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MKT518
PERSONAL SELLING IN IMC

What it’s all about?

Dr. Pawan Kumar

Lecture Outcome
Understand the role of the Personal Selling in an IMC program.
Evaluate the effectiveness of personal selling and examine the advantages and
disadvantages of the personal selling
 Test your knowledge

Personal selling is the least expensive tool in the

marketing communications mix.
A. True
B. False
 What is the right option?
• While Ginger waited for iVillage.com's apparel site to download, a small
ad encouraging her to check out the summer clothes at Nordstrom
department store and at its Web site appeared on her computer screen.
The Nordstrom's ad is an example of:
• A. content sponsorship.
• B. a pop-up.
• C. push technology.
• D. functional sponsorship.
• E. a pop-under.
 Choose the right option

Good Mews is a no-cage, no-kill cat shelter that tries to care for and find
homes for cats and kittens that have been abandoned by their owners.
The non-profit group uses a Web site to show cats that are available for
adoption, how cats are cared for at the shelter, and to spotlight various
volunteers' efforts. This is an example of how the Internet can be used
as a(n) _____ tool.
• A. sales promotion
• B. personal selling
• C. direct marketing
• D. public relations
• E. advertising
News of the day-https://www.livemint.com/money/personal-finance/irdai-to-color-code-
health-insurance-based-on-complexity-11602072977445.html
Irdai to color code health insurance based on
complexity • Irdai to color code health insurance based on
complexity
• In its draft guidelines, Irdai, has suggested three colors
—green, orange and red—that will denote product
complexity.

• The insurance regulator is planning to make it easier for

individuals to pick a health insurance policy. To make it
simpler, the regulator wants each health insurance
product to have a color code that would convey to the
buyer the complexity of the plan.

• In its draft guidelines, the Insurance Regulatory and

Development Authority of India (Irdai), has suggested
three colors—green, orange and red—that will denote
product complexity.

• According to the draft exposure, the green color will

signify that the product offered is simple as well as easy
to understand and comprehend. Orange will signify that
the product is moderately complex and red to signify
the plan is more complex compared with products that
bear the green and the orange color code.
 Think and Decide

A tiffin service startup contacts you for the promotion

mix to promote her business. Already there are many
existing player in this particular business. You have
been given the project for designing promotion mix
for newly established tiffin service in Delhi. Propose
your suggestions to make the business differentiated
from the existing competitors and how can use apply
the IMC to promote this tiffin service business.
IMC Mix from Extent Literature
 What is Personal Selling: A Research Agenda

• According to Fill and Osmond (2017, p. 1/12), “Personal

selling is traditionally perceived as an interpersonal
communication tool that involves face-to-face activities
undertaken by individuals, often representing an
organisation, in order to inform, persuade or remind an
individual or group to take appropriate action, as
required by the sponsor’s representative.”

• The main goals include building and maintaining a

relationship with people interested in the product or
service and convert them to paying customers (Fetchko
et al., 2019). In a brick-and-mortar setting, personal
selling is commonly undertaken by salespeople, who
offer advice to potential customers on their needs and
wants.

• In digital media, personal selling can come in the form

of a requested live-video to discuss the purchase of a
possible product or service (Stewart, 2018), a
consultation with a sales representative on a social
media site (Kietzmann et al., 2011), or as a
conversation with an AI-driven chatbot (Balasudarsun
et al., 2018).
 What is three types of Personal Selling?
A. Order talking, Order getting, and customer sales support
activity
B. Customer service, Order talking, and Order getting
C. Order getting, Placing a pickup order, and Customer Sales
support
 Identify the right option
• A professional fisherman who has freshly-caught salmon in Oregon that
he wants to sell can go to www. GoFish.com and locate and negotiate a
sale with a restaurant owner in New Jersey who is interested in serving
salmon to restaurant patrons. The connecting of buyers and sellers is
one way the Internet performs _____ activity.
• A. direct marketing
• B. personal selling
• C. television advertising
• D. public relations
• E. sales promotions
 Prospects:
The Salesperson's Pot of Gold
• Without prospects, the personal selling process can’t begin
• Prospects are essential to the continuing health of any sales organization
• An old maxim for salespeople is “Apply your ABP’s,” i.e., Always Be
Prospecting

Royalty-Free, Digital Vision/Getty Images Royalty-Free, Digital Vision/Getty Images

 Qualifying:
How a Lead Becomes a Prospect cont’d
• A lead points to a potential buyer
• Salespeople must qualify a lead in terms of 4 basic criteria that can be
remembered by the acronym NAME, as follows:
1. Need or want
2. Authority to buy Chapter Review Question:
3. Money or ability to buy What four criteria determine
4. Eligibility to buy whether a lead becomes a
prospect?

