This document discusses key concepts in personal selling and sales management. It defines sales management as planning, directing, and controlling personal selling activities like recruiting, training, and motivating salespeople. It also distinguishes marketing from selling, outlines qualities of a successful salesperson, and describes the personal selling process from prospecting to closing the sale. Finally, it identifies important functions in sales force management.

1. PERSONAL SELLING

2. Sales Management
Sales Management is planning, directing and
controlling of personal selling including recruiting,
selecting, equipping, assigning, routing, supervising,
paying and motivating the salespeople as these tasks
apply to the personal salesforce.

3. Difference between Marketing and Selling
1) Emphasis on product. 1) Emphasis on customer needs &
wants.
2) Company manufacturers the
product first and then decides to
sell it.
2) Company first determines
customer’s needs and wants and
then decides on how to deliver a
product to satisfy their needs.
3) Management is sales volume
oriented.
3) Management is profit oriented.
4) Planning is short term
oriented in terms of today’s
products and markets.
4) Planning is long term oriented in
terms of new products, tomorrow’s
markets and future growth.

4. 5) Stresses needs of a seller. 5) Stresses needs of a seller.
6) Views business as a goods
producing process.
6) Views business as a consumer
satisfying process.
7) Emphasis on staying with
existing technology and reducing
costs.
7) Emphasis on innovation,
providing better value to the
customers by adopting a superior
technology.
8) Selling views customers as a
last link in business.
8) Marketing views customers as
the very beginning of a business.

5. Qualities of a Successful Salesman
 Ability to estimate customer’s needs & desires
 Business sense
 Courtesy
 Creative
 Curious
 Enthusiastic
 Flexible
 Friendly
 Integrity (customer should trust him)
 Interest in job
 Knowledge
 Persuasiveness

6. Formulation of a Strategic Sales Mgt Program
The Environment
External Environment Internal Environment
Potential Customers Objective & Mission
Competition Human Resources
Legal & Potential Env. Financial Resources
Technological Env. Capacity utilization & production Process
Natural resource Innovation cycle & research and
social & cultural Env. development activities
Marketing Strategies
Product and product lines
Pricing Policy
Distribution strategy
Promotion Policy
Advertising & sales promotion
Sales Management Functions
Account Mgt Policy Sales Force Sales Planning, Sales force deployment
Organisations Forecasting territory design, route
planning

7. Personal Selling Process/ Sales Process
Prospecting and Qualifying
Pre approach ( pre call planning)
Approach
Presentation and Demonstration
Overcoming Objective
Closing the Sale
Follow up and Service

8. Prospecting
A prospect is an individual, a family or an
organization who needs the product or the
service a salesperson is selling and also has
the ability to buy. A prospect is not the same
as a sales lead or a lead. A sales lead
generated the name of a person or a business
firm that is a probable prospect.

9. Prospecting
Method
Brief Description
1) Referrals from
existing customers
Requesting existing customers to
suggest the names of prospects. This
is a convincing source of nearly 2/3 of
total leads.
2) Referrals from
internal company
sources
Company advertising, direct mail,
website, trade shows and tele
prospecting activities.
3) Referrals from
external sources
Suppliers, intermediaries, bankers,
trade associations, commercial dot
com vendors.

10. 4) Networking by
salesperson
Salespersons become members
of social organizations like lions
club, rotary club to meet new
people who may be prospects or
may provide leads.
5) Industrial
directories
Yellow pages published by
government and private
publishers.
6) Cold canvassing Unannounced calls by
salespeople on firms that may
need the product.

11. Qualifying
It is important that the lead or the probable prospect is
qualified. The necessary conditions for the prospect are:
* The probable prospect has a need for the product being
sold.
* The probable prospect (individual, family, organization)
can afford to buy the product.
Hot prospects- These prospects have good requirements of
the company’s product and are financially sound. Such
prospects are handed over to the company’s salesperson
to convert them to the company’s customers.

12. Warm prospects- This group of prospect have
medium or average requirements of the
company’s product and are financially sound.
These prospects are given to the company’s
telemarketing team for follow ups.
Cool prospects- Such prospects are either
handed over to the company’s intermediaries
like dealers/distributors or their names are kept
in pending list for future follow ups. They have
low requirements and their financial capacity
may or may not be good.

13. Pre-approach
Pre-approach (pre-call planning) includes the
following tasks:
1) Information gathering- The salesperson needs to
collect as much as information as possible about the
prospect,
* prospect’s business
* its products and services
* purchasing practices
* location of plants
* name and background of people who make buying
decisions
* the major issues faced by the prospect

14. The sources of obtaining information about the
prospect include,
* Internet or online information services
* Trade magazines
* Industrial directories
* Chamber of commerce
* Annual report of companies
* Existing customers and suppliers
* Government publications

15. 2) Planning the sales call
APPROACH- After collecting the prospect’s
name and other relevant information, the next
step is to make an appointment to see the
prospect.

16. PRESENTATION AND DEMONSTARTION
Understanding the buyer’s needs- Salesperson
should ask the questions in a logical form.
* Are you buying this product for the first time or making
a change from the existing supplier.
* Who are involved in buying decision making for this
product.
* Have you experienced any problems on quality.
* Which parts of the existing system create errors.

17. Developing an effective Presentation
 It is important that salesperson does planning, including setting
objectives for each sales call and each presentation.
 Salesperson should use technology with latest software packages,
multimedia presentations.
 The presentation should be modified according to the client.
 Salesperson should use persuasive communication.
 The salesperson should avoid telling everything about the company.
Only the information that is relevant should be presented.
 The salesperson should use the language that is understood by the
prospect.
 Salesperson must make the presentation convincing.

18. Demonstration
Overcoming objections
 Sales objections, resistances or oppositions may take
place during sales presentation or when the salesperson
asks for the order from the prospect.
 Objections should be welcomed because they show that
the prospect has some interest and if the objections can
be answered satisfactorily, it would result in sales.

19. Closing the sale
It checks the attitude or asks the opinion of
the prospect. It does not ask the decision of
the prospect to buy.

20. Sales Force Management
1. Designing sales force strategy and structure
2. Recruiting and selecting salesperson
3. Training salesperson
4. Compensating salesperson
5. Supervising salesperson
6. Evaluation salesperson