Salesmanship &

Selling Process
Dr M Manjunath Shettigar
MA (Econ), MBA, MPhil, PhD
 Promotion Mix
• The alternative ways of doing product
promotion
• They involve both ‘pull’ and ‘push’ strategies
to promote sales
Elements of Promotion Mix

PERSONAL ADVERTISING
SELLING

SALES
PUBLICITY
PROMOTION
 Objectives of Promotion
• To provide information (communicate)
• To stimulate demand (convince)
• To differentiate to generate brand loyalty
(compete)
• To stabilize sales (sustain)
 Kinds of promotion

1. Informative promotion
2. Persuasive promotion
3. Reminder promotion
4. Behavior modification promotion
 Lavidge & Steiner’s
Hierarchy of effects model
 Lavidge & Steiner’s
Hierarchy of effects model
 Lavidge & Steiner’s
Hierarchy of effects model
 Factors
affecting/determining/influencing
promotion mix
1. Nature of product
2. Nature of market
3. Stage of the product’s life
4. Availability of funds
5. Nature of the technique
6. Promotional strategy – Push/ Pull strategy
7. Readiness of the buyer
 Chapter 7

Salesmanship & Selling Process

Salesman - qualities of successful salesman -
functions of a salesman - selling process.
Personal Selling /
Salesmanship
 Personal Selling
• Personal selling involves face to face contact/
interaction by the seller and the prospective
customer with an intention of selling some
product.
• Salesmanship is the art of presenting an
offering to the prospect/ client
• The purpose of personal selling is winning and
retaining a customer/s
 Personal Selling
• It is seller-initiated effort that
provides prospective buyers
with information and motivates
or persuades them to make
favorable buying decisions
concerning the seller’s products
or service.
 DEFINITION
The American Marketing Association defined the
term ‘salesmanship’ as

“the personal or impersonal process of assisting

and/or persuading a prospective customer to buy
a commodity or service”.
 AIDA Model
• Developed in 1898 by St Elmo Lewis
• To explain how personal selling works

• The model explains the process a salesperson

must lead a potential customer through in
order to achieve a sale
AIDA Theory of Selling

A ATTRACT ATTENTION

I SUSTAIN INTEREST

D CREATE DESIRE

A INDUCING ACTION
 AIDA Model

• AIDA
has been extended to
AIDAS
AIDAS Theory of Selling
A ATTRACT ATTENTION

I SUSTAIN INTEREST

D CREATE DESIRE

A INDUCING ACTION

S BUILDING SATISFACTION
 Features of Salesmanship
Salesmanship is an art
It is a human/personal service
Art of attracting and persuading
customers
Art of converting desire into necessity
Winning Buyer’s confidence
Customer satisfaction
Establishment of permanent relations
Mutual benefit
Educative process
 Basic features of salesmanship
a. Salesmanship involves persuasion of customers:
Salesmanship means the ability to convince the people to buy
his product.
b. Salesmanship involves winning buyer’s confidence: Modern
salesmanship aims at educating the customer and providing a
solution to his problems. This helps in winning his confidence.
c. Salesmanship involves providing information: Salesmanship
is an educative process. It tells customer the ways in which
they can satisfy their needs. Salesman provides information
about products, their broad features and their uses and utility
to the customers.
d. Salesmanship aims at mutual benefit: Salesmanship is a two
way process. It results in benefits not only to the sellers but
also to the buyers. It helps in solving the problems of the
buyers and satisfying their needs. Customer satisfaction leads
to increase the profitable sales volume for the salesman.
Common Personal Selling Techniques
Common personal selling tools and techniques include the
following:
• Sales presentations: in-person or virtual presentations to
inform prospective customers about a product, service, or
organization
• Conversations: relationship-building dialogue with
prospective buyers for the purposes of influencing or making
sales
• Demonstrations: demonstrating how a product or service
works and the benefits it offers, highlighting advantageous
features and how the offering solves problems the customer
encounters
• Addressing objections: identifying and addressing the
concerns of prospective customers, to remove any perceived
obstacles to making a purchase
Common Personal Selling Techniques
• Field selling: sales calls by a sales representative to connect
with target customers in person or via phone
• Retail selling: in-store assistance from a sales clerk to help
customers find, select, and purchase products that meet
their needs
• Door-to-door selling: offering products for sale by going
door-to-door in a neighborhood
• Consultative selling: consultation with a prospective
customer, where a sales representative (or consultant)
learns about the problems the customer wants to solve and
recommends solutions to the customer’s particular problem
• Reference selling: using satisfied customers and their
positive experiences to convince target customers to
purchase a product or service
 Suitability of Personal Selling
Relevance or suitability of personal selling
depends on 4 categories of factors.
1. Market conditions
2. Product conditions
3. Company conditions
4. Consumer conditions
 Suitability of Personal Selling
• Market situation: Personal selling is effective when a
firm serves a small number of large-size buyers or a
small/local market. Also, it can be used effectively
when an indirect channel of distribution is used for
selling to agents or middlemen.

