Download - Professional Selling: Overview

Human Resource Management Fundamentals Contact Email OxfordCambridge.Org Design Copyright 1994-2007 © OxfordCambridge.Net

knowledge free can the mind!

OxfordCambridge.OrgThe Seeds Of LearningThe Seats of Learning

Welcome!


Business of Selling – An Overview

KeyPoints to develop in your own time!

Introductory concepts in professional Selling by OxfordCambridge.Org all for free.

The information published here are KeyPoints to develop in your own time:

- you identify the KeyPoints on which you would need to expand your knowledge

- take a good book or two and work towards gaining the needed knowledge.

Enjoy!


To introduce the reader to the fundamentals of professional selling.

Aim of publication


After going through the KeyPoints outlined in this publication, the reader should be able to:

☺ explain the scope of selling☺ describe what sales staff do☺ explain how companies communicate☺ identify the needs of different types of customers☺ explain the steps involved in an organisational buying process☺ identify different types of buying decisions☺ respond to different types of organisational buyers☺ explain buying motives☺ explain how needs develop☺ deduce what a buyer can afford☺ begin a relationship properly☺ deal effectively with grievances☺ know how to build trust

Learning Objectives


1. Defining Personal Selling

2. Buying Processes

3. Customer Needs

4. Cultivating Relationships

Sections list


☺ Scope of selling

☺ Sales activities

☺ Communication

Defining Personal Selling

To explain what personal selling is.

Contact Email OxfordCambridge.Org Design Copyright 1994-2007 © OxfordCambridge.NetHuman Resource Management Fundamentals

Defining Personal Selling - Highlights

☺ After going through these KeyPoints you should be able to:

• discuss the changing role of the salesperson

• discuss organisational learning

• describe the activities common to all types of sales jobs

• discuss the changing role of the sales force

• discuss organisational change

• outline the different methods that organisations use to communicate with customers

• discuss the strengths and weaknesses of different communication methods


Defining Personal Selling - Summary

☺ Personal selling is an interpersonal communication process, that involves satisfying the needs of customers and building long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with them.

☺ Sales personnel should be able to analyze customer needs and effectively explain these needs to the organisation.

☺ Adaptive learning occurs when an organisation uses knowledge acquired from the sales force to improve its current activities.

☺ Generative learning, on the other hand, occurs when an organisation uses this knowledge to develop new products.

☺ Sales personnel are involved in finding new customers, increasing sales to existing customers, demonstrating products, negotiating, and writing orders.



☺ Sales personnel work with other company employees to make sure that the product meets the customer's demands.

☺ Because the role of the sales force is changing to accommodate long-term relations with customers, organisations are changing their structures.

☺ Hierarchies structures tend to be replaced with flatter, more efficient ones that focus on core processes such as customer relations, and multifunctional teams are becoming more important in organisations.

☺ Sales personnel work with other company employees to make sure that the product meets the customer's demands.



☺ Because the role of the sales force is changing to accommodate long-term relations with customers, organisations are changing and will change their structures.

☺ Hierarchies structures tend to be replaced with flatter, more efficient ones that focus on core processes such as customer relations, and multifunctional teams are becoming more important in organisations.

☺ Organisations use marketing communications to provide customers with information about a product and how it can be purchased.



☺ The main methods of marketing communications are personal selling, advertising, sales promotion, publicity, and word of mouth.

☺ The methods differ in terms of the control, flexibility, and credibility they offer, and in terms of their cost to the organisation.


☺ Types of customers

☺ Organisational buying concept

☺ Organisational buying decisions

☺ Selling to organisations

Buying Processes

To explain how buying decisions are made in organisations.


Buying Processes - Highlights

☺ After completing these KeyPoints you should be able to:

• describe the role of customers who are producers and re-sellers

• describe customers from government agencies and institutions as well as the general consumer

• describe how Sales personnel negotiate with customers

• describe the buying process

• describe new-task decisions

• describe straight and modified re-buys

• identify the strategies required in organisational selling


Buying Processes - Summary

☺ Customers that Sales personnel encounter include producers, resellers, government agencies, institutions, and consumers.

☺ Producers can act as original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) or as end-users and resellers.

☺ Government agencies and institutions such as churches, hospitals, and colleges have intricate purchasing procedures that Sales personnel need to acquaint themselves with before negotiations can begin.

☺ Selling to an organisation requires more skill than selling to ordinary consumers because negotiations are more complex.

☺ Sales personnel need to interact with a wide variety of people in the customer's company and coordinate various departments in their own companies.


