PERSONAL SELLING PROCESS

In order to have a better grasp of the subject under discussion, we shall one by one
discuss each of the following stages of the personal selling process:

1. Prospecting

2. Preparation to meet individual prospects

3. Making the presentation

4. Maintaining the interest and to arouse desire

5. Fielding the objections

6. After sales service

1. Prospecting Sales Process: Prospecting is the first and the most important
component of personal selling. Prospecting consists of identification of potential
customers and then to rank them in order to select the customers with the
purchasing power and the authority to make, the decision, to buy the product. To
be more productive, the sales personnel should plan as many of their activities as
possible. In other words, they should always do the proper home work in order to
utilise their time in the marketplace, more productively. Hence, they should plan
their travel and call-schedules so as to spend maximum of the available time on
meeting their customers. Moreover, the time available to the sales personnel
should not be wasted in making an effort to convince those people about their
products, who can not buy them. Thus, the planning which involves eliminating
non-productive calls is known as prospecting.

It goes, without saying that the time available should be spent on calling-on
potential buyers rather than on non-buyers. The sales person who practice
prospecting' ultimately emerge out as more productive than others. In a nut shell,
the result-oriented prospecting is a two step process. Firstly, the identification of
potential customers and secondly, the process of selecting / ranking them.

2. Preparation to Meet Individual Prospects: Before meeting a selected customer,

the sales person should find out as much as possible about the same. In case of an
organisation as a customer, the sales person should know what products the
organisation is currently using and how his product is better than the one already in
use. The sales person should also find out what is the purchase procedure in the
organisation and what is the total budget earmarked by that organisation, for his
kind of products. The sales person should also try to find out personal likes and
dislikes of his prospective buyers so as to tailor make his presentation to suit the
prospect. The sales person should also have a clear idea about the questions that
the prospect may ask so as to prepare himself to face them. Now, the sales person
is ready to contact the prospect and to make the presentation. It should be borne in
 mind that the sales person should take a prior appointment with the prospect so as
to exercise a good time management. By doing so, he can save on his as well as
the prospect’s time.

3. Making the Presentation: This is a very important component of the total process
of personal selling. In essence, it amounts to using all the information, knowledge
and skills of the sales person, so as to actually make the sales. In this stage, a sales
person draws ATTENTION of the customers, holds INTEREST in his offering,
builds the DESIRE for his product and finally stimulates his customer to take a
favourable ACTION towards his product, i.e., the prospect purchases his product.
As discussed in the theories of selling, it involves implementing the AIDAS theory
of selling.

4. Draw Attention: The prospects, attention can be drawn by asking a creative

question, or by pointing out a startling new fact about the product. By finding out
the actual need of the customer and then phrasing the question in such a manner
that it actually tells the customer that your product can meet the prospect’s needs.
For example, if a printer (customer) is looking for a printing machine, which prints
at double the speed of his present machine, the sales person can ask “Are you
looking for a printing machine which prints at 600 prints per minute at the cost of
300 prints per minute of the currently available machine?”

5. Hold Interest and Build Desire: After drawing attention the sales person should
hold the INTEREST of the customer in his sales talk. Here there is no set pattern.
Also there is no choice other than actually demonstrating the performance of the
product. In such instances where the sales person can't demonstrate the
performance of his product, he should creatively use various audio-video media to
hold INTEREST of the customers. In a large number of cases the sales person uses
various promotional inputs like literatures, gifts, visual aids, voice modulation,
pitch, tone, body language, etc., to maintain the INTEREST of his customers in his
presentation or the sales talk.

6. Sales Resistance: Though sales resistance is rare in case of pharmaceutical

product, let us have an idea about it. This part of the selling process is also a very
important part: It concerns with tine resistance that the prospect exhibits during a
sales call. Even after proper prospecting, preparation to meet each individual and
making a winning presentation, the sales personnel can face some resistance from
the prospects. Such a resistance may be exhibited, typically, in terms of objections.
The objections are the sincere or insincere reasons put forth by the prospects in
order to circumvent or the culmination of a sales call into the actual purchase. An
objection requires a tactful handling by the sales person at its best. Otherwise, it
can spoil the sales person's total effort in securing order .the sincere objections are
the real objections or real reasons put forth by the prospect for not buying the
product. Insincere objections, on the other hand, are the imaginary or unreal
objections.
ADVERTISING
1. American Marketing Association has defined advertising as “any paid form of
non-personal presentation of ideas, goods and services by an indentified sponsor”.

