upon the situation,
the salesperson also offers discounts, credit facility to induce the buyer.

Servicing: The industrial marketers should provide their customers with

efficient service from the point of sale till the goods are delivered and also
after the post-sale. Many of the salespeople often overlook the
servicing/follow-up aspect which is a very important part of the selling
process. It helps to maintain a good and long term relationship with
customers and gives supplementary revenue to the organization. After an
order is received, it is in the best interest of everyone involved that the
salesperson should follow up with the prospect. This ensures that the
product was received by the customer in good condition, at right time, with
proper installation and at the place as required by the customer. It also
ensures whether adequate training on product usage was given to the
customer before they handle the delivered product/equipment. The
salesperson should confirm through the follow-up whether the entire process
was acceptable to the customer. This is a critical step in creating customer
satisfaction and building long-term relationships with customers.Have you
noticed different salesmen come to your house to sell different products and
services? This is an example of personal selling. So, personal selling refers
to a face-to-face product selling method.

Once upon a time, sales was 100% personal selling. But now, thanks to
globalization, advances in technology, and the rising cost of travel, personal
selling is just one of many techniques available to salespeople to warm up a
lead and close a deal.

10
Personal selling should be part of a wider sales mix, alongside telesales,
email marketing, sales promotion, advertising, and public relations. But
personal selling must not be overlooked: it remains an extremely important
part of a salesperson’s arsenal and is a skill every good salesperson must
master.

Personal selling is just one of many skills you should have in your sales
toolbox. For more sales skills every salesperson needs to master, check out
all of our resources here.

Personal selling is when a salesperson meets a potential buyer or buyers

face-to-face with the aim of selling a product or service. The most traditional
form of sales, many salespeople are lured to the industry by the adrenaline
rush of high-stakes personal selling; picture those whisky-swilling Mad Men,
or the ultra-driven salesmen of Glengarry Glen Ross.

Meaning of Personal Selling:

Personal selling is an act of convincing the prospects to buy a given product

or service. It is the most effective and costly promotional method. It is
effective because there is face to face conversation between the buyer and
seller and seller can change its promotional techniques according to the
needs of situation. It is basically the science and art of understanding human
desires and showing the ways through which these desires could be fulfilled.

According to American Marketing Association, “Personal selling is the oral

presentation in a conversation with one or more prospective purchasers for
the purpose of making sale; it is the ability to persuade the people to buy
goods and services at a profit to the seller and benefit to the buyer”.

In the word of Professor William J. Stanton, “Personal selling consists in

individual; personal communication, in contrast to mass relatively
11
impersonal communication of advertising; sales promotion and other
promotional tools”.

Personal selling is a different form of promotion, involving two way face-to-

face communications between the salesmen and the prospect. The result of
such interaction depends upon how deep each has gone into one another and
reached the height of the common understanding. Basically the essence of
personal selling is the interpretation of products and services benefits and
features to the buyer and persuading the buyer to buy these products and
services.

Features of Personal Selling:

The main features of personal selling are:

i. It is a face to face communication between buyer and seller.

ii. It is a two way communication.

iii. It is an oral communication.

iv. It persuades the customers instead of pressurizing him.

v. It provides immediate feedback.

vi. It develops a deep personal relationship apart from the selling relationship
with the buyers and customers.

Personal Selling Process:

The process of personal selling includes prospecting and evaluating,

preparing, approach and presentation, overcoming objections, closing the
sale and a follow up service.

12
1. Prospecting and evaluating:

The effort to develop a list of potential customers is known as prospecting.

Sales people can find potential buyers, names in company records, customer
information requests from advertisements, telephone and trade association
directories, current and previous customers, friends, and newspapers.
Prospective buyers predetermined, by evaluating (1) their potential interest
in the sales person’s products and (2) their purchase power.

2. Preparing:

Before approaching the potential buyer, the sales person should know as
much as possible about the person or company.

3. Approach and presentation:

During the approach, which constitutes the actual beginning of the

communication process, the sales person explains to the potential customer
the reason for the sales, possibly mentions how the potential buyer’s name
was obtained, and gives a preliminary explanation of what he or she is
offering. The sales presentation is a detailed effort to bring the buyer’s needs
together with the product or service the sales person represents.

4. Overcoming objections:

The primary value of personal selling lies in the sales person’s ability to
receive and deal with potential customers’ objections to purchasing the
product. In a sales presentation many objections can be dealt with
immediately. These may take more time, but still may be overcome.

13
5. Closing the sale:

Many sales people lose sales simply because they never asked the buyer to
buy. At several times in a presentation the sales person may to gauge how
near the buyer is to closing.

6. Follow up:

To maintain customer satisfaction, the sales person should follow up after a

sale to be certain that the product is delivered properly and the customer is
satisfied with the res

The old concept of salesmanship has, therefore, undergone changes. The art
of selling is not sales­manship today; the art of knowing one’s mind and
influencing it is salesmanship.’ To know your mind and then to let you know
my mind and then to in­fluence or persuade you to identify your mind with
that of mine and when the two minds thus become identical, then selling of
goods or services takes place. Before that, what goes on between the
pros­pect and the salesman is the process of understand­ing each one’s
mind’.

There is a term used in the marketing world — ‘aggressive salesmanship’

i.e., selling by pressuriz­ing the customer. It has been found that this
ap­proach to salesmanship does not pay in the long run. The prospect cannot
be made a permanent cus­tomer. Persuasion and not pressure, understanding
and not commanding, patience and not intolerance, service and not
extraction – are the key-notes of modern salesmanship.

Personal Selling – Meaning

Personal selling is a part of promotional- mix and it is an art of person-to-

person communication for persuading prospects or consumers in the sales
14
process. For introducing effective marketing system, balancing of other
marketing elements like, product development, pricing, distribution system,
advertising etc. should be organised along with implementation of personal
selling methodology.

In modern marketing philosophy, a long term relationship and understanding

with the consumer should be developed through consultative selling process.
Personal selling helps consumers to realise the suitable benefits of the
product and services offered to satisfy their needs.

A situation in which two people interact is known as “dyad”. In a ‘buyer-

seller dyad’ the consumer shall have more opportunity to know about the
sales person and the company. Through researches it was observed that the
possibility of positive results are high when the characteristics and nature of
the sales persons and prospects are alike. Sales persons’ behaviour shall
influence the purchase process and satisfaction of the consumers.

To analyse the diversified personal selling situations, distinction should be

made between service and developmental selling. Service selling is targeted
to the existing customers whose behavioural and purchase pattern are already
known to the sales people. For example, in the course of delivery of
necessary products like, bread, milk, fuel or gas, the delivery person and the
consumer are known to each other. The other form of personal selling is
known as developmental selling.

Developmental selling shall aim at converting the prospects into customers.

In this process, the people who do not currently view the company’s product
or services favourably, and purchasing similar product from other sources,
should be convinced and changed favourably.

15
It is the creative aspect of sales persons to offer the satisfactory services.
Developmental selling may be organised for tangible products like,
automobiles, vacuum cleaners, washing machines etc. and also for intangible
products like, insurance, bank-schemes, advertising services etc.

Why? Simply put – the expense.

Think about it: each face-to-face meeting requires significantly more

investment – from both sides – than just contacting a prospect via email or
phone. Suddenly, you’ve got travel expenses. And the time it takes to
prepare for, travel to, and take the meeting only adds to the cost. This is why
it’s vital to consider the value and type of product you’re aiming to sell – as
well as the likelihood of closing the deal – before automatically opting for
personal selling.

But face-to-face meetings certainly still have their place. Consider this: 68%
of B2B customers are lost due to indifference or perceived apathy rather than
mistakes. Attending a sales meeting is a prime way to combat this issue by
showing you care enough to invest time and money in your prospect on good
faith.

