Chapter 20: Personal Selling And Sales Management

two-way flow of communication between a buyer and a seller, often in face-to-face encounters designed to influence a person's or group's purchase decision. With advances in telecommunications, personal selling also takes place over the phone and through video and internet links

personal selling remains highly human-intensive despite technology advances. therefore, these people must be managed. Sales Management involves planning the selling program and implementing and evaluating the personal selling effort of the firm. The tasks involved in managing personal selling include setting objectives; organizing the sales force; recruiting; selecting, training, and compensating salespeople as well as evaluating performances

3 major roles in a firm's overall marketing efforts

1. salespeople are the critical link between the firm and its customers. this role requires that salespeople match company interests and consumer needs to satisfy both

2. to consumers, salespeople are the company. they represent what a company is or attempts to be

3. personal selling may play a dominant role in a firm's marketing program. esp when a firm uses a push marketing strategy

the practice of building ties to customers based on salesperson's attention and commitment to customer needs over time. selling of mutual respect and trust. focuses on creating long-term customers not a one time sale

Some companies take relationship selling a step further and forge partnerships between buyer and seller organizations. this partnership selling (enterprise selling) combines buyers and sellers expertise and resources to create customized solutions, commit to joint planning and share customer, competitive and company information for mutual benefit and customer benefit

broadly speaking, three types of personal selling: order taking, order getting and customer sales support activities

an order taker processes routine orders or reorders for products that were already sold by the company. Primary goal: preserve ongoing relationship with existing customers and maintain sales.

two types of order takers

1. outside order takers: visit customers and replenish inventory stocks of resellers like retailers or wholesalers. Often help with arranging displays

2. Inside order takers (aka order clerks or salesclerks): answer simple questions, take orders, and complete transactions with customers, many retail clears are inside order takers. Often employed by companies that use inbound telemarketing: the use of toll-free numbers that customers can call to obtain info about a product. In b2b settings, order taking arises in straight rebut situations

Order takers do little in a conventional sense. they engage in modest problem solving with customers. often represent products with few options or highly standardized industrial product. Important for customer service driven firms.

an order-getter sells in a conventional sense and identifies prospective customers, provides customers with info, persuades them to buy, closes sales, follows up. like order takers they can be inside (an automobile salesperson) or outside (a xerox salesperson)

Outside order-getters often work 50 hours a week. responsibilities include selling by phone or face-to-face (41 percent), generating leads and researching customer accounts (24 percent) and the remainder is administrative tasks

Missionary salespeople: do not directly solicit order but concentrate on promotional activities and introducing new products. Actual sales made through wholesalers

Sales EngineersL specialize in identifying, analyzing and solving customer problems. they bring know how and tech experise but do not actually sell products

Team Selling: the practice of using an entire team of professional in selling to and servicing major customers. used when specialized knowledge is needed to satisfy different interests of individuals. might include a salesperson, a sales engineer, service rep, etc.

Team selling takes different forms:

Conference selling- a salesperson and other company people meet with buyers to discus probs and opportunities

Seminar Selling- a company team conducts an educational program for a customer's tech staff

Objective: search for and qualify prospects.

Comments: start of the selling process, prospect produced through advertising, referrals and cold canvassing

three types of prospects: lead: the name of a possible customer. Prospect: customer who wants or needs the product. Qualified prospect: consumer who wants the product, can afford it, is the decision maker

Cold Canvassing: the telephone consumer protection act. contains provision to curb abuses like late night or early morning calls

Objective: gather info. and decide how to approach the prospect.

Comments: Information sources include personal observation, other customers, and own salespeople

Approach is important especially in international locations to know what will be most effective

Objective: gain a prospect's attention, stimulate interest, and make transition to the presentation

Comments: first impression is critical, gain attention and interest through reference to common acquaintances, a referral or product demonstration

Objective: Begin converting a prospect into a customer by creating a desire for the product or service

Comments: Different presentation formats are possible; however, involving the customer in the product or service through attention to particular needs is critical; important to deal professionally and ethically with prospect skepticism, indifference, or objections

three major presentation formats exist:

1.stimulus-response format: assumes that given the appropriate stimulus from the salesperson, the prospect will buy. For ex: when mcdonalds ask if you want fries with your meal engaging in suggestive selling

2. formula selling format: based on the view that a presentation consist of info that should be provided in an accurate, thorough, step-by-step format. a poplar version is a canned sales presentation which is a memorized, standardized message for each prospect

3. need-satisfaction format: instead of the other two approaches where the salesperson does most of the talking, this format pushes for listening to identify the needs of prospective buyers.

two common need satisfaction types:

1. Adaptive selling: adjusting the presentation to fit the selling situation, such as knowing when to offer solutions and when to ask for more info. Important to know customer and sales situation.

