OHT 17.1

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Personal selling and sales management

OHT 17.2

© Pearson Education Limited 2003Brassington and Pettitt: Principles of Marketing, 3rd Edition

Personal selling defined

An interpersonal communication tool which 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.

Fill (2002, p. 16)

OHT 17.3

© Pearson Education Limited 2003Brassington and Pettitt: Principles of Marketing, 3rd Edition

Personal selling and its fit in the promotional mix

• Usually more appropriate in B2B than consumer markets.

• Advantageous in promoting and selling high cost, complex items.

• Operates more effectively when customers are on the verge of making a final decision and committing themselves.

OHT 17.4

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Characteristics of personal selling

• Impact - sales representatives have a much greater chance of engaging initial attention and responding to situations.

• Precision - targeting and message precision.

• Cultivation - sales force plays an important role in creating and maintaining buyer – seller relationships.

• Cost - personal selling is very labour intensive so comes at a cost.

OHT 17.5

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Influences changing the selling role

Figure 17.1Source: adapted from Anderson (1996), reproduced by kind permission of Professor Rolph E. Anderson.

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Sales representatives - typical tasks

Figure 17.2

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© Pearson Education Limited 2003Brassington and Pettitt: Principles of Marketing, 3rd Edition

Forms of personal selling

• Order takers - external and internal.

• Order makers - finding prospective customers, identifying customer specific problems and needs, selling product and assisting with installation and training, and maintaining relationship.

• Sales support - augment the efforts of mainstream sales force.

• Missionary sales representatives - focus on particular segment of product to give enquiries and sales an initial lift.

• Sales engineers - focus on the technical or application problems of the product.

OHT 17.8

© Pearson Education Limited 2003Brassington and Pettitt: Principles of Marketing, 3rd Edition

The personal selling process

Figure 17.4

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© Pearson Education Limited 2003Brassington and Pettitt: Principles of Marketing, 3rd Edition

Sources of prospects

Table 17.1

OHT 17.10

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Sales presentation

• Stimulus response.

• Formula selling.

• Need satisfaction.

OHT 17.11

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Handling typical objections

• Ask the objection back.

• Agree and counter.

• Boomerang.

• Feel, felt, found.

• Denial.

OHT 17.12

© Pearson Education Limited 2003Brassington and Pettitt: Principles of Marketing, 3rd Edition

Types of negotiations

• Co-operative or win-win - trading concessions results in a better deal for both parties.

• Competitive negotiation - hard bargain focused on short term gain.

OHT 17.13

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Types of sales closure

• Alternative close.

• Assumptive close.

• Time pressure close.

OHT 17.14

© Pearson Education Limited 2003Brassington and Pettitt: Principles of Marketing, 3rd Edition

The role of personal contact

Figure 17.5

OHT 17.15

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Sales management

Common areas of sales management include:

• Establishing a sales plan and strategy.

• Specifying and recruiting sales representatives.

• Training and developing staff.

• Motivation and compensation policies.

• Controlling and evaluating the selling effort.

OHT 17.16

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Sales and planning strategy

• Specifying the sales objectives - general sales targets for sales force as a whole (sales value/volume/share) and objectives for specific personnel (sales quotas).

• Detailing the sales organisation - organising the sales force.

• Sales coverage and deployment - size of sales force.

OHT 17.17

© Pearson Education Limited 2003Brassington and Pettitt: Principles of Marketing, 3rd Edition

Recruitment and selection - sales force attributes

Table 17.3

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Performance and evaluation -calculating sales performance

Table 17.5