Fifty-eight percent of buyers state that sales meetings are not valuable, and
that there should be a greater focus on the value businesses can deliver to
them. On the face of it, this doesn’t sound like great news for salespeople
who shine in meetings. But it does mean that over 40% of prospects are open
to sales meetings. The other 60% may just need convincing that a meeting
will help you add real value to their business.

Personal selling techniques

With the extra time and monetary investment required for face-to-face sales
meetings, it’s essential businesses lock down ROI by choosing the right
16
prospects to meet in person through a comprehensive lead-qualifying
process.

What value can you add in a sales meeting?

Salespeople who turn up to a meeting without preparing properly are a

serious irritant for buyers. In fact, 82% of B2B buyers think sales reps are
unprepared. This suggests that many prospects have been deterred from sales
meetings – which they may consider a waste of time – due to negative past
experiences.

Active listening is of course vital for sales reps – not just in the meeting, but
ahead of it. Note down every piece of information you receive via call or
email and use this to your advantage in the meeting to prove you understand
the business’s real needs. And practice active listening outside of meetings –
when your mind is racing, it’s not as easy as it sounds.

Put yourself head and shoulders above the competition by over preparing.
Don’t just research the company so you can show off by reciting stats or
dates in the interview – learn about their pain points, their budgets, and what
they’re trying to achieve. You can then position your product or service as a
solution that helps them achieve their wider goals.

Your presentation should never be boilerplate: use the information you’ve

gathered through research and listening to tailor it specifically to the
company’s goals and how your product or service slots into their strategy.

Add value in the meeting

These days, it’s drummed into sales reps that they must add value in
meetings, demonstrating that they’ll continue to provide useful assistance
should the client sign on the dotted line. Doing this successfully
17
demonstrates that you know what you’re talking about, and also that you
care about working with the company long-term to help them achieve their
goals, thereby building trust.

Sixty-nine percent of buyers state that providing primary research data that’s
relevant to their business is the best way for reps to add value. Furthermore,
95% of customers choose to buy from providers that offer relevant content at
every stage of the buying process.

The amount your company is willing to invest in research or content ahead

of the meeting will no doubt vary depending on the size of the potential deal.
But there’s always some level of research salespeople are able to do ahead of
the big date.

Use your company’s tools to pull data surrounding the business and its
competitors that the organization hasn’t gathered itself. Give an analysis of
the top-level findings in your presentation, explain how your products and
services can help with the challenges you’ve uncovered, and then send the
DM the data and your analysis. Ask your content team to create a bank of
assets surrounding regular FAQs and industry pain points – whether blogs,
infographics, videos, or ebooks – so you’re able to send links to additional
helpful information during or after the meeting.

Make it clear you’re in this together

The best-performing sales reps use collaborative words like “we” or “us”
instead of words like “I” or “me.” This is a simple method for making the
prospective buyer feel like you’re on their side and want nothing more than
to see their business thrive.

Asking intelligent, in-depth questions surrounding their business challenges,

and coming back with potential solutions related to your products and
18
services, takes this a step further, as does turning up to the meeting with the
research and data outlined above.

Personal Selling Examples

An example of the importance of genuinely making your customer feel like

you’re on their side and building trust comes from Andrew Peterson, CEO of
Signal Sciences. While at college he worked at The North Face, and says his
favorite customer interactions were always those where he’d recommend the
customer go to another brand to find the product they needed.

Speaking to Inc, he said: “Don’t get me wrong, I loved The North Face and
all of their products! But I was always more intent on getting the customer
the best product for what they were looking for. When that wasn’t something
from our company, I’d tell them what they should get instead and where to
get it from. Funny thing was, they always ended up buying at least
something from me because they were so shocked I wasn’t just pushing our
products on them. A great lesson I learned from this is that the best
salespeople are the ones you trust.”

When working in sales, Richard Nieset, chief customer officer at Pixlee,

found a unique way to tackle one of his employer’s toughest clients in a
brilliant example of personal selling. Having been warned that the contact
was a “pain in the butt” who led on salespeople but never committed, he
went to a meeting armed with a toy gun filled with six bullets.

Personal Selling

Personal selling happens when companies and business firms send out their
salesmen to use the sale force and sell the products and services by meeting
the consumer face – to – face. The salesmen aim to inform and encourage the
customer to buy, or at least try the product.
19
Personal Selling Examples

For example, salesmen go to different societies to sell the products. Another

example is found in department stores on the perfume and cosmetic counters,
wherein agents of the company try to sell their products. A customer can get
advice on how to apply the product and can try different products. Products
with relatively high prices, or with complex features, are often sold using
personal selling. Great examples include cars, office equipment (e.g.
photocopiers) and many products that are sold by businesses to other
industrial customers.

Role and Importance of Personal Selling:

Personal selling consists of individual and personal communication with the

customers in contrast to the mass and impersonal communication through
advertising. Because of this characteristic, personal selling has the advantage
of being more flexible in operation.

A salesperson can tailor his sales presentation to fit the needs, motives, and
behaviour of individual customers. He can observe the customer’s reaction to
a particular sales approach and then make necessary adjustment on the spot.
Thus, personal selling involves a minimum of wasteful efforts. The
salesperson can select and concentrate on the prospective customers.

Personal selling helps in sales promotion. It is very important to

manufacturers and traders because it helps them to sell their products. It also
helps them in knowing the tastes, habits, attitudes and reactions of the
people.

The manufacturer can concentrate on producing those goods which are

required by the customers. This will further promote the sales. Moreover, a

20
good salesman is able to establish personal support with customers. This
way, the business gains permanent customers.

Functions of Personal Selling:

The important functions of a salesperson are as follows:

1. Personal selling is an important method of demonstrating the product to

the prospective customers and giving them full information about the
product. It is easier to persuade a person to buy a product through face-to-
face explanation.

2. In most of the situations, there is a need of explaining the quality, uses and
price of the product to the buyer to help him purchase the want satisfying
product. Thus, salesmanship is also very important from the point of the
buyers.

3. A good salesperson educates and guides the customers about the features
and utility of the product.

4. If a product cannot fully satisfy the needs of the customers, the

information is transmitted to the manufacturer who will take appropriate
steps.

5. Salespersons can also handle the objections of the customers. Creative

salesman are always ready to help the customers to arrive at correct
decisions while buying certain products.

6. There is direct fact-to-face interaction between the seller and the buyer.
The salesperson can receive feedback directly from the customer on a
continuous basis. This would help him in modifying his presentation and
taking other steps to sell satisfaction to the buyer.

21
Requisites of Effective Personal Selling:

It is not possible to describe exactly the kind of person who will make a
good salesperson. Sales skill has no clear correlation to any combination of
appearance, education, technical expertise, or even persuasiveness. There
have been successful salesmen who knew little about the technical qualities
of the product.

On the other hand, there are many examples of technical champs who could
not sell. However, in the modern era of severe competition in the market, it
is not easy to become an effective salesman. A business enterprise can
develop effective salesman to promote its sales.

In order to achieve effective personal selling, the following requirements

must be fulfilled:

1. Personal Qualities:

An effective salesman must possess certain physical, mental, social and

vocational qualities.

2. Training and Motivation:

In order to achieve effective personal selling, it is essential to train and

motivate the sales persons. The training programme for the sales persons
should be designed keeping in view the requirements of the business. The
training programme should also aim at imparting knowledge of various
selling programme should also aim at imparting knowledge of various
selling techniques among the trainees.

For instance, a salesman must be trained how to understand the nature of a

customer, how to arouse his interest in the product, and how to close the
sales. It is also essential that the person selected for selling has aptitude for
22
this vocation. He has the inner motivation of developing himself into a good
salesman. The employer can also motivate him by providing financial and
non-financial incentives.

3. Wide Knowledge:

A salesman should have wide knowledge about the following:

(a) Self:

The salesman must know himself in order to make use of his personality in
selling the products. He should try to know his strong arid week points and
remove his weak points through training and experience. He should
continuously undertake his self- assessment to know what he requires in
order to be an effective salesman.

