Chapter 19 - Personal Selling

How does personal selling add value to IMC?

• PERSONAL SALES IS ADDED VALUE!

• Salespeople provide information and advice

• Salespeople save time and simplify buying

• Salespeople build LONG TERM RELATIONSHIPS

Steps of the selling process

• 1. Generate and qualify leads

  • Generate a list of potential customers (Leads) and assess their potential (Quality)

  • Could be from:

    • Internet search

    • Social media

    • Current customers

    • Networking events (Trade Shows)

    • Cold calls / Telemarketing (These are less popular now)

• 2. Pre-approach RESEARCH

  • A qualified lead requires a meeting

  • Before the meeting:

    • Investigate the customer’s business and how the customer can benefit from the firm’s products/services

    • Examine how the customer is currently addressing the needs they are wishing to fulfill

    • Establish objectives for meeting with the customer

    • Conduct additional research and develop plans for meeting with the customer

    • Can use CRM to track customer relationship

• 3. Sales presentation ROLE PLAY and overcoming reservation

  • Salespeople go through extensive training to learn to deal with objectives/reservations

  • Roleplaying is critical in the training process

• 4. Closing the sale

  • Obtain a commitment from the customer to make a purchase

  • Often this is the most stressful part of the sales process

  • A “no” on day might be the foundation for a “yes” in the future

• 5. Follow up

  • The sale is just the beginning of the customer relationship

  • The follow up offers a prime opportunity for a salesperson to solidify the customer relationship through great service quality

  • Key criteria:

    • Reliability

    • Responsiveness

    • Assurance

    • Empathy

    • Tangibles

Differences in B2B process (RFP/requirement gathering)

• 1. Need Recognition

  • There is a problem in our company that we need to address!

• 2. Product Specifications

  • Build a list of requirements that suit our needs

• 3. RFP Process

  • RFP = Request for Proposals

  • Collect requirements, craft an email/letter to distribute to all companies we believe can meet our requirements

  • We give them a timeline to respond to our questions and schedule meetings

• 4. Proposal Analysis and Supplier Selection

  • What do each of these options do for our company?

• 5. Order Specification

  • Which one wins? 

• 6. Performance Assessment

  • Does this work as expected?

Ethics and Legal - who is liable?

• Both YOU and YOUR EMPLOYER can be held liable!

• Issues for the Sales Manager and the Sales Force

  • A sales manager must treat people fairly and equally

  • Equal employment opportunity laws make it unlawful to discriminate against a person in hiring, promotion, or firing because of race, religion, nationality, sex or age. 

• Issues for the Sales Force and Corporate Policy

  • The firm may have a policy to sell goods or services to people who cannot afford them or to people who should not have them

  • Should insurance salespeople disclose inadequate hurricane coverage and risk not making the sale?

• Issues for the Salesperson and the Customer

  • Have you ever felt that you were treated unethically by a salesperson?

  • Possible Answers:

    • Salesperson lied to me

    • Salesperson ignored me

    • Salesperson sold me something I didn’t want/need