IGNOU : BCOM : BCOS 186 - Personal Selling & Salesmanship ( NOTES FOR FREE )

 

Commerce ePathshala NOTES (IGNOU)

Important Questions & Answers 

IGNOU : BCOM

BCOS 186 – PERSONAL SELLING & SALESMANSHIP

 

 

Q – Define Personal Selling. State It’s Characteristics.

Ans. PERSONAL SELLING

According to American Marketing Association, “Personal selling is the oral presentation in a conversation with one or more prospective purchasers for the purpose of making sale; it is the ability to persuade the people to buy goods and services at a profit to the seller and benefit to the buyer”.

Philip Kotler defines “Personal selling is a face-to-face interaction with one or more prospective purchasers for the purpose of making presentations, answering questions and procuring orders.”

CHARACTERISTICS OF PERSONAL SELLING

Let us know about the key characteristics of personal selling and how are these different from advertising.

1. Buyer-seller interaction: In advertising, communication is one-sided, from seller to consumers whereas, in personal selling, it is two-way communication between salesperson and 5 the prospective buyer. The interaction is not just limited to geographical boundaries as the technological advances have made it possible to interact through video conferencing, email etc.

2. Direct communication: In advertising the message is conveyed in non-personal manner through mass media like TV, newspaper, hoardings, radio, digital media etc. but in personal selling, salespersons convey the messages personally to the consumers.

3. Push strategy: In personal selling, salespeople present the product and information about it and persuade consumers to buy it. It is referred as ‘push strategy’ as the product is pushed towards consumers. In advertising, consumers get drawn towards the product through ads which capture their attention, get them interested and persuade them to buy the product. It is referred as ‘pull strategy’ as consumers get drawn towards product.

4. Customization and personalization: In advertising, message sare standardized i.e., same message is conveyed to all the consumers through ads wherein the salesperson can modify the message to make it suitable to each of the prospective buyer.

5. Human element: Person engaging in personal selling serves as the personal connection between a company and its customers. So, along with verbal communication, it also includes use of non-verbal communication of body language, tone, appearance etc. in conveying messages to the buyer.

6. More engaging: The real time sales presentation and demonstration makes it more engaging and experience for buyers.

7. Quick response: Direct communication in the case of personal selling, allows the seller to gauge the response and purchase intention of prospective buyers. It helps seller to keep adapting the sales talk accordingly, which may positively influence buyer’s purchase intention.

8. Customer feedback: Two-way communication makes it possible for the buyers to express the feedback about product, price, its comparison with competing products, etc. This information from prospective and existing customers can be useful for the company for making improvements in the marketing strategy.

9. Cultivating relationships: It is possible for the seller to use personal interactions with buyers for developing and strengthening relationships and building goodwill for the company.

 

 

Q – State the different roles of personal selling.

Ans. DIFFERENT ROLES OF PERSONAL SELLING

Wide variety of selling situations call for different selling strategies and changing role of salespersons. These are broadly grouped as:

1. Communication strategies: Role of salesperson mainly involves with information about product, its price, delivery, service strategies to help prospective customer take the purchase decision.

2. Persuasion strategies: In salesperson’s role, there is more emphasis on convincing the prospective customer by matching the product benefits with need and satisfaction of the customer for persuading the customer to buy.

3. Negotiation strategies: In some situations of selling to other companies, negotiating the product specifications to be provided and other terms like prices, after sale-service etc. become more important. For example, if a manufacturing ingredient is to be supplied regularly to a company over a longer period, the negotiations between buyer and seller become more important as it will be influencing costs for buyer and profits for seller over extended period of time.

4. Client-profit planning strategy: In industrial selling of high priced, technical products, there is sharing of information by the buyer company with the salespersons about its different areas of operations, future plans, R&D, finance, logistics etc. Then, the salespeople along with higher authorities suggest and develop products within suitable price, which can help increase the profits of the client.

 

 

Q – State the Advantages & Disadvantages of Personal Selling.

Ans. Advantages:

The advantages of the personal selling are as follows:

1. Two-Way communication: In personal selling, it is possible to have communication from seller to buyer and from buyer to seller. Salesperson can provide information to the prospective customer, ask questions from the customers and customer can also raise the queries and get them clarified.

2. Flexibility in communication: The significant advantage of personal selling is its flexibility to customize sales presentations for different customers and different situations. Salesperson can tailor their presentation to fit the needs, motives, and behavior of individual customers. A salesperson can also go on assessing the customer’s reaction while making sales presentation and immediately adjust the message to facilitate better connection between the message and the needs of the customer. Thus, it helps in increasing the probability of getting the sales order.

3. Sharp focus on target customers: Through personal selling, effort to sell is focused on potential customers only. Thus, it minimizes wasted effort whereas it is not possible in advertising. Ads reach much larger number of audiences which may include many people outside the target market of the product. A lot of time and money gets wasted in advertising that reaches many people outside the target market (who are not likely to buy). In personal selling, the salesperson identifies the potential customers who have the need, ability and desire to buy the product and focuses selling effort on them only.

4. Personal attention and detailed presentation: Needful information is gathered about every prospect to plan and make sales presentation. Every customer is given personal attention and it is possible to give detailed demonstration about the product, answer customer queries. For example, salesperson gathers data about size of the company, priority of needs, purchase department policies, type of customers of the company etc. to develop right presentation for the company.

5. Instant feedback: Salesperson gets instant feedback from customers about their intention to buy or not to buy and may also know the reason for not buying.

6. Measuring effectiveness: Another advantage of personal selling is that it is easier to assess the results of time and money spent in personal selling efforts. Results can be measured in terms of number of sales calls made, number and size of sales orders, expenses incurred, and profits earned. So, measuring sales effectiveness and determining ROI are easier for personal selling than for other promotion tools.

7. Getting customer’s attention: The one-on-one interaction of personal selling makes it easier to get customer’s attention, to respond to questions and to motivate the customer to buy. However, all the people getting exposed to an ad (watching TV, reading newspaper etc.) may not pay attention to the ad or may forget it or may not get persuaded enough to buy.