(b) Employer:

The salesman is a representative of his employer. He should have a thorough

knowledge of the origin and growth of the employer’s business. He must
know objects, policies and organisational structure of the employer’s firm.
This will enable the salesman to make use of the plus points of the firm
selling the product.

(c) Product:

The salesman must have full knowledge about the product he sells. He must
know what the product is and what are its special features and uses. He
should also know the whole process of production so that he may be able to
answer the customer’s queries and objections satisfactorily. Mostly, the
customers are ignorant about the features, technical details, and benefits of
the product and they expect the salesman to give them sufficient information
about it.
23
(d) Competitors’ Products:

The salesman must have complete knowledge about the competitive products
because buyers often compare several products before purchasing one of
them. The salesman should know the positive and negative features of the
various substitutes so that he is in a position to prove the superiority of his
product.

(e) Customers:

Before selling something, a salesman must have sufficient knowledge about

the customers to whom he is going to sell. He must try to understand the
nature of customers, their habits and their buying motives if he is to win
permanent customers. There are a number of considerations which make the
prospect to buy a particular product.

These considerations may be grouped under two categories of motives,

namely (i) product motives and (ii) patronage motives. Product motives
explain why customers buy certain products and patronage motives
determine why customers buy from specific dealers. A salesman can
understand the motives of the customers by his intelligence and experience.

He should deal with the customer according to his nature. He can mix with a
customer who is extrovert and remain reserved with a customer who is
introvert. He should also try to know whether a customer intends to purchase
for personal use or for business use.

Advantages of Personal Selling:

1. The key advantage personal selling has over other promotional methods is
that it is a two-way form of communication. In selling situations the message
sender (e.g., salesperson) can adjust the message as they gain feedback from
24
message receivers (e.g., customer). So if a customer does not understand the
initial message (e.g., doesn’t fully understand how the product works) the
salesperson can make adjustments to address questions or concerns.

Many non- personal forms of promotion, such as a radio advertisement, are

inflexible, at least in the short-term, and cannot be easily adjusted to address
audience questions.

2. The interactive nature of personal selling also makes it the most effective
promotional method for building relationships with customers, particularly
in the business-to-business market.

This is especially important for companies that either sell expensive products
or sell lower cost but high volume products (i.e., buyer must purchase in
large quantities) that rely heavily on customers making repeat purchases.

Because such purchases may take a considerable amount of time to complete

and may involve the input of many people at the purchasing company (i.e.,
buying center), sales success often requires the marketer develop and
maintain strong relationships with members of the purchasing company.

3. Finally, personal selling is the most practical promotional option for

reaching customers who are not easily reached through other methods. The
best example is in selling to the business market where, compared to the
consumer market, advertising, public relations and sales promotions are
often not well received.

Disadvantages of Personal Selling:

1. Possibly the biggest disadvantage of selling is the degree to which this

promotional method is misunderstood. Most people have had some bad

25
experiences with salespeople who they perceived were overly aggressive or
even downright annoying.

While there are certainly many salespeople who fall into this category, the
truth is salespeople are most successful when they focus their efforts on
satisfying customers over the long term and not focusing own their own
selfish interests.

2. A second disadvantage of personal selling is the high cost in maintaining

this type of promotional effort.

Costs incurred in personal selling include:

(i) High Cost-Per-Action (CPA):

CPA can be an important measure of the success of promotion spending.

Since personal selling involves person-to-person contact, the money spent to
support a sales staff (i.e., sales force) can be steep. For instance, in some
industries it costs well over (US) $300 each time a salesperson contacts a
potential customer.

This cost is incurred whether a sale is made or not! These costs include
compensation (e.g., salary, commission, and bonus), providing sales support
materials, allowances for entertainment spending, office supplies,
telecommunication and much more. With such high cost for maintaining a
sales force, selling is often not a practical option for selling products that do
not generate a large amount of revenue.

(ii) Training Costs:

Most forms of personal selling require the sales staff be extensively trained
on product knowledge, industry information and selling skills. For
companies that require their salespeople attend formal training programs, the
26
cost of training can be quite high and include such expenses as travel, hotel,
meals, and training equipment while also paying the trainees’ salaries while
they attend.

3. A third disadvantage is that personal selling is not for everyone. Job

turnover in sales is often much higher than other marketing positions. For
companies that assign salespeople to handle certain customer groups (e.g.,
geographic territory), turnover may leave a company without representation
in a customer group for an extended period of time while the company
recruits and trains a replacement.

Challenges in Personal Selling:

(i) At first personal selling is dyadic in nature. Dyadic simply means of or

relating to two people. Thus, personal selling revolves around a marketing
relationship developed between two people. Frequently, personal salespeople
enlist the help of others in their organizations to sell to and service
customers.

And just as frequently, personal salespeople find themselves making

presentations to small groups of people or working with multiple individuals
within customers’ firms. However, ultimately a successful marketing
relationship is built by two people one person selling and person buying.
Successful salespeople identify that person early on and work to win their
trust and confidence.

(ii) Secondly personal selling is a process, not a single activity. And done
correctly, the process continues indefinitely. Salespeople, sales managers,
and others inside the seller’s organization frequently see the selling process
as culminating or ending with a signed order.

27
However, in these days of so-called “relationship marketing” and “customer
relationship management” successful organizations recognize that signed
orders simply represent one point of positive feedback in an ongoing and
continuous process.

(iii) Third, personal selling is highly interactive. In advertising, information

flow occurs initially in a one-way direction. What feedback the advertiser
receives arrives late well after an advertisement has aired.

Moreover, without costly research, the attitudinal effects of advertising may

never be known. In personal selling, feedback is largely Personal Selling
instantaneous and continuous.

The two-way flow of information that characterizes personal selling creates a

communication channel rich with information, much of it nonverbal.
Effective personal salespeople become adept at interpreting this information
quickly and adapting their responses to it.

(iv) Personal selling is about problem solving. As the marketing concept is

adopted by more and more firms, the emphasis of personal salespeople will
be more on identifying customers with a true need for the firm’s products
and applying those products to solve customer problems. Less emphasis will
be placed on simply making a sale.

The focus on problem solving in personal selling reflects a larger trend

toward building relationships between customers and clients. Marketers
know that to develop these relationships, they must be willing to forego short
term gains, particularly when the salesperson realizes that at that moment a
purchase might not be in the customer’s best interests.

28
Selling roles and situations

Sales activity can occur in many types of situations. Field representatives

call on clients, who are typically business clients; door-to-door sales teams
call on householders, sales staff may work in a retail or wholesale
environment where sales personnel attend to customers by processing orders
or sales may occur in a telemarketing environment where the sales person
makes telephone calls to prospects. In terms of number of transactions, most
selling occurs at the retail level; but in terms of value, most selling occurs at
the high-end business-to-business level.

Different types of sales roles can be identified

Order takers refers to selling that occurs primarily at the wholesale or retail
levels. Order processing involves determining the customer needs, pointing
to inventory that meets the customer needs and completing the order.

Order getters refers to the in-field sales activity where a sales representative
travels to the client's home or work place to makes a sales presentation in
order to win new business or to maintain relations with existing clients.

Missionary selling is often seen as a sales support role. The missionary sales
person distributes information about products or services, describes product
attributes and leaves materials but does not normally close the sale. The
missionary sales person often prepares the way for a field sales person. For
example, a pharmaceutical sales representative may call on doctors and leave
samples, manufacturer information such as results of clinical trials, copies of
relevant journal articles etc. in an effort to persuade doctors to prescribe a
medication or course of treatment.

29
Cold Calling

Cold calling refers to a situation when a sales representative telephones or

visits a customer without a prior appointment. Cold calling is often
considered to be the most challenging of the sales activities. In a cold calling
situation, the sales representative is likely to be more conscious of the
client's time, and may seek to condense the sales process by combining the
approach and the sales presentation into a single step.

