Personal selling is also called face-to-face selling in which one person who is a salesman tries to convince the other person who is the customer to buy the product. In this promotional method, a salesperson uses his or her skills to make sales.
Sales aren’t easy. In the world of competition, the salesperson has to meet the client one-to-one to explain the features and induce them to purchase the offerings through interaction. This sales technique is personal selling. This is an effective way to increase sales. A salesperson can use a personalized sales strategy.
It is a promotional technique where a salesperson:
Uses person-to-person communication
To sell an offering
Using a personalized sales strategy
Today personal selling is considered a business-to-business selling technique but is also used in trade and retail sales. In the world of the internet and other commutations, a personal sale is not limited to face-to-face selling, now sales persons use video calls, phone calls, and even emails along with personal interactions to develop a relationship with a customer.
The objective of Personal Selling
- Built brand and made aware of product: educate customers and the company’s offerings and their benefits.
- Increase sales: To identify the prospects to buy a business offering.
- Building close long-term relationships with the customers by strengthening a person to personal two-way communication
- Supporting the customers of complex technical and high-rated items by providing detailed technical information.
- Stimulate the offering demand by helping the customers to make a decision and guide them to the offers.
- Making the brand stronger by building the long-term relationship by meeting the customer and helping them in decision making.
Features of Personal selling
Personal sales are different from other sales due to the following characteristics:
- Human contact: here seller interacts directly with the customer and executes a personalized sales strategy according to the customers’ expectations and needs
- Developing relationships: personal selling involves developing a relationship between seller and buyer where trust is gained and the customer can trust the seller.
- Quick Communication: communication is quick as it involves person-to-person interaction.
- A two-way flow of information: The buyers get a chance to ask questions and clear their doubts before purchasing.
- Satisfaction: the process of personal selling involves the salesperson understanding the customers’ needs and satisfying them by offering the customer the opportunity to buy something which he offered.
- Promoting: Personal selling is not about only telling a customer about companies offers, it also involves the power to convince the customer to take a particular action.
Importance of personal selling
Personal selling is important in selling complex technical things that require human contact and communication.
Usually, a high-priced item needs personal selling as it helps to give more knowledge about the product using a personalized selling method and gain trust.
Types Of personal selling:
Generally, personal selling is categorized into three types based on the sales activity and the salesperson involved.
- Order Takers: order takers receive requests and queries from customers. They hold a position like retail sales or telemarketer and focus on customer needs and make it possible to meet the needs.
- Odder Getters: This person meets new customers and convinces them to make a direct purchase. These salespersons are infield persons which bring new clients.
- Order creators: they convince the customer to promote business offerings which in the end does sales. For example, a pharma company reaches a doctor to convince him to sell their medicine.
Advantages and Disadvantages of personal selling
Advantages:
Convey more information: personal selling involves conveying more information about the product. It is all about understanding the needs of the customer and finding the opportunity to convince the customer to try their product.
Creates more impact: Answering questions and solving doubts through the buying process puts more impact on the customer.
Supports Two –Way communication: Personal selling allows the customers to communicate with the person and clear their doubts.
Boost Relationship with the Customer: In personal sales, the trust between customer and salesperson becomes strong which is beneficial in the next purchase too.
Disadvantages:
- Expensive: in personal selling, a salesperson can only approach only a few aspects or people because personal selling involves personal attention to each customer.
- Labour Expensive: Personal sales required a lot of effort from the salesperson’s side and it can take time and resources to convert a prospect into a customer.
- Limited reach: Personal sales is one to one promotional tool its reach is limited as compared to advertising.
Personal selling Examples:
Today one can witness personal sales in:
- Retail store: Retail stores like Walmart employ a staff that helps the customer choose the best product according to their needs.
- Door-to-door sales: some B2C sales like Gillette employ sales staff that visits customers’ homes and offices to educate them about the company’s product and convince them to buy the same.
- B2B Outreach: B2B sales persons reach prospective clients online or offline and personally close sales.
How Personal Selling Works:
For personal selling, there should be a business that hires sales staff that can approach the prospect, understand their needs and satisfy their needs by making them buy a product.
These sales teams receive special training to develop sales funnel, have a fruitful interaction with customers, gain trust, develop relations, and conduct sales.
