Chapter 20

Marketing: Personal Selling and Sales Management
 

AFTER READING THIS CHAPTER
YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO:
  • •Recognize different types of personal selling.
•
  • •Describe the stages in the personal selling process.
 
  • •Specify the functions and tasks in the sales management process.
•
  • •Determine whether a firm should use manufacturer’s representatives or a company salesforce and the number of people needed in a company’s salesforce.
  • •Understand how firms recruit, select, train, motivate, compensate, and evaluate salespeople.
•
  • •Describe recent applications of salesforce automation and customer relationship management.

 

 

PERSONAL SELLING
AND SALES MANAGEMENT
SELLING THE WAY
CUSTOMERS WANT
TO BUY
 

 

 

SCOPE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF PERSONAL SELLING AND SALES MANAGEMENT

FIGURE 20-1  Selling and Management Quiz

SCOPE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF PERSONAL SELLING AND SALES MANAGEMENT
 
 

 

Personal Selling
The two-way flow of communication between a buyer and seller, often in a face-to-face encounter, designed to influence a person’s or group’s purchase decision.
 
 

 

Sales Management
Planning the personal selling program and implementing and controlling the personal selling effort of the firm.
 
 

 

Relationship Selling
The practice of building ties to customers based on a salesperson’s attention and commitment to customer needs over time.
 
 

 

Partnership Selling
The practice whereby buyers and sellers combine their expertise and resources to crate customized solutions; commit to joint planning; and share customer, competitive, and company information for their mutual benefit, and ultimately the customer. 
 
 

 

Concept Check
1.  What is personal selling?
 
A:  Personal selling is the two-way flow of communication between a buyer and seller, often in a face-to-face encounter, designed to influence a person’s or group’s purchase decision.
 

2.  What is involved in sales management?

 
A:  Sales management involves planning the selling program as well as implementing and controlling the personal selling efforts of the firm.
 

 

 

THE MANY FORMS
OF PERSONAL SELLING

 

 

Order Taker
Processes routine orders or reorders for products that were already sold by the company.
 
 

 

 

Order Getter
A salesperson who sells in a conventional sense and identifies prospective customers, provides customers with information, persuades customers to buy, closes sales, and follows up on customers’ use of a product or service.
 
 

 

FIGURE 20-2  How outside order-getting salespeople spend their time each week

THE MANY FORMS
OF PERSONAL SELLING
  • •Customer Sales Support Personnel
 

 

 

Missionary Salespeople
Sales support personnel who do not directly solicit orders but rather concentrate on performing promotional activities and introducing new products.
 
 

 

Sales Engineer
A salesperson who specializes in identifying, analyzing, and solving customer problems and who brings know-how and technical expertise to the selling situations, but does not actually sell goods and services.
 
 

 

Team Selling
Using an entire team of professionals in selling to and servicing major customers. 
 

 

Concept Check
1.  What is the principal difference between an order taker and an order getter?
 
A:  Order takes preserve an ongoing relationship with existing customers and maintain sales.  Order getters identify prospective customers and create new sales.
 
2.  What is team selling?
A:  The practice of using an entire team of professionals in selling to an servicing major customers. 
 

 

 

THE PERSONAL SELLING PROCESS: BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS
 

 

 

 

Personal Selling Process
Sales activities occurring before and after the sales itself, consisting of six stages:  (1) prospecting, (2) preapproach, (3) approach, (4) presentation, (5) close, and (6) follow-up.
 
 

 

Stimulus-Response Presentation
A selling format that assumes the prospect will buy if given the appropriate stimulus by a salesperson.
 
 

 

Formula Selling Presentation
Providing information in an accurate, thorough, and step-by-step manner to inform the prospect.
 
 

 

THE PERSONAL SELLING PROCESS: BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS
  • •Presentation (cont)
 

 

 

Need-Satisfaction Presentation
A selling format that emphasizes probing and listening by the salesperson to identify needs and interests of prospective buyers.
 
 

 

Adaptive Selling
A need-satisfaction sales presentation that involves adjusting the presentation to fit the selling situation.
 
 

 

 

Consultative Selling
Focuses on problem definition, where the salesperson serves as an expert on problem recognition and resolution.
 
 

 

FIGURE 20-3a  Stages and Objectives of the Personal Selling Process

FIGURE 20-3a  Stages and Objectives of the Personal Selling Process (Continued)

Concept Check
1.  What are the six stages in the personal selling process?
 
A:  Prospecting, preapproach, approach, presentation, close, follow-up
 
2.  What is the distinction between a lead and a qualified prospect?  
 
A:  A lead is the name of a person who may be a possible customer, whereas a prospect is a person who wants or needs the product.
 