2. Consultative selling: focuses on problem identification where the salesperson serves as an expert of problem recognition and resolution. Not simply about a matter of choosing a product, novel solution arise

1. Acknowledge and convert the objection: "yes the price is high because..."

2. Postpone: "i'm going to address that pint shortly. i think my answer would make better sense then..."

3. Agree and neutralize: "that's true. others have said the same. but they thought that issue was outweighed by the benefits"

4. Accept the objection: sometimes the objection is valid. let prospect express it, probe for reason and attempt to stimulate further discussion

5. Denial

6. Ignore the objection: used when the objection is not important to prospect

Objective: Obtain a purchase commitment from the prospect and create a customer

Comments: Salesperson asks fro the purchase; different approaches include the trial close and assumptive close

Close can take three forms:

1. trial close: ask prospect to make a decision on an aspect of the purchase "want it in blue or grey?"

2. assumptive close: ask the prospect to consider choices concerning delivery, warranty, or financing terms. assume that sale is finalized

3. Urgency Close: commit prospect quickly by referencing important timelines

Ensure that the customer is satisfied with the product or service.

Comments: resolve any problems faced by the customer to ensure customer satisfaction and future sales possibility

1. sales plan formulation

2. sales plan implementation

3. salesforce evaluation

Sales Plan: a statement describing what is to be achieved and where and how the selling effort of salespeople is to be deployed

Setting objectives, organizing salesforce, developing account management policies

Setting objectives: can be output (dollar or unit sales) or input (emphasize sales calls and selling expenses), knowledge of competition, individual knowledge of each salesperson.

Organizing the salesforce: 1. should the company use its own salesforce or an independent agent? 2. If the decision is made to employ company salesperson, then should they be organized by geography, customer type, or service? 3. How many company salespeople should be employed?

1. geographical sales formulation: simplest structure. divided into region and region divided into district. salespeople are assigned to districts and call on all customers there.

2. customer sales organization: used when different buyers have different needs. More effective, specialized attention but higher administration costs and duplication

- Variation: Key account management- the practice of sung team selling to focus on important customers

3. product sales organization: when specific knowledge is required to sell certain types of products.

Size of salesforce is also important

Workload method: integrates the number of customers served, call frequency, call length and available selling time to figure out the salesforce size

Equation: NS= NCxCFxCL/ AST

NS- number of salespeople

NC- Number of Customers

CF- call frequency

CL- length of an average call

AST- average amount of selling time available per year.

specifying whom salespeople should contact, what kinds of selling and customer service activities should be engaged in, how these activities should be carried out

An example of account management policy: account opportunity and competitive position of sales organization

(see figure 20-7)

1. salesforce recruitment and selection

2. Salesforce training

3. Salesforce motivation and compesation

successive selling needs high EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE: the ability to understand one's own and other's emotions.

expensive, taught by experiences salesmen

1. straight salary 2. straight commission 3. combo of salary and commission

commission: tied to sales

nonmonetary rewards like trips, honor societies, awards

1. Quantitative assessment: based on input and output retaliated objectives in sales plan. number of sales calls made, selling expense related to sales, number of reports submitted to superiors

Sales Quota: specific goals assigned to a salesperson, sales team, branch sales office, etc. time range

2. Behavioral evaluation: assessments of salesperson's attitude, communication skills, appearance, etc. Customer satisfaction used.

technological revolution with integration of salesforce automation into customer relationp management processes.

Internet technologies transformed sales functions. SALESFORCE AUTOMATION (SFA) it is the use of these technologies to make sales functions more effective and efficient. Ex: computer hardware and software for account analysis, product and sales training. Free up time for sales people to be building customer relationships.

important part of field selling. many companies supply salespeople with laptops.

tech changes the way that salespeople communicate with customers

application of internet technology is a big deal