What is Personal Selling?
Introduction
Personal selling is also known as the act of convincing a customer to buy a given product or device. It is also considered to be one of the most costly and effective promotional methods that are ever seen. It is effective as there is a face-to-face interaction observed between the seller and the buyer which helps the seller to change their promotional techniques used as the situation asks for. If you have been wanting to know more about Personal Selling - Concept, Importance, Advantages, and Limitations then now you can check out this article through Vedantu to get a detailed view on personal selling and the concepts that are involved.
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.
Advantages of Personal Selling
The Advantages of Personal Selling are as follows -
This is a two-way communication where the selling agent gets instant feedback from the prospective buyer about their intention to buy.
This is an interactive form of selling, which helps in building trust with the customer. While selling high-value products like cars, the customer must trust the product and thus personal selling is needed.
Personal Selling is a persuasive form of selling as in this type of sale the customers come face to face with the salesperson where it is not easy to dismiss them, there is an effort of the customer to listen to them.
Direct selling helps in reaching the audience.
Limitations of Personal Selling
It is an expensive method of selling that requires high capital costs.
Also, this method involves many labours as it is a labour-intensive method as a large sales force is needed to carry out personal selling successfully.
The training of the salesperson for personal selling is also a very time-consuming and costly process.
The method can only reach a limited number of people, it does not provide mass advertisements like TV or Radio ads.
FAQs on Personal Selling
1. Who is the ‘Sales Force’ Team?
For rigorous selling techniques, the company forms a distinct selling team who are equipped with efficient knowledge about the selling strategies that can be used to persuade the mass, this comes in many forms – mere advertising, giving off free samples, personal selling, and so on. Thus, the team which focuses only on the selling department of the company and attempts to finish the selling stock is called the ‘Sales Force’ team.
2. What are Mass Communication Tools?
Advertising and Publicity is the most popular form of mass communication tools, which engages the mass of people in buying the product they intend to sell. Not only selling, but mass communication is also used to make the customers aware of the products.
3. What is a Demonstration?
A demonstration is the reason or proof, or the explanation or making clear by the use of examples or experiments with the product by the salesperson. Demonstration means 'to clearly show' the benefits of the product by showing the public how to use it, this is done in personal selling.
4. Why is Personal Selling Important?
Personal selling is an important marketing tool that helps small businesses, particularly those that sell complex or high-value products and services to other businesses, rather than the consumers. Companies conduct personal selling by hiring sales representatives, the representatives pay visits to the clients or by contacting clients by telephone.
5. What is the process involved in personal selling?
The process involved in personal selling includes the process of prospecting and evaluating while also preparing approach and presentation skills.
1. Prospecting and Evaluating:
The effort that is taken to compile a list of potential customers can be defined as prospecting. Those people who will be sales representatives can access the information related to customers or potential buyers via advertisements or even company records and telephone or trade association directories.
2. Preparing:
Knowing about the product and the company is a must-have knowledge before approaching the customer to check the full potential of the customer.
3. Approach style and Presentation:
It is needed that the approach must be done carefully. The person who is the buyer might be in a bad mood and hence approaching the customer to buy a product must be done with proper planning. Explanation of how the product is beneficial to them and why they should invest money in it is also needed to be explained in brief.
6. How to overcome objections and close the sale when the personal selling process is used?
There is a high possibility of getting objections right from the start itself. However, it is the quality of the seller that determines whether he or she is a professional or not. Only those that understand how to overcome the objection will be able to close their sales. This however can be hard and hence make sure you give the correct reason to buy the product right from the beginning to increase the chances of a customer saying yes. It is also seen that a lot of sellers tend to lose their sales as they have never asked the customers whether they need to buy it or not. This is hence a crucial step in the process of personal selling.
7. What are the objectives involved in personal selling?
There are a variety of objectives that are involved in personal selling and can be provided as follows:
1. Attracting Potential Customers:
The main objective of having a method such as personal selling is to increase the percent of potential customers who will be interested in your product.
2. Creating the Desire to Buy:
While a lot of customers might think that the product is not of much importance to them, sellers must find a way to convince them and create a desire in them to buy the product.
3. Providing Detailed Information
Just letting the customers know why they should buy the product and closing the sale is not the key. The key here will be to educate the customer and make them understand why the product is of great usage to them.
8. What are the challenges faced during the process of personal selling?
The following challenges are faced during the process of personal selling:
1. Dyadic Selling:
Dyadic selling means personal selling that involves two people. It is hence important that between the buyer and the seller a mutual trust is created. Without the mutual trust being generated between the buyer and seller selling products might seem a bit hard
2. It is a Long Process:
It is to be kept in mind that the process of personal selling does not just start at explaining the product and end at selling the product. Even after selling the product, the buyer and seller must maintain a relationship. Companies pay special attention to this customer relationship management.
3. Highly Interactive Process:
With two people being involved in the process it is necessary that proper timely communication is being followed. This means that a follow-up at each stage will be necessary for a proper customer and buyer relationship.
9. Why is it important to learn about Personal Selling?
Personal Selling - is an important concept that is needed not only for your board exams but also in your daily life. You might have seen sellers coming to your doorstep and providing products. This is an example of personal selling. Vedantu makes sure that students understand the concepts that are involved in personal selling by also providing Vedantu NCERT Solutions for Commerce.