3.  Which presentation format is most consistent with the marketing concept?  Why? 
 
A:  The need-satisfaction presentation format is most consistent with the marketing concept because it emphasizes problem solving.
 

 

 

THE SALES
MANAGEMENT PROCESS

FIGURE 20-4  The sales management process

THE SALES
MANAGEMENT PROCESS
  • •Setting Objectives
  • •Organizing the Salesforce
 

 

 

Sales Plan
A statement describing what is to be achieved and where and how the selling effort of salespeople is to be deployed.
 
 

 

FIGURE 20-5  Break even chart  . . .

FIGURE 20-6a  Organizing the sales force by customer

FIGURE 20-6b Organizing the sales force by geography

FIGURE 20-6c  Organizing the sales force by product

FIGURE 20-6 Organizing the
Sales Force by customer, product, and geography

THE SALES
MANAGEMENT PROCESS
 

 

 

 

Major Account Management
The practice of using team selling to focus on important customers so as to build mutually beneficial, long-term, cooperative relationships.
 
 

 

Workload Method
A formula-based method for determining the size of a salesforce that integrates the number of customers served, call frequency, call length, and available selling time to arrive at a sales force.
 
 

 

Account Management Policies
Policies that specify whom salespeople should contact, what kinds of selling an customer service activities should be engaged in, and how these activities should be carried out.
 
 

 

FIGURE 20-7  Account management policy grid

THE SALES
MANAGEMENT PROCESS
  • •Sales Plan Implementation
 

 

 

Emotional Intelligence
The ability to understand one’s own emotions and the emotions of people with whom one interacts on a daily basis.
 
 

 

FIGURE 20-8  U.S. salesforce composition and change

 

THE SALES
MANAGEMENT PROCESS
  • •Sales Plan Implementation (cont)
  • •Salesforce Training
  • •Salesforce Motivation and Compensation

 

 

THE SALES
MANAGEMENT PROCESS
  • •Salesforce Evaluation and Control
  • •Quantitative Assessments
  • •Behavioral Evaluation
  • •Salesforce Computerization
  • •Salesforce Communication
 

 

 

Salesforce Automation
The use of technology to make the sales function more effective and efficient.
 
 

 

Concept Check
1.  What are the three types of selling objectives?
 
A:  Selling objectives can be output-related, input-related, or behaviorally-related.
 
2.  What three factors are used to structure sales organizations?
A:  Typically, sales organizational structures are based on geography, customer, or product.
 
3.  How does emotional intelligence tie to adaptive selling?
A:  The ability to understand one’s own and others’ emotions allows quick adaptation to various situations. 
 
 

 

Chapter20 - Summary

 

  1. Personal selling involves the two-way flow of communication between a buyer and a seller, often in a face-to-face encounter, designed to influence a person's or group's purchase decision. Sales management involves planning the sales program and implementing and controlling the personal selling effort of the firm.
  2. Personal selling is pervasive since virtually every occupation that involves customer contact has an element of selling attached to it.
  3. Personal selling plays a major role in a firm's marketing effort. Salespeople occupy a boundary position between buyers and sellers; they are the company to many buyers and account for a major cost of marketing in a variety of industries; and they can create value for customers.
  4. Three types of personal selling exist: order-taking, order-getting, and sales support activities. Each type differs from the others in terms of actual selling done and the amount of creativity required to perform the job.
  5. The personal selling process, particularly for order getters, is a complex activity involving six stages: (1) prospecting, (2) preapproach, (3) approach, (4) presentation, (5) close, and (6) follow-up.
  6. The sales management process consists of three interrelated functions: (1) sales plan formulation, (2) sales plan implementation, and (3) evaluation of the salesforce.
  7. A sales plan is a statement describing what is to be achieved and where and how the selling effort of salespeople is to be deployed. Sales planning involves setting objectives, organizing the salesforce, and developing account management policies.
  8. Effective salesforce recruitment and selection efforts, sales training that emphasizes selling skills and product knowledge, and motivation and compensation practices are necessary to successfully implement a sales plan.
  9. Salespeople are evaluated using quantitative and behavioral measures that are linked to selling objectives and account management policies.
  10. Salesforce automation involves the use of technology designed to make the sales function more effective and efficient. It applies to a wide range of activities, including each stage in the personal selling process and management of the salesforce itself.

 

 

News, Articles & Links

Quizzes

Multiple Choice Quiz 1
Multiple Choice Quiz 2
 

Interactive Exercises

PowerPoint Presentation Chapter 20 (12605.0K)        Chapter20
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Interactive Exercises
 

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Learning Objectives

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