• Product situation: Personal selling is relatively more

effective and economical when a product is of a high
unit value, when it is in the introductory stage of its life
cycle, when it requires personal attention to match
consumer needs, or when it requires product
demonstration or after-sales services.
 Suitability of Personal Selling
• Company situation: Personal selling is best utilized
when a firm is not in a good position to use impersonal
communication media, or it cannot afford to have a
large and regular advertising outlay.

• Consumer situation: Personal selling should be

adopted by a company when purchases are valuable
but infrequent, or when competition is at such a level
that consumers require persuasion and follow-up.
 Types of Salespersons
• Manufacturer’s salesman
• Wholesaler’s salesman
• Retailer’s salesman
• Specialty salesman
• Service salesman
 Personal Selling Methods

• Selling at the counter

• Selling across the table
• Selling at the door-step
 Importance of Salesmanship
Important to consumers
Important to businessmen
Important to society
 Benefits to consumers:

• A salesman acts as a friend and guide to

consumers. He informs them of new products
and their benefits.
• He helps them in choosing products, which
match their needs and incomes.
• A salesman guides the customers in buying
products that will provide maximum
satisfaction.
 2. Benefits to businessman:
• They help in the creation of demand for new products
and in the extension of markets for existing ones.
• By creating large scale and regular demand,
salesmanship makes planned and regular mass
production possible.
• Through personal selling, a businessman can not only
inform customers of his products but can know their
tastes, attitudes and behaviour. Such information is
helpful in the design and development of products that
match market demand.
• Salesmen help to build up a favourable corporate image
necessary to secure repeat sales.
 3. Benefits to society:
• Salesmanship helps to expand employment and income of
a country through large and rapid sales turnover.
• Salesmen provide marketing information to producers,
based on which producers can do product development
and innovation.
• Salesmen can ensure that what is produced by firms are
exactly what are needed by people/ society.
• Salesmen help minimize price fluctuations and trade cycles
by matching demand and supply.
• Salesmen perform several non-selling tasks, e.g., after sale
service, meeting complaints, conducting marketing
research, providing credit information, delivering goods,
collecting payments, etc.
 Advantages of Salesmanship
Salesmanship helps in creating demand for the
goods which leads to increase in production.
Salesmanship is the best means of two-way
communication b/w the company and customer.
Increase in sales helps to increase the profits.
Increased sales induced business activity which
provides more employment and higher income for
the community.
Consumers are benefitted as salesmen provide
them great deal of useful information.
Salesmanship helps in preventing the piling up of
huge stocks.
 Limitations of Salesmanship
High cost of personal selling.
Salesmanship adopts the methods of pressure
selling.
Good and competent sales persons are scarce.
QUALITIES OF A SUCCESSFUL SALESMAN
To be successful, a salesman must possess several qualities:

1. Physical Attributes:
A successful salesman must have pleasing personality sound
health. His job is demanding and his physique should be sturdy,
free from disease and disability. Once should also possess drive
and energy.