Relationship selling (also known as consultative selling) refers to a sales

practice that involves building and maintaining interactions with customers
in order to enhance long term relationships. Relationship selling often
involves a problem solving approach where the sales representative acts in a
30
consultative role and becomes a partner in the client's problem-solving
exercise. Relationship selling is often found in high-tech selling
environments. See also: Solution selling.

Sales scripts

Historically, itinerant medicine salesmen used tightly written scripts that

induced audiences to buy

The use of tightly written sales scripts has been known for hundreds of years.
Itinerant medicine salesmen were known to use sales scripts in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Experienced sales representatives soon
recognize that specific words and phrases have the capacity to elicit desirable
behaviours on the part of the prospect. Research studies can also be carried
out to determine the most effective words/phrases or the optimal sequence of
words/phrases for use in effective sales scripts. A number of research studies
have focused on the types of the use of verbal persuasive techniques that can
be used to convince prospects such as information exchange, the use of
recommendations, requests, promises, or ingratiation.Other research has
focused on influence techniques employed. Well-known examples include
the:

Door-In-The-Face–technique (DITF): where the target request is presented

as a concession to an unreasonably large initial request[

Disrupt-Then-Reframe–technique (DTR): where a conventional sales script

is interrupted by a subtle, odd element (i.e., a disruptive element) and then
followed by a persuasive phrase that concludes the script (i.e., “reframing”

31
Once identified, these words, phrases and techniques can be used to build
highly effective sales scripts that are known to work.The most effective sales
scripts can be codified and used by other sales persons or in sales training.

A brush salesman and his bicycle in the 1950s

Many sales scripts are designed to move the prospect sequentially through
the cognitive, affective and behavioural stages of the purchase decision
process and are designed around the AIDA model (attention →interest
→desire →action). Most sales representatives include a greeting, closing and
call to action in their scripts. A call to action (CTA) is simply an instruction
to the prospect designed to prompt an immediate response. It often involves
the use of an imperative verb such as "try it now" or "find out more."[26]
Other types of calls-to-action might provide consumers with strong reasons
for purchasing immediately such an offer that is only available for a limited
time, e.g. 'Limited stocks available' or a special deal usually accompanied by
a time constraint, e.g. 'Order before midnight to receive a free gift with your
order'. The key to a powerful call-to-action is to provide consumers with
compelling reasons to purchase promptly rather than defer purchase
decisions.

Sales representatives also learn to recognize specific verbal and non-verbal

cues that potentially signal the prospect's readiness to buy. For instance, if a
prospect begins to handle the merchandise, this may indicate a state of buyer
interest. Clients also tend to employ different types of questions throughout
the sales process. General questions such as, "Does it come in any other
colours (or styles)? indicate only a moderate level of interest. However,
when clients begin to ask specific questions, such as "Do you have this
model in black?" then this indicates that the prospect is approaching
readiness to buy.[27] When the sales person believes that the prospective
32
buyer is ready to make the purchase, a trial close might be used to test the
waters. A trial close is simply any attempt to confirm the buyer's interest in
finalizing the sale. An example of a trial close, is "Would you be requiring
our team to install the unit for you?" or "Would you be available to take
delivery next Thursday?"

Sales scripts are used for both inbound and outbound sales. Sales scripts are
commonly used in cold calling, especially phone-based cold calling such as
telemarketing (outbound selling) and can also be found in chat-based
customer care centers (inbound calling). In such cases, the sales script might
be confined to a simple list of talking points that the sales person uses as a
reference during their conversation.

33
 LITERATURE REVIEW

This Research is analyzing about the personal selling improvement in the

Lightinglives Consultants Pvt. Ltd. .The personal selling that being used by
Lightinglives Consultants is mostly teleselling and telemarketing. The
Consultative selling skill and sales persuasiveness performance is applied by
course consultant on personal selling process thatwill enhance the
satisfaction before purchase from thelead customer or new customer of
Lightinglives Group in order to improve the purchase decision to buy
Lightinglives product and service.

Selling

Defined by Philip Kotler on his book “The Principle of Marketing”, selling

is one of the oldest professions in the world. The people who do the selling
are goes by many names such as salespeople, sales representative, account
executive, sales consultant, sales engineers, agents, district managers, and
account development reps. However, according to(Pederson, Wright, &
Weitz, 1988), “Our definition of selling that influence and persuasion are
only a part of selling. Selling is also involves helping customer identify the
problems, supplying information on potential solutions, and proving after-
the-sales-service to ensure long term satisfaction.”

Thus, the selling itself it is not only just create a sales or make customer
making a purchase, but selling is also the process of understanding customer
main problem, help them to understand those problem, solve the problem
with the product or service which we offer, and also maintaining the
relationship for long term valuable relation.

34
The Nature of Selling

(Jobber & Lancaster, 2009) Selling is the simplest way to think of nature
function to make a sale. Selling is often very complex process to make a
sale, involving the use of a whole set of principle, technique and substantial
personal skill, and covering a wide range of different types of selling task.
Selling is a conceptual approaches to the simplict “how it is done” approach
which has mean to understand the way to finish the selling activity by
making a deal as a success of selling process. Somecompanies spend large
sums of money to train their salesperson in order to master the art of selling,
that’s why selling become the most important link within the company and
customer.

Selling is the activity that performs by a company or organization with using

a work force which is called a sales people, salesforce, or salesperson to do
both selling function and organizational function(Marshall & Johnston,
Relationship Selling and Sales Management, 2005).

The Sales Bible said that, “Selling is not a matter of leads and appointments
then closes. It is not event a matter of the quality of your product and
services you response. But selling is a matter who you are, what your
attitude is, and how dedicated you are to personal excellence”. The
phylosoply of sales is how responsible the salesperson for the action that
they are take in selling and how good they could helping both themselves
and customers, so that ultimately the salesperson can win theirselves
challenge which is making a sales(Gitomer, 2008). Selling or sales activity
have 10 commandments to make it successful and achieve the goals, as
follow:

35
 Think means positioning the sale in your head as a mindset. The
mindset which approaching in the sale will make the salesperson
become more friendly, smiley, enthusiastic, positive, confident, self-
assured, likeable, and prepared beyond nervous. Everybody has a
different way of creating his or her mindset
 Believe means develop a determination to your fate that can
penetrated the fearness of offering product or services which also
greater the trust with the company and believe in customers that
contacted with you. Thus it will create the better performance in
selling activity with low fearness.
 Engage will develop personal relationship or engagement within
salesperson and customers. Because selling is more easier when
performing to your friends instead of person whose do not know who
you are.
 Discover leads people to buy for their reason not because ofthe
salesperson persuasion. The most people does not understand their
motive and major need, so it is important to dicover and help them to
find out the motive and need first before they making a purchase.
 Ask question will greater the information about propective buyer and
another information from the environtment that could become a
knowledge which is usefull and beneficial in selling process.
 Observe is the salesperson ability listening to the propective, about
their perspective and problem understanding.
 Dare means how the salesperson willing to take a risk. Risk that come
from himself and also how the prospective buyer have to be treaten
well in order to build a trust from risk taking.
 Own refered to know whose fault it is make when the sales is not
made. The salesperson should not blame his or her self but must to

36
 take a responsibility for it. Learn from every experience and do
something for the future improvement.
 Earn means sell for the relationship, not the commission. “If you make
a sale, you can earn money, but if you make a friend, you can earn
fortune.” Those of quote have explain about if you sell a help to
customer, so you will create relationship for long term profitability
and loyalty.
 Prove is use to motivate the salesperson from himself. Proving their
good performance and fantastic result will lead the salesperson join in
a good competition and make them always do the best in every selling
activity. Sometimes people need to prove about what they can do to
self-actualized themselves for the better performance.
 Those are the 10 commandments to make it successful and achieve the
goals explained by (Gitomer, 2008). In (Hannan, 2004) study of
consultative selling explained that’s selling is also a transfer of value
which arranging customer resources (time, talent, and money) to be
transferred to products or services that being purchased by those
customer. Not only in face-to-face selling but sales call or
telemarketing must exchange the value as well. Thus, Selling it is not
always about the exchange of products or services that offered by
salesperson with the money form its customers, but also can become a
transfer of value within sales salesperson and customers in terms of
information, expectation, value added, and long term relationship
throughout product or service which offered.

