PERSONAL SELLING

Sales Management

Sales Management is planning, directing and

controlling of personal selling including recruiting,

selecting, equipping, assigning, routing, supervising,

paying and motivating the salespeople as these tasks

apply to the personal salesforce.

Difference between Marketing and Selling

1) Emphasis on product. 1) Emphasis on customer needs &

wants.

2) Company manufacturers the

product first and then decides to

sell it.

2) Company first determines

customer’s needs and wants and

then decides on how to deliver a

product to satisfy their needs.

3) Management is sales volume

oriented.

3) Management is profit oriented.

4) Planning is short term

oriented in terms of today’s

products and markets.

4) Planning is long term oriented in

terms of new products, tomorrow’s

markets and future growth.

5) Stresses needs of a seller. 5) Stresses needs of a seller.

6) Views business as a goods

producing process.

6) Views business as a consumer

satisfying process.

7) Emphasis on staying with

existing technology and reducing

costs.

7) Emphasis on innovation,

providing better value to the

customers by adopting a superior

technology.

8) Selling views customers as a

last link in business.

8) Marketing views customers as

the very beginning of a business.

Qualities of a Successful Salesman Ability to estimate customer’s needs & desires

Business sense

Courtesy

Creative

Curious

Enthusiastic

Flexible

Friendly

Integrity (customer should trust him)

Interest in job

Knowledge

Persuasiveness

Formulation of a Strategic Sales Mgt Program

The Environment

External Environment Internal Environment

Potential Customers Objective & Mission

Competition Human Resources

Legal & Potential Env. Financial Resources

Technological Env. Capacity utilization & production Process

Natural resource Innovation cycle & research and

social & cultural Env. development activities

Marketing Strategies

Product and product lines

Pricing Policy

Distribution strategy

Promotion Policy

Advertising & sales promotion

Sales Management Functions

Account Mgt Policy Sales Force Sales Planning, Sales force deployment Organisations Forecasting territory design, route

planning

Personal Selling Process/ Sales Process

Prospecting and Qualifying

Pre approach ( pre call planning)

Approach

Presentation and Demonstration

Overcoming Objective

Closing the Sale

Follow up and Service

Prospecting

A prospect is an individual, a family or an

organization who needs the product or the

service a salesperson is selling and also has

the ability to buy. A prospect is not the same

as a sales lead or a lead. A sales lead

generated the name of a person or a business

firm that is a probable prospect.

Prospecting

Method

Brief Description

1) Referrals from

existing customers

Requesting existing customers to

suggest the names of prospects. This

is a convincing source of nearly 2/3 of

total leads.

2) Referrals from

internal company

sources

Company advertising, direct mail,

website, trade shows and tele

prospecting activities.

3) Referrals from

external sources

Suppliers, intermediaries, bankers,

trade associations, commercial dot

com vendors.

4) Networking by

salesperson

Salespersons become members

of social organizations like lions

club, rotary club to meet new

people who may be prospects or

may provide leads.

5) Industrial

directories

Yellow pages published by

government and private

publishers.

6) Cold canvassing Unannounced calls by

salespeople on firms that may

need the product.

Qualifying

It is important that the lead or the probable prospect is

qualified. The necessary conditions for the prospect are:

* The probable prospect has a need for the product being

sold.

* The probable prospect (individual, family, organization)

can afford to buy the product.

Hot prospects- These prospects have good requirements of

the company’s product and are financially sound. Such

prospects are handed over to the company’s salesperson

to convert them to the company’s customers.

Warm prospects- This group of prospect have medium or average requirements of the company’s product and are financially sound. These prospects are given to the company’s telemarketing team for follow ups.

Cool prospects- Such prospects are either handed over to the company’s intermediaries like dealers/distributors or their names are kept in pending list for future follow ups. They have low requirements and their financial capacity may or may not be good.

Pre-approachPre-approach (pre-call planning) includes the following tasks:

1) Information gathering- The salesperson needs to collect as much as information as possible about the prospect,

* prospect’s business

* its products and services

* purchasing practices

* location of plants

* name and background of people who make buying decisions

* the major issues faced by the prospect

The sources of obtaining information about the prospect include,

* Internet or online information services

* Trade magazines

* Industrial directories

* Chamber of commerce

* Annual report of companies

* Existing customers and suppliers

* Government publications

2) Planning the sales call

APPROACH- After collecting the prospect’s

name and other relevant information, the next

step is to make an appointment to see the

prospect.

PRESENTATION AND DEMONSTARTION

Understanding the buyer’s needs- Salesperson should ask the questions in a logical form.

* Are you buying this product for the first time or making a change from the existing supplier.

* Who are involved in buying decision making for this product.

* Have you experienced any problems on quality.

* Which parts of the existing system create errors.

Developing an effective Presentation It is important that salesperson does planning, including setting

objectives for each sales call and each presentation.

Salesperson should use technology with latest software packages,

multimedia presentations.

The presentation should be modified according to the client.

Salesperson should use persuasive communication.

The salesperson should avoid telling everything about the company.

Only the information that is relevant should be presented.

The salesperson should use the language that is understood by the

prospect.

Salesperson must make the presentation convincing.

Demonstration

Overcoming objections

Sales objections, resistances or oppositions may take

place during sales presentation or when the salesperson

asks for the order from the prospect.

Objections should be welcomed because they show that

the prospect has some interest and if the objections can

be answered satisfactorily, it would result in sales.

Closing the sale

It checks the attitude or asks the opinion of

the prospect. It does not ask the decision of

the prospect to buy.

Sales Force Management

1. Designing sales force strategy and structure

2. Recruiting and selecting salesperson

3. Training salesperson

4. Compensating salesperson

5. Supervising salesperson

6. Evaluation salesperson