Personal selling is very important in business. In this, there is a face-to-face conversation between the customer and the seller for the sale of goods and the salesman tries to impress the customer and make a sale. Personal selling is the backbone of marketing. Personal selling is done by sellers. In personal selling, there is a direct conversation with the prospective buyers of the product for the purpose of selling the product, in which all the necessary things about the product and method of use are described.
(1) According to Richard Buskirk, “Personal selling is that sale. In which personal contact is established with the potential buyers of a commodity.
(2) William J. According to Stanton (William J. Stanton), “Personal selling involves a single personal message as opposed to impersonal messaging, advertising, sales promotion and other promotional tools.”
(3) According to the American Marketing Association, “It is an oral presentation made with the intention of selling in conversation with one or more prospective buyers.”
Characteristics of Personal Selling
Following are the main characteristics of personal selling
(1) There is a direct relationship between the seller and the customer. (2) In this, goods or products are sold individually.
(3) In this, the description of the properties, prices, method of use etc. is done in verbal form. (4) It includes both individual and social behavior.
(5) In this both the customer and the seller influence each other. (6) Personal selling is the oldest form of sale of goods. (7) Personal selling is the most effective way of selling.
Advantages of Personal Selling
Selling of goods takes place in two ways – one is personal and the other is impersonal. Personal selling has some advantages over impersonal sales, which are as follows
(1) Finding out prospective customers One of the first advantages of personal selling is that in this way it is possible to find out the former customers who are either customers of their goods or they may become customers. This allows the seller to concentrate his attention on that. Advertising and sales promotion cannot detect these things.
(2) Resolution of Doubts The doubts of the buyers can be properly resolved in personal selling. By redressing their objections, a proper environment can be created for purchase. Doing so increases your chances of getting orders.
(3) Display of the article- In order to assure the customer of the profitability and desirability of the article, it is necessary that the actual display of the article should be done giving him a fair opportunity to use the article. Personal selling provides this opportunity by directly displaying items.
(4) Aids in closing sales One of the advantages of personal selling is that it helps in closing the sale. It solves doubts and puts pressure on sales. Advertising and sales promotions motivate the buyer to buy but they are not as effective as personal selling.
(5) Time reconciliation – In this, the seller makes such arrangements that whenever the buyer is ready to buy the item, the seller appears at the same time and gives him immediate service.
(6) Providing communication facilities Provides communication facilities for individual sales makers. The salesperson receives a lot of information regarding the sale of goods, such as market conditions, competitive actions, customer’s reactions about the policies of the organization, etc. The seller transmits all these things to the manufacturer so that the manufacturer can be successful in increasing his sales by making necessary changes in his policies and goods.
(7) Doing non-sales work – The main function of a salesperson is to sell, but in addition to its sales function, it also does other non-sales work which is beneficial to the manufacturer, such as conducting market research, providing repair service. redressal of customer complaints etc.
(8) Providing Social Motivation Personal selling creates a friendly social relationship between the customer and the seller, as a result of which he keeps getting orders and he continues to be successful in selling his goods.
Disadvantages of Personal Selling
The following are the disadvantages of personal selling
(1) Cost – The biggest drawback of personal selling is cost. In personal selling, the seller has to pay remuneration, traveling expenses, allowances and other facilities, the sum of which is large, which increases the selling cost of the item, but if it is done through personal contact, telephone and correspondence, then the cost is much less. Is.
(2) Difficulty in being present at the right time The second difficulty of personal selling is told that in this the salesperson does not reach the customer at that time when the customer is in a position to make a purchase decision. Also the salesperson has to meet the potential customer several times to place the purchase order.
(3) Lack of good sellers – A drawback of personal selling is also told that there is a lack of good sellers in every country, no truth is visible in this too. Truly good salespeople are not born born but are made up with proper training.
Technique of Personal Selling
The method of personal selling is such a scientific method of selling, by which maximum sales of goods are done at minimum time and cost while providing maximum satisfaction to the customers. The major stages of the selling process can be explained as follows:
(I) Attracting Attention – The first step in the sales process is to attract the attention of the customer. This attention can be attracted by (i) advertisement, (ii) sign board, (iii) electrical display, (iv) door display and (v) window display etc., when the customer is impressed by the advertisement and enters the shop. When he comes towards the sign, board electrical display and ventilation display compel him to enter the shop. Therefore, the outer and inner cover of the shop should be attractive and attractive so that the customer takes interest in seeing those items and is pleased to come inside the shop.
(II) Arousing interest – After attracting the attention of the buyer to the item through effective advertising and display, his interest should be generated in that article. The effect of attention is short-lived and unless it is converted into interest, there cannot be a sale. Therefore, the seller should cleverly arouse the buyer’s interest in the article. It takes two things to arouse interest.