2. According to Webstar, “Advertising is to give public notice or to announce

publicity”.

3. According to Gardner, “Advertising is the means of mass selling that has grown
up parallel with and has been made necessary to mass production”.

OBJECTIVES OF ADVERTISING

The fundamental purpose of advertising is to sell something - a product, a service or

an idea. In addition to this general objective, advertising is also used by the modern
business enterprises for certain specific objectives which are listed below :

1. To introduce a new product by creating interest for it among the prospective

customers.

2. To support personal selling programme. Advertising maybe used to open customers'

doors for salesman.

3. To reach people inaccessible to salesman.

4. To enter a new market or attract a new group of customers.

5. To light competition in the market and to increase the sales as seen in the fierce

competition between Coke and Pepsi.

6. To enhance the goodwill of the enterprise by promising better quality products and

services.

7. To improve dealer relations. Advertising supports the dealers in selling he product.

Dealers are attracted towards a product which is advertised effectively.

8. To warn the public against imitation of an enterprise's products.

IMPORTANCE OF ADVERTISING

1. Promotion of Sales : It promotes the sale of goods and services by informing and
persuading the people to buy them. A good advertising campaign helps in winning
new customers both in the national as wet as in the international markets.
2. Introduction of New Product : It helps the introduction of new products in the
market. A business enterprise can introduce itself and its product to the public through
advertising. A new enterprise can't make an impact on the prospective customers
without the help of advertising. Advertising enables quick publicity in the market.

3. Creation of Good Public Image : It builds up the reputation of the advertiser.

Advertising enables a business firm to communicate its achievements in an effort to
satisfy the customers' needs. This increases the goodwill and reputation of the firm
which is necessary to fight against competition in the market.

4. Mass Production : Advertising facilitates large-scale production. Advertising

encourages production of goods in large-scale because the business firm knows that it
will be able to sell on large-scale with the help of advertising. Mass production
reduces the cost of production per unit by the economical use of various factors of
production.

5. Research : Advertising stimulates research and development activities. Advertising

has become a competitive marketing activity. Every firm tries to differentiate its
product from the substitutes available in the market through advertising. This compels
every 5 business firm to do more and more research to find new products and their
new uses. If a firm does not engage in research and development activities, it will be
out of the market in the near future.

6. Education of People : Advertising educate the people about new products and their
uses. Advertising message about the utility of a product enables the people to widen
their knowledge. It is advertising which has helped people in adopting new ways of
life and giving-up old habits. It has contributed a lot towards the betterment of the
standard of living of the society.

7. Support to Press : Advertising provides an important source of revenue to the

publishers and magazines. It enables to increase the circulation of their publication by
selling them at lower rates. People are also benefited because they get publications at
cheaper rates. Advertising is also a source of revenue for TV network. For instance,
Doordarshan and ZeeTV insert ads before, in between and after various programmes
and earn lakhs of rupees through ads. Such income could be used for increasing the
quality of programmes and extending coverage.

MEDIA CHOICE or Participants in Advertising

1. Advertiser : Seller who manufacture and market consumer products are the
prominent group of advertisers. Hindustan unilever , proctor and gamble, Seimen and
Larson and toubro are the examples of advertisers. Also the retailers are the second
prominent segment among advertisers. They stock the products . and sell them to the
ultimate consumers. Government and social organization are also the active
participant in this category.
2. Target audience : It refers to the recipient of the advertising message. Every
message is either directed to a mass audience and class audience. Advertising desire to
cover this target audience for promoting sales. Advertising message intends to cover
the potential user and non user who may purchase the product in future. The messages
are also directed to the user of the competitor's product so that they switch over the
advertiser's products.