8. Performing additional tasks: Through personal selling, it is possible for the salesperson to perform multiple tasks. For example, in addition to selling, a salesperson can perform non-selling tasks like: provide after-sales service, collect payments, and collect customer feedback for the company.

 

Disadvantages of Personal Selling:

The disadvantages of personal selling are as follow:

1. Higher costs: One of the disadvantages of personal selling is high cost due to hiring, training, compensation costs of salespeople, selling expenses of travel and lodging of salespeople. Though many companies try to control costs by paying salespeople through sales commissions alone, thereby paying them only if they generate sales. However, commission-only salespeople may indulge in persuading customers aggressively to get the sale without paying much attention to their need satisfaction. It may result into bad word of mouth and loss of repeat sale for the company. Another way to reduce costs is that companies can use telemarketing, direct mail, and online communication with qualified prospects to reduce the costs of personal selling but their effect in getting customers’ attention and persuading them for sale can be much lesser.

2. High turnover: Another disadvantage of personal selling is the issue of high turnover rate among salespeople due to its problems of travelling, no fixed hours, stress of obtaining sales, problem of handling difficult customers etc. As a result, it increases the cost of hiring and training new salespeople. Also, companies face the difficulty of finding suitable good quality salespeople.

3. Lack of standardisation in communication: Another weakness of personal selling is that salespeople of a company may differ from each other in their communication with customers. As customers differ from each other, salespeople vary in their final communications made to them. Even the same salesperson may differ in handling of similar customers each time due to differences in circumstances. As a result, there may be variations in results, and it may also influence the coordination of selling efforts with rest of the marketing mix.

4. Salespeople may vary in their abilities and motivation: Members of sales team may vary in their levels of motivation leading to variations in their selling efforts. For example, salespeople may vary in their ability to make the desired number of sales calls each day or in their willingness to put enough efforts to prepare for presentations etc. Sales manager needs to put in extra efforts in managing each member of the sales team to get the best from them.

 

 

Q – State the Process of an Personal Selling.

Ans. PROCESS OF PERSONAL SELLING

A sales process is a set of steps that a sales team takes to convert a prospect into a customer. Having a standardized sales process adds structure and accountability to sales activities, leading to a higher rate of successful sales. It consists of sequence of steps that a salesperson goes through to sell a product or service. It is: 7-step sales process. These steps are as follow.

·       Prospecting.

·       Preparation.

·       Approach.

·       Presentation.

·       Handling objections.

·       Closing.

·       Follow-up.

Now, Let us learn them in detail.

1. Prospecting: Prospect or a potential customer is a person or organization who has a need, ability, desire to buy a product. Prospecting is the process of searching for prospects. Objective of prospecting is to find sales leads for making sales call and trying to convert them into customers. List of prospective customers is generated through various sources like references, publicly available data, company records etc. The Salespersons have to make sincere efforts to find out the leads. They must interact with the leads and enquire about their requirement of products or services. They must try to develop good impression about himself/herself.

2. Preparing: It involves customer research and planning for presentation. It is collecting all the relevant information about the prospect like size and location of the clients, their needs, financial resources, purchase policies etc. It helps developing suitable presentation for each of the client by focusing on needs important to the client and communicating relevant benefits to the client. The presentation must be very impressive so that the prospects may get provoked to think about the products or services.

3. Approach: It is the first contact with the prospective client or opening lines at the beginning of the meeting for about first two minutes. First impression is important to get the customer interested in listening to the presentation. Salesperson may start by showing the product or mentioning the most important problem of the client that match the product. He may inform about special schemes, discounts, offers, etc. for the customers.

4. Presentation: A well prepared sales presentation can keep the client engaged in listening carefully. It involves talking/showing about features and benefits of the product, how it meets the need, demonstrating the product. Contents of presentation should be clear and credible. The Presentation should focus on the detailed features of the product for which customers may be interested to know. He/she has to arouse the interest of the customers about the products.

5. Handling objections: These are questions raised by the prospect which can indicate barriers to purchase or an unwillingness to buy. It is listening to the concerns of the customer and answering them and providing solutions wherever possible. The objections of customers can include objections to prices, products, services etc. For example, the concern can be competing product being offered at a lesser price, which can be answered by showing the difference in quality or features of the company’s product. Another objection can be inability to pay for it, which can be solved by offering installment plan.

6. Closing the sale: It refers to the stage of getting the order from the customer. Salesperson can first go for trial close in different ways like: by asking for choice in payment method, selection of model or size or after-sale service plan etc. Answers to such questions can indicate if the customer is ready to close the sale. If not, salesperson can ask questions to know the reasons for it and again try to close the sale.

7. Follow-up: After closing the sale, it is important to keep in touch with customers to know about their satisfaction with the product or to solve the problem if there is any. It also helps in building relationship with customers and get repeat sales from them.

 

 

Q – state the Roles of a Salesman.

Ans. Role of a Salesman

Selling forms an important component of the marketing function in organizations. A salesman performs the following roles:

a)     Sales Lead Conversion Salespersons act as a bridge between consumer needs and products. In this sense, salespersons close deals by introducing consumers with additional product information helping the customers form a connect between their needs and the product. Direct interactions with customers offers salespersons the advantage of tailoring their sales pitch and offerings to suit customer need. This forms the most attractive aspect of a salesperson to the consumer, as they view salespersons as product experts, building credibility and also converting leads or prospects into customers. Sales persons should possess detailed knowledge of the products and impressive presentation style for facilitating decision making of customers for buying the product.

 

b)    Business Growth Salespersons play a critical role in building loyalty and trust between customers and businesses. During sales interactions, it is the salesperson who plays a crucial role towards converting a prospect into customer. Also, it is based on salesperson’s interactions that the customer recommends the firm to friends and family, thereby aiding in business growth. The sales person must have sound convincing skills to persuade the customers to buy the product. Sales persons should make their best efforts to satisfy the customers. The satisfied customers may recommend other persons to buy the product. Such customers will play significant role in the growth of business.

 

 

c)     Customer Retention Customer retention is a very challenging task. Selling is a personal interaction. Excellent salespersons are not those who make sales, but those who also make a long-lasting impact on their customers. Long term customer relationships further lead to repeat customers increasing the brand reputation and WOM.

