PERSONAL

SELLING AND
SALES
PROMOTION

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 Objectives
1. Describe the role of today’s salesperson.
2. Describe the four sales channels.
3. Describe the major trends in personal
selling.
4. Identify and briefly describe the three
basic sales tasks.

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 Objectives
5. Outline the seven steps in the sales
process.
6. Identify the seven basic functions of a
sales manager.
7. Explain the role of ethical behavior in
personal selling.
8. Describe the role of sales promotion in
the promotional mix, and identify the
different types of sales promotions.

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Introduction
▮ Personal selling - Interpersonal influence
process involving a seller’s promotional
presentation conducted on a person-to-
person basis with the buyer

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Table 1 - Factors Affecting the Importance of
Personal Selling in the Promotional Mix

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The Evolution of Personal Selling
▮ Selling has been a standard business activity
for thousands of years
▮ Salespeople are problem solvers
▮ Personal selling is a vital, vibrant, dynamic
process

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The Evolution of Personal Selling
▮ Salespeople must be able to:
• Focus on a customer’s situation and needs and
create solutions that meet those needs
• Follow through and stay in touch before, during,
and after a sale
• Know the industry and have a firm grasp of
their firm’s and their competitors’ abilities
• Work hard to exceed their customers’
expectations

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Over-the-Counter Selling
▮ Personal selling in which customers come to
the seller’s place of business

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Field Selling
▮ Sales presentations made at prospective
customers’ locations on a face-to-face basis
▮ Expensive form of selling, particularly
because of travel expenses
▮ In routine cases, the salesperson processes
regular customers’ orders
▮ In more complex cases, the salesperson
prepares for weeks, makes presentations,
and follows up

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Field Selling
▮ Network marketing - Personal selling that
relies on lists of family members and friends
of the salesperson, who organizes a
gathering of potential customers for a
demonstration of products
▮ Examples: Avon, Pampered Chef,
Tupperware

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Telemarketing
▮ Selling process conducted by phone
▮ Serves two purposes
• Sales
• Service
▮ Serves two markets
• B2B
• B2C

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Telemarketing
▮ Outbound telemarketing - Sales method in
which sales personnel place phone calls to
prospects and try to conclude the sale over
the phone
▮ Technologies used
• Predictive dialers
• Autodialing
• Random-digit dialing

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Telemarketing
▮ Drawback
• Most consumers dislike the practice and have
signed up for the national Do Not Call Registry
▮ Some firms still use telemarketing because:
• The average call cost is low
• Firms point to a significant rate of success

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Telemarketing
▮ Inbound telemarketing - Sales method in
which prospects call a seller to obtain
information, make reservations, and
purchase goods and services

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Inside Selling
▮ Selling by phone, mail, and electronic
commerce
▮ Turns opportunities into actual sales
▮ Support technicians and purchasers with
current solutions

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Figure 1 - Alternative Sales Channels for
Serving Customers

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Relationship Selling
▮ Regular contacts between sales
representatives and customers over an
extended period to establish a sustained
buyer-seller relationship
▮ Important to both, B2B and B2C sales

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Table 2 - What Buyers Expect from
Salespeople

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Consultative Selling
▮ Meeting customer needs by listening to
them, understanding their problems, paying
attention to details, and following through
after the sale
▮ Cross-selling - Offering multiple goods or
services to the same customer

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Team Selling
▮ Several sales associates are employed to
help the lead sales representative reach all
those who influence the purchase decision
▮ Customers often feel better served by a
team approach
▮ Relationships form between companies
rather than between individuals

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Team Selling
▮ Virtual sales teams - A network of strategic
partners, suppliers, and others who are
qualified and willing to recommend a firm’s
goods or services

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Order Processing
▮ Selling that involves identifying customer
needs, pointing them out to customers, and
completing orders
• Identify customer needs
• Point out the need to the customer
• Complete (write up) the order

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Creative Selling
▮ Salespeople use well-planned strategies to
seek new customers by proposing
innovative solutions to customers’ needs
▮ Used to develop new business with either
new customers or new products
▮ Generates “buzz” for a product

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Missionary Selling
▮ Promoting goodwill for the firm by
educating customers and providing
technical or operational assistance
▮ Sales incentives - Programs that reward
salespeople for superior performance
• Trips, gas cards, or free product upgrades
▮ May involve both field selling and
telemarketing

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Figure 2 - The AIDA Concept and the
Personal Selling Process

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Prospecting and Qualifying
▮ Prospecting - Personal selling function of
identifying potential customers
▮ Qualifying - Determining a prospect’s
needs, income, and purchase authority as a
potential customer

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Approach
▮ Initial contact with prospective customer
▮ Precall planning

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Presentation
▮ Describing a product’s major features and
relating them to a customer’s problems or
needs
▮ Technology must be used efficiently to be
effective
▮ Cold calling - Contacting a prospect without
a prior appointment

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Demonstration
▮ Customer has the opportunity to try out
how a good works before purchase
▮ Multimedia interactive demonstrations are
now common
▮ Example: Demonstration videos Black &
Decker posts on its website

