personal selling

person to person business activity in which a salesperson uncovers and satisfies the needs of a buyer to the mutual long-term benefit of both parties.

why learn about selling?

the principles of selling are useful to everyone, not just people with the title salesperson, developing mutually beneficial, long-term relationships is vital to all of us, people in business use selling principles all the time.

communication modes

ads/sales promotions(paid, impersonal), personal selling/email(paid, personal), publicity(unpaid, impersonal), word of mouth(unpaid, personal). paid: higher control, credibility and bias. unpaid: can't control whether it is good or bad.

what do sales people do?

client manager relationship, account team manager, vendor and channel manager, info provider to their firm.

distribution channel

set of people and organizations responsible for the flow of products and services from the producer to the ultimate user.

business to business channels

direct channel(salespeople working for manufacturer call directly on other manufacturers), distributor channel(manufacturer employs salespeople to sell to distributors. distributor salespeople sell products made by a number of manufacturers to businesses.

manufacturers agents

independent business people paid commission for selling manufacturers product. agents never own the product.

describing sales jobs

stage of buyer-seller relationship, salesperson's role, importance of the purchase to the customer, location of salesperson-customer contact, the nature of the offering sold by the salesperson, salespersons role in securing customer commitment.

stage of buyer-seller relationship

new or continuing

salesperson's role

taking orders(frito lays go to grocery store and take order) or creating new solutions(working with buyers to develop new systems and methods to increase retailer's sales and profits

location of salesperson-customer contact

field sales(spend more time in customers place of business, communicating face to face), inside sales(work at employer's location and typically communicate with letters or by phone

the nature of the offering sold by the salesperson

products(which have tangible benefits), services(more intangible benefits)

salesperson role in securing customer commitment

information or placing an order.

examples of sales jobs

best buy retail salesperson(basic, starting to build relationships), hershey foods salesperson(make regularly scheduled calls on existing customers and not usually expected to find new ones), abbot lab pharmaceutical salesperson(usually missionary salespe

are sales people born or made?

the skills required to be a successful salesperson can be learned, innate characteristics such as personality traits, gender, and height are largely unrelated to sales performance, companies spend billions of dollars each year on training.

rewards in selling

independence and responsibility, financial rewards, management opportunity.

ethics and personal selling

ethics are the principles governing behavior of an individual or a group, these principles establish appropriate behavior, indicating what is right and wrong. what is ethical can vary from: country to country, industry to industry.

manipulation

eliminates or reduces the buyer's choice unfairly

persuasion

is trying to influence the buyers decision, not force it.

factors affecting ethical behavior of salespeople

personal goals, social norms, personal code of ethics, values of significant others, laws, company policies, company goals, customer goals

relationships and customers

deception(unethical practice of withholding info or telling whit lies), bribes, gifts and entertainment, special treatment, confidential info, backdoor selling(when salespeople ignore the purchasing agent's policy, go around his or her back, and contact o

buyers view of unethical sales behaviors

exaggerates benefits of products, passes the blame for something he or she did to someone else, lies about product availability, misrepresents guarantees, lies about competition, sells products that people don't need, makes promises that are not legally b

relationships with the salespersons company

expense accounts(maintain the same standards of living and appearance that you do at home), reporting work time info and activities, switching jobs(give ample notice, offer assistance during the transition phase, don't burn bridges, don't take anything th

relationships with colleagues

sexual harassment, taking advantage of other salespeople(steal leads)

relationships with competitors

making false claims about their products or sabotaging their efforts is unethical, criticizing a competitors product or policies.

uniform commercial code

legal guide to commercial practice, title and risk of loss (FOB destination(seller has responsibility), FOB Factory(buyer has responsibility)), oral versus written agreements

warranty

an assurance by the seller that the products will perform as represented.

expressed warranty

oral or written statement by the seller

sales puffery

opinion, this is okay, "this is a top notch product," "our service cannot be beat!

misrepresentation

fact/warranty, this is not okay, "mechanically, this oil rig is a 9 on a scale of 10," "feel free to prescribe this drug to your patients, doctor. Its nonaddicting.

business defamation

salesperson makes unfair or untrue statement to customer about a competitor, its products, or its salespeople.

reciprocity

special relationship in which two companies agree to buy products from each other.

tying agreement

a buyer is required to purchase one product in order to get another product.

conspiracy and collusion

an agreement between competitors before customers are contacted, competitors working together while the customer is making a purchase decision, respectively.

interference with competitors

try to get a customer to break a contract with competitor, tampering with competitors product, confusing competitors market research by buying merchandise from stores.