3. Advertising Agencies : An advertiser has two options viz.

(i) to design, develop and produce and advertising message and get it placed in
desired media directly through his own sales or advertising department, or

(ii) to entrust the entire job of advertising 6 to a team of highly

professionalised, specialised, independent, advertising agency. An advertising
agency is composed of creative people, who conceive design, develop and
produce, advertising message with creative ideas and place it in the desired
advertising media, for and on behalf of its client (the advertiser). The
advertising agencies usually charge a commission of 15% on the media bills
from the media owners. In addition, they charge out-of pocket expenses to their
clients, i.e. the advertisers.

They employ copywriters, artists, photographers. Typographers, layout

designers, editors and such other creative people.

4. Advertising Production People (Artists) : The production of impressive and

persuasive advertisements is possible only with the active help and creative spirit of
the artists like copywriters, artists, photographers, typographers, layout designers,
editors and such other creative people. Such people are usually employed by the ad
agencies or, their services may be hired by the ad agencies on job basis.

5. Target Audience (Readers, Listeners, Viewers and Present and Future Buyers)
: Advertising messages are given about products services and ideas to readers,
listeners, viewers and actual and potential buyers, who are known as the audience. The
target audience may be classified into the following three categories, viz.,

(i) existing or, current consumers, who are reminded and influenced to continue
their patronage and to increase the volume of their buying,

(ii) consumers, who buy and use, a competitor‟s brand; hence they are
persuaded to buy the advertised brand, instead of the competitor‟s brand; and

(iii) those consumers, who do not use any such product; and even then, are
persuaded to buy the advertised product.
6. Mass Media : Advertising messages are communicated to the target audience
through different mass media, such as,

(i) Print Media : They consist of newspapers, magazines, journals, handbills,

etc.

(ii) Electronic Media : They consist of radio, television motion pictures,

video, multi-media and the internet.

(iii) Outdoor Media : They consist off posters, hoarding, handbills, stickers air
balloons, neon sing bill boards, local cinema houses, and transit media.

(iv) Direct Mail : It consist of brouchers, leaflets, pamphlets, letters and return
cards addressed to consumers. The advertising agencies guide their clients
(advertisers) in selection of the most appropriate advertising media, which is
known as „media planning‟. Each medium has sits own merits and demerits.

7. Government Authorities : The business of advertising is regulated by the

government department. The government adopts law and regulation which have a
direct or an indirect bearing on the advertising. Apart from this ASCI (Advertising
standards council of India) and ABC (Audit Bureau of circulation) are also some of
authorities regulating advertising.

8. Advertising Production Firms: Advertising production firms are the support

agencies which help in the production of advertisement. This includes copywriter,
artist, photographers, typographers, producer, editors. These are the people who
transform ideas into a finished forms Thus the success and failure of the advertisement
depend on these people.

GOOD COPY of ADVERTISEMENT

Characteristics of Advertisement Copy –

1) Written or Audio-Visual Text: Advertising copy is the reading matter or spoken

material or text to be shown on TV. It includes the words, sentences, paragraph,
subheads, headlines, figures and illustration in an advertisement.

2) Advertisement Message: Advertisement copy explains the message or the central

idea of an advertisement. It is designed to convey the message to whom it is intended.

3) Focus on AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire & Action) – The main purpose of
adverting copy is to influence the attitudes and action of buyers so that it results in
more purchase by them and greater sales volumes for the advertisers. A well designed
copy call attention, creates interest, produces and leads the prospects to action.
4) Visualisation – Vision creates a copy. Visualization is an essential element of the
copy, copywriters are versatile people who have great vision. In addition to having an
ear for the right, or clever phrase, they listen to how people talk and identify the tone
of voice that best fits the target audience and advertisement need.

5) Word-oriented Creative Concept – Advertisement copy is a word-oriented

creative concept, Finding these “magic words” is the responsibility of copy writers
who search for the right words to warm up a mood or soften consumer resistance.

6) Layout – An advertisement copy has its own layout. This layout is divided in
display copy and body copy (or text). Display copy includes all elements that readers
see in the their initial scanning.

