Chapter 14 Notes Personal Selling and Sales Management Learning objective 1: Identify and understand the factors that

make personal selling such a critical component of promotion. Personal selling is direct person-to-person communication designed to explain how an individuals or firms goods, services or ideas fit the needs of one or more prospective customers. Personal selling is one of the few forms of promotion to which the sale of a specific product can be directly traced. Consultative selling is the process of helping customers reach their strategic goals by using the products and expertise of the sales organization. Desirable Salesperson Traits: Self-motivated Organized Enthusiastic Adaptive Competitive Goal-oriented Empathetic Learning-oriented Customer-oriented Learning-oriented is the trait of being open to and excited about acquiring new knowledge and skills. Customer-oriented means the salesperson seeks to elicit customer needs/problems and then takes the necessary steps to meet those needs or solve the problem in a manner that is in the best interest of the customer. Learning objective 2: Describe the selling contexts and types of salespeople. Personal selling occurs in different context, and each context determines which types of selling are used. Telemarketing uses the phone for prospecting, selling and/or following up with customers. Over-the-Counter Selling is usually conducted in retail outlets. Order taker is a salesperson who just processes the purchase the customer has already selected [would be found in a self service environment]. Order getter is a salesperson who seeks to actively provide information to prospects, persuade prospective customers and close sales. Field Selling involves calling on prospective customers in either their businesses or their homes.

Professional Salespeople may be found in all industries, but especially in industries where products are adapted to individual customer needs, such as high-tech computers. The companies for which they work may assign professional salespeople a variety of job titles, including account executive (or manager), sales consultant or sales representative. National Account Managers are highly skilled salespeople who call on key customers headquarters, develop strategic plans for the accounts, make formal presentations to toplevel executives and assist with all the product decisions at that level. Missionary Salespeople differ from other sales professionals in that they do not seek to obtain a direct order from their customers. Support Salespeople do not actually perform all the steps in the sales process; instead, their job is to support the sales force in a number of ways. Learning objective3: Understand and explain the sales process. There are eight basic steps in the sales process: Prospecting The pre-approach The approach Need identification Presentation Handling objections Gaining commitment Follow-up Qualified sales leads are potential customers who have a need for the salespersons product, the financial means to purchase the product and the authority to make the buying decision. Referrals are obtained by the salesperson asking current customers if they know of someone else, or another company, who might need the salespersons product. Cold calls means contacting prospective customers without a prior appointment. The approach is the development of rapport with the customer. Using the information that has already been gathered, the salesperson begins developing a relationship with the customer. The salesperson wants to illustrate that he/she is working to understand and help meet the prospective customers needs. In this stage, it is important for the salesperson to adapt to the potential customers social style. There are four basic social style categories: The driver is action and goal oriented and makes quick decisions. The analytic is fact and detail oriented. The expressive loves to socialize and will frequently base the purchase decision on the relationship with the salesperson. The amiable tends to be visionary with big ideas for the future, but is not a detail oriented individual.

Throughout the sales interview, the salesperson should maintain an open body posture to indicate interest and openness to the customer; that is the salesperson should keep feet flat on the floor; body leaning slightly forward, if seated; direct eye contact; arms open (uncrossed); and hands open, palms slightly upward. Learning objective 4: Comprehend the diverse tasks and functions of the sales manager. Sales management is the process of planning, directing, controlling and implementing the personal-selling function of the organization. Sales managers must be good leaders who can recruit, train, motivate and evaluate their sales representatives; manage territories; develop sales plans and sales forecasts while accomplishing the goals of the organization. They also need to be able to identify business opportunities and create and implement optimum sales strategies. Sales representatives should be taught to identify the social styles of customers and alter their presentation for each customer type. This type of practice is referred to as adaptive selling. Quotas are challenging performance objectives. The quota should be high enough to encourage the sales force to put forth greater effort, yet low enough to appear attainable. Otherwise, the quotas that the sales manager sets may serve to discourage rather than motivate the sales force. Straight Salary provides the sales force with greater security, but may reduce their desire to put forth extra efforts because they will not receive a direct reward for this effort. Sales coaching involve facilitating the development of sales skills through mentoring, modeling behavior and one-on-one interaction.