PROFESSIONAL SALESMANSHIP

SALESMANSHIP: ITS NATURE AND

REWARDS
Personal selling is a dynamic force that
affects our everyday lives (Richard T.
Hise). Billions of pesos worth of goods
and services are sold each year
through personal selling.
Personal selling is the employment of
men and women who determine the
needs od potential buyers and attempt
to persuade these prospects to satisfy
their needs through the purchase of
products and services.
These are the important aspects of this
definition of personal selling:
1. Selling does not only involve men; it
also involves women who find selling a
rewarding career;
2. A salesman determines the needs of
the buyer and accordingly offers him
the goods and services;
3. The word “attempt” must be given
consideration. Selling as a career can be
very frustrating, people will say “NO” for
a number of reasons;
4. Persuasion in selling. Discovery of the
buyer’s needs is not enough, the more
important thing is for the salesman to
convince them to purchase the products
or services he is selling;
5. Satisfy their needs. Buyers who have
positive experiences with the product will
surely buy the same product the next time
around. They may even recommend it to
friends and relatives;
6. A salesman either sells products or
services; and
7. Professionalism is observed. Personal
interaction is an important factor in selling.
Salesman determines the needs of the
buyer and accordingly offers him the
goods and services and renders service
to his clients by discovering their needs.

Salesmen are widely used by big

manufacturing firms, wholesalers, and
retailers in selling their products. Even
service companies employ salespeople.
Non-personal selling or Pre selling. Its
function is to communicate a message
to groups of people; it is one way rather
than a two-way conversation. This is
the primary purpose of advertising and
display.
Every human being has something to
sell and almost everybody is engaged
in selling. Tangibles refers to goods and
intangibles to services.

The manufacturers must sell the

products that they manufacture;
farmers sell agricultural products.
These products are tangibles.
Advertising agencies sell service to their
customers; television networks or
stations sell time to their clients; banks
sell different types of financial services;
insurance companies sells securities
and protection; hotels and motels sell
sleeping accommodations; and theatres
and amusement centers sell
entertainment. All these services are
called in tangibles.
Skilled workers are also engaged in
selling. Television repairmen sell their
valued skills. Other skilled workers not
only make things, but they are also
engaged in selling the things they make
or produce. This pertains to bakers,
farmers, and artists. Student also sell
while in school, they sell ideas.
Distinction between Selling and
Salesmanship
Salesmanship is the art of convincing
and persuading people to buy the
product, while selling is just transferring
the title in goods, service, or idea with a
valuable consideration. Salesmanship
is the ability or skill in selling.
Selling is Servicing your Prospect
Selling is not a solitary activity. It is a
continuous relationship between the
buyer and the seller. The salesman’s
effort is useless if he is not able to
make a sale. Selling is servicing
people, discovering their needs, and
helping them act to buy. The salesman
provides his prospective client with the
latest market information and advice.
Forms of Selling
Personal selling or direct selling –
direct face to face interaction between
the buyer and the seller. It is an oral
presentation through conversation with
the buyers with the im of making a sale.
A salesman can entertain the questions
and objections of his buyers based
upon their needs.
Nowadays, personal selling is also
known as “hard selling” or “pressure
selling”. It is an aggressive and direct
approach to buyers. It requires the
salesman to plan a sales preparation
that will ultimately convince the buyers
to buy.
Non-personal selling – selling through
the aid of some forms of media like
advertising, window displays,
samplings, and other forms of
promotion. This type of selling is also
known as “soft selling” since no sales
effort is required on the part of the
salesman, only gentle and subtle
persuasion using the different promotion
techniques.
Career Opportunities in Selling
1. The manufacturer’s sales people –
They are sales people who may sell to
wholesalers, retailers, or other
middlemen.
a. The pioneer-products sales
people – These are individuals whose
function is to secure outlets for a new
product to wholesalers, distributors,
and dealers.
b. The dealer-servicing sales people
– They contact retailers or wholesalers
at frequent intervals, offer whatever
goods they have, thus preventing his
established group of outlets from an
out-of-stock situation.
c. The merchandising sales people –
Their chief duty is to promote sales.
They are sometimes called “sales
promoter” because they gather latest
information about their target market,
give advice, and counselling to
middlemen, and try to favorably
influence sales volume.
2. The wholesalers sales people –
This refers to an individual who acts as
the intermediary between the
manufacturer and the retailers or
industrial users and carry thousands of
unrelated lines of merchandise in a
warehouse where they are quickly
available to dealers.
3. The retailer’s sales people – They
are both marketers and consumers.
They execute many marketing activities
like buying, selling, grading, risk taking,
and developing information about
customer’s wants.
4. The specialty sales people – They
carry only one complete line of
merchandise.