7) Visual Communication – In effective advertising, it’s not just the words that need
to communicate it’s visual, too. And they must work together to present the creative
concept. Words and pictures accomplish different message effects. In most advertising
copies the power lies with the visual and its primary function is to get attention. In
copy, visuals are because – a. Visuals generally are better at getting and keeping
attention b. Pictures communicate faster than words c. Seeing is believing. d. Visuals
and field easily in consumers’ mind, and e. Visuals differentiate products

8) Appeal – Appeal is an important ingredient of advertising. Rather, it is the basic

object and soul of the copy. Copy creates an appeal to buy and to act. This appeal is
created through poetic words, evocative language, illustrations and photos, attractive
design through artistic production.

9) Considerations – An advertising copy considers –

a. The single most important thought of the target market.

b. The product features to be emphasized.

c. The benefits a suer receives from these features,

d. The media chosen for transmitting the information.

e. The suggested mood or tone for the ad,

f. The ways in which mood ad atmosphere will be achieved in the ad, and

g. The production budget for the advertisement.

10)Tight Style- Advertising copy is tight. Wells and others write, “Every word counts
because both space and time are expensive. Ineffective words such as interesting,
very. In order to, buy now and save, introducing, nothing less than waste precious
space.

11)Other features – a. An advertising copy cab be a mix of written, audio or visual b.

It has an effective dialogue delivery c. Writing a copy is a creative process

ADVERTISING BUDGET
The Advertising Budget Determining the total appropriation allocated to advertising is
not an easy task, nor is it always done at the end of the advertising plan. Often a
Rupee amount, say B 370,000 is budgeted for advertising during the budget planning
process (just before the end of the fiscal year). The amount could be totally arbitrary,
based on the opinion of the marketing vice president or the amount the advertising
manager was able to beg, borrow or steal.

In addition, dollar allocation usually is a political process. Companies led by financial

types are unlikely to give much money to advertising and will require the advertising
manager to justify every penny. Companies led by marketing or advertising types are
likely to be generous to advertising and will view the cost as a long-term investment.

Although the appropriation and budgeting process relies on numerical information, the
process is more art than science. It is often on educated guesses, tradition, or the
financial condition of the company. It is also in constant flux; that is if a campaign
seems to be working, it is easy to get additional Rupees. The opposite is also true: If
the company has a financial downturn, advertising will probably take the hit.

The budget is a critical part of planning an advertising campaign. A C 50,000 budget

will only stretch so far and probably will not be enough to cover the costs of television
advertising in most markets. The budget also determines how many targets and
multiple campaign plans a company or brand can support. Mc Donald’s, for instance,
can support multiple campaigns.

Certain types of advertisers – industrial and business-to-business,

For example –typically operate on smaller advertising budgets than consumer

packaged-goods companies. Their media choices and narrow targeting strategies
reduce their budgets so these companies often rely more on direct mail, trade
publications, and telemarketing for their advertising.

The big budgeting question at the marketing – mix and marketing communication-
mix level is –

How much should we spend?

Let’s examine five common budgeting methods to help answer that question.

Historical Method – Historical information is the source of this common budgeting

method. A budget may simply be based on last year’s budget with a percentage
increase for inflation or some other market place factor. Say Morris Hardware spent
C12,000 on advertising last year. It will spend C12,000 + 5% (C12,600) this year.
This method, though easy to calculate, has little to do with reaching advertising
objectives.
Objective-Task Method: Bottom –UP – The objective-task method is also a common
method for determining the budget. This method looks at the objectives for each
activity and determined the cost of accomplishing each objective:

What will it cost to make 50 percent of the people in the market aware of this product?
How many people do we have to reach and how many times?
What would be the necessary media levels and expenses?

This methods advantage is that it develops the budget from the ground up so that
objectives are the starting point. Conversely, its results are only as good as the stated
objectives and the dollar amounts assigned t o each objective.

Percentage-of-Sales Method – The percentage-of-sales method companies the total

sales with the total advertising (for marketing communication) budget during the
previous year or the average of several years to compute a percentage. This technique
can also be use across an industry to compare the expenditure of different product
categories on advertising.

For example, if a company had sales figures of C50,00,000 last year and an
advertising budget of C10,00,000, then the ratio of advertising to sale would be 20
percent. If the marketing manager predicts sales of C60,00,000 for next year, then the
ad budget would be C12,00,000.