Sales follow-ups are an important tool of customer retention utilized by the salesperson. This gives the salesperson an opportunity to get customer feedback and engaging in resolution of customer issues in a timely and professional manner. For this purpose, the sales persons have to interact with the customers after the completion of the sale. If there is any grievance, sales person must make sincere effort to resolve it so that the customer feels good about the product. Once the customer is satisfied, he/she may be loyal towards the product and brand.

 

 

Q – State the Qualities of a Salesman.

Ans. Qualities of a Salesman

Mayer & Greenberg (2006) in their article published in the Harvard Business Review identified for a good salesman to be possessing the following qualities:

·       Ability to Feel: Empathy was identified as a crucial quality towards becoming a good salesman. A salesman cannot sell without the ability to gain feedback from customer through empathy. A salesman must be able to sense the reactions of customers and should be able to adjust its responses based on those responses.

·       Need to Conquer: The drive to get the sale through is another important quality of a good salesperson. Closing the sale must act a drive to enhance a salesperson’s ego. Also, failures must act as triggers to greater efforts that bring success.

·       Need for Balance: This calls for several combinations of empathy and ego drive. In this sense, a salesman must possess qualities that display its ego towards closing the sale yet also contain empathy towards customers’ needs and perceptions.

 

Other qualities that describe a good salesman are:

a) Good Listener: Good salespersons treat customers to be equally responsible for the talk. While the salesperson possesses the capability to communicate, it must also provide time for customers to respond.

b) Resilience: A good salesperson should be able to accept failures without despair. Rejections should not act as lows but as motivators for future.

c) Confidence: A good salesman is confident, in control of its surroundings and informative. Confidence reflects in the manner one presents itself and their views.

d) A good salesperson must possess the ability to analyse customer motivation and behaviour.

e) A good salesperson must possess complete information on the product, and should also be able to demonstrate the product to prospects.

 

Q- What do you mean by Creative salesmansip ?

Ans. Creative Salesmanship

A good salesman creates in customer’s minds the desire to possess the product / service it is selling. This act of educating the public leading to a desire to possess the goods and services, while also resulting in an enhanced civilized society is known as creative salesmanship. Salesmanship applied to good ends is creative salesmanship. With the salesman always looking for new ideas to reach its prospects minds, the modern salesmanship may also be termed as creative salesmanship.

 

 

Q – State the characteristics of Creative Salesmanship.

Ans. Characteristics of Creative Selling

a) Creation of market for old and new products. Salesman is assigned the task to create new market for old or existing products.

b) Salesman present facts in an interesting manner so as to generate consumer interest.

c) Sales may take place immediately or after some delay, but time is not a consideration.

d) Emphasis lies on service and utility of the product and incentives like discounts, credit facilities and home delivery.

e) Focus lies not on the price, but the satisfaction that the product may deliver.

 

 

Q – State the importance of Sales Management.

Ans. . IMPORTANCE OF SALES MANAGEMENT

The significance of sales management as a function is evident from the huge budgets allocated for the same across the companies. This is because it helps the firm deal with competition and is thus considered an inevitable part of the business organization. Importance of the sales management as a function can be summarized in the following points:

1. Attains organizational goals: Sales management helps in achieving predetermined organizational goals by transforming the marketing plans into actions to generate profits, meeting customer demands effectively and capturing the market share.

2. Aids in better planning: One of the fundamental tasks of sales management is to formulate the sales plans, sales budgets and drawing sales strategies so that the efforts of the sales-force can be well directed towards achieving the common organizational goals.

3. Maximises the sales: By supporting the establishment of SMART sales plans, the sales management aids in maximizing the sales and thereby revenue for the organizations.

4. Fosters strong customer relationships: Sales management urges the sales-force to attach highest importance to building strong customer ties .The strong ties with the customers facilitates the brand develop a loyal customer base and increased profitability.

5. Optimum utilization of distribution channels: Channels of distribution can be more optimally utilized by the organization when the sales management is able to identify appropriate distribution channel. They must take adequate step to resolve the distribution issues and enhance the smooth operations of the distribution channel.

6. Develops result driven sales-force: Sales management is concerned with not only recruiting but also training, motivating and compensating the sales staff. The continuous training, development and motivation drive them to contribute effectively towards the profits of the firm.

 

 

Q – State the difference between selling & marketing.

Ans.

BASIS FOR COMPARISON	SALES	MARKETING
Meaning	Sales refers to the process of selling, whereby product is offered for sale to the customer at a certain price and at a given period of time.	Marketing is understanding the requirements of the customers in such a way that whenever any new product is introduced, it sells itself.
Orientation	Product-oriented	Customer-oriented
Approach	Fragmented approach	Integrated approach
Focus	Company needs	Market needs
Related to	Related to flow of goods to customers.	Related to all the activities which facilitates flow of goods to customers.
Duration	Short-term	Long-term
Objective	To instigate shoppers in such a way that they turn out as buyers.	To identify the needs of customers and create products to satisfy those needs.
Relationship	One-to-One	One-to-Many
Target	Individual or small group	General Public
Scope	Selling of the product.	Advertisement, Sales, Research, Customer satisfaction, After sales services etc.
Activity	Customer driven	Media driven
Strategy used	Push Strategy	Pull Strategy
Process	Involves exchange of goods for adequate consideration.	Entails identifying and satisfying customer's needs.
Rule	Caveat Emptor	Caveat Vendor
Technique	Price promotion, Discounts and Special offers.	Customer relationship through integration of organization with the needs of customers.
Skills required	Selling and Conversational skills	Analytical skills
Aims at	Profit maximization through sales maximization.	Profit maximization through increased consumer satisfaction and market share.

 

 

 

Q – State the Importance of Buying Motives in Personal Selling.

Ans. IMPORTANCE OR APPLICATION OF BUYING MOTIVES IN PERSONAL SELLING

The understanding of the ‘Buying motives’ concept is necessary due to the following reasons:

1.     Improvising salesmanship : As a buying motive is the sole reason behind every purchase, therefore a salesperson can improve his skills of salesmanship by understanding the buying motive of his customer. Once he understands the motive of his customer behind the purchase, he will be able to better cater his needs in terms of the quality, price, size, colour etc. of the product. Also, by understanding the purchase motive of the customer, the salesman will be in a better position to guide him and influence his purchase behaviour. The understanding of this concept will definitely help the salesperson to polish his skills on existing job and look forward to better career opportunities.