• Two other qualifying criteria are:

1. The accessibility of the individual
2. The potential profitability of the prospect over the long run
 Key Terms
• Personal Selling Process (PSP)
– Also known as the seven-stage process of professional personal selling, from prospecting and qualifying
prospects to following up and servicing customers.
• Prospecting
– The process of searching for leads—people and organizations that might need your product— and then
qualifying them as prospects or potential customers.
• Random-Lead Searching
– Generation of leads by randomly calling on organizations. Sometimes called "blind" searching .
• Selective-Lead Searching
– Application of systematic strategies to generate leads from predetermined target markets.
• Door-to-Door Canvassing
– Knocking on doors in a commercial area without an appointment to locate prospects.
 Key Terms cont’d
• Cold Calling
– Approaching or calling a business without an appointment for the purpose of prospecting or selling.
• Territory Blitz
– An intensified version of door-to-door canvassing in which several salespeople join efforts to call on every
organization in a given territory or area.
• Spotters
– People who work in jobs where they meet many other people and who can help salespeople obtain
business leads. Also called "bird dogs."
• Endless Chain
– A classic method of prospecting in which the salesperson simply asks recent prospects for further prospect
referrals.
 Key Terms cont’d
• Networking
– Meeting others in social or business settings to talk informally, establish rapport, and build relationships
with people who can be contacted later for referrals or as potential prospects.
• Centers of Influence
– Individuals or groups of people whose opinions, professional activities, and lifestyles are respected among
people in the salesperson's target markets.

• Marketing Information System (MIS)

– Any systematized, continuous process of gathering, sorting, analyzing, evaluating, and distributing market
information. Can be helpful to salespeople in obtaining leads and prospects. An MIS can be particularly
helpful to salespeople in obtaining new leads and prospects.
• Customer Relationship Management
– A business strategy designed to augment revenues and increase the profitability of companies by better
understanding their customers’ needs and buying behaviors—and, in that process, developing a stronger
relationship with their customers.
 Key Terms cont’d
• Data Mining
– A procedure that uses statistical software to mine volumes of data to identify “hidden” interrelationships
among buyers and the products they purchase, along with associated complementary products
• Lead
– Anything—a name, address, or telephone number—that points to a potential buyer.

• Prospect
– A lead that has been qualified as a definite potential buyer.

• NAME
– An abbreviation for the process of qualifying a lead in terms of need for the product, authority to buy,
money to buy, and overall eligibility to buy
 Organizing the Personal Selling Effort
Geographical Organization

• Advantages:
1. Most common form
2. Reduces travel distance and time between customers
3. Usually minimizes costs

• Major disadvantages:
1. Each salesperson must perform all selling tasks for all firm’s
products and for all customers in territory.
2. Salesperson may not know about all products or only
emphasize certain (high commission) products.
 Organizing the Personal Selling Effort

Product Oriented Sales Organizations

• Salespersons specialize in relatively

narrow components of total product line.
Appropriate with huge product offerings
(e.g., General Electric).

• Prime benefit: Enables sales force to

develop deeper product knowledge level--
enhances value of firm’s total offering to
 Organizing the Personal Selling Effort
Market-Centered Organizations

• Salespeople learn specific requirements

of industry or customer type (e.g.,
specializing in the banking industry)

• Salespeople are better prepared to

identify and respond to buying
influentials
 Key Account Management

• Large Accounts are referred to as:

• Key Accounts
• Major Accounts
• National Accounts
• Strategic Accounts
 POLL
Which of the following is NOT an example
of behavioural measures used to evaluate
salespeople?
a. assessment of salesperson's attitude and
attention to customers
b. product knowledge and selling and
communication skills
c. appearance and professional demeanor
d. accounts generated and profit achieved
23
 Topics for Thought
and Class Discussion cont’d
It’s October 5th and your first day on the job as a Business Development
Manager for a central air conditioning firm in a town of Ludhiana. Your boss,
Mr. Rajnish, the Sales Manager of Daikin Commercial Air Conditioning, has
said, “Go out and get some business customers.” Until now, Mr. Rajnish has
relied on a small advertisement in the local telephone directory to generate
sales, but because sales are particularly slow during the fall and winter
months, he has hired you as his first BDM. Your earnings will come solely
from fixed salary plus incentives. How will you prospect for potential
customers?

Chapter 4 | Slide 24
25
 Topics for Thought
and Class Discussion cont’d
You and two of your colleagues have recently graduated from business
school, pooled their limited resources, and opened up an accounting firm in
three rooms on the ninth floor of an office building in Noida. The three
partners want to audit the financial statements and annual reports of small-
to medium-sized companies in the NCR area. They all attended the same
college, and none of them has any long-time friends or acquaintances in
Noida. Although you know little about selling accounting services, you
promise to come up with a strategy. What prospecting methods do you think
might best help the three accountants generate potential business clients?
Process of Prospecting and Qualifying

Start with leads/probable prospects (using

methods for identifying sales leads).
From leads to qualified prospects (using
need, decision making, affordability criteria).
Identify hot prospects ( criteria : sound
finance, likely to buy).

Convert hot prospects to

customers (purchased the
company’s products / services).

Sales Funnel
Successful salespeople always keep the sales funnel full.