Sales and Marketing

In (Marshall & Johnston, Relationship Selling and Sales Management, 2005)

introduce about the role of selling inside marketing. Companies practicing
the marketing concept to the customers for gathering the information in
37
making strategic decision about what products to market, where to marketing
them and how to get them to the market, at what price, and in how to
communicate with customers. Sales do selling activity not only for make a
sale but also for gathering some of information that can be use in marketing
concept. Furthermore, The 4P’s Marketing concept (product, place, price,
promotion) are also known as marketing mix, become a marketer tools kit
that help to develop marketing strategy which contribute in sales activity.
Promotion Mix or Marketing promotional mix (advertising, sales promotion,
public relation and publicity, and direct marketing) is also use by salesperson
in selling practice to ensure the practice of integrated marketing
communication (IMC) within a firm’s and customer are work effectively.
Those the fact or sales and marketing are a combination to create the
bestselling practice.

According to (Walker, Boyd, John, &LaRoche, 2003) there are competitive

factors that affecting a market in term of selling. Market- oriented
perspective that contain by customer-orientation and sales- orientation which
perform in selling activity is the combination of marketing principle and
selling principle that appear from selling practice in the real world.

Customer-Oriented Marketing

Customer Oriented(Walker, Boyd, John, &LaRoche, 2003) is a customer

focused strategy that aimed at improving the product or service quality and
reducing the cost with the ultimate objective of improving customer
satisfaction and loyalty. This orientation is more focus on customer need and
perception to make them satisfy immediately to improve not only in
satisfaction but also the retention. (Kotler &Armstrong, 2006) also said that
customer-oriented marketing is a principle of sustainable marketing which
holds a company should view and organize its marketing activities from the
38
customer’s point of view. It should work hard to sense, serve, and satisfy the
needs of a defined group of customers.

Sales-Oriented Marketing

(Walker, Boyd, John, &LaRoche, 2003)Sales-Oriented is focuses on selling

what the firms want to make rather than customer needs. At this orientation,
the marketing is focused on selling effort rather than more concerning on
customer important need. This orientation are concentrate on sales volume
levels that will greater the market share, steal share from competitors, and
seek for new market segment. The other book of (Perreault & McCarthy,
1999) said that a Sales-Oriented seeking for some level of unit sales, dollar
sales, or share of markets without referring to a profit. In this oriented, the
marketers are more concerned about sales growth because they think that the
sales growth always leads to more profit. Thus, increase the probability of
purchase is more important for the business.

Salesperson

Salesperson is an individual that represent a company to the customers by

performs the following activities such as prospecting, communicating,
selling, servicing, information gathering, and relationship building (Kotler
&Armstrong, 2006).Salesperson also classified into several kind of job
which are related to their activity in making a sale (Manning & Reece,
2007). Today, salesforce or salesperson must have a wide range of skill to
compete successfully. Not like previous selling activity which only required
simple presentation and closing skill, now a days, salesperson must be able
to use a wide array of skill for modern selling or 21st sales and marketing
activity which also concern on customer perspective rather than only a
selling(Jobber & Lancaster, 2009). Those of skill in modern selling activity
are following by:
39
Customer retention and deletion

Many companies find out that 80 percent sales come from 20 percent of their
customer. It means that retaining existing high volume of customer will
greater the potential to gain highly profitable customers.

Database and knowledge management

Modern salesperson needs to be trained in the use and creation of customer

databases and how to use the media or technology to aid the sales task, such
as finding customer and competitor information.

Customer relationship management.

Requires the salesforces focuses on the long term relationship not simply on
closing the next sale. The emphasis should be on creating win-win situations
with the customers, so that both parties will gain the interaction and want to
continue the relationship.

Marketing the product

The modern salesperson is involved in much broader range of activities than

simply planning and marketing a sales presentation. Face-to-face interaction
not only performing for making a sale but also conducting in selling activity
for gaining beneficial information so that the salesperson can participate in
marketing area such as product development, market development and
segmentation of markets, as well as the other task supported the marketing
activities such as database management, provision and analysis of
information, and assessing market segment.

40
Problem solving and system selling

Modern selling is usually make a salesperson acting as a consultant that

working with customer to identify their problems, determine major need and
specific want, and emplacement effective solution. This approach is different
from the traditional view that make a salesperson become a fast-talker who
inform everything about the product or services attributes and persuade the
customer to buy and walk away with an order.

Satisfying needs and adding value

The modern salesperson must have the ability to identify and satisfy the
customer in every single selling activity, to fulfill the needs of solutional
system rather than a product or services offered. Some customer do not
recognize they have a need, and the salesperson will have to added the value
to the customer’s need by reducing costs and created a win-win situation for
their company and the customer.

A study by (Marshall, Goebel & Moncrief, 2003) in (Jobber & Lancaster,

2009) ask sales managers to identify the skills and knowledge required to be
successful in selling. Thus, There emerged the top 10 success factors of
successful salesperson in every selling activity, especially in personal selling.

Personal Selling

Personal selling is the oldest profession in the world. Explained by(Kotler

&Armstrong, 2006), personal selling also determined as a personal
presentation by the firm’s salesperson or sales force with the purpose of
making a sale and building customer relationships.

(Oxford, 2009) Are cited from Business and Management Dictionary on

page 423,
41
“Personal selling is person-to-person interaction between a buyer and seller
in which the seller’s purpose is to persuade the buyer of the merits of the
product, to convince the buyer of his or her need for it and develop with the
buyer and an ongoing customer relationship.”

(Marshall & Johnston, Relationship Selling and Sales Management,

2005)Personal Selling involves personal communication (person-to-person
interaction) with a prospect buyer. Personal selling fits into the marketing
mix as a part of a firm’s promotion mix or marketing communication mix,
along with advertising, sales promotion, public relation and publicity, and
direct marketing. It is a process of developing relationship, discovering
prospect buyer needs, matching the appropriate products with these needs,
communicating benefits through informing, reminding, or persuading. It also
viewed as a process to add value to the product or services offered.
(Manning & Reece, 2007)Recently, personal selling have been developed to
be more adoptable in marketing concept, value-added personal selling, and
assume the role of a problem solver for helping customer to make buying
decision. The development in personal selling are presented as a part of
additional strategic in selling process with using consultative selling model
that combined with the persuasive activity by which salesperson performs in
directing customer unpredictable behavior about their satisfaction toward
purchase decision in the selling process.

Personal Selling Process

Personal selling process provide the steps while salesperson making a

contact with customer or prospect buyer. (Kotler &Armstrong, 2006)
determined the selling process consist of seven steps, which are prospecting
and qualifying, reapproach, approach, presentation and demonstration,
handling objection.
42
Consultative Selling

Consultative selling emerged in the late of 1960’s and early 1970’s as an

extension of the marketing concept. Consultative selling establish two way
communication between the salesperson and the customer (Manning &
Reece, 2007).Since 1970, (Hannan, 2004)Consultative selling has
revolutionized key account sales. Consultative selling is profit improvement
selling that help customer businesses grow and supplier business achieve
new earnings along with them. Consultative selling replaces the traditional
selling that stimulate buyer-seller relationship with win-win partnership
situation in profit improvement.