2.     Assists in product planning : Buying motives facilitate the marketing experts and the firms, in taking product planning decisions in line with the customers’ preferences. Under this, the various market experts conduct a thorough market research wherein they try to explore the buying motives of their target audience. They try to understand what colour, size, features, occasions, design etc, the target audience is looking for. Accordingly, these experts or firms take decisions pertaining to the planning of the product.

3.     Facilitates in pricing decisions : Pricing decision is one of the critical factors that influence a firm’s survival or growth in the market. Therefore, a firm must undertake a comprehensive analysis of the data while setting up the price of a product. Buying motives helps the firms in determining the motives of their target audience and further classifying them into rational or emotional buying motive categories. Based on these buying motives classification, their price sensitively can be determined. A rational buying motive buyer is likely to be more price sensitive than an emotion driven buyer.

4.     Role in promotion- mix : A firm uses various promotional techniques viz. personal selling, advertising, direct marketing, sales promotion, and publicity etc. to spread awareness or communicate about its product or services to the target audience. Knowledge of the buying motives of the target audience can help the marketers to understand the forces that stimulates their target audience to make a purchase. A decision can be made whether the target audience is driven by rationality or is stimulated by emotions. Accordingly, a suitable promotion mix comprising of appropriate promotional technique, the type of advertising appeal used in the message, the body copy of the message/ advertisement etc. can be determined to communicate with the target audience effectively.

5.     Determining channels of distribution : There are some consumers that prefer buying product or service from the wholesaler itself. They do not prefer buying commodities from some middlemen or retailer. Such customers are influenced by “self- protective” buying motives while making a purchase. Therefore, a marketer must take into consideration the ‘buying motives’ of the customers before taking any logistics related decision.

6.     Contributes to firm’s goodwill : Firms try to satisfy their customers by understanding their buying motives and cater their needs accordingly. Customer satisfaction in turn results into a positive image of the firm in the market which leads to the creation of firm’s goodwill in the market.

7.     Increases Customer trust and loyalty : Since, firms ensure their customers’ satisfaction by analysing their buying motives, it builds the customer’s trust in the brand or firm. Customer trust further induces the customer’s loyalty to the brand or firm.

 

 

Q – State the Factors Affecting Buyer Behaviouir.

Ans. FACTORS AFFECTING BUYER BEHAVIOUR

There are five major factors that affects a buyer behavior viz. cultural, social, personal, psychological, and economical factors.

1. Cultural factors: Buyer’s behavior is influenced by various cultural factors like the buyer’s culture, social class and sub- culture. Let us learn various cultural factors.

·       Culture: Culture is the most significant factor affecting a buyer’s purchase behavior. Cultural factors include factors like ethics, values, wants, needs, preferences, perceptions etc. Cultural factors are the observed factors that a person deduces by observing his family members or the ecosystem he lives in.

·       Sub- culture: A culture generally, consists of various subcultures like religions, geographic groups, racial group, nationality, caste etc. These subcultures share same set of values or beliefs. A marketers may segment the market on the basis of these subcultures and can accordingly cater the needs of the target segment. For instance, a marketer may target a specific religious group.

·       Social class: Every society possess some form of social class. A social class is determined on basis of various factors like education, wealth, income, occupation etc. A marketer may aim at targeting a specific segment of social class. For example, apple inc. targets people falling in higher income group.

 

2. Social factors: Social factors also influence a buyer’s purchase behaviour. These factors include various factors like family, reference group, roles and status etc. let us learn various social factors.

·       Family: Family plays a significant role in influencing a buyer’s decision about a product or brand. Family is said to be the strongest factor that impact a person’s decision. Marketers must aim at understanding the role of the family members like parents, husband, wife, children, siblings etc. in influencing a purchase decision.

·       Reference group: Reference group consists of the people whose suggestions or advices matter to one. Reference group generally consists of people like friends, colleagues, relatives, neighbours etc. who we look up to while making a purchase decision. For instance, buying an iPhone instead of an android phone because your friend has an iPhone.

·       Role and status: A person’s buying behaviour is significantly influenced by the role or status one holds in the society. A person’s role or status is determined by the profession or the group of people one is associated with. For example, working in a finance company, a teacher, a housewife, a doctor, chairman of a housing society etc. A female playing dual roles of housemaker and a teacher, her purchase decision will be influenced by both the roles she is playing in the society.

 

3. Personal factors: Personal factors are equally important in determining a buyer’s purchase decision. These include factors like age, income, occupation, lifestyle, personality. Let us learn various personal factors.

·       Age: The age of a person influences his purchase decisions. As you must be aware that people pass through various stages of life cycle like from a child to an adult, from unmarried to a married couple, from parents to old age etc. at each stage a person’s preference of products or services varies. For example, young buyers prefer flashy or fashionable clothes whereas an elderly person may prefer a comfortable and simple attire.

·       Income: Income is the most critical factor influencing a buyer’s purchase decision. The first and the foremost requirement to make a purchase is affordability. A buyer is said to form demand of a product only if the product is in the reach of the buyer’s income or affordability. People belonging to higher income group may purchase expensive items as they can afford it.

·       Occupation: Occupation influences a buyer’s behaviour while making a purchase. A buyer tends to make purchase as per his/ her profession. For instance, a teacher will buy clothes according to his/her profession and a doctor will buy clothes as per his job considerations.

·       Lifestyle: Lifestyle is a way or an attitude that person follows to live in a society and lead his/ her life. Lifestyle is another important factor influencing a buyer’s behaviour. For instance, a person leading a healthy lifestyle, tend to buy more healthy stuff than unhealthy or junk food.

·       Personality: Personality refers to the totality of the behaviour a person in given situations at different point of times. Personality traits consists of factors like introvert, extrovert, aggressive, submissive, dominant etc. A marketer may always segment the audience on the basis of their personality and cater their needs accordingly.

4. Economic factors: Economic factors are concerned with the purchasing power of a buyer. These includes factors like personal income, family income, income expectations, liquid assets, consumer credit etc. let us learn various economic factors.

