Unit 4
Promotion
Promotions allude to the whole arrangement of exercises, which impart the product, brand or administration to the client. The thought is to make individuals mindful, draw in and prompt to purchase the product, in inclination over others. There are a few kinds of promotions. Over the line promotions incorporate publicizing, official statements, purchaser promotions (plans, limits, challenges), while beneath the line incorporate exchange limits, gifts, impetus outings, grants, etc. Sales promotion is a piece of the general promotion exertion.
1. Personal selling: One of the best methods of client relationship. Such selling works best when a decent working relationship has been developed throughout some undefined time frame. This can likewise be costly and tedious, yet is best for high worth or premium products.
2. Sales promotions: This incorporates gifts, challenges, limits, free administrations, passes, tickets, etc, as particular from publicizing, exposure and advertising.
3. Public Relations: Public relations is the intentional, arranged and supported exertion to set up and keep up shared comprehension between the organization and people in general.
Nature and importance
1. To Provide Information to Customers about New Products
At the point when an organization comes in the market with its new products/administrations, it needs to manage a few difficulties. Individuals love to purchase from confided in brands that have just caught the market. In this way, it is exceptionally hard for another finance manager to beat the gigantic rivalry and persuade individuals to purchase his/her products/administrations. Through various business special exercises, you make individuals mindful of your new products/administrations. A proficient client consistently loves to purchase your products/administrations in the event that they address their issues their particular requirements well overall.
2. Creating a Positive Image of the Company
Nowadays, the vast majority utilize the Internet to locate the important data, products, administrations. Thusly, it is significant for all organizations to have a positive picture according to existing and likely purchasers. An organization with a decent picture is lauded by clients on various gatherings, helping it to get more business openings. Then again, organizations with a negative picture regularly bite the bullet and have a couple of business openings. In this way, you need to advance your image of various gatherings to improve its picture and draw in new clients.
3. Simple Dissemination of data About the Advantages of Goods
It doesn't make a difference how great your products and administrations are, clients won't buy it until and except if they know about its significance or points of interest. Along these lines, as an in-your-face business person, you should start special exercises and make individuals mindful of the significance and preferred position of utilizing your products and administrations. Really at that time, you will have the option to create the ideal sales and leads.
4. Sales Promotion
Don't happy with the volume of sales you are creating at this moment. Partake in advertising and individual sales exercises and mean to build the business volume consistently. Take an interest in product displays, challenges, lotteries, coupons, faithfulness programs, prizes, free examples, exhibits, and so on, to send business messages to clients effectively and rapidly and develop the business volume.
5. Make an Easily Recognizable Logo for Your Business
Each finance manager knows about the immense centrality of an all-around planned logo. In actuality, a delightfully made logo pulls in the consideration of individuals, told them about the fundamental business exercises of a specific organization and distinguish it effectively in the horde of a few organizations. Consequently, as a significant piece of business special exercises, you ought to have an all-around planned logo and make individuals mindful of it. When individuals begin to distinguish your business/products/administrations in the wake of seeing your logo, it gets simpler for you to sell more products and administrations effectively and rapidly.
6. Continuous Communication with Clients and Customers
We as a whole know the colossal significance of successive correspondence with customers and clients. Continuously remember all clients are not completely mindful of the significance of your products/administrations. Thus, through special exercises, you can speak with your customers/clients as often as possible, take care of their issues in a flash and sell more products and administrations consistently.
7. Further Expansion of Your Business
Diverse special exercises establish the framework for the further development of your business. For instance you can give free occasions to clients to cause them to feel unique and they love to purchase from your every now and again. It likewise encourages you to acquire clients and business openings effectively and easily.
Methods of promotion
Advertising
Publicizing is characterized as any type of paid correspondence or promotion for product, administration and thought. Notice isn't just utilized by organizations yet much of the time by exhibition hall, government and altruistic associations. Nonetheless, the treatment distributed to commercial concedes from an association to an association. Publicizing promotion includes a choice across five Ms Mission, Money, Message, Media and Measurement. Mission takes a gander at setting goals for publicizing. The destinations could be to illuminate, convince, remind or fortify. Objective needs to follow the advertising methodology set by the organization. Cash or spending choice for publicizing should take a gander at phase of product life cycle, piece of the pie and buyer base, rivalry, promoting recurrence and product substitutability. Message's promotion further is isolated into four stages, message age, message assessment and determination, message execution, and social obligation audit. When the message is chosen the following stage is concluding the media for conveying the message. The decision of relies upon reach of media, recurrence of transmission and likely effect on client. In light of this decision of media types are produced using paper, TV, standard mail, radio, magazine and the web. After which timing of transmission of the message is fundamental as to catch eye of the intended interest group. Keeping an eye on the adequacy of correspondence is fundamental to organization's system. There are two kinds of exploration correspondence impact examination and sales impact research.