According to (Futrell, 2008) Consultative Selling is the process of helping

the customer achieve strategic short and long term goals through the use of
the seller’s good or services. Consultative selling is also a selling technique
to understand the customer problems through consultation. Depends on
(Lovelock & Jochen, 2011), consultative selling or solution selling provides
more service on management and technical procedure that concentrate on
customer to give the best solution for satisfy them. This, approach is
valuable supplement to service and selling process in order to get more
satisfaction on customer.

(Perreault & McCarthy, 1999) Consultative selling approach involve

developing a good understanding of the individual customer’s needs before
trying to close the sales. This name is used because the sales person is almost
acting as a consultant to help identify and solve the customer’s problem.
This approach taught, the salesperson make some general benefit statement
to get the customer’s attention and interest, then the salesperson asks the
question and listen carefully to understand the major customer need. Once
their agree on need, so the salesperson tries to show the customer how the
43
product could fill those needs and dragging the customer to the closing sale
phase. The major implementation of consultative selling approach is the two
way communication within salesperson and customer to transfer the value
about the customer major need and the products or service for filling their
need.

Consultative Selling Process

In (Hannan, 2004)book have explained that the consultative selling process

has four parts as following by:

• It starts with a value database in the values you normally add to customer
operations. Your normal values added “Norms” which are derived from
the value database. The norms is what you believe in offering the
product, whether the product is good or bad, the benefit is good, the
attribute is better, and unique.
• By comparing customer revenue and cost against your norms, a lead
database is automatically created. Lead database acquired from any kind
of information that you have by doing a communication approach or
consulting with customer. From there, a lead opportunity exist wherever
your norms offer a competitive advantage over a customer’s perspective.
• Leads database are use in generating the proposal. From the lead data
base, we could understand what the customer main problem and whether
they have equal perspective with our product benefit or not. The
proposal will including the profit improvement to make customer
understand about their problem and how to cooperate with us in term of
solving their problem.

44
 COMPANY PROFILE

At Lightinglives Consultants Lightinglives Consultants, We pride ourselves

on being able to provide practical, Cost effective advice to business owners,
looking to reduce the cost of their energy. We have a team of energy
specialists, who have years of experience in the energy market, So whether
you are a small, medium enterprise or a large cooperation, we will save your
time and do the research for you in order to get the best energy deal.

45
COSTS MAKE UP YOUR GAS AND ELECTRICITY BILLS.

As with all energy, there are many elements that are included in the cost of
producing and distributing electricity. Third party costs contribute to a
segment of electricity supplies and are increasing. Back in 2010 only one
third of your energy would have been third party costs this has escalated to
46
45% of an energy bill in 2015. There is also transmission costs that are
included. These have increased by 75% since 2010, the renewable obligation
(RO) has increased by huge 225% since 2010 and the feed in tariff (FIT) has
increased by 1300% since 2010. Saying all this, do not underestimate the
potential savings you could make in the business electricity sector.
Admittedly it can be a daunting market – deals can change daily, which is
why many people go to brokers who know the providers and the market
inside out. We are ideally placed to advise on the best prices available to
you. With all this in mind, it is more important than ever to ensure you are
gaining the most suitable contract for your business.

Our Vision And Mission

Our vision is to educate customers about the energy - Industry trends which
includes pricing tariffs, consumptions and contractual information therefore
our mission is to create complete transparency , bridging the gap between the
customer and suppliers in the energy deals and developing healthy
interactions and connections which can build trust for a long lasting
relationship.

47
 Energy Market Evolution In The United Kingdom

BUSINESS ELECTRICITY AND GAS

At Lightinglives Consultants, our energy specialists will offer you tailored

quotes for Gas and electricity, based on your consumption and meter type,
So that you can get the best energy deal. We use our contract negotiation
expertise and supplier relationships for securing the best deal for gas and
electricity. We will educate you, inform you and give you the full freedom to
make a smart choice for your energy deal by keeping our work ethics and
trust central, we won’t let you down.
48
Key Benefits

• Free of charge service with no obligation

• We deal with any hassle
• Significant cost reduction and control
• Guaranteed prices from 1 to 5 years!
• Easy to understand tariffs and billing
• Energy Efficiency and Smart Metering services are available
• Contract renewal reminder – avoid the energy trap!

49
BUSINESS ENERGY ADVICE : NEW CONTRACTS

If you’re looking for a new contract and need business energy advice, then
you’ve come to the right place!

Our energy experts will answer all of your questions, help you to discover
the best options for you, then make all of the arrangements for you to make
the transition to your new contract or supplier. It’s that simple!

We don’t confuse you with technical jargon or irrelevant information, all we

are interested in is giving you useful business energy advice and helping you
to secure the best energy deal.

50
SPEAK TO THE LIGHTINGLIVES CONSULTANTS TEAM AND
GET ADVICE ON THE FOLLOWING :

• Business Energy Supplier Options

• We deal with any hassle
• Day and night rates and how they affect what you pay for your
energy

EXISTING BUSINESS ENERGY CONTRACT ADVICE

Do you already have a contract but are in need of business energy advice?
Get in touch with the team at Lightinglives consultants. We can advise you
on the following :

WHAT TO DO IF YOU ARE UNHAPPY WITH YOUR BUSINESS

ENERGY SUPPLIER OR TARIFF?

• When you need to start looking for a new energy contract.

• VAT rate checks and refunds.
• Advice on how to deal with your current business energy
supplier.
• How to reduce your energy bills with clever energy
management.
• Queries related to regulations or back billing.

51
Our Partners

British Gas Business

British Gas Business, At British Gas we’re dedicated to delivering the

essentials for business, helping you to save both time and money. Our
business services division has been specifically created to understand and
meet the needs of our customers – from the largest industrial and commercial
operators to the smallest of SME’s.

CNG

Making accessible to energy as easy as breathing, within the span of 20 years

it’s the largest independent shipper of gas in UK.

52
Dual Energy

Established since 2009, Dual Energy is an independent, UK owned energy

supplier leading the way in Smart Meter billing, low energy prices and
dedicated Customer Services. We help thousands of UK businesses to better
manage their energy usage and reduce their monthly bills.

EDF Energy

EDF Energy, is part of EDF Energy one of the largest energy companies in
the UK, employing 11,300 people across the country. EDF Energy supplies
energy services to over 5 million customer accounts in the UK through
London Energy, Seaboard Energy, SWEB Energy.

EON

EON is one of the UK’s leading power and gas companies – generating
electricity, and retailing power and gas. We’re part of the E.ON group, one
of the world’s largest investor-owned power and gas companies employing
around 9,400 people in the UK.

Gazprom

Gazprom, Who are Gazprom, Gazprom is one of the main suppliers of

natural gas to Europe & Russia’s biggest natural gas company Gazprom has
ambitious plans for the future. Gazprom Marketing & Trading has
announced its entry into the UK industrial and commercial gas market.
Gazprom has purchased the supply businesses of Pennie Natural Gas Ltd.

Npower Business

Npower Business, is a leading energy services provider and a driving force

in the energy industry – bringing a fresh, dynamic approach to working with
53
business customers. Our work is endorsed by the heritage of our parent
company Innogy, from whom we draw expertise and experience in all
aspects of the energy and business arenas.

Opus Energy

Opus Energy, is an innovative company focused on providing electricity to

small and medium sized businesses across the UK. Fully licensed, the
company is led by a team of experienced, forward thinking industry
professionals.

Scottish & Southern Energy

Scottish & Southern Energy, Southern Electric is part of the Scottish and
Southern Energy Group. Along with our other energy brands, Scottish
Hydro-Electric, SWALEC and Atlantic, we serve over 7 million customers
across the UK. We’re a FTSE 100 company and we manage the largest
distribution network in the UK.

Scottish Power

Scottish Power, Competitive prices, choice and convenience is our pledge to

business customers in both the US and the UK, as well as innovative services
which take the effort out of managing multi-site accounts.