SPIFS

specialized promotion incentive fund (legal), manufacturer pays salespeople incentive for selling their product ex. lowes and john deere

privacy laws

limit the amount of info that a firm can obtain about a consumer and specify how that info can be used or shared.

good ethics are

good business

legal and ethical responsibilities of salespeople are important because

salespeople may face conflicts between their personal standards and the standards of their firm and customers.

communication breakdowns caused by:

encoding and decoding problems, the environment in which the communications occur.

two way flow of information

the sender (seller) encodes a message, the receiver (buyer) decodes the message, who then becomes.... the sender (buyer) who encodes a reply message, the receiver (seller) then decodes the buyer's message, who then becomes... the sender etc.

curse of knowledge

once we know something, we find it hard to imagine what it was like not to know it. Our knowledge has "cursed" us. And it becomes difficult for us to share our knowledge with others, because we can't readily re-create our listeners' state of mind.

speaking-listening differential

people can speak at a rate of only 120-160 words per minute, but they can listen to more than 800 words per minute.

ways to actively listen

head nodding, eye contact, an occasional "I see" or "hmt" or "thats interesting," repeat info, restate or rephrase info, clarify info, summarize the convo, tolerate silences, concentrate on the ideas being communicated, show ignorance.

reading non verbal cues

body angle, face and eyes(blinking, smile), arms, hands(open=positive, intertwined fingers=negative, and playing with hands= underlying tension), legs

positive nonverbal signals

uncrossed arms and legs, leaning forward, smiling or otherwise pleasant expression, nodding, contemplated posture, eye contact, animated, excited reaction.

negative nonverbal signals

crossed arms or legs, leaning backward or turned away form you, frowned brows, pursed lips, frowning, shaking head, fidgeting, distracted, no eye contact, little change in expression, lifeless

how to tell if someone's lying to you

watch body language, seek detail, beware unpleasantness, observe eye contact, signs of stress, listen for the pause, ask again, beware those who protest too much, know thyself(just believe because you want to?), work on your intuition.

face to face conversation

40 percent: words, 10 percent: voice characteristics, 50 percent: nonverbal communications.

technology tips

immediacy does not equal intimacy, learn how the customer likes to communicate, avoid "techno overkill," make the convo meaningful, customize your your messages when using technology, use speed to impress customers, don't deliver bad news via email, use p

adjusting for cultural differences

salesperson need to recognize that business practices differ around the world, terms have different meanings, time perception, low context(most info that flows between buyer and seller is in the spoken words themselves), high context(more info is containe

effective comm requires

a two way flow of info

what percent of comm is nonverbal

50

organizational buying and selling

complexity of the process(purchasing agents, evaluations and negotiations, complexity is increasing), derived vs direct demand(customer's customers)

consumer transactions

smaller, shorter term, shorter sales cycles, less rational, more emotional decisions often by individual

business transactions

bigger, longer term contracts, longer sales cycles, more rational, less emotional, decisions often by committee.

straight rebuys

a customer buys the same product from the original source (little time, little influence, little review of suppliers, little info needed)

modified rebuys

the customer has purchased the product in the past but is looking for new information. (medium time, some influence, some review of suppliers, some info needed)

who makes the buying decisions

users, initiators, influencers, gatekeepers(receptionists- controls flow of info, most important bc have to get through them), deciders. one person could be all of these.

organizational needs and criteria

economic criteria(life cycle costing: total cost of ownership), quality criteria(what are organizational buyers looking for?)

life cycle costing

method for determining the cost of equipment or supplies over their useful lives. can show that higher initial costs will have a lower overall cost.

multi attribute model of product evaluation and choice

based on the idea that people view a product as a collection of characteristics or attributes, buyers evaluate a product by considering how each characteristic satisfies the firms needs and perhaps their individual needs, performance evaluation of charact

approaches for changing perceived value

increase the performance rating for your product, decrease the performance rating for a competitive product, increase or decrease an importance weight, add a new dimension, decrease the price of your product.

lexicographic

the alternate with the best value on the most important attribute is selected.

satisficing

need to meet a minimum threshold across attributes.

elimination-by-aspects

eliminates options that don't meet a minimum cut off value for the most important attribute.