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Personal Selling: Definition

Personal selling involves face-to-face communication between a salesperson and customer to promote and sell products. It allows for flexibility, feedback from customers, and developing lasting relationships. However, it is also expensive and difficult to find and retain qualified salespeople.

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84 views2 pages

Personal Selling: Definition

Personal selling involves face-to-face communication between a salesperson and customer to promote and sell products. It allows for flexibility, feedback from customers, and developing lasting relationships. However, it is also expensive and difficult to find and retain qualified salespeople.

Uploaded by

Taletalk BD
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Personal selling

Definition:
Personal selling is one part of a company’s promotion mix, along with advertising, sales promotion, and
public relations. Personal Selling is a face-to-face communication, personal correspondence, or a personal
telephone conversation. In which a salesperson assist knowing a product and tries to convince the
customer in buying the product. It is a promotional method where the salesperson uses his or her skills
and abilities in an attempt to make a sale.

A Brief Description with Examples:


Personal selling is a face-to-face selling technique by which a salesperson uses his or her interpersonal
skills to persuade a customer in buying a particular product. The salesperson tries to highlight various
features of the product to convince the customer that it will only add value. However, getting a customer
to buy a product is not the motive behind personal selling every time. Often companies try to follow this
approach with customers to make them aware of a new product.
The company wants to spread awareness about the product for which it adopts a person-to-person
approach. This is because selling involves personal touch; a salesperson knows better how to pitch a
product to the potential customer. Personal selling can take place through two different channels –
through retail and through direct-to-consumer channel. Under the retail channel, a sales person interacts
with potential customers who come on their own to enquire about a product. The job of the salesperson
is to make sure that he understands the need of the customers and accordingly shows various products
that he keeps under that category. Under the direct channel, a salesperson visits potential customers in
an attempt to make them aware about a new product that the company is launching or it may have a new
offer, which the customers may not get from the open market.

Examples:
A good example of personal selling are often found in department stores on the perfume and cosmetic
counters. A customer can get advice on how to apply the product and can try different products. Products
with relatively high prices, or with complex features, are sold using personal selling. Great examples
include Cars, Mobile phones, Computers, Machineries and many others products that are sold by
businesses to other industrial customers.

Role of personal selling:


Personal selling is a process in which an individual salesperson works one-on-one with a customer to try
to match a product to her needs. Many companies in the retail industry and in business-to-business sales
practice this sales discipline.
The role of personal selling are:
(1) Prospecting – trying to find new customers
(2) Communicating – with existing and potential customers about the product range
(3) Selling – contact with the customer, answering questions and trying to close the sale
(4) Servicing – providing support and service to the customer in the period up to delivery and also post-
sale
(5) Information gathering – obtaining information about the market to feedback into the marketing
planning process
(6) Allocating – in times of product shortage, the sales force may have the power to decide how available
stocks are allocated.

Advantages and disadvantages of Personal selling:


The strength of personal selling is measured in terms of the merits to its credit as a distinct form of
promotion. These are:
Flexibility and adaptability: Personal selling by its very nature is capable of providing more flexibility,
being adaptable.
Minimum waste: The efforts put in by the salesperson are highly focused on a single customer or a small
group of customers. The message is likely to reach them without distortion and diffusion.
Acts as a feedback: The salesperson is, in effect, a researcher. Being in direct contact with the
consumers, he has the advantage of collecting and transmitting the relevant market information affecting
his company.
Creates lasting impression: The personal selling process is so direct and penetrating that lasting
business relation can be developed between the selling house and the clientele.
Disadvantages:
However, all is not well with process of personal selling. There are certain limitations, which one should
take into account before giving the conclusion as to its real worth.
These limits are:
It is expensive: Personal selling as a method of promotion is quite expensive. Getting salesperson is one
thing and retaining him for long is another.
Difficulty of getting right kind of salesmen: Though, theoretically certain guidelines are prescribed
for getting right kind of salesmen from the potential candidates, it is really very difficult to get suitable
salesmen from company’s point of view.
Stake in consumer loyalty: Personal selling is such a process-direct and close between the customer
and salesperson that the consumer loyalty depends on the presence of such a salesperson.
More administrative problems: Personal selling involves more of administrative problems than
impersonal selling.

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