Total Gas

Total gas is a highly competitive, leading-edge, licensed supplier of gas. We

have a focus on customer relations and a reputation for cost effective supply
and distribution of gas to UK businesses or commercial customers.

54
 Terms Related To Gas And Electricity Contracts

MPAN Number

A Meter Point Administration Number, also known as MPAN, Supply

Number or S-Number, is a 21-digit reference used in Great Britain to
uniquely identify electricity supply points such as individual domestic
residences.

MPRN Number

Your Meter Point Reference Number (MPRN) is the unique 11 digit number
assigned to your electricity connection and meter. Find it in the top right
hand corner of your bill from your electricity supplier.

55
Standing Charge

What's a standing charge? A standing charge is a fixed daily amount you

have to pay for energy, no matter how much you use.The charge covers the
costs your energy supplier takes on in order to get you your gas and
electricity.

According to the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy

(BEIS) the average cost for standard electricity in the UK in 2020 was
17.2p/kWh

Calling Software

3CX is a software-based private branch exchange (PBX) based on the SIP

(Session Initiation Protocol) standard. It enables extensions to make calls via
the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or via Voice over Internet
Protocol (VoIP) services.

56
 EXAMPLE OF BG LITE VERBAL CONTRACT SCRIPT
Lite Partner Acquisition Single Fuel or Dual Fuel Energy Script
Partner Acquisition Energy Script: V2
Mandatory Information to be read out word for word for every verbal offer.
If a single Fuel, then either Electricity or Gas is ONLY read out.
CONFIRMATION
In order for British Gas Lite to send you an offer for your Electricity and or Gas supplies, I need
to explain
some important points to you.
This call is recorded and monitored for training and verification purposes and will be sent to
British Gas
Lite along with your details following our call.
My name is [Your Name] calling from [Broker Name OR Agency/Sub Broker Name] working in
partnership with [Broker Name] (as applicable)
Do you understand that we are an independent [Broker] and are not directly employed by British
Gas
Lite? (Response – firm “Yes”)
In order to qualify to join Lite you will need to accept the following:
• You will pay your bills monthly by variable direct debit.
• You will manage your account completely online through British Gas Lite’s website including
webchat, and you understand that Lite doesn’t have call centres.
• Your meter will not be de-energised at the point you join Lite and you are not planning any
metering changes or upgrades during the duration of your contract.
• These contract details apply where 40% or more of the electricity/gas consumption is for
business purposes.
Electricity only
• Your Electricity supply with Lite will require you to have a smart meter. If you haven’t already
got one, they will attempt to install a smart meter for you for free.
• If you need a smart meter Lite will contact you when they’re installing in your area after you are
on supply, and you must agree to have one installed. During the install your electricity supply will
be powered down for approximately 45 minutes
• If Lite are unable to install or communicate with your smart meter within 90 days of them
contacting you to arrange the installation, British Gas Lite reserve the right to transfer you to

57
another product and will give you a minimum of 28 days’ notice. You will be free to leave
without
penalty from the day this notice is given.
Do you accept these requirements? (Response - firm “Yes” before proceeding)
If electricity/gas is less than 100% commercial use, capture what % is commercial. Lower rate
VAT will only
be applied to the non-commercial portion following the customer updating this on the British Gas
Lite portal.
Lite, will only accept customers that have business use of 40% or more
Full access LOA
Just to confirm, you are happy for us to obtain from your supplier current pricing information,
contract
start and end dates, consumption details and billing information. Are you also happy for us to
raise and
manage queries with your supplier on your behalf? (Response – firm “Yes”)
This authority will last until the end of the supply contract (or until (Day/Month/Year). If you
would
like to cancel this authority at any time, then you will need to contact British Gas Lite through
webchat.
Customer details:
Please could you confirm the following details?
• Correct legal business name
• Contact name
• Trading type
• Registration number (if Limited company)
• Date of birth (if applicable)
• Email address (this will be your username for your online account)
• Contact telephone number and your mobile phone number (Lite will use these to arrange your
meter installation)
From time to time, British Gas Lite may contact you about market related products that could be
relevant
or beneficial to you. You have a right to opt out and can do so at any time by contacting them on
webchat.
Site details (these details are to be confirmed by the sales agent)
Please can you confirm the following details are correct?
• The full premises address including the post code?

58
• The MPAN ends with … xxxx
• The MPRN ends with … xxxx
• Has this site recently changed tenancy / ownership? – If yes, what date were you legally
responsible for this site?
Product details
Can you confirm the following Elec details are correct?
• Supply start date XX/XX/XXXX for a duration of (X years)
• Unit rates (Xp per kWh) and daily standing charge of (Xp per day)
• Please could you confirm your current consumption?
Can you confirm the following Gas details are correct?
• Supply start date XX/XX/XXXX for a duration of (X years)
• Unit rates (Xp per kWh) and daily standing charge of (Xp per day)
• Please could you confirm your current consumption?
Payment terms
As your British Gas Lite energy contracts are payable by monthly variable Direct Debit, I will
need to set
up an instruction for each supply (Gas and Elec) by taking your details over the phone. You will
receive an
email confirming this within 3 working days.
Please confirm that you are the account holder and the only person required to authorise debits
from the
account.
Collect customer’s bank details to set up VDD;
I need to confirm the following details:
• Account Name,
• Account Number
• Sort Code - repeat the bank details back to the customer to confirm that they are correct
By default, your Direct Debit will be billed as a variable amount, based on your usage each
month. British
Gas Lite will always give you 10 working days’ notice in advance of your account being debited
and your
payments will appear on your bank statement in the name of British Gas Trading Ltd. Would you
like me
to read the Direct Debit guarantee to you now or are you happy to read the information in your
confirmation email?
Direct Debit Guarantee (only read this if the customer requests it)

59
• This Guarantee is offered by all banks and building societies that accept instructions to pay
Direct
Debits.

• If there are any changes to the amount, date or frequency of your Direct Debit, British Gas Lite
will
notify you ten working days in advance of your account being debited or as otherwise agreed. If
you
request British Gas Lite to collect payment, confirmation of the amount and date will be given to
you
at the time of the request.
• If an error is made in the payment of your Direct Debit, by British Gas Lite or your bank or
building
society, you are entitled to a full and immediate refund of the amount paid from your bank or
building society.
• If you receive a refund you are not entitled to, you must pay it back when British Gas Lite asks
you to.
• You can cancel a Direct Debit at any time by simply contacting your bank or building society.
Written
confirmation may be required. Please also notify British Gas Lite.
Credit vetting
• Contracts entered into with British Gas Lite are subject to your credit status. They will assess
your
credit status with a licensed credit reference and fraud prevention agency
• A copy of the credit search will be kept by the agency and may be used by other credit
providers. If a
person provides false or inaccurate information and British Gas Lite suspect fraud, this is recorded
and may be used by them and other organisations for financial security purposes. Further details
explaining how your information may be used is given in Lite’s terms and conditions which can
be
found on their website.
• If Sole Trader read:
So British Gas Lite can carry out a credit check, please confirm the following details:
• Full first, middle and surname (as it appears on your passport)
• Your date of birth (must be over 18)
• Current home address

