PERSONAL SELLING

Personal Selling
Personal Selling: It is the direct presentation of a
product to a prospective customer by a representative of
the selling organization.
Personal selling takes place face to face or over the
phone, and it may be directed to an intermediary in the
distribution channel or a final consumer.
Personal
selling
is
a
personalized
form
of
communication in which a seller presents the features
and benefits of a product to a buyer for the purpose of
making a sale.

Types Of Personal Selling

Field sales, It is also referred to as outside sales or sales calls,
where the sales person will have face-to-face meeting the
potential clients to make the presentations.
Example:
The outside sales agents of travel agencies and hotel sales
representatives
who
call
on
corporations
and
convention/meeting planners.
Sales representatives
wholesalers, and

from

airlines,

car rental firms who visit travel agencies.

cruise

lines,

tour

Telephone sales, It is also called telemarketing where

the communications via the phone that lead directly or
indirectly to sales.
The phone is an effective way to reach the prospective
customers.
Inside sales, It is also called the internal selling which
is the efforts made when customers are already in the
premise, to either increase the revenue of a sale or to
increase the customers average spending levels.
Inside sales is suggestive selling or up-selling, where
employees suggest or recommend additional or higherpriced items.
Example:
Most commonly use in the restaurants outlets, where the

Objectives Of Personal Selling

Building Product Awareness
Creating Interest
Providing Information
Stimulating Demand By far, the most important
objective of personal selling is to convince customers to
make a purchase.
Reinforcing the Brand Most personal selling is intended
to build long-term relationships with customers. A strong
relationship can only be built over time and requires
regular communication with a customer.

Roles of Personal Selling

Personal selling has a number of important functions in the
tourism and hospitality industry, six of which are discussed below.
Gathering Marketing Intelligence
Salesperson force collect various information on competitor's
promotion and send them to head office where by manager can
use them at late date.
Locating and Maintaining Customers
Salespeople who locate new customers, They can identify qualified
buyers and the steps involved in making travel decisions.

Generating Sales at Point of Purchase

Personal selling can significantly increase the likelihood of purchase and
the amount spent by customers at the point of purchase. Reservations
staff at hotels and car rental desks have a great opportunity to up-sell
Using Relationship Marketing
Sales representatives provide various services to customers: consulting
on their problems, rendering technical assistance, arranging finance
and expediting delivery. These representatives are very important for
building relationships with customers and maintaining their loyalty.
Providing Detailed and Up-to-Date Information to the Travel
Trade
Personal selling allows an organization to pass on detailed information
to the travel trade and provides an opportunity to deal immediately
with a prospects concerns and questions.

The Sales Process

The sales process consists of the following seven steps
1. Prospecting & Qualifying
2. PRE-APPROACH
3. Approach
4. Presentation & demonstration
5. Handling objections & questions
6. Closing the sale
7. Following up after closing

PROSPECTING - Prospecting refers to identifying and

developing a list of potential clients.
Salespeople can seek the names of prospects from a
variety of sources including trade shows, commerciallyavailable databases or mail lists, company sales records
and in-house databases, public records, referrals,
directories, and a wide variety of other sources

PRE-APPROACH in this phase sales professionals first

analyze all the information they have available to them about
a prospect to understand as much about the prospect as
possible.
sales professionals try to understand the prospects current
needs, current use of brands and feelings about all available
brands.
a sales presentation to address the identified and likely
concerns of the prospect, and set call objectives.
APPROACH - This is the point of the selling process where
the sales professional meets and greets the prospect,
provides an introduction, establishes relationship that sets
the foundation to asks open-ended questions to learn more
about the prospect and his or her needs.

SALES PRESENTATION - the sales professional tells that

product story in a way that speaks directly to the
identified needs and wants of the prospect.
At this point in the process, prospects are often allowed
to hold and/or inspect the product
the sales professional may also actually demonstrate
the product by using slide presentations or product
videos and sales brochures or booklets

Personal selling Cont

Sales Process Cont
Meeting objections: The buyers may have
many objections to the information given
during a presentation.
Closing Talk: This is the time when salesperson
ends the talk.
Follow up: Follow-up of sales is very important to
maintaining long-term relations with buyers.

EFFECTIVE SELLING
There are six pre-requisites of effective selling
Knowledge of the company
It is essential that the salesman has an in-depth
knowledge of the company in which he has been working
since The potential buyers may raise different queries
regarding the policies, after sale-servicing, discounts,
guarantees and so on.

Knowledge of product
A salesman should know all about his product. (a) materials
from which it is made, (b) how it is used and how it is
maintained, (c) product features, (d) selling points of the
product in relation to its rival, etc. this would help his
particularly while convince the potential customers.
Knowledge of competition
Sales man should constantly study the products offered by
his competitors and determine their strengths and
weaknesses in comparison to his own products.
Awareness of competition enables a salesman to compare his
product with that of the rival on those points in which the
buyer seems most interested.

Knowledge of customers
To make the personal selling effective, it is also essential
that the salesman must have adequate knowledge about
the customers. A salesman should have details of the
customers wants, desires and habits.
Knowledge of selling process
The salesman should know the details of prospecting,
pre-approach,
approach, etc. The AIDCA formula also helps
salesman, particularly while sales presentation.

the