Sales Promotion
Promotion is a motivation device used to drive up momentary sales. Promotion can be dispatched aimed at buyer or exchange. The focal point of publicizing to make purpose behind buy the focal point of promotion is to make an impetus to purchase. Shopper motivators could be examples, coupons, free preliminary and exhibit. Exchange impetus could be cost off, free merchandise and stipends. Sales power motivator could be show, expos, rivalry among salesmen. Sales promotion action can have numerous goals, for instance, to catch eye of new client, reward the current client, increment utilization of incidental clients. Sales promotion is normally focused at the fence sitters and brand switchers. Sales special action for the product is chosen taking a gander at the general promoting target of the organization. The last determination of the customer limited time apparatuses necessities to consider target crowd, spending plan, competitive reaction and each instrument's motivation. Sales promotion movement ought to under-go pretest before usage. When the movement is dispatched it should be controlled as to stay inside the financial plan. Assessment program is an absolute necessity after usage of the special plan.
Public Relations
Organizations can't get by in confinement they need to have a steady communication with clients, representatives and various partners. This overhauling of connection is finished by the public connection office. The significant capacity of the public connection office is to deal with official statements, uphold product exposure, make and keep up the corporate picture, handle matters with legislators, control the board regarding public issues. Organizations are seeing approaches to meet with elements of marketing and public connection in promoting public connection. The immediate obligation of advertising public connection PR is to help corporate and product marking exercises. PR is a proficient device in building mindfulness by producing stories in media. When the story is available for use PR can build up validity and make a feeling of riddle among salesmen just as vendors to support eagerness. PR is significantly more practical device than other limited time exercises.
Direct Marketing
The correspondence builds up through an immediate channel without utilizing any mediators is alluded to as immediate advertising. Direct advertising can be utilized to convey message or administration. Direct promoting has demonstrated colossal development lately. The web has had significant influence in this development story. Direct advertising spares time, makes an encounter individual and wonderful. Direct advertising decreases cost for organizations. Vis-à-vis selling, post office-based mail, list promoting, selling, TV and booths are media for direct marketing. Ad, Promotional movement, Public connection and direct advertising assume a fundamental function in helping organizations arrives at their marketing objectives.
Optimum promotion mix
Promotion-mix refers to an optimum combination of different promotional tools and techniques; with a view to maximizing sales and profits.
Gary Armstrong defines promotion mix as, “A company’s promotional mix includes advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations, direct marketing. It also includes product design, shape, package, colour, label etc., as all these communicate something to buyer.”
Philip Kotler opines, “A company’s total marketing communication mix also called promotion mix consists of specific blends of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations and direct marketing tools that the company use to pursue its advertising and marketing objectives.”
Promotion is a process of communication involving information, persuasion, and influence. It includes all types of personal or impersonal communication by a producer with prospective customers as well as middlemen in the distribution network.
The purpose of promotion is to inform, persuade and influence the prospective customers. Personal selling, advertising, public relations, sales promotion and direct marketing are widely used to inform the people about the availability of products and create among them the desire to buy the products.
Promotion is a form of corporate communication that uses various methods to reach a targeted audience with a certain message in order to achieve specific organisational objectives. Nearly all organisations, whether for-profit or not-for-profit, in all types of industries, must engage in some form of promotion.
Such efforts may range from multinational firms spending large sums on securing high-profile celebrities to serve as corporate spokespersons to the owner of a one-person enterprise passing out business cards at a meeting of local business persons.
Promotion is communication from a marketers to the prospective buyers in the market. It tries to instil into buyer’s minds images (through advertising, personal selling, sales promotion and publicity) that make them buy the product.
Factors Affecting the Selection of Promotion Mix:
- Nature of Product: The different type of product requires different promotional tools. Such as, for the industrial products Viz. Machinery, equipment or land personal selling is more appropriate as a great deal of pre-sale and after-sale services is required to sell and install such products. On the other hand, advertising and publicity are more suitable for the consumer goods, especially the convenience goods.
- Nature of Market: The number and location of customers greatly influence the promotion mix. In case the group of potential customers is small and are concentrated in a particular locality, then personal selling is more likely to be effective. Whereas, if the customer base is large and widespread, then the blend of advertising, personal selling, and the sales promotion is required to sell the product.
- Stage of Product’s Life: The promotion mix changes as the product moves along its life cycle. During the introduction stage, the principal objective of the promotion is to create the primary demand by emphasizing the product’s features, utility, etc. therefore, the blend of advertising and publicity is required. As the product reaches its maturity stage the advertising and personal selling is required to maintain the demand of the customers.
- Availability of Funds: The marketing budget also decides the promotion mix. If the funds available for the promotion are large, then the blend of promotional tools can be used, whereas in the case the funds are limited then the management must choose the promotional tool wisely.
