Personal selling occurs where an individual sales person sells a
product surges or solution to a client .sales people make the benefits of their
offering to the special needs of a client.
In other words a form of person to person communication in which a
sales person works with prospective buyer and attempts to influence purchase in
the direction of his/her companies product or services.
Important aspect of personal selling
-
It provides human touch to business transaction
-
It promotes long term business relationship
-
It enhances customer confidence
-
It helps on understanding the pulse of customer
-
It helps in convincing the customer about the
product
Steps in personal selling
1.
Prospecting
2.
Pre-approach
3.
Approach
4.
Presentation or demonstration
5.
Handling objection
6.
Closing
7.
Follow up
1.
Prospecting
It is the process of identifying
prospective buyers of the product. The prospect are those who have a need or
will to buy and power to pay. Prospects may be individuals or institution. The
different ways to identify the prospects are:
·
Acquaintance of reference
·
Personal observation
·
Direct mail or telephone
·
Company records
·
News papers
2.
Pre approach
It is the second steps in the selling
process which emphasis that the sales man should know the likes and dislikes
needs, preference , habits, nature economic and social staff of his prospects
clients. The important of pre approach is that :
·
It is the method by which a sales person
concentrate only on the prospects.
·
It helps the sales person gain all the possible
information about the prospect before approaching him
·
Because of the ample (enough) knowledge of the
prospect sales person is able to get presentation more efficiently and
effectively and with confidence.
3.
Approaching
In this stage the prospect and the sales
person come in citact met each other face to face. Here the sales man has the
opportunity to understand and interact with the prospect in a better way. Hence
getting the attention of the prospect and persuading him to buy are the two
main objectives of sale person.
Guidelines for the sales person while
approaching a customer
·
Fixing the appointment in the advances
·
Timing
·
Command on the subject matter
·
Relax approach
·
Open mindedness
·
Be courteous
·
Affective presenter
·
Follow up
4.
Presentation or demonstration
A good presentation is an important as
good product. Presentation can be in different form like attractive packaging
and display , conspicuous placement of product etc. presentation also include
the interior decoration of the shop and appearance.
Requirements’ of a good presentation are:
·
Location of the display of the product
·
Packaging of the product
·
Explanation of the feature
·
Should be able to appeal the prospect
Demonstration
of a product
It is an
exercise to prove the characteristics of the product .it highlights various
attributes of the product such as
·
Performance
·
Services
·
Utility ( usefulness) etc
Hence
demonstration is essential for a prospect to make a buying decision
5.
Handling objection
Objection , quarries , doubts are science
of interest from prospects. It can be taken in a positive manner or in a
negative manner depending upon the competing of the sales person. Objection do
take place when there is a good presentation or else the sales person may have
failed to provide adequate information the product to the prospect.
6.
Closing
This is the step where in a product is
sold. The main aim of the close is to convinced the prospect and overcome the
objection to sign the sales order form. The sales person should be alert and
use his good judgment to spot an
opportunity when the prospect is in a good mood.
7.
Follow up
It is this stage where the sales person
maintain the client in long time. The important of follow up are:
·
Building relationship
·
Update
from clients
·
Re purchase
·
Getting reference
·
Avoiding high competition
·
Updating loyal clients
·
Necessary for customer satisfaction