·       Personal income: Many economists have tried to correlate a person’s income with his/ her spending. As per them, a person’s spending increases with an increase in his/ her income. Therefore, personal disposable income of a buyer is a significant factor influencing a buyer’s behaviour.

·       Family income: The size of the buyer’s family or the aggregate income of the family influences a buyer’s purchase decision. A small or nuclear family is said to spend less whereas a big family may spend more.

·       Income expectations: Expectations plays an important role in determining a buyer’s purchase behaviour. A buyer expecting a lower income is tend to spend less. On the other hand, buyer expecting a higher income may spend more. Therefore, marginal propensity to consume or save of a buyer is greatly influenced by the level of expected income.

·       Liquid assets: Liquid assets refer to those assets which can easily be converted into money without much variation in the value of the asset, for example: cash, marketable securities etc. A buyer’s behaviour shall be influenced by the amount of liquid and fixed assets held by the buyer.

·       Consumer credit: Nowadays, marketers have started offering credit to their buyers. Marketers are following the notion of “Buy now, Pay later”. For example, Bajaj finance offers zero cost EMI to buyers.

5. Psychological factors: Psychological factors consist of four factors these are motivation, perception, learning and attitude. Let us learn various psychological factors.

(a) Motivation: Motivation plays an important role in determining a buyer’s behaviour. People have various needs that motivates them and influences their behaviour. Some of these needs are physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs, and self- actualisation needs. An unfulfilled need is said to motivate a buyer. However, once a need is fulfilled it no longer motivates the buyer. Hence, it may not be able to influence the buyer’s behaviour. For instance, a person working at a higher position in an organisation might not feel motivated with an increment in the salary. However, a job promotion may interest him.

(b) Perception: A buyer’s purchase behaviour is critically influenced by the buyer’s perception about the brand or product. Perception refers to the image that a person holds about a particular product or brand in his/ her mind. This perception is formed on the basis of cognitive processing going through a buyer’s mind. A buyer or customer comes across various advertisements, reviews, comments etc. about a brand or product. These brand or product related activities may lead to formation of cognition in buyer’s mind based on which a buyer forms an impression of the brand or product. For instance, a product having maximum positive customer reviews or comments is likely to form a positive perception in the buyer’s mind.

(c) Learning: Learning is an on-going process that takes place over a period of time. It begins before a person buys a product or service and continues after he/ she buys it. However, when a buyer buys a product or service, he/she is likely to gather more information about the product or service.

 

 

Q – State the Maslow’s Theory of Need Hierarchy.

Ans. MASLOW’S THEORY OF NEED HIERARCHY

Maslow need hierarchy theory of motivation was given by an American psychologist, Abraham H. Maslow in the year 1943. This theory explains the underlying human motivations with respect to the different level of human needs. The theory states that a person tends to fulfill his needs in a hierarchical manner starting from a basic need and advancing to higher level needs. In other words, higher level needs are not likely to motivate a person unless his basic needs are fulfilled. Maslow have categorized these needs into 5 categories.

1. Physiological needs: Physiological needs are the basic needs a person requires in order to survive. Some examples of physiological needs are water, food, shelter, sleep etc. If these needs are not fulfilled or satisfied, it will become difficult for a person to survive.

2. Safety needs: The second level of need is safety needs. Once the physiological needs of a person have been satisfied, he/ she asks for safety or security in life. The safety or security needs are concerned with job security, financial security, good health, and personal security etc.

3. Social needs: Social need is the third level of need. Social need is concerned with the love and belongingness. A person needs to feel a sense of belongingness and love either from a large group of social networks or a small group of connected people like family or friends. This connection can also come from association with some professional group, social media, religious group etc.

4. Esteem needs: The fourth level of the need hierarchy is esteem needs. These needs are concerned with a person esteem that is respect, status, prestige, and validation by others etc. It is also termed as self- esteem which means how a person feels for himself. Lack of this esteem may result into inferiority complex or low confidence level. .

5. Self- actualization needs: Self- actualization needs are the most advanced or highest level of needs of a person. At this level a person feels that his full potential has been utilized and he/she has reached to the best of his/ her capabilities. However, this self-actualization feeling is transient since people tend to strive for personal growth throughout their lives.

 

 

Q – State the Major Prospecting Methods.

Ans. Major Prospecting Methods

1.     Centre of Influence Method: Salespersons may join organisations, clubs like gymkhana club, press associations, lion’s club where they interact with people of influence who may become their clients or may assist in future networking. However, while doing so the sales people need to maintain a low profile so that the interaction seems accidental rather than intentional.

2.     Spotters: They are also known as ‘sales associates’ and they help the sales person in further spotting the clients or providing a lead for a fee. Current satisfied customers, taxi drivers, clerks or even competitor’s sales persons can be a good source in providing referrals to the sales person.

3.     Observations: Organized and scientific observation may provide salesperson with many fruitful leads. For example, reading newspapers, visiting shopping malls or interacting with people as a part of daily activities may provide sales people with information regarding new job offers, marriages, deaths, births that may indicate change in people’s need and requirement for diverse products.

4.     Advertising: Efficient advertising by the companies in newspaper, radio, television and magazines may also attract the prospect to contact the salesperson and initiate sales.

5.     Cold canvassing: It is also known as ‘random prospecting’. In case of daily use products that are needed by everyone, simply knocking at the door to uncover potential prospects can be an efficient technique in generating sales.

6.     Endless chain: By using referrals and testimonials from the satisfied customers, the sales representatives can develop endless chains of lead, but in such case contacting satisfied customer is of utmost importance otherwise chain may be broken.

7.     Company records: Obtaining information from internal records of the company regarding list of customers, their profile, likes and dislikes may reveal information about potential prospects.

8.     Retailers: They are in direct contact with the customers and are familiar about their tastes, needs and preferences.

9.     Miscellaneous: Trade fairs and exhibitions, trade publications, computerized database, group or party plans organised by Tupperware, Oriflame and Amway invite the interested people to follow up later.

 

 

Q – describe the Steps involved in sales presentation & Demonstration.