- Nature of Technique: Each element of the promotional mix has unique features that significantly influences the purpose of promotion. Such as, the advertising is an impersonal mode of communication that reaches a large group of customers. Its expression can be amplified with the use of colors and sound that helps in developing the long lasting brand image in the minds of the customer.The Personal selling involves face to face interaction that helps in developing cordial and personal relations with the customers. Likewise, the sales promotion is short-term incentives given to the customers with the intent to boost sales for a shorter period of time.
- Promotional Strategy: The promotion mix largely depends on the company’s promotional strategy, i.e. whether it accepts the Push Strategy or a Pull Strategy. In a Push strategy, the manufacturer forces the dealers to carry the product and promote it to the customer, i.e. convince the potential buyers to buy it. Here, personal selling and trade promotion are likely to be more effective.
In the case of a Pull Strategy, the consumers ask the dealers to carry the product, i.e. customers themselves purchase the product. Here, advertising and consumer promotion are more appropriate.
7. Readiness of Buyer: Different promotional tools are required at different stages of buyer readiness. Such as, at the comprehension stage, the blend of advertising and personal selling plays a vital role. Whereas at the conviction stage, personal selling is more effective. At the time of sales closure, the blend of sales promotion and personal selling is likely to be more effective.
Advertising media: their relative merits and limitations
The word “Advertise” has been derived from the word “Ad” which means “Turn” & “Verto” meaning “towards”. Hence the term advertising means to turn the attention towards something. Definition:
According to the Philip Kotler, “Advertising consists of non-personal or one way form of communication conducted through paid media under clear sponsorship.”
In other words, a good advertisement must attract the consumers, create interest in them, make them to desire the product & finally they should buy the product. The other objectives are:
1. To bring to the notice of consumers, the product, the features, uses etc.
2. To make an immediate sale.
3. To build demand in case of a new product.
4. To build the brand recognition
5. To increase market share
6. To build overall image of the company
7. To reach new market.
Advantages of Advertising:
Advertising is beneficial to manufacturers, traders, consumers and society as a whole:
1. Promotion of Sales:
Advertising helps the producer to increase his sales. A form attempts to increase the demand for its product, either by reducing the price or by inducing buyers to purchase more of its product; even at the constant price. The latter involves the use of sales promotion and hence advertising.
2. Expansion of Production:
Increased demand brought about by advertising has to be met by a corresponding increase in production. In this way, advertising causes production to expand in order to cater to an increased demand.
3. Enhances Goodwill:
Advertising is instrumental in increasing the goodwill of the company (advertises). It introduces the manufacturer and his product to the people. Repeated advertising and better quality of products strengthens manufacturer’s reputation and enhances his goodwill.
4. Large Turnover and Huge Profits:
An increased demand, generated through advertisements can create a larger turnover for the company and eventually resulting in more profits.
5. Information about Different Options and Comparative Prices:
Advertisement keeps the buyers well informed by providing information about the different products and their relative prices. This helps the consumer to take adequate decision regarding the features they want and the amount they want to spend, even before physically going to the shops.
6. Creates Employment Opportunities:
Advertising is capable of providing employment to large section of the society including the professionals like painters, photographers, singers, cartoonist, musicians, models and people working in different advertising agencies.
7. Higher Standard of Living:
Advertisement promotes larger consumption, increased production and greater employment. This further reflects on lower prices, better quality and greater variety of goods to the consumers. Advertising, thus, ensures better and happier living.
Disadvantages of Advertising:
1. Adds to the Cost of Production and Product:
Advertising increases the cost of the advertised product, as the expenses on advertisement add to the total cost of the product. To mitigate the cost incurred during advertising of the product or the service, the advertiser adds the cost of advertisement to the total price of the product or the service. So, the advertising cost is actually being borne by the consumers.
2. Leads to Price War:
Large scale competitive advertising by prominent competing firms can possibly lead to advertising wars with the consumers being made to pay for it. It leads to a situation of price war and that makes the production activity unduly wasteful. The entire industry has to suffer a setback.
3. Deceptive Advertising:
Sometimes, advertising is used as an instrument of cheating. Unscrupulous firms defraud the consumers by misrepresenting their products through advertising. In order to induce people to purchase their product, firms issue false statements with regard to different virtues of a products; this undermines public confidence in advertising. As a result we have the Advertising Code of Conduct that regulates advertising and ensures commercial honesty.
4. Leads to Unequal Competition:
The producers spend a huge amount of money for the advertisement of their products and services. Small local firms cannot match the big advertising budgets of multinational companies. Therefore, the scales are always tilted in favour of the bigger producers leading to unequal competition.
5. Creates a Monopolistic Market:
Larger firms by virtue of their larger advertising budgets drive the smaller firms out of the market. This leaves the market open to just a few large producers. In this way the bigger firms win competition and monopolize the market.
