Chapter 15

Personal Selling
and Customer
Service
 At the end of this presentation,
you should be able to:
1. understand the importance and nature of
personal selling.
2. know the three basic sales tasks—order-
getting, order-taking, and supporting—and
what various kinds of salespeople can be
expected to do.
3. understand why customer service presents
different challenges than other personal selling
tasks.
4. know the different ways sales managers can
organize salespeople so that personal selling
jobs are handled effectively.
5. know how sales technology affects the way
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sales tasks are performed.
 At the end of this presentation,
you should be able to:
6. know what the sales manager must do,
including selecting, training, and
organizing salespeople to carry out the
personal selling job.
7. understand how the right compensation
plan can help motivate and control
salespeople.
8. understand when and where to use the
three types of sales presentations.
9. understand important new terms.
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 Strategy Planning and Personal
Selling (Exhibit 15-1)

CH 13: Promotion
CH 14: Personal CH 15: Advertising,
Intro to Integrated
Selling and Publicity & Sales
Marketing
Customer Service Promotion
Communications

Importance of Personal Strategy Personal

personal selling tasks decisions selling process
selling

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 The Importance and Role of
Personal Selling
Requires strategy Helping to buy is
decisions good selling

Personal
Selling
Salespeople Is Salespeople
represent whole
can be strategy Important company &
planners
customers

Sales force
provides market
information
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 What Kinds of Personal
Selling Are Needed?

Order- Order-
Getting Taking

Basic
Sales Tasks

Supporting

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 Order Getters Develop New
Business Relationships
Order Getters and
Order-Getting

Producers’ Order Getters

Find New Opportunities

Wholesalers’ Order
Getters Almost Hand It to
Customer

Retail Order Getters

Influence Buyer Behavior

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 Order Takers Nurture Relationships
to Keep the Business Coming
Order Takers and
Order-Taking

Producers’ Order Takers

Train, Explain, &
Collaborate

Wholesalers’ Order Takers

Don’t Get Orders
But Keep Them

Retail Order Takers Are

Often Poor Sales Clerks

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 Supporting Sales Force Informs
and Promotes in the Channel
Missionary Technical
Salespeople Specialists

Supporting
Sales
Tasks

Customer
Service Reps
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 Checking Your Knowledge

Julie Jones works for an investment firm. She calls on

potential clients, introduces them to her firm, develops
goodwill, and tries to set up contacts between
customers and her firm’s account managers. Julie does
not manage any accounts herself, but is using her
current position as a training opportunity in hopes of
moving up to an account manager position. Julie’s
current position is that of a(n):

A. order taker.
B. order getter.
C. missionary salesperson.
D. sales manager.
E. systems seller.
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 Customer Service Promotes the
Next Purchase
Part of
Not the product
promotion

What is
customer
service?

Reps are
Big data and
customer
social media
advocates
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 The Right Structure Helps Assign
Responsibility
Different
Markets,
Different
Tasks
Major
Team Selling Accounts
Sales Force

Sales Force
Size and Telemarketing
Workload
Sales
Territories
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 Interactive Exercise:
Sales Force Workload

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 Sometimes Technology Can Substitute
for Personal Selling
(Exhibit 14-3)
Standardized Emphasis on Emphasis on both
information standardized personal selling &
High
exchanged on a e-commerce (with customized
recurring basis customer service) e-commerce
(orders,
invoices,
delivery status,
product Emphasis on
Emphasis on
information Low digital self-
personal selling
prices service

Low High
Relationship building required
(problem solving, coordination, support, cooperation)
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 Information Technology Provides
Tools to Do the Job
New
Software
Great
Changes in New Hardware
Handling
Tasks

Good Technology
Selection and Can Be a
Training Competitive
Needed What is Done Advantage
vs.
How It’s Done
14-15
 Sound Selection to Build a
Sales Force

14-16
 Training to Meet a
Job Description
Specific, Written
Job Description

Trained, Not Born

All Salespeople
Need Training

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 Checking Your Knowledge
After spending two years in the insurance business,
Anne McCauley decided to go to graduate school so
that she could become qualified to teach high school
English. Even though she had a reasonable amount of
success in selling insurance, she could not deal with the
variability in her income from month to month. She said,
“In some months I earn all the money I need in a couple
of days. In other months, I can work hard all month long
and earn nothing.” She wanted a career with more
regular earnings. It sounds as though Anne was on a
_________ compensation plan in the insurance business.