Ans. Steps Involved in Sales Presentation and Demonstration

Regardless of tools and techniques followed for sales presentation and demonstration, following logical sequential steps are a pre requisite for making sales. Let us learn them in detail.

1. Attracting Attention: It involves reading prospects mind and thoughts and providing them with appropriate product. Prospects attention can be gathered by well-designed and decorated retail outlet, proper illumination, attractive visuals, aroma, decoration and catchy product display so that it appeals to prospect’s all five senses viz: sight, smell, sound, taste and touch.

2. Creating Interest: The sales persons should possess the detailed knowledge of the product and company. He should highlight the unique features of the product along with various schemes of the company so that the interest of the customers may be aroused. The salesperson create interest in the prospect by providing them more detailed knowledge about the product in terms of features, benefits of the product.

3. Arousing Desire: Taking the prospect to the next level in this stage the salesperson converts prospect’s interest into desire by providing him emotional satisfaction and showing him that the product will fulfil his needs. The salesperson at this stage is able to influence the prospect’s mind and build trust in the product and the brand. This trust may also arise out of prospect’s dissatisfaction with products of other brands.

4. Building Conviction: At this stage salesperson has provided satisfactory reply to prospect’s objections and complaints. The salesperson has provided references of the satisfied customers, explained the entire offer in details along with the discounted price, all warranties, compensations and warnings. The prospect is convinced that the product will satisfy his needs better than the earlier brands.

 

 

Q – State the types of prospects Category & Strategy.

Ans. Types of Prospects Categories and Strategy

Personal selling is a very important wing of promotion mix since it involves two-way communication. A salesperson should have the ability to understand the psyche of his prospect and sell the product accordingly. He cannot use the same selling strategy for all prospects. Depending upon different categories of customers, different strategies should be used. Some of the strategies are discussed below: .

1. Skeptical Prospect: This category of prospects cannot be convinced easily. They always have reservations and doubts. Such prospects should not be given a detailed presentation because they are fault-finding people. So, salesperson should be conservative in their presentation with them.

2. Silent Prospect: Prospect who are silent type should be asked more questions so that salesperson can understand their needs, interests, problems and provide the product accordingly.

3. Opinionated Prospect: Such prospects should be handled with care. Salesperson should listen to them carefully, agree with their point of views and pamper their ego.

4. Procrastinator Prospect: Certain prospects are in a habit of postponing the purchase decision. They should be informed of the benefits they will receive if they purchase the product now. They need to be reassured of their authority and purchase decision.

5. Impulsive Prospect: Impulsive prospects do not have patience to listen to the entire presentation in details. Salesperson should speed up the presentation and avoid presenting unnecessary details. They should just focus on the highlights and try to close as soon as possible.

6. Methodical Prospect: These prospects are interested in all the details, explanations and key points. Salesperson should go slow with them, provide them with all the information and close the sales only when prospect is ready.

7. Timid and Cautious Prospect: Too much of showmanship and confidence of salespersons can put such prospects off. Salesperson first should try to make them comfortable and then gently move forward with a simple and straight forward presentation.

8. Talkative Prospect: Such prospects have their own long stories to tell. Salespersons should not allow them to take the presentation off the track. He should listen to them but at the same time politely come back to the point. They should not let the prospects take control of the presentation.

9. Chip on the shoulder Prospect: These prospects have a lot of attitudes. They should be respected and handled in a sincere and friendly manner. Agree with them and quietly sell the product.

 

 

Q - Explain some of the Sale Closing Techniques.

Ans. Sales Closing Techniques

There are several closing techniques that can be used by a salesperson alone or in combination with other techniques as per the situation.

Let us learn them in detail.

Choice Close: Instead of being asked openly whether the prospect will purchase the product or not, in case of this technique the prospect is gently guided to choose between two items the seller has. For example, prospect can be asked, “Which model washing machine you would prefer?”. This close avoids giving the option of ‘No’ to the prospect.

Minor Points Close: Using this approach, the salesperson take confirmation from the prospect on minor points and gradually winning him over and leading towards final sale. He may help the prospect in narrowing down his choice by asking questions like, “Which colour would you prefer?” “You want a deluxe model car or premium model car”, “How would you like to make payment cash, debit card, credit card?”, “Will it be down payment or instalment”, “How soon you want it to be delivered to you”.

Assumptive Close: In this case the prospect assumes that the prospect will make purchase and he communicates this thought to the prospect through his actions, comments etc. “How will you like to make payment- cash or card” “Will you eat it here in the restaurant or take away”. He may start wrapping the product, start preparing the bill or take out his card payment machine. Handling the prospect, a pen to write or handling over the keys to him is an example that the sale is about to close.

Stimulus-Response Close: The salesperson ask such questions that the prospect is stimulated to provide favourable response. “You would prefer a base cream that would compliments your fair complexion, Isn’t”. “You would like to wear such a dress for your wedding that you stand out, something that nobody has worn before, right”. Such a strategy is used more by inexperienced salespersons. However, the salespersons should be careful in implementing this strategy ascertain prospects may find such compliments irritating.

Summary Close: After the presentation is over the prospect may sum up the advantages and disadvantages of the product to the prospect. So once everything is in front of the prospect in black and white it is easy for him to take decision. He can weigh the advantages and disadvantages and take his decision accordingly. Such a strategy works very well with rational prospects.

Standing Room Only Close: The salesperson wants the prospect to take his decision immediately after the presentation because he knows no matter how much the prospect is impressed with the product, brand and the salesperson once he leaves without deciding he may not be able to come back because of personal, environmental and situational factors. So, they put psychological pressure on the prospect by saying that the only few pieces of the product are left so if they postpone their purchase, they may lose the product as the product is selling like hot cakes.

Special Deal Close: Sometimes it happens that the prospect is almost ready to purchase the product but needs some extra push to take favourable decision. Offering their best deal is one way of luring the prospect to take purchase decision. The salesperson might say, “I can offer microwave idli-maker along with the microwave if you purchase today” or, “Since this is the last piece of electric tandoor left, I can offer 15% discount instead of 10%”. He may also say, “I am giving you discount from my commission because with this piece I will reach my target”.

