{"id":4083,"date":"2001-11-08T18:23:12","date_gmt":"2001-11-08T18:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marketingteacher.com\/personal-selling\/"},"modified":"2019-02-17T20:39:34","modified_gmt":"2019-02-17T20:39:34","slug":"personal-selling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marketingteacher.com\/staging\/5483\/personal-selling\/","title":{"rendered":"Personal Selling"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Personal Selling<\/h1>\n<ul class=\"lessonlinks\">\n<li class=\"lesson active\"><a href=\"https:\/\/marketingteacher.com\/staging\/5483personal-selling\/\">Lesson<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"exercise\"><a href=\"https:\/\/marketingteacher.com\/staging\/5483exercise-personal-selling\/\">Exercise<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"answer\"><a href=\"https:\/\/marketingteacher.com\/staging\/5483answer-personal-selling\/\">Answer<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Personal selling occurs where an individual salesperson sells a   product, service or   solution to a client. Salespeople match the benefits of their offering   to the specific   needs of a client. Today, personal selling involves the development of   longstanding client   relationships.<\/p>\n<h2>A Five Stage Personal Selling Process.<\/h2>\n<h2>Stage One &#8211; Prospecting.<\/h2>\n<p>Prospecting is all about finding prospects, or potential new   customers. Prospects should be   &#8216;qualified,&#8217; which means that they need to be assessed to see if there   is business potential,   otherwise you could be wasting your time. In order to qualify your   prospects, one needs to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Plan a sales approach focused upon the needs of the customer.<\/li>\n<li>Determine which products or services best meet their needs.<\/li>\n<li>In order to save time, rank the prospects and leave out those that   are least likely to buy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Stage Two &#8211; Making First Contact.<\/h2>\n<p>This is the preparation that a salesperson goes through before they   meet with the client,   for example via e-mail, telephone or letter. Preparation will make a   call more focused.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Make sure that you are on time.<\/li>\n<li>Before meeting with the client, set some objectives for the sales   call.   What is the purpose of the call? What outcome is desirable before you   leave?<\/li>\n<li>Make sure that you&#8217;ve done some homework before meeting your   prospect.   This will show that you are committed in the eyes of your customer.<\/li>\n<li>To save time, send some information before you visit. This will wet   the prospect&#8217;s appetite.<\/li>\n<li>Keep a set of samples at hand, and make sure that they are in very   good condition.<\/li>\n<li>Within the first minute or two, state the purpose of your call so   that time with the client is   maximised, and also to demonstrate to the client that your are not   wasting his or her time.<\/li>\n<li>Humour is fine, but try to be sincere and friendly.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Stage Three &#8211; The Sales Call (or Sales Presentation).<\/h2>\n<p>It is best to be enthusiastic about your product or service. If you   are not excited about it,   don&#8217;t expect your prospect to be excited.<\/p>\n<p>Focus on the real benefits of the product or service to the specific   needs of your client,   rather than listing endless lists of features.<\/p>\n<p>Try to be relaxed during the call, and put your client at ease.<\/p>\n<p>Let the client do at least 80% of the talking. This will give you   invaluable information on   your client&#8217;s needs.<\/p>\n<p>Remember to ask plenty of questions. Use open questions, e.g. TED&#8217;s,   and closed questions i.e.   questions that will only give the answer &#8216;yes&#8217; or the answer &#8216;no.&#8217; This   way you can dictate the   direction of the conversation.<\/p>\n<p>Never be too afraid to ask for the business straight off.<\/p>\n<h2>Stage Four &#8211; Objection Handling.<\/h2>\n<p>Objection handling is the way in which salespeople tackle obstacles   put in their way by   clients. Some objections may prove too difficult to handle, and   sometimes the client may just   take a dislike to you (aka the hidden objection). Here are some   approaches for overcoming objections:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Firstly, try to anticipate them before they arise. <\/li>\n<li>&#8216;Yes but&#8217; technique allows you to accept the objection and then to   divert it. For example, a   client may say that they do not like a particular colour, to which the   salesperson counters &#8216;Yes but   X is also available in many other colours.&#8217;<\/li>\n<li>Ask &#8216;why&#8217; the client feels the way that they do.<\/li>\n<li>&#8216;Restate&#8217; the objection, and put it back into the client&#8217;s lap. For   example, the client may   say, &#8216;I don&#8217;t like the taste of X,&#8217; to which the salesperson responds,   &#8216;You don&#8217;t like the taste of   X,&#8217; generating the response &#8216;since I do not like garlic&#8217; from the   client. The salesperson could   suggest that X is no longer made with garlic to meet the client&#8217;s needs.<\/li>\n<li>The sales person could also tactfully and respectfully contradict   the client.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Stage Five &#8211; Closing the Sale.<\/h2>\n<p>This is a very important stage. Often salespeople will leave without   ever successfully   closing a deal. Therefore it is vital to learn the skills of closing.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Just ask for the business! &#8211; &#8216;Please may I take an order?&#8217; This   really works well.<\/li>\n<li>Look for buying signals (i.e. body language or comments made by the   client that they want   to place an order). For example, asking about availability, asking for   details such as discounts,   or asking for you to go over something again to clarify.<\/li>\n<li>Just stop talking, and let the client say &#8216;yes.&#8217; Again, this really   works.<\/li>\n<li>The &#8216;summary close&#8217; allows the salesperson to summarise everything   that the client needs,   based upon the discussions during the call. For example, &#8216;You need   product X in blue, by Friday,   packaged accordingly, and delivered to your wife&#8217;s office.&#8217; Then ask for   the order.<\/li>\n<li>The &#8216;alternative close&#8217; does not give the client the opportunity to   say no, but forces them   towards a yes. For example &#8216;Do you want product X in blue or red?&#8217;   Cheeky, but effective.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So this is the Five Stage Personal Selling Process. Now have a go at   it yourself by completing   the lesson.<\/p>\n<p> In comparison to other marketing communications tools   such as advertising, personal   selling tends to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Use fewer resources, pricing is often negotiated.<\/li>\n<li>Products tend to be fairly complex (e.g. financial services or new   cars).<\/li>\n<li>There is some contact between buyer and seller after the sale so   that an ongoing   relationship is built.<\/li>\n<li>Client\/prospects need specific information. <\/li>\n<li>The purchase tends to involve large sums of money. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There are exceptions of course, but most personal selling takes place   in this way.   Personal selling involves a selling process that is summarised in the   following Five Stage   Personal Selling Process. The five stages are:<\/p>\n<p>1. Prospecting.<\/p>\n<p>2. Making first contact.<\/p>\n<p>3. The sales call.<\/p>\n<p>4. Objection handling.<\/p>\n<p>5. Closing the sale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Personal selling occurs where an individual salesperson sells a product, service or solution to a client. Salespeople match the benefits of their offering to the specific needs of a client. Today, personal selling involves the development of longstanding client relationships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advertising","category-marketing-communications"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketingteacher.com\/staging\/5483\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketingteacher.com\/staging\/5483\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketingteacher.com\/staging\/5483\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketingteacher.com\/staging\/5483\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketingteacher.com\/staging\/5483\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4083"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marketingteacher.com\/staging\/5483\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7040,"href":"https:\/\/marketingteacher.com\/staging\/5483\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4083\/revisions\/7040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketingteacher.com\/staging\/5483\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketingteacher.com\/staging\/5483\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketingteacher.com\/staging\/5483\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}