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Handling Objections
▮ Objections - Expressions of resistance by
the prospect
▮ May take the form of stalling or
indecisiveness
▮ Use objections as an opportunity to
reassure the buyers

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Closing
▮ the salesperson asks the customer to make a
purchase decision
▮ Possible strategies
• Addressing the prospect’s major concern about
a purchase and then offering a convincing
argument
• Posing choices for the prospect in which either
alternative represents a sale

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Closing
• Advising the buyer that a product is about to be
discontinued or will go up in price soon
• Remaining silent so the buyer can make a
decision on his or her own
• Offering an extra inducement designed to
motivate a favorable buyer response

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Follow-Up
▮ Postsale activities that often determine
whether an:
• Individual who has made a recent purchase will
become a repeat customer

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Managing the Sales Effort
▮ Sales managers handle the overall direction
and control of the personal selling effort
▮ Requires an appropriate mix of sales and
management skills

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Recruitment and Selection
▮ Successful sales careers offer:
• Opportunity for advancement
• Potential for high earnings
• Personal satisfaction
• Job security
• Independence and variety

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Training
▮ Primary methods are on-the-job training,
individual instruction, how-to classes, and
external seminars
▮ Use videos, simulations, and executive
development programs
▮ Ongoing training is important for
experienced salespeople

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Organization
▮ May be based on geography, products, types
of customers, or some combination of these
factors
▮ National accounts organization - A
dedicated sales team is assigned to a firm’s
major customers to provide sales and
service needs

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Figure 3 - Basic Approaches to Organizing
the Sales Force

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Supervision
▮ Span of control - Number of sales
representatives who report to first-level
sales managers
▮ Optimal span of control is affected by:
• Complexity of work activities
• Ability of the individual sales manager
• Degree of interdependence among individual
salespeople
• Extent of training each salesperson receives

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Motivation
▮ Motivational tools include information
sharing, recognition, bonuses, incentives,
and benefits
▮ Expectancy theory – Motivation depends
on an individual’s expectations of:
• His or her ability to perform a job and how that
performance relates to attaining a desired
reward

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Compensation
▮ Commission - Incentive compensation
directly related to the sales or profits
achieved by a salesperson
▮ Salary - Fixed payment made periodically to
an employee
▮ Compensation packages vary according to
industry

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Figure 4 - Median Pay for Account Managers
by Years of Experience

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Evaluation and Control
▮ Managers must set standards and choose
the best methods for measuring sales
performance
▮ Sales quotas - Level of expected sales for a
territory, product, customer, or salesperson
against which actual results are compared

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Evaluation and Control
▮ Other measures include:
• Customer satisfaction
• Profit contribution
• Share of product-category sales
• Customer retention

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Ethical Issues in Sales
▮ Honesty and ethical behavior is encouraged
when:
• Employees understand what is expected of
them
• Open communication is encouraged
• Managers lead by example

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Sales Promotion
▮ Marketing activities other than personal
selling, advertising, and publicity that
enhance consumer purchasing and dealer
effectiveness
▮ Integrated into overall marketing plan
▮ Promotions are likely to stress price
advantages, giveaways, or special offers

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Sales Promotion
▮ Goal is speeding the sales process and
increasing sales volume
▮ Cannot overcome poor brand images,
product deficiencies, or poor training for
salespeople

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Consumer-Oriented Sales Promotions
▮ Encourage repurchases by rewarding
current users
▮ Boost sales of complementary products
▮ Increase impulse purchases

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Coupons and Refunds
▮ Coupons - Offers a discount on the
purchase price of goods or services
▮ Refunds or rebates - Cash given back to
consumers who send in proof of purchase
for one or more products

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Samples, Bonus Packs, and Premiums
▮ Sampling - Free distribution of a product to
obtain future sales
• Higher response rate than other forms of
promotion
• Good for promoting new or unusual products
• Relatively expensive form of promotion

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Samples, Bonus Packs, and Premiums
▮ Bonus pack - Specially packaged item that
gives the purchaser a larger quantity at the
regular price
▮ Premiums - Items given free or at reduced
cost with purchases of other products

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Contests and Sweepstakes
▮ Contest - Sales promotion technique that
requires entrants to complete a task for the
chance to win a prize
▮ Sweepstakes - Sales promotion technique
in which prize winners are selected by
chance

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Specialty Advertising
▮ Places the advertiser’s name, address, and
advertising message on useful articles that
are then distributed to target consumers

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Trade-Oriented Promotions
▮ Trade promotion - Sales promotion that
appeals to marketing intermediaries rather
than to consumers
▮ Trade allowances - Special financial
incentives offered to wholesalers and
retailers that purchase or promote specific
products
• May give a discount on goods or include off-
invoice allowances

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Trade-Oriented Promotions
▮ Point-of-purchase (POP) advertising -
Display or other promotion located near the
site of the actual buying decision
▮ Trade shows - Product exhibition organized
by industry trade associations to showcase
goods and services

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Trade-Oriented Promotions
▮ Dealer incentives and contests reward
retailers who increase sales
▮ Push money - Cash reward paid to retail
salespeople for every unit of a product they
sell

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