60
• Previous home address (if the customer has not lived at their current home address for at
least 5 years)
• Existing BGB account number (if applicable)
• Are you registered to vote at your home address?
• Are you happy to continue with the Credit Vet? (A clear “yes” is required)
• Government Organisation or Ltd Company/LLP (over 2 years old), read: Are you happy for a
credit search to be carried out against your business? (Confirm business registration number)
• If New Ltd Company/LLP (under 2 years old) and all Partnerships, read: Are you happy for a
credit check to be carried out against all < partners / directors> as well as the business? Do you
have
all <partners / directors> consent for us to carry this out?
• You have passed our credit check
• Or; Your application has been declined. Numerous risk factors relating to your business have
been used to reach this decision.
Existing BG customer moving to BG Lite (Only read if an existing BG customer)
If you are an existing British Gas Business customer, please note the following:
• By signing up with British Gas Lite, you have agreed to a new product which will be processed
on
a different system to your existing contract
• When your existing contract ends, you’ll be sent a final bill from British Gas as they close your
account, you won’t be able to view your old British Gas accounts on your Lite portal.
• British Gas Lite is an online-only product and you can only contact them via webchat
What happens next?
• You will be sent an email containing a link to set up each of your British Gas Lite online
accounts and
contracts. In order to accept your contracts with Lite, all you need to do is follow the links and set
up
your online accounts within 28 days of receiving the email.
• Your current supplier may object to you leaving if you have any outstanding bills.
• Once you have accepted the contracts online, you’ll be able to view and download your Contract
Packs which includes the contractual terms and conditions and details about your business
electricity and business gas supplies.
• Your Electricity contract will be eligible for renewal (X)year(s) from the date British Gas Lite
become your supplier.
• Your Gas contract will be eligible for renewal (X)year(s) from the date British Gas Lite become
your

61
supplier.
• They’ll write to you with details of your renewal offer around 60 days before your contracts end.
If
they don’t hear from you by the time your contract expires, they’ll switch you onto their variable
price plan. These rates are not fixed and British Gas Lite may change them at their discretion. You
can
find full details on their website www.britishgaslite.co.uk.
• At the end of your contracts you can switch supplier as long as you have paid any outstanding
bills.
Full details of objection reasons are set out in the British Gas Lite terms and conditions which can
be
found on their website.
• If broker doesn’t submit termination notice to old supplier, read: You may need to submit a
termination notice to your existing supplier. It’s important you do this to avoid any delays to your
energy switch. We also recommend you provide your final read to your current supplier when you
switch.
• Thank you for your time. If you have any queries, you can contact me on [Your Name &
Telephone
Number].

62
 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

 To search out and obtain new customers.

 To secure and maintain customers’ co-operation in stocking and

promoting the product line.

 To determine the effectiveness of personal selling strategies in the

marketing ofproduct in Lightinglives Consultants Pvt. Ltd.

 To determine the contributions of personal selling to the total sales

volume

 To aware whether the sales forces are properly motivated

 To assess the condition training of industrial sales men.

 To what extent selling impacts on the profit of the company

 To assess the problem encounter by sales representative in the course

of doing their job.

 To understand the benefits of personal selling.

 To find out the applications of personal selling.

 To understand the process of a tele sale from the beginning till the

closing of the sale.

63
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The study seems to be the observation and a description of the project where

we try to find out the hidden aspect or bring out the concept for further

explanation, but some scientific method and techniques classified it as the

research, that’s why the following research methods, techniques and

components are used to facilitate the study

Research Design- Descriptive research design

Descriptive research design is a scientific method that is used in this study

which helps in observing and describing the behavior of a subject without

influencing it in any way to obtain a general overview of the subject. This

design allows observation without affecting normal behavior. It is also useful

because it is not possible to test and measure the large number of samples

needed for more quantitative types of experimentation. These types of

experiments are often used by anthropologists, psychologists and social

scientists to observe natural behaviors without affecting them in any way. It

is also used by market researchers to judge the habits of customers, or by

companies wishing to judge the morale of staff. Though the results from a

descriptive research can in no way be used as a definitive answer or to

disapprove a hypothesis but, if the limitations are understood, they can still

be a useful tool in many areas of scientific and normal study research such as

this project.

64
Type of data

In this I have used both of the primary and secondary data .

Primary Data

In primary data we had conducted Personal Interview with the Branch

Manager of ligtinglives consultants regarding personal selling effectiveness.

Secondary Data

Secondary data was used for this study as the research design is descriptive

in nature so we tried to collect the data available through other sources on

the subject. Sometimes, primary data is also collected through observation

method to facilitate the research work

Sources of data

The following sources are used for collecting the data for this study:

 Books

 internet

 Journals

 News papers

 Personal sources

65
 SUGGESTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Ask the Customer Questions

When trying to sell a product to a customer, you need to know why she is
interested in the product or service. Find out if she is currently a customer of
one of your competitors. If so, ask why she is unsatisfied with its products or
services, making her consider switching to yours. Inquire as to who the key
decision-makers in her company are and see if she has a timeline for making
a final decision on the product.
Gathering this type of information from her will help you to know what she's
looking to gain from your company, so you are better able to meet her needs
with your sales pitch.

Customer ConcernsAddress

Ask the customer to share any concerns he has about your product or service
with you. If you are able to address these issues, you can increase your
chances of easing his mind and convincing him to bring his business to your
company. It is always better to know any potential concerns that a client has
with your company, so you have a chance to diffuse them. Sometimes the
customer just needs a little more information about your product or service
to feel comfortable making a decision.

Ask for the Sale

Your job is not done after you have finished your sales presentation. It is
important to ask the customer for the sale. You can directly ask if she has

66
decided to buy your product or service, or you can do it in an indirect
manner such as asking when she would like to start receiving the services or
how many of the specific product she would like to order.
This will help you to know where you stand with the customer. If she
hesitates, ask what's holding her back from the sale. If you are able to
address her concerns, you are more likely to get the sale.

Follow-Up After Making a Presentation

A good salesperson always follows up with both prospects and clients after
making a presentation. If a prospective customer is still unsure of the
benefits of your product or service, this is another chance to address his
concerns. If he has already decided to purchase your product or service, it's
important to check in and make sure he is satisfied with it.

67
 CONCLUSION

Personal selling is nothing but meeting the customer face to face and tell them
about theproduct and letting the advantages and usage of the product to the
customer clearly whichhelpsthem to getaclearpictureabout theproductand its
specification.

From the study of the project you will come to know that more people prefer
personalselling as the most effective mode of selling and reaching the
customers in which they canmeet more number of customers and create
awareness about the product to the customers. Personal selling is one of the
effective mode of selling the product to the customers andcanalso reach
morenumbers ofcustomers.

In the future people can easily know the most effective mode of selling and
the importanceof the personal selling and also the purchase preference of the
customers how to persuadethecustomers and information about theproduct.

Through personal selling, the brand representative tries to understand the real
needs of the prospect. However, this is not enough to grow your business and
sales prospecting must be implemented in your strategy in order to succeed.
Promoting your product or service by visiting the customer directly at his
home or approaching him during an event, is very efficient. Paired with a cold
calling and cold emailing strategy, you will see very positive results! With
perseverance and patience, your prospects can become customers at any time.

68
 BIBLIOGRAPHY
• Journal- Marketing Mastermind, March 2011 edition, edited at Icfai
University Press, Andhra Pradesh, India.
• Akinyi, W. (2011). A survey into Application of promotion elements
by organizations in rural areas. Unpublished MBA project Maseno
University. Bolton, R. N., and Lemon, K. N. (1999).
• Shaw, E.H. and Jones, D.G.B, "A History of Marketing Thought," in
Handbook of Marketing, Barton A Weitz and Robin Wensley (eds),
Sage, 2003.
• Braudel, F. and Reynold, S., The Wheels of Commerce: Civilization
and Capitalism, 15th to 18th Century, Berkeley, CA, University of
California Press, 1992.
• Casson, M. and Lee, J., "The Origin and Development of Markets: A
Business History Perspective," Business History Review, Vol 85,
Spring, 2011, doi:10.1017/S0007680511000018.
• Pevsner, N. and Hubbard, E., The Buildings of England: Cheshire
Penguin, 1978.
• Cox, N.C. and Dannehl, K., Perceptions of Retailing in Early Modern
England, Aldershot, Hampshire, Ashgate, 2007.

Website:

• www.lightinglivesconsultants.co.uk
• www.google.com
• www.scribd..com
• www.marketingteacher.com
• n.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Personal_selling

69