How can we calculate the percentage of sales and apply it to a budget?

Follow these two steps –

Step – 1 = Past advertising Rupees/ 𝑃𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝑠𝑎𝑙𝑒𝑠

= % 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑎𝑙𝑒𝑠

Step – 2 % of sales X nest year’s sales forecast

= new advertising budget

PUBLIC RELATION
• Public relation it is a communication between an organization and public.

• Practice of good will maintained between the organization and public.

• This communication is in the form of publicity and non-paid.

Classify the PR tools used to communicate to the public.

– Oral communication
– Printed and graphic communication

– Print media

– Outdoor media (electronic displays, hoardings, posters)

– Broadcast media (radio, television, films)

– Other media (websites, endorsements, exhibitions)

ORAL COMMUNICATION

You may recall what you have learnt about interpersonal communication in the first
module. It is a two way communication. Let us consider the example of a conversation
between a student and a teacher: The student has not done well in her exams and the
teacher wants to talk to her to find out the reason for her failure in the exam. The
student is given an opportunity to express her problems and the teacher tries to
console her and guide her so that she can do better in the next exam. This is an
example of oral communication between a student and a teacher.

Oral communication is similar to interpersonal communication where there is

a two way communication. This is also called face to face communication or person to
person communication. This was the only form of communication when there were no
means of modern communication. Oral communication is a an effective PR tool which
allows for questions and clarifications.

SPEECH AND INTERVIEW

You must have heard or seen the Prime Minister or President addressing the public on
special occasions like Independence Day through the radio or television. Have you
found their talk impressive? What have you learnt from their messages? This is an
example of a speech which is a primary form of oral communication. A good speech
helps in effectively communicating to the public. If the speech is delivered before a
live audience, it provides an environment for a two-way communication. You must
have heard of the term ‘interview’. You may even have heard or seen an interview
with a film star or cricketer on radio or television. Now let us understand what the
term ‘interview’ means. Interview is another form of oral communication where you
find one person asking questions and the other answering them. The former is called
an interviewer and the latter the interviewee. In this method, the interviewee gets an
opportunity to impress the audience, fulfilling one of the goals of public relations.

PRINTED AND GRAPHIC COMMUNICATION

• Fliers: Have you come across single printed sheets of paper that are distributed
along with your daily newspaper? You find that these give information about summer
classes for children during school vacation, eating places in the neighbourhood,
facilities offered by schools etc. You can see that they provide a lot of useful
information about various services in your locality. These sheets of paper which
provide information are commonly referred to as fliers or handbills.

Therefore we can say that:

Fliers

 represent the simplest and easiest form of information tools used in public
relations.

 were the first written material used for public relations

 are unfolded sheets posted on bulletin boards, delivered by mail or distributed

by hand.

 present a single message rather than a series of separate message units.

 time specific and address a particular event

 serve awareness objectives through information.

Fliers can be made effective by enhancing their visual appeal.

• Brochures: When the message to be conveyed must last longer in the minds of the
audience, then one sheet of information, as in a flier, may not be sufficient. In such a
case, a multi-page publication or in other words, more than one page of printed matter,
is produced as a PR tool. Depending on their size and purpose for which they are
developed, they are called leaflets, folders or pamphlets. All these publications are
called brochures. We can therefore define a brochure as follows: ‘ folded sheet of
information which can be read like a book and provides information which is relevant
over a longer period of time’. Let us see some examples of brochures. A brochure
produced by a university provides information about its campus, courses offered, fee
structure, hostel facilities and so on for students who are seeking admission to its
colleges. Similarly, a travel agent brings out brochures which give information on tour
packages organized by them for tourists.

• Newsletter: What exactly is a newsletter?

• It is a printed publication produced at regular intervals

• It is distributed to a particular audience seeking information.

• A newsletter should focus on information relevant to its public or audience

 • The content of a newsletter is presented in a writing style that is less formal
and letter-like.

For example, a newsletter published by a college consists of information about

activities conducted during a particular period, special achievements by students or
teachers, retiring employees, new entrants etc. Such newsletters target not only the
teachers and students but also the college alumni.