Buying Processes - Summary

☺ The buying process involves recognizing the need for a product; defining and specifying the product; soliciting, analyzing, and evaluating proposals from suppliers; placing the order; and evaluating performance.

☺ It is in the interests of the salesperson to be involved in the early stages of the buying process and to stay involved in the evaluation of a product for future business opportunities.

☺ A customer makes new-task, straight re-buy, or modified re-buy decisions for different types of products at different stages of a company's life.

☺ These decisions focus on different areas of the buying process and entail different strategies on the part of the salesperson.


☺ Defining needs

☺ How needs develop

Customer Needs

To differentiate between types of buying needs and their roles in large and small sales.


Customer Needs - Highlights

☺ After developing these KeyPoints you should be able to:

• differentiate between business needs, personal needs, and task needs

• describe rational and emotional motives for buying and how they relate to product attributes

• describe the differences in customer needs development in small and large sales

• explain the value of implied and explicit needs as buying signals in small and large sales

• discuss the effect of the value equation on customers' buying decisions


Customer Needs - Summary

☺ The awareness of a lack of something provides the initial stimulus to buy. This lack or shortage - whether tangible or intangible - is called a need.

☺ It is often useful to differentiate between needs and wants - a want arises from a need.

☺ Personal needs satisfy basic human behavioral needs, while business needs are the goods and services required for conducting a business.

☺ Task needs are tools and resources that enable people to do their work.



☺ Customers base their buying decisions on rational or emotional buying motives, or on a combination of these.

☺ Sales personnel need to relate their products to the rational and emotional needs of customers at the levels of product features, advantages, and benefits.

☺ Needs develop differently in large and small sales.

☺ For example, in large sales, customers consider more closely the risks of wrong buying decisions.

☺ They also must justify their purchases rationally and tend to involve others in their buying decisions.



☺ Implied needs are expressed in the form of problems or difficulties, while explicit needs are stated as wants or desires.

☺ Small sales become more likely when customers express many implied needs.

☺ To increase the likelihood of large sales, however, Sales personnel need to encourage their customers to voice as many explicit needs as possible.

☺ The value equation - or "value for money" - compares the seriousness of a problem to the cost of its solution.


☺ Beginning the relationship

☺ Dealing with grievances

☺ Handling customer complaints

☺ Building trust

Cultivating Relationships

To demonstrate how sales personnel cultivate relationships with customers and clients.


Cultivating Relationships - Highlights

☺ After developing these KeyPoints you should be able to:

• describe the value of satisfied customers

• explain how to build a relationship properly

• discuss good after-sales service

• discuss how to deal with grievances

• explain techniques for establishing the facts of a customer's claim

• identify solutions that Sales personnel can offer customers

• discuss the importance of following through with action

• discuss ways sales staff can demonstrate dependability

• explain how sales staff can prove competence and customer direction

• describe how sales professionals can demonstrate honesty and geniality


Cultivating Relationships - Summary

☺ Successful companies can maintain a competitive edge by developing partnerships with customers.

☺ When customers need to make buying decisions, they are more likely to return to companies with whom they have a good relationship.

☺ When establishing a good customer relationship, the salesperson should set realistic expectations, monitor order processing, and ensure proper use of the product.

☺ The salesperson may need to provide technical assistance or training to make sure that the customer is able to use the product effectively.

☺ Successfully handling complaints at the beginning of the buyer-seller relationship is particularly important.



☺ The salesperson should encourage the customer to present his or her problem in detail so that the grievance can be fully understood.

☺ Once the nature of a customer's problem has been established, the salesperson should put forward a solution and explain the reasons for the action.

☺ Following through with action improves customer satisfaction and supports the salesperson's previous assurances that the company is dedicated to customer service.

☺ Trust develops from a combination of five factors - dependability, competence, customer direction, honesty, and geniality.



☺ Dependability refers to the customer's perception of whether or not the salesperson, the product, and the company will meet expectations.

☺ Sales personnel can demonstrate dependability by fulfilling their promises.

☺ Sales personnel demonstrate competence by showing that they know what they are talking about and can carry out their tasks quickly and efficiently.

☺ Customer orientation describes the way in which a salesperson places the customer's needs above the need to make a sale.

☺ Honesty is related to dependability and competence; customers tend to rely on Sales personnel who are truthful and know what they are talking about.

☺ Geniality is conveyed by pleasant and friendly communication.


OxfordCambridge.OrgThe Seeds Of Learning

Thank you!

knowledge can free the mind