2. Mental Attributes:
A good salesman must have a high degree of intelligence and
imagination. He should understand the customer quickly and
read his mind accurately. He requires initiative to make
additional sale and win permanent customers.
QUALITIES OF A SUCCESSFUL SALESMAN
3. Social Attributes:
A salesman has to deal with different types of customers. He
should have the ability to get along with people of all types.
Sociability implies good manners, a liking for people, sense of
humour and conversational ability. Good salesmen need to be
polite, self-disciplined and courteous.

4. Vocational Attributes:
Salesmanship is a highly skilled vocation and requires ambition,
aptitude and enthusiasm. A good salesman needs to have
creative ability, leadership qualities, urge for excellence,
optimism, etc. He must be fully familiar with his firm, its
products and customers, competitors’ products and selling
products.
 Managing/ Controlling Salespersons
1. Setting performance standards (sales
quotas/targets)
2. Establishing/ allocating sales territories
3. Control through Reports and Records
4. Personal control – supervising, guiding,
reporting, and so on
5. Sales bulletins
 Selling Process
 Pre-sale preparation
 Prospecting
 Approaching
 Sales presentation
 Demonstration
 Handling objections
 Closing the sale
 Follow-up
 Steps in Selling Process
• The process of personal selling consists of the following steps:1

1. Pre-Sale Preparation: The first step is the selection,

training, and motivation of sales persons.

The sales persons must be fully familiar with the product, the
firm, the market and the selling techniques. They should be well
informed about the competitor’s products and the degree of
competition. They should also be acquainted with the
techniques of effective selling and the policies of the firm.

2. Prospecting: It refers to searching out prospective buyers

who have the need for the product and the ability to buy it.
Social contacts, business associations and dealers can be helpful
in the identification of potential buyers.
 Steps in Selling Process
• The process of personal selling consists of the following steps:1

3. Approaching: Before calling on the prospects, the

sales person should know their number, needs, habits,
spending capacity, motives, etc. After this, the
salesperson should approach the customer in a polite
and dignified way. He should make the customer feel
that he is getting proper attention of the salesperson.
The salesperson should be very careful in his approach
as the first impression lasts for long.

4. Presentation: The next step is to gain customer’s

attention. For this purpose, the salesperson has to
present the product and describe its features in brief.
 Steps in Selling Process
• The process of personal selling consists of the following steps:1

5. Demonstration: In order to maintain customer’s interest

and to arouse his desire, the salesperson must display and
demonstrate the product. He has to explain the distinctive
qualities of the product so that the prospect realizes the need
for the product to satisfy his wants.

6. Handling objections: The salesperson should clear all

doubts and objections without entering into controversy and
without losing his temper.

The salesperson should convince the customer that he is making

the best use of his money by purchasing the product. For this
purpose, the salesman should prove the superiority of his
product over the competitor’s products. He should not lose
patience if the prospect puts too many queries and takes time in
arriving at any decision.
 Steps in Selling Process
• The process of personal selling consists of the following steps:1

7. Closing the sale: The salesman should not force the

customer, instead he should guide the customer in making the
choice without imposing his own view. He should assure the
customer that he has made the right choice. Sales should be
closed in a cordial manner so that the customer feels inclined to
visit the shop again.
In closing the sale, the terms and conditions need to be agreed
upon, and the article should be packed properly and handed
over to the customer with speed and accuracy.

8. Post-sale follow-up: It refers to the activities undertaken

to ensure that the customer is satisfied with the article and the
firm. It can include post-sale communication to find out the
comfort level in using the product and addressing any
grievances. It helps to secure repeat sales, to identify additional
prospects and to evaluate salesman’s effectiveness.