Selling is the part of marketing function. Selling can be through different ways for example direct selling, selling on internet, selling on retail stores or personal selling. Personal selling involve person in selling activity.Personal presentation by the firm’s sales force for the
purpose of making sales and building customer relationships is called Personal
selling.
There are two main parts of this definition:
- · Personal presentation
- · Customer relationships
Personal presentation means face to face interaction of sale
person to customer.
Customer relationship refers to the long term relation with
the customers.
Sales force goes to the customers:
Sales force goes to the customer by two ways described below:
- In Person sales calls (Outbound)
- Contact by mail or telemarketing (Inbound)
IN PERSONAL SALES
CALLS OR OUTBOUND:
In this
method sales force directly goes to the customer and built relationships by
actually meeting them face to face.
CONTACT BY MAIL OR
TELEMARKETING OR INBOUND:
In this method sales force contact to the new, existing or
former customers by telemarketing. It is cheaper than direct selling. Inbound
refers to when customers contact with company to resolve their issues and
problems related to company and products.
Business to Business selling or B2B selling:
Producers and wholesaler mostly sell their products to other
businesses which are also known as business to business (B2B) selling. B2B
selling also refers to the making sales to major or corporate clients but
some producer and wholesaler directly sell their products to consumers by any
means.
PERSONAL SELLING
MUST HAVE:
- Human element
- Customer confidence
- Customer response
- Customer needs
HUMAN ELEMENT:
As the term human element itself defines that person
selling must involve physical presence of sales person and customer.
CUSTOMER CONFIDECE:
Customer confidence means customer must have decision power
so that sales person does not feel that his/her efforts are going to be waste.
Must Read This Article Also: Characteristics of Salesman
Must Read This Article Also: Characteristics of Salesman
CUSTOMER RESPONSE:
Customer must have a response towards the offering either in
positive or negative. It is necessary for personal selling because the
main reason of personal selling is to get the customer response at the
spot.
CUSTOMER NEEDS:
Customer must have a specific need to be fulfilled. If
customer does not have a need there is no meaning of personal selling.
It is nothing more than throwing stone in the dark.
Here is the FLOWCHART of above explained terms:
CHANGES IN
PERSONAL SELLING:
As customers are changing, their needs and wants are also
changing, by accounting this trend personal selling is also changing now
Personal selling includes:
MARKETING CONCEPT and TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT (TQM)
MARKETING CONCEPT:
- Customer orientation:
Now in changing trend customer is
getting more sharp and knowledgeable in order to get customer, organizations
are identified the customer need by face to face dealing.
- Coordination of customer related activities:
Now organizations look upon
customers activities e.g.: spending pattern, background etc.
By analyzing these information they
are able to identify right customer for their product and they can easily
provide them customer care, partnering and after sale services etc.
- Profit/ Loss:
Organizations do all these
activities for the sake of profit. And successful organizations decide their
profit and go to next step.
TOTAL QUALITY
MANAGEMENT (TQM):
As customer is changing and have more opportunities,
information, substitutes, alternate products etc. It is difficult to retain
customers for the life time. For this purpose organizations are more focused
towards better quality and reduction of cost.
Organizations are trying to maintain quality in following
fields:
i.
Customers
ii.
Identify needs
iii.
Product planning
iv.
Design engineering
v.
Pricing
vi.
Promotional planning
vii.
Records orders
viii.
Manufacturing
ix.
Production
x.
Scheduling
xi.
Shipping
xii.
Warehousing
xiii.
Installation
xiv.
Service
It is necessary to maintain quality at each step because
loosing quality at one step whether it is first or last can create a big
difference between you and competitor.
Must Read This Article Also: Characteristics of Salesman