Introduction
Personal selling is oral communication with potential buyers of a product with the intention of making a sale. The personal selling may focus initially on developing a relationship with the potential buyer, but will always ultimately end with an attempt to “close the sale”
Importance of personal Selling Personal selling is an important element of promotion mix and an effective promotional tool. Personal Selling offers the following compensation. Despite the above advantages, personal selling suffers from several disadvantages. Firstly personal selling is the costliest method of promotion. Secondly, it can cover only limited number customers at a time.
Role of personal selling
Personal selling is a process in which an individual salesperson works one-on-one with a customer to try to match a product to her needs. This sales discipline is practiced by many companies in the retail industry and in business-to-business sales.
The role of personal selling are:
(1) Prospecting – trying to find new customers
(2) Communicating – with existing and potential customers about the product range
(3) Selling – contact with the customer, answering questions and trying to close the sale
(4) Servicing – providing support and service to the customer in the period up to delivery and also post-sale
(5) Information gathering – obtaining information about the market to feedback into the marketing planning process
(6) Allocating – in times of product shortage, the sales force may have the power to decide how available stocks are allocated