A. straight commission
B. straight salary
C. combination
D. cost-plus
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 Compensating and
Motivating Salespeople
Level of Method of
Compensation Payment

Straight Combination
Straight Salary
Commission Plan
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 Interactive Exercise:
Sales Force Compensation

14-20
 Determining
the Choice
of the Pay
Plan

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 Flexibility vs. Simplicity (Exhibit 15-4)

Straight commission
Total selling expense

Combination plan

Straight salary

0
Sales volume

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 Key Steps in the Personal Selling
Process (Exhibit 15-5)
Evaluate needs of
Prospect for new
established customers
customers
and business opportunity

Set effort
priorities

Select target customer

Identify who influences purchase decision and/or
who is involved in buyer-seller relationship

Preplan sales call and presentation(s)

• Prepared presentation
• Consultative selling approach
• Selling formula approach
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 Three Types of Sales Presentation
Approaches May Be Useful
Three
Presentation
Approaches

Prepared Consultative Selling Formula

Approach Approach Approach
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 Checking Your Knowledge

A seller of asset-management services specializes in

marketing his services to people connected with the
publishing business, such as authors, book distributors,
and bookstore owners. He often gets leads by scanning
newspapers and magazines, looking for new authors
whose books are favorably reviewed. This searching
takes place in the _________ stage of the personal selling
process.

A. follow-up
B. sales presentation
C. closing
D. prospecting
E. prequalification
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 Key Steps in the Personal Selling
Process (Exhibit 15-5)
Prospect Set effort priorities Evaluate needs

Select target customer

Preplan sales call and presentation(s)

Make sales presentation

• Create interest
• Overcome problems/objections
• Arouse desire

Close the sale (get action)

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 Key Steps in the Personal Selling
Process (Exhibit 15-5)
Prospect Set effort priorities Evaluate needs

Select target customer

Preplan sales call and presentation(s)

Feedback
Make sales presentation

Close the sale (get action)

Follow-up after the

Follow up after sales
purchase to maintain
call to establish
and enhance
relationship
relationship
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 Checking Your Knowledge
Light-the-Way, Inc. sells standard household items such as
cleaners, trash bags, and light bulbs via telemarketing. The
products are made or packaged by people who are visually
impaired. The company donates a percentage of its sales
revenue to organizations that provide services to the blind.
The telephone sales presentation emphasizes this fact and
the quality of the merchandise. The salesperson making the
calls reads the same sales script to every potential customer
who is called. The only opportunity for the customer to talk
comes when the salesperson attempts to close the sale. This is
an example of a(n):

A. consultative selling approach.

B. selling formula approach.
C. prospecting approach.
D. systems selling approach.
E. prepared sales presentation.
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 You should now be able to:

1. understand the importance and nature of

personal selling.
2. know the three basic sales tasks—order-getting,
order-taking, and supporting—and what various
kinds of salespeople can be expected to do.
3. understand why customer service presents
different challenges than other personal selling
tasks.
4. know the different ways sales managers can
organize salespeople so that personal selling jobs
are handled effectively.
5. know how sales technology affects the way sales
tasks are performed.

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 You should now be able to:

6. know what the sales manager must do, including

selecting, training, and organizing salespeople to
carry out the personal selling job.
7. understand how the right compensation plan can
help motivate and control salespeople.
8. understand when and where to use the three
types of sales presentations.
9. understand important new terms.

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 Key Terms

1. basic sales tasks 9. customer service

2. order getters reps
3. order-getting 10. team selling
4. order takers 11. major accounts
5. order-taking sales force
6. supporting 12. telemarketing
salespeople 13. sales territory
7. missionary 14. job description
salespeople 15. sales quota
8. technical specialists 16. prospecting

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 Key Terms

17. sales presentation

18. prepared sales presentation
19. close
20. consultative selling
approach
21. selling formula approach

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