(a) Welcome of the customer – When the customer comes inside the shop, then he has to do the work of getting interest in him, for this, as soon as he comes inside the shop, he is greeted with respectful words like- ‘Come’ , ‘Take it. This welcome should not be done by harsh words but with a very cheerful heart so that the effect on the customer is that it is a matter of happiness for the shopkeeper to come to the shop. At the same time, the welcome should be accompanied by a greeting. The greeting should be based on the specificity of the customer. For example, if the customer is Lala, who is well-read with words like ‘Sethji Namaskar’, ‘Sethji Jai Ram Ji’ etc. Should I serve?”, “What shall I show you?” If there is a proper seating arrangement in the shop, then it should be said like this, “Come on sir, what should I show?” Nowadays, some shopkeepers ask for tea, coffee, Limca, Pepsi for the customer as soon as he comes. Can buy
(b) Sales Conversation Beginning – The opening words of a salesperson are very important. Here the meaning from the initial words is related to the way of conversation of the seller, its shape and to give or not to give the opinion of the customer to buy or not. If the behavior of the salesperson is good then it also has a good effect on the customer.
A salesperson should think of the word initiating the sale. Sometimes such opening words are said by the salesperson which are unnecessary and the customer does not like it, such as if the salesperson says “you don’t want to buy today” or “what will your family do after your death” both of these The same question is not appropriate as a matter of etiquette. Sometimes the salesperson exaggerates the point. This is also not appropriate. Like “This scooter is the best.”
(III) Arousing Desire- The third stage of the selling process is to create desire in the mind of the buyer for the item. Desire is a nature that drives man to possess or enjoy something. A buyer may be interested in many things but may not desire them all. It is the responsibility of the seller to convert his interest into desire. In doing so, it should force the customers to feel that the item is necessary to them. It can do this in the following two ways
(a) Nature of the article- As soon as a good salesman realizes the need of the customer, he presents that article to the customer, while doing so he should pay attention to the following things
(i) The item should be suited to the needs, interests and qualities of the customer. (ii) The price of the article is commensurate with the capacity of the customer.
(iii) The item to be presented should be neat and clean. (iv) The item which is purchased by measurement should be shown by wearing it like readymade
(v) Valuable and artistic items should be presented in an attractive manner.
(b) By displaying the goods, the customer’s confidence in the product is awakened, which helps the buyer in the purchase decision and the seller’s purpose of selling is fulfilled. The functional display of goods in front of the customer is essential for selling. Mr. B. R. According to Canfield, “Telling the buyer how a good or service is beneficial with evidence and examples is called action demonstration.” In this, the object is shown in real form, its working is explained and the properties of the object are described. Performance impresses the customer a lot and instills confidence in the item which helps in purchasing and contributes to the fulfillment of the objective of the seller. A debatable question is when the object is to be demonstrated functionally. The functional display of the object should be done neither at the very beginning nor so much later that the desire of the customer to see the item is dampened. In fact, during the sales conversation, when the customer’s requirement is correctly estimated, only then the product should be functionally demonstrated and the functional performance as well as the properties of the item should be explained.
(IV) Winning Trust – The next step in the sales process is to gain the trust of the customers. After awakening the desire for the item in the mind of the customers, all the doubts arising from their mind about the item should be removed. It is the responsibility of a salesperson to create confidence in the minds of the customers that the article is useful and fit. All objections arising in this regard should be removed and the customer should be made to feel that the article is worth purchasing. Many questions arise in relation to the objections raised by the customers, such as why do customers raise objections? What kind of objections does the seller expect? When do buyers raise objections? What preparation must the seller make in order to successfully respond to objections? And what are the methods and techniques of answering the objections? These questions are so broad that it is not impossible to study them in detail here.
(V) Completion of the sale – Completion of the sale is the last stage in the sales process. Since the main objective of the salesperson is to sell, this stage is to complete the sale. All the efforts made by the salesperson like attracting attention, generating interest, arousing desire and creating trust are of no importance. If it doesn’t turn into a sale. Hence this is the most important stage from the point of view of the seller. At this stage the buyer decides whether to buy or not. The success of salespeople demonstrating all their hard work and abilities depends on this stage. In practice, selling by giving more discounts or reducing the price is not a good selling art. Selling profitably is the criterion of the salesperson’s abilities and skills. In general, a low pressure sell is easier than a ‘high pressure sell’. In low pressure selling, the more the potential buyer is allowed to feel that he is reaching purchase decisions through judicious thinking on his own, the quicker it is possible to close the sale. In high pressure selling, the salesperson tries to influence the feelings of the customers and push them towards purchasing decisions. If a customer returns to the normal state by the time he reaches the point of completion of the sale, then the closing of the sale becomes difficult.