Success Story Close: The salesperson can cite examples from past customers with similar problems. He may say that the product solved their problems so it will be of great help to them as well. “My sister also purchased this electric scooter and she found it to be very economic with almost zero maintenance” or, “My brother also completed his MBA from this business school, and he is very well placed in Dubai and my cousin from same business school qualified for IAS”.

Closing on Resistance: Sometimes the prospect may still have doubts even when the sale is about to close. Under such situation sales person should be patient and very quietly turn the resistance into the reason for purchasing the product. “Don’t worry about the weight of the pots with fresh plants, I will get them home delivered and not only that my man will plant the saplings also in the pot of your choice”.

 

 

Q – Comment on - “Closing the sale is not the end”.

Ans. Closing the sale is not the end of salesperson and customer’ interaction. In fact, it is the beginning of development of new relationship between them which is the foundation of any relationship and is known as relationship marketing. After the purchase it is very natural and very human for customers to suffer post-purchase anxiety about the wisdom of their purchase decision. Follow up calls from salesperson play a very important role in alleviating the anxiety and reassure the customers of their decisions. Alleviating this anxiety is very important otherwise an unsatisfied customers may bad mouth it to other prospects and tarnish company’s image. Research prove that the unsatisfied customer will complaint more about the product to other prospects then a satisfied customers spreading the positive reviews. Moreover, it is easy to sale to a current happy and satisfied customer than looking for a new prospect. So, salespersons should always keep the lines of communication open and if salespersons have any problem even after the purchase, resolve them as soon as possible. Maintaining relationship with prospect even after closing the sale also make it easy for the salespersons to introduce complementary products later. The concept of team selling should continue in the follow up stage as well. 

 

 

Q – State the Importance of Sales Reports.

Ans. IMPORTANCE OF SALES REPORTS

Sales reporting and documentation might seem to be a daunting task. However, it is quite insightful for any company and is pertinent enough for its success. The performance of individuals can be portrayed via the articulated reports. It would help to find the best performing sales person. The documents will give proper information on where the best leads would be found and how well qualified those leads are. The use of big data would help in segregating large volumes of data pertaining to sales and simultaneously create well-structured reports. The challenges encountered with the sales pipeline can be very well identified using the reports.

1.     Evaluating the revenue generating products offered by the company: The sales related documents make it easy to comprehend which is the best product or service that is generating huge amount of revenue and has the potential to gain a greater number of customers. The reason why it becomes easy to evaluate is the structured way of articulating the expenses, analyzing the sales, assigning value to the products, and keeping the track of money incurred by the process of selling the products or services offered by the company. It facilitates the sales funnel by identifying the profits incurred by each product. The reporting process enables a sales representative to fine-tune the efforts spent on marketing and selling the products. The data can be used to promote and advertise the goods which are generating opportunities in terms of wealth and customer loyalty for future growth of the company.

2.     Monitor the slow-paced products: The sales reports not only provide information on the most prominent products offering huge benefits but also find a way for determining which product is generating the least number of profits. It helps to locate the products which are moving in slow pace in the product line and offering the least benefit to the company. The data constituted in the sales document will be able to tell us how to optimize the existing resources. It shall help the executives to support the managers in designing strategies beneficial to the organization. The risks of over stocking can be reduced by the help of available data. The cost of reducing is too high, holding inventory can overshoot the expenses and incur losses in the process. Using the data available in the sales report one can manage price changes and use the technique of introducing discounts on products which are incurring losses.

3.     Determining most profitable consumers: The same way by which the sales report was helping the managers to find the products incurring profits, it shall also help them identify the profitable and potential customers. This seems to be a data holding a lot of value as it becomes a decisive factor where a company should invest more in order to gain new customers and retain the existing ones. It serves the purpose of brand loyalty. Customers are an asset to the company and the entire success rate of the company depends on how many new customers a brand is able to attract. This pertinent piece of information from the sales data will allow the companies to improve their customer retention policies and build on the strategies enabling customer loyalty. This can be done through various processes such as discounting on specific products, bonuses for the loyal customers and VIP services to the existing customers, so that they are satisfied and share their experiences with the use of word of mouth.

4.     Finding more suitable prospects and different consequences: The data in a sales document presents various trends and patterns and by visualizing such patterns it becomes much easier to detect the potential challenges and opportunities pertaining to the territories covered. If the sales data of a particular product indicates a growth in its sales volume, the inventory must be stocked in correct amount so that the supply meets the demands. The distribution channels must have the products in store so that there is no compromise in meeting the demands of the customers. Well, on the other hand if a product experiences slowdown in the sales figures, the managers can simultaneously lower the prices or give additional discounts to attract customers. More investment on such products could be done, if the report of sales indicates otherwise, this will help in popularizing the products and increase its sales.

 

 

Q - WHAT DOES A PROFESSIONAL SALESPERSON DO?

Ans. The salesperson’s tasks and assignments can vary from job to job and organisation to organisation, depending upon various factors like the nature of product and service that he is selling. For instance, the tasks of a salesperson selling Amway products through multi – level marketing are similar but somewhat different from the tasks of a salesperson selling automobiles for Maruti Suzuki. People believe that the job of a salesperson varies from presenting and demonstrating to closing the deal and follow up. However, in today’s marketplace, there is much more to his credit. As manager of a territory, the salesperson has the responsibility to:

1.     Create new customers: The first and foremost task of a salesperson is to keep increasing the sales or replacing the customers that will be lost over time. This requires continuous prospecting which means identifying the potential customers. Thus, in a way, it may be said that prospecting is the most important part of sales. The salespersons require the ability to apply their judgment , for identifying the people or organizations that have the potential to buy their products.

2.     Sell more to present customers: For increasing the market share, the company not only needs to create more customers but also to sell more occasionally and in more quantity to existing customers. Research says that creating new customer is far costlier than satisfying existing customer. Thus, building up loyalty of customers towards own products/ services becomes very important for the salesperson.

3.     Build long-term relationships with customers: Research says that selling to a new customer is much costlier than selling to an existing one. Thus, satisfying the existing customers become all the more essential. After sales service and regular communications with them is necessary to build long term relations with the customers in order to sell them again and again.

