Salesperson Personalities
Personal selling is one of the five main aspects of the promotional mix within marketing communications. Although other marketing components are dedicated to increasing sales, their impact is often indirect. In contrast, personal selling uses personal contact with target markets to generate new sales. The importance and power of this tool might be seen in the numbers of people employed in the personal selling field .
Salesperson
Personal selling, a main tool in marketing communications, is used by retail associates, telemarketers and outside sales managers.
According to David Jobber, co-author of "Selling and Sales Management", there are three types of personal sellers: order-takers, order-creators, and order-getters. Professionals in the order-takers category respond to already committed customers. Order-creators are outside the ordering process, speaking to specifiers rather than buyers. Order-getters attempt to persuade customers to purchase directly.
Different Roles / Personalities
Order-takers: Inside order-takers hold positions such as that of a retail sales assistant. The customer has full freedom to choose products without the presence or influence of a salesperson. The order-taker's task is solely transactional. However, personal sellers involved in the order-taking process may also move goods along to other order-takers such as telemarketers. Telemarketers support field sales by conducting transactions over the phone. Unlike inside salespeople, outside order-takers visit the customer, but also primarily respond to customer requests rather than actively make sales.
Order-creaters: In some industries, notably pharmaceuticals, the sales task is not to close the sale, but to persuade the customer to promote the seller's products. For example, medical representatives that market to the medical industry rely on physicians prescribing their product rather than selling drugs directly to patients.
Order-getters: These salespeople persuade customers to make a direct purchase. These are front line salespeople, who are supported by technical support teams and marketers.
Purpose of Personal Selling
Personal selling can be found in many different positions and in many different sectors, but its primary purpose is to generate revenue (and subsequently profit) for companies. This process involves finding, informing, persuading, and at times servicing customers via personal communication. It can also entail helping customers to articulate their needs, tailoring persuasive messages to answer those needs, and then handling customers' responses. Some of the primary objectives that fall under personal selling include:
- Winning new business by identifying and selling to prospects.
- Maintaining close long-term relationships with organizational customers.
- Selling physical products and services such as books, cars and financial services.
- Supporting customers of highly technical and complex products and providing detailed technical information.
- Providing sales support in retail and wholesale selling. For example, giving advice on displays, implementing sales promotions, checking stock levels, and maintaining contact with store managers.