Personal Selling

The chapter lays out skills required by a salesperson, which include psychology of selling, decision of
buying process, different buying situations, competent communication skills that a salesperson should
possess, policies and the process of personal selling.

A salesperson to understand the intention of a customer buying a product should study the buying
behavior of that customer. The method of communicating between the salesperson and a customer
would sit right if the of verbal and non-verbal interactions.

Buying Decision Process

Individual and household member arrive at buying decision following five mental stages of buying
process, which are

 Problem/need recognition: This is the first step of the buying process, two reasons for taking the
step are internal stimuli and external stimuli. Hunger or thirst could be the reason for
physiological like, and a desire to own a big car may be is a psychological like, together these
two consist of internal stimuli. External stimuli are when person takes the first step because of
external factors.Information search: A customer searching for products based on his personal
preferences.
 Evaluation of alternatives: Among the selected products, a customer dwells deeper into the
product details which are most suited to his liking.
 Purchase Decision: A customer’s final decision of purchase can be changed by either “attitude of
Others” or by “the information needed and by minimizing the perceived risk.
 Post-purchase behavior: Satisfaction of customer after buying should be analyzed and also
suggestions on product improvement should be noted and if possible implemented.

Three additional steps are followed by a business customer, which are determination of characteristics
and quantity of needed product, development of specifications of product, and obtaining and analyzing
supplier proposal.

Buying Decisions/Types of purchases for household customer:

 Routine decision making: Repeated purchases, examples: daily grocery needs which a customer
wouldn’t give much second thought to.
 Extensive Decision making: Little research making before buying, examples: TV where the
customer might not be fully aware of the new features.
 Limited Decision making: Extensive research before buying, example: Buying from a lifetime
investment such as a home.

Buying Situations for business buyers:

 New Purchases: First kind of product purchase, example: new implementation of ERP software.
  Change in Supplier: When a company changes its supplier due to supplier not meeting given
requirements.
 Repeated Purchases: Re-orders from the same supplier.

Sales knowledge and sales related Marketing Policies

It is important the salesperson in communicating and informing the customer and also in uplifting of the
salesperson’s confidence during interaction.

Sales related marketing policies mainly include: Pricing policies, distribution policies, promotional
policies and product policies.

Process of Personal Selling

1. Prospecting: Individual customer, Household customer or a firm who need the product are
potential prospects. Among the three, a salesperson targets mostly hot customers, low
customers are customers who are relatively in less need of the product.
2. Pre-approach: A preliminary step before approaching a customer. This involves two steps:
Information gathering and Planning the sales call.
3. Approach: The first interaction with the prospective customer is called the approach. A
Salesperson muse select a method of approach which the customer is most comfortable with.
4. Presentation and demonstration: An effective and properly planned presentation to its
customers should be conducted by the salesperson. A demonstration of the product could help
the buyers to get their doubts regarding the product cleared and also helps the salesperson to
underrated specific benefits of the prospective customer.
5. Overcoming Objections: Any clarifications of the customers when answered satisfactorily could
help convert the deal.
6. Trial Close/ Closing the sale: After the presentation and demonstration, a salesperson could trial
close the sale if the customer’s feedback was positive or he could try again to try and get a
positive feedback from the customer.
7. Follow up: After a closed sale, regular checking up with the customer to know if he is satisfied
with the product or if there is any way to help with the product is necessary.

Transactional and Relationship Selling

 Building trust and offering superior customer service are part of relationship selling.
 Length of relationship in transactional selling is shorter.
 Number of customers are more in transactional selling, but they are of low profits, both of
which are inverse for relationship selling.
 Competitive prices are adopted in transactional selling whereas mutually agreeable prices for
profits are implemented in relationship selling