4.     Provide solutions to customers’ problems: Latent or apparent, people have needs whichcan be met. They have problems or issues whichcan be solved by purchasing goods or service. This is where salespeople’s another role comes in. They look for existing or latent needs or problems of their customers and show how the useof their products or services can satisfy needs or solve problems.

5.     Provide service to customers: After selling, the salespeople provide a lot of other services to their customers like grievance redressal, returning damaged products, giving free samples to be distributed to customers, suggesting new business opportunities, and suggesting promotional programs to help the customer to promote the firm’s products.

6.     Helps customers resell products to their customers: Many times sales person’s job is to guide and help the customers to resell the products and services to their customers. They provide assistance to their wholesale customers to sell products to retail customers and helps retail customers sell products to consumers. Consider a salesperson selling spices to grocery wholesalers. For selling his product to wholesalers, he must also need to contact the grocery retailers, take up their orders and send the orders to the wholesalers. If required, the salesperson might also assist the customer by working at his place. A salesperson selling a vacuum cleaner may make an arrangement for its demonstration at his customer’s (wholesaler or retailer) workplace. Thus, with the help of this salesperson, the wholesalers sell and deliver the product to the retailers. The salesperson also develops promotional programs to help the retailer sell the firm’s products. These programs involve supplying advertising materials, conducting store demonstrations, and setting up product displays.

7.     Help customers use products after purchase: This is especially in case of sales of technical products. Many times, the customers need to be demonstrated how to obtain full benefit from the product. For example, on the sale of a new software to an organisation, the technical specialists need to provide lectures/ classes to the employees of that organisation to show them how to run and use the software effectively.

8.     Build goodwill with customers : The salesperson needs to build professional yet friendly and personal relationships with his customers and even their influencers. A salesperson’s job also include a continuous manifestation of integrity, trustworthiness, high ethical standards, and a sincere interest in solving problems to each of his customers.

9.     Provide company with market information: Another important task of a salesperson is to collect market information and pass it on to the organisation. He may collect information about latest trends and preferences of customers, their reaction, complaints, grievances and suggestions on new launches, number of competitors in the market and their activities and new marketing techniques and methods prevailing. This information can be collected from wholesalers, retailers or the customers themselves. Thus, salespeople are a prominent part of information system for any organisation.

 

 

Q – State the criteria for success in Personal Selling.

Ans. CRITERIA FOR SUCCESS IN PERSONAL SELLING

To become successful in a sales career, like any other career, there are some basic demands which need to be fulfilled. These are:

1.      Love of selling: One of the most important conditions to become a successful salesperson is the love of selling. If the salesperson loves his job, finds it challenging and motivating, and if he believes that the product or service that he is selling will solve the customers’ problems and will provide them great value, he is surely in the right field of career. The love of their work keeps the people devoting more and more to their job and it is one of the characteristics of successful people.

2.     Willingness to work hard, work smart, then work some more: A pre- requisite to enter a sales career is the willingness to work hard and smart. A positive attitude towards work is really needed. A career in personal selling commonly requires 10 – 12 hours work days including many Saturdays and Sundays. It is their love of work and their need for success that motivate the top sellers to bear with hectic schedules. This also requires persistence which comes the ability to go beyond normal limits.

3.     Have an optimistic outlook: A positive outlook towards work, organisation, customers and in general, towards life, provide the strength to survive and excel in tough times. A sales job provides a number of such benefits which other jobs may provide. However, they too face many challenges and threats like hectic schedule and dynamic environment. Yet, their optimistic attitude helps them face periodic problems. They persistently find ways to improve their performance even in tough times. In no other field is the necessity of having a positive attitude more prominent than in sales. Successful salespeople are enthusiastic, confident, and constantly think of themselves as successful.

4.     Be knowledgeable: For a salesperson knowledge means information about the customers, their demography, tastes and lifestyle, their existing and latent needs, the various substitutes available in the market, the competitors- their characteristics and market share, latest marketing techniques being used in the market, etc. Knowledge also includes awareness about the latest techniques, skills and ideas used by other salespeople while dealing with customers. To become successful, salespeople need to focus on having thorough knowledge in all aspects of their business. This boosts their confidence and helps in building a professional image as well as trust with customers.

As goods and services become more complex, companies place greater emphasis on training their salespeople and on salespeople training themselves. It is no wonder that corporate recruiters seek aboveaverage individuals to fill their entry-level sales positions.

 

5.     Be ruthless about time: One of the greatest mantra to become successful in career and life is to kill procrastination. Any kind of talent in a person is wasted if he/ she is not able to utilise it because of procrastination. Successful sales people do not use the word someday. They realize that what you do today determines your tomorrows. Thus, tomorrow is today! They always think of today as a new opportunity in their lives. They are do-it-now people. They pick up the phone, mail a letter, or make a sales call today to be successful tomorrow.

6.     Ask questions and then listen to uncover customer needs: People nowadays do not like the kind of salespeople who speak a lot and do not let them speak about their problems. One of the most important skills that salespeople need to learn is to listen carefully to what his customer is telling him. They need to ask questions then pay attention as the prospects answers the questions to uncover their needs.

7.     Serve your customer: Customers never like to be sold. They need the customers to solve their problems. They like to believe that the salesperson care for them and will always give them the best advice about the products and services which can solve their problem. Customer service is not just a series of steps to be completed. It is an attitude and a way of looking at customers that enables the salespeople to provide the best level of service that they and their organization are capable of providing. The power of customer service cannot be underestimated when it comes to making sales and keeping customers. Many customers are willing to pay a higher price or go without certain features if they know that they have access to excellent customer service people who will be responsive and effective whenever they are needed. Providing service to customers also help the salespeople to gain respect from their customers.

8.     Be physically and mentally prepared: Even in the times of e – commerce and internet marketing, still many of the sales job are of primarily of travelling in nature. Salespeople need to meet their clients on a regular basis in order to give presentation and fix their problems. Regular travelling and hectic schedule demands the salesperson to keep himself physically prepared. With physical preparedness comes mental strength. Exercise elevates the mood by increasing energy and simultaneously secreting adrenaline-like substances in the body that act as stimulants and antidepressants, according to the medical community. This increased feeling of well-being transmits itself to the body and mind. Knowing that you are in shape to deal with today and tomorrow is an important component of being successful.