 PRESS RELEASE: Let us now study about a press release which is different
from the other forms of printed communication that you have so far studied. A
press release is the most important form of written communication used by a public
relations professional to announce something to the media. It is mailed, faxed or e-
mailed to the media.

How is a press release developed? The text of the press release is written in the
form of a story with an attractive heading so that the media quickly grasps and
circulates the message through newspapers/radio/television/internet.

 PRINT MEDIA: You have learnt in an earlier module that newspapers and
magazines form a part of print media. Now let us see how print media is used as a
PR tool. You must have seen several advertisements appearing in newspapers and
magazines. What do they consist of? They consist of textual messages as well as
some visuals or pictures. These advertisements are examples of PR tools used in the
print media. They are worked out effectively to attract the reader’s attention away
from other competing advertisements. But you find that advertisements appearing
in newspapers and magazines are different in a number of ways. Let us list them.

Newspaper advertising Magazine advertising

-Generally in black and white -Generally in colour

-Found in various sizes -Mostly full page

-More than one advertisement -May be normally only one

advertisement

placed on the same page is placed on a page

 OUTDOOR MEDIA: Have you seen huge boards displaying messages on a

particular brand of mobile phone and dazzling in the night sky. This is what is
called a hoarding and these days you find that many of the hoardings are
electronically operated ( electronic hoarding) to make them attractive and catch the
attention of the viewers. This is an example of an outdoor medium which is a
popular tool used in public relations.

Likewise, you must have read messages on milk and milk products written on
bus panels and on huge boards at bus terminals, airports and railway stations where
 a lot of people come together. These forms of communication are commonly
referred to as poster media.

Here, you will notice that the emphasis is on the visual messages or what is
visible to the audience. The poster message carries a strong illustration with a
meaningful headline. This form of communication is used to remind the audience
about a certain product or idea. Another form of outdoor medium are huge balloons
suspended in the air with a message written on them. These are hot air balloons
which can easily capture the attention of the public.and thus help in public relations

 BROADCAST MEDIA: Let us take the example of the radio. You hear messages
and music through this medium. The characteristic feature here is the sound which
creates an impact on the listeners. Radio advertisements which combine music and
messages is a typical example used for public relations. Similarly, take the case of
television. Here, you can see pictures or images as well as hear a message or music.

These images have certain characteristic features. They are seen to move as well as
make sounds, thus creating a huge impact on viewers. Reality music and dance
shows, cricket matches which are sponsored by business organizations are
examples of television being used to attract public attention to a particular product.
Now let us compare these with images and text found in the print (newspapers and
magazines) and poster media.

They are found to be static or in other words, they do not move. Therefore, you can
now see that the broadcast media offers possibilities for movement and sound,
making it possible to present creative and attractive images. Have you seen images
on the internet? They offer scope for including movement and sound, making it a
very appealing tool for communication. Promotional offers of cheap air tickets by
airline companies provide examples of the internet being used a PR tool for
communication.

 OTHER FORMS OF MEDIA WEBSITES: The internet web is the most

commonly used form of media for public relations. Consider a situation when you
have to travel to a particular city by train. The easiest way to obtain information on
trains going to that city has been made possible by the Indian Railways through its
website. You can even book tickets through this website. Compare this with a
situation in which you have to go all the way to the railway booking counter for the
same purpose.

This is an example of a PR exercise by the railways for the benefit of the public.
From the above example, you can see that the internet web has enabled quick
access to information and services. The internet is thus rapidly changing the way in
which organisations provide services to their public. The information in a website is
presented in an easy and understandable format. Web pages are designed with
catchy illustrations to make them attractive and thereby grab the attention of the
public.

CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS Have you heard or seen a celebrity or in other

words, a well known person talking about a particular brand of soap or soft drink on
radio or television? Here, you always find that a person who is likeable and familiar
to the audience is chosen to describe a product and to persuade the public to use the
product. This is what is referred to as ‘celebrity endorsement’.

EXHIBITIONS

• exhibition is another PR tool to enhance public relations activity

• the exhibits or items displayed leave a lasting impression on the minds of the

people

• it involves participation of people on a large scale

• products can be exhibited and demonstrated in a relaxed atmosphere

• exhibitions provide scope for generating business