Personal Selling and

Sales Management

Dr. Prafulla Agnihotri,

Professor, Marketing Group,
IIM Tiruchirappalli
 Sales Management- an Overview
Marketing Mix

Product Price Promotion Distribution

Advertising Personal Selling Public Relations Sales Promotion

Sales Management

Planning Motivation
Budgeting Compensation
Recruitment & Selection Designing Territories 2
Training Evaluating Performance
 Distribution Policies

• Mass Distribution
• Selective Distribution
• Exclusive Distribution

Professional Sales Management 3

 Channel Structure

• Manufacturer’s sales force

• Agents / Brokers
• Wholesalers
• Retailers
• Direct Marketing

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5
 Objectives of Sales Management

1. Quantitative Objectives (short term)

• To retain and capture market share
• To determine sale volume in ways that
contributes to profitability
• To obtain new accounts
• To keep expenses under control

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 Objectives of Sales Management cont.d…

2. Qualitative Objectives (long term)

• To delight customers
• To assist trade in selling the product line
• To provide technical advice and market
feedback from time to time, and
• To assist in training dealer’s sales personnel

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 Personal Selling

• Personal selling is the direct, personal

communication of information, in contrast
to the indirect, impersonal communication
of advertising, sales promotion, and other
promotional tools.

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 Scope of Personal Selling

Customers come to the Sales people go to the

sales people Customers

Inside selling: In-person Contact by mail

Across-the –counter, Sales calls or telemarketing
Phone in orders

Producers Trade,
Primary retail stores End-users
Retailers End-users
Nonprofit Business users,
Organisation End-users
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 Changes in Customer Expectations
of Suppliers
Traditional Relationships Enterprise Relationships

• Little recognition or credit for past • Recognition of past performance

performance and track record
• No responsibility for supplier’s • Recognition of supplier’s need to
profit margins make a faire profit
• Little support for feedback from • Feedback from suppliers
suppliers encouraged
• No guarantee of business • Expectations of business
relationship beyond contract relationships beyond the contract
• No performance expectations • Considerable performance
beyond contract expectations beyond the contract
• Adversarial, zero- sum game • Co-operation and trusting, positive
– sum game

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 Marketplace Changes and Selling
Consequences
Competition Customers
• Global competition • Fewer Suppliers
• Shorter product cycles • Rising expectations
• Blurred boundaries • Increasing power

Selling Process
• Selling teams
• Relations selling
• Technology utilisation

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 Role of Manufacturer’s Sales Force
• Influencing the attitude of distributive
outlets
• First line communications
• Establishing relationships with the channel
partners
• Disseminating information about product /
service policy
• Training of channel partners
• Collections from the channel partners
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Thank You

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 Contrasting Transactional and
Relationship Selling Models
Transactional
TransactionalSelling
SellingModel
Model RelationalSelling
Relational SellingModel
Model
Emphasison
Emphasis ongeneral
generalmanagement
managementskills.
skills.
Emphasis
Emphasison
onsales
salesskills
skills Proactiveinnovation/opportunity
Proactive innovation/opportunity
Respond
Respondtotocustomer
customerneeds
needs identificationand
identification andoffers
offers
Valuebased
Value basedoffers/
offers/organisational
organisational
Provide
Providegood
goodproducts
productsand
andservice
service enablers
enablers
atataareasonable
reasonableprice
price Broadento
Broaden tocustomers’
customers’customers.
customers.
Narrow
Narrowcustomer
customerfocus
focus Differentiatethrough
Differentiate throughpeople.
people.
Differentiate
Differentiatethrough
throughproducts
products Profitmanagement
Profit managementfocus
focus/ /share
shareof
of
Sales customers.
Sales/ /revenue
revenuefocus
focus customers.
Trustedbusiness
Trusted businessadvisor
advisorand
andpartner.
partner.
Traditional
Traditionalcustomer
customerrelationship
relationship

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 Transactional Selling versus
Relationship Marketing
Transactional selling Relationship Marketing
• Emphasis on getting new • Emphasis on keeping customers
customers as well as gaining new customers
• Short-term orientation • Long-term orientation
• Interest in making a single sale • Interest in multiple sales and
enduring relationships (LTV)
• Limited commitment to customers • High level of ongoing commitment
to customers
• Research on customer needs • Continuing research on customers
used to complete one transaction needs to enhance relationships
• Success means making a sale • Success means customer loyalty
and low customer turnover
• Quality in production concern • Quality is every employee’s
concern
• High degree of service
• Limited service commitment commitment
Source: El-Ansary A (2004), Relationship Marketing- A
School of Thought in Historical Perspective, Draft, Coggin 15
College of Business, University of North Florida, Jacksonville.
 Steps in Sales Call

The
Follow-up
(including
The service)
Close
Handling
Objections
The
Presentation
The
Approach
Prospecting
(including the
Preapproach)

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 How to open a sales call

• What is the best way to begin?

• However, there are some techniques such as :

Open Probes, or
Purpose Statement or
General or Benefit statements

• Pause for a customer reaction

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 Customer Attitudes
Acceptance is when a prospect agrees with or approves
of a benefit.
Skepticism is shown when a prospect is not convinced
or doubts that your product or service will render the
required benefit.
Indifference is shown when a prospect lacks interest in
your product either because he is happy with the existing
product / supplier or has not so far felt a need for your
product.
Objection is raised when the customer is not happy
with or dislikes any of the features of your product. 18
 Strategies for Handling Objections
Method When to Use How to Use

With objections arising from Deny firmly, but politely the

Head-on incorrect information. objection. Offer proof to support
your statement.
With objections arising from Correct the mistaken impression
Indirect denial incorrect information. without directly telling the
prospect that he is wrong.
With valid objections; but where Agree with the prospect initially,
Compensation compensating factors are present. but then proceed to point out
features that outweigh or
compensate for the objection.
(Also called “yes but”
technique).
With emotional objections, Express your understanding for
“Feel, Felt, Found” especially when the prospect fails how the prospect feels, indicate
to see the value of a particular that he is okay since others have
feature or benefit or makes it an also felt that way, but have found
ego issue. their fears to be without
substance.
When the objection can be turned Take the objection and turn it into
Boomerang into a positive factor. a reason for buying.
With any type of objection. Anticipate an objection (may be
Forestalling from prior experience) and
incorporate an answer into your
presentation itself, hoping to
forestall the objection from ever
coming up.
 Methods for Handling Price Objection
Methods Strategy

Take the price of the product and spread it over it’s

 Breaking price down into effective life-years, months, etc.
smaller units
Calculate the profitability with the help of ROI,
 Economic value analysis comparative profitability analysis, etc. Show that the
amount invested is fully justified by the benefits to be
repeated from the purchase.

Compensate for a higher price by indicating features

 Stressing exclusive features and benefits that are absent in your competing brands
or differences (which are compared with your product).
Compare the price of the product to others that have
 Using comparison gone up or to the discomfort of not buying.
Counter the price objection by showing prospect a
 Converting to a lower lower priced model.
priced item
To avoid answering the objection early in the interview
 Postponing and losing the sale, postpone the price question until
the prospect is convinced or the better quality of the
product.

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Thank You

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