SALES & DISTRIBUTION MANAGEMENT

Unit I: Personal Selling & Salesmanship

By Prof. Arun Mishra Email: arunjimishra@gmail.com

Learning Objectives

Understanding Personal Selling, Sales Management and Salesmanship Relationship Buyer-Seller Dyads Selling Theories

Sales Executive Responsibilities

SOCIETY CUSTOMER

SALES EXECUTIVE
SALES VOLUME

FAMILY
BUSINESS GROWTH

ORGANISATION

PROFIT CONTRIBUTION

Sales Management, Personal Selling & Salesmanship

SALES MANAGEMENT DIRECTS PERSONAL SELLING EFFORT LARGELY THROUGH SALESMANSHIP ACHIEVE SALES OBJECTIVES

Definitions
Personal

Selling: Personal presentation by firms sales force for purpose of making sales and building relationships. [Kotler &
Armstrong]

Salesmanship:

Art of successfully persuading prospects or customers to buy products or services from which they can derive suitable benefits, thereby increasing their total satisfaction.

Sales Managers Responsibilities

Organizing Within

Sales Effort

Company builds organization structures [formal & informal] Company Key contact with customers & publics, develop / build distribution structure. play role in preparing information for marketing decisions e.g. budgets, quotas, territories etc.

Outside

Also

Sales Management - Objectives

Sales Volume

Contribution to Profits

Continuing Growth

Buyer - Seller Dyad

Buyer seller dyads represents the relationship between the seller and the buyer, consumer and the marketer, advertiser and the client. we cant imagine sales management without buyer seller dyads because selling is always a two way process. Fundamental to understanding salesmanship recognition that it involves buyer seller interactions. is

Sociologists use the term dyad to describe a situation in which two people interact. The salesperson and the customer interacting with each other constitute one example of buyer seller dyad.

Buyer - Seller Dyad

Whatever possible, sales personal should be assigned to prospects whose characteristics are similar to their own, thus improving the chance of successful dyadic relationships. Pairing salespersons with customers of similar backgrounds is more easily accomplished in industrial selling, where there are fewer prospects about whom information is needed, than in consumer goods selling, where the number of prospects and the customers per salesperson is much larger. In addition to the physical characteristics and personality, the customers perception towards behavior should be a necessary condition for the continuation of dyadic interaction.

Diversity of Personal Selling Situations

SERVICE SELLING INSIDE ORDER TAKER e.g. salesman at ARROW counter at Shoppers Stop. DELIVERY SALESPERSON .. Mainly engages in delivering the product e.g. milk, bread, eggs, DOMINOS. ROUTE / MERCHANDISING / VAN SALESPERSON : Operates as an order taker but works in the field-the soap or spice salesperson calling on retailers is typical. e.g. Britannia, Amul, Coca Cola, Nestle MISSIONARY SALESPERSON: aims only to build goodwill or to educate the actual or potential user and is not expected to take an order; for example, the distillers missionary and the pharmaceuticals companys detail person e.g. Medical Rep. TECHNICAL SALESPERSON: emphasizes technical knowledge; for example, the engineering salesperson, who is primarily a consultant to client companies. e.g Voltas Central Air Conditioning, HMT

Diversity of Personal Selling Situations

Contd.

DEVELOPMENTAL SELLING

CREATIVE SALES PERSON FOR TANGIBLES e.g. Eureka Forbes, Maruti Car, Encyclopedia Britannia.
CREATIVE SALESPERSON FOR INTANGIBLESe.g. ICICI Prudential, Max Life Insurance, Educational Programs such as Brilliant Tutorials.

Diversity of Personal Selling Situations

Contd.

DEVELOPMENTAL SELLING REQUIRING CREATIVITY

POLITICAL/INDIRECT/BACK-DOOR SALESPERSON: sell big-ticket items, particularly commodities or items with no truly competitive features. Sales are consummated through rendering highly personalized services to key decision makers. e.g. Commodities with personalized service like at golf clubs, health clubs, cricket matches. MULTIPLE SALES SALESPERSON: sales-involves sale of big ticket items where the sales person must make presentations to several individuals in the customers organization, e.g. selling to committees and One person can say YES, but all say NO. Accounts Executive of Lintas.

Theories of Selling
There

are Four main theories of personal selling, which are as follows: AIDAS Theory Right Set of Circumstances Theory Buying Formula Theory Behavioral Response Theory

AIDAS Theory
This

theory is based on the premise that during a sales presentation, the prospect consciously goes through five different stages: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action and Satisfaction.

Attention: The salesperson should attract the prospect to his presentation before he actually goes into the details of the same. Interest: He/she should maintain the interest of the prospects throughout the presentation. Desire: The next step in the sales process, as per the AIDAS theory, is to create a strong desire in the prospects mind to purchase his product. Action: Once the salesperson has been successful in taking his prospect through the three stages, as discussed above, he should induce the prospects into actually buying the product.

Right Set of Circumstances Theory

The advocates of this theory speak out that all the circumstances, which led to the sales, were appropriate or right for the sales to have taken place. In other words, if the salesperson is successful in securing the prospects attention, maintaining his interest and inducing his desire to buy the product, sales will result. Moreover, if the salesperson is highly skilled, he will take control of the presentation, which would lead to sales.

Buying Formula Theory

The buying formula theory is based on the analysis of the sequence of events that goes on in the buyers mind during the sales presentation. Thus, the theory emphasises on the factors internal to the prospect and the factors which are external, i.e., influence of the salesperson on his prospects decision to buy his product. The theory is based on the presumption that the salesperson will take care of the external factors. The sequence of events in a prospects mind can be represented as
Need Solution Purchase

There are all the chances that a continuous relationship will develop between the prospect and the salesperson. As a result of sales, the satisfaction will also come in the sequence. This sequence can be presented as
Need Solution Purchase Satisfaction

Behavioral Response Theory

Behavioral

Response Theory: J.A. Howard explained buyer behavior in terms of the purchasing decision process, viewed as phases of learning process. being:
internal stimuli impels

Elements

Drives: strong response.

Innate

Drives: comes from physiological needs.

Learned

Drives: like status. Acquired when paired with satisfying innate drive. In high income groups.

Behavioral Response Theory

(Contd.)

Cues: weak stimuli that determine when buyer will respond.

Triggering cues activate purchase process. Non-triggering cues influence process but do not activate. Are product cues and informational cues.

Some product / informational cues can operate as triggering cues e.g. price

Response: action taken by buyer. Reinforcement: any event that strengthens buyers tendency to make a particular response..