BBA V Sales and Marketing unit 4 topic 1
What is Personal Selling?
Personal Selling is yet another type of selling initiative by the business companies, a way to persuade the local people to try their products. Personal Selling is surely one of the distinctive methods which are used by the selling strategists to achieve their goal of selling a destined quantity of sales.
In our discussion, we have included this interesting topic of ‘Personal Selling’, and to further strengthen our knowledge we have discussed the pros and cons related to this.
Concept of Personal Selling
Personal selling is face-to-face selling where one person who is the salesman tries to convince the customer to buy a product assigned by the company. It is a promotional activity by which the salesperson uses his or her skills and abilities to persuade people to buy the product thereby in an attempt to make a sale.
Here, the salesperson tries to highlight the features of the product to convince the customer that the product will hold benefits in the long term. However, getting a customer to buy a product is not always the motive behind personal selling, this personal selling is also done to make the customers aware of new products in the market.
Personal Selling Examples
Personal selling is where businesses use the sales force to sell the product after meeting the customer face-to-face.
The sellers advertise these products through their skills such as attitude, appearance, and specialist product knowledge. The salesperson informs and encourages the customer to buy or at least try the product.
A unique example of personal selling is found in the department stores on the perfume and cosmetic counters. A customer can get advice on how to apply the product, its specialties and can try different related products, these all are guided by the personal selling staff present there. Products with high prices, and with complex features, are often sold using this type of technique. Examples: Cars and many products that are sold by businesses to other industrial customers.
Importance of Personal Selling
The following points explain the importance of personal selling:
1. Two-Way Communication:
This is the best tool for personal selling. Salesmen can provide necessary information to customers about the company's offer, and also can collect feedback from customers. He can ask if there are any queries about the product to the salesman present for personal selling.
2. Personal Attention:
Advertising and publicity are among mass communication tools, and thus personal selling is concentrated and is focused on one individual, this will result in ineffective results.
3. Detail Demonstration:
Television demonstrations are limited; thus, salesmen can provide a detailed demonstration and can supervise the customer through personal selling.
4. Complementary to other Promotional Tools:
Personal selling supports advertising, sales promotion, and publicity. Personal Selling even removes the drawbacks of advertising and its sales promotion.
5. Immediate Feedback:
This is the only market promotion technique that provides immediate feedback from the customers.