a. Consumer goods specialties. They

handle products as vacuum cleaners,
refrigerators, encyclopedias, brushes,
cosmetics, greeting cards, books, or
pots and pans.
b. Industry goods specialties. They sell
products like cash registers, office
machines, industrial machines, and
they are trained to render service as
well as to make sales.
c. Sales engineer. The job demands for
a considerable technical knowledge.
He acts as a consultant, an engineer,
or a teacher.
 Salesmanship Not by Salesmen

Selling is not only confined to people

who are called salesmen. Selling or
salesmanship also involves:

1. Politicians – A politician sells himself.

He persuades his constituents to vote
for him.
2. Priests, Ministers – They convince
the whole congregations for a
continued financial support and
persuades people to join the
congregation, like Ernest Angley, Pat
Robertson and many others.
3. Doctors, lawyers, teachers,
secretaries – They sell their expertise.
4. A job application seeks employment
with this expertise as his weapon and
commitment to his prospective
employers.
5. A lover offering his love and affection
to his sweetheart .
6. Organizations for a cause: Philippine
National Red Cross, Philippine Cancer
Society, Community Chest.

Obviously, these people are also

practicing salesmanship though they are
not in any business field. Selling refers to
activities involving an “exchange”
between two parties in order to meet and
satisfy their needs and wants.
Social Reward of Selling
Professional selling must be to the
manual satisfaction of both the buyer
and the seller. Under this situation a
good business relationship is
established. In selling, you meet a lot of
people. The salesman must therefore
be sociable. Salesmen do not remain
statics; they have continous interaction
with people.
Compensation Plans
The computation of compensation
varies from company to company
depending on the responsibilities sales
people exercise with respect to pricing
and discounts, customer credit, product
mix, use of available selling time and
selection of promotion and advertising
media.
The Three Basic Compensation Plan

1. Straight-salary plan – It is
considered to be the simplest
compensation plan. The salesmen
receive a fix amount at regular intervals
(usually every 15th or end of the month
or weekly) which represents the total
payments for their services.
2. Straight-commission plan – The
theory behind this plan is that the
performance of the salesmen will have to
be measured according to productivity.
3. Combination salary-and-incentive
plan – Almost all sales compensation
plans are combinations of salary plus
commission plan. Here, the salesman
receives a small base salary, but he gets
a larger percentage commissions.
a. Bonus – They are quite different from
commissions. Bonus is defined as an
amount paid for the performance of
specific sales task, a commission
differs in amount taking into
consideration the sales volume and
other commissions as its base.
b. Profit sharing bonus is even better
than any other type of bonuses for it
serves as an incentive for the salesman
to aim high, making them profit
conscious rather than volume
conscious, it minimizes the rate of
turnover of salesmen, eventually
develops a spirit of cooperation and
camaraderie.
Fringe Benefits
Fringe benefits like financial rewards are
considered motivating factors. They
satisfy the security needs of the
salesman. It helps to lessen job
dissatisfaction and serves as an
inspiration for the salesmen to sell more.
As provided by law, fringe benefits
include medical, disability and death
benefits, pensions, insurance,
retirement benefits. Some big
companies give paid vacations, car if
salesman travel often, entertainment
expenses, free hospitalization, and
shares in the company profit.