6. Promotes Unnecessary Consumption:
Advertising promotes the consumption of goods and services which are not even required by the people. Hence it is wastage of national resources.
7. Decline in Moral Values:
In order to attract attention of the people, many times advertisers use indecent, vulgar language and obscene photographs.
Characteristics of an effective advertisement
1. It is Pervasive:
Goals of advertising apply to all types of organizations, for-profit as well as not-for-profit advertisers: Army advertises to increase recruits, Hindu Religious Charitable Trusts advertise to increase attendance at Bhagwad Gita Lecturing, and politicians advertise for votes and businessmen advertise to increase sale and profitability.
2. It is Multidimensional and Complex:
It is perplexing. It seems to be simple, yet full of paradoxes. Research has shown that some simple conclusions are quite wrong. Advertising is influenced by anthropology, sociology, economics, and what not.
3. It is a Craft, an Art, and a Science:
Advertising is a mix of three elements. Advertising must be crafted to be effective in stimulating consumer response and to do that art is necessary to captivate the audience of the advertisement. And it is a science because it is rule-based. There appears to be a lot of controversies on science versus art debate.
4. Advertising is Non-personal:
The various media are the non-personal channels of communication that people have invented and used and continue to use. These include newspapers, magazines, radio, television, billboards, transit cards, sandwich boards, skywriting, posters, anything that aids communicating in a non-personal way, ideas from one person or group to another person or group.
5. Identified Sponsor:
The source of advertising is known. Identified sponsors mean who- so-ever is putting out the ad tells the audience who they are. There are two reasons for this: first, it’s a legal requirement, and second, it makes a good sense.
Legally, a sponsor must identify herself as the sponsor of an ad. This prevents the audience from getting a misleading idea about the ad or its contents. For example, many ads that appear in newspapers look like news articles: same typeface, appearance, use of columns, etc. If the ad is not identified as such, the audience could perceive it as news about a product, rather than an attempt to persuade the audience to buy it.
6. Persuasive:
“Persuasive”stands to reason as part of the definition of advertising. The basic purpose of advertising is to identify and differentiate one product from another in order to persuade the consumer to buy that product in preference to another. The purpose of this book is to discuss some basic elements of persuasion
7. Paid for:
“Paid for” is pretty straightforward. If an ad is created and placed in the media, the costs of creation and time or space in the media must be paid for. This is a major area in which advertising departs from public relations.
8. Controlled:
The word Controlled differentiates it from personal selling and publicity. A door-to-door salesperson or a reporter who takes personal interest in giving publicity to a product of service may at times indulge in an uncontrolled exercise of his imagination. But advertisers cannot say anything in an uncontrolled manner. Advertisers have to decide about all aspects of their advertisement in terms of what and how much the public should know about a product or service.
9. Mass Media:
There is involvement of Mass Media in advertising. Mass communication is different from communication as it occurs between large, heterogeneous and anonymous group of people (although we know of the qualities of target audience). Mass mediated messages are not only rapid but transient and ‘non-personal’. Several messages from different sources bombard the senses of the receivers every hour. That is why advertisers want to create unforgettable and easily memorable messages so that at least a part of the message is absorbed by the potentials, the message must catch the attention, create interest and desire and motivate to act.
Personal Selling
Personal selling is a personalised sales method that employs person-to-person interaction between a sales representative and prospective customers to influence the customer’s purchase decision.
Objective Of Personal Selling
- Build brand and product awareness by educating customers on the company’s offerings and their benefits.
- Increase sales by identifying and persuading the prospects to buy a business’s offering.
- Building close long-term relationships with the customers by enforcing person-to-person two-way communication.
- Supporting the customers of complex, technical, or high-priced items by providing detailed technical information.
- Stimulating the offering’s demand by helping the customers throughout their decision-making process and guiding them towards the business’s offering.
- Reinforcing the brand by building long term relationships with the customers over time by meeting them and helping them in their decision-making process.
Features Of Personal Selling
Personal selling differentiates itself from other sales and promotional techniques by possessing the following characteristics:
- Human contact: It involves person-to-person interaction where a seller interacts directly with the prospective customer and executes a personalised sales strategy according to the customer’s needs, wants, and expectations.
- Development of relationship: Personal selling involves developing a relationship between the seller and the buyer where trust is established, and the prospective buyer can rely on the salesperson. Moreover, this technique even results in the salesperson becoming a part of the buying process.
- Two-way flow of information: Unlike mass marketing, personal selling is characterised by a two-way flow of information. The prospective buyers get their chance to ask questions and clear their doubts directly from the seller before purchasing.
- Quick communication: Since personal selling involves person-to-person interaction, the communication flow is really quick.
- Flexibility: It involves the salesperson to tailor the sales pitch according to the prospective audience’s persona and requirements, making this sales tool flexible.
- Satisfaction: The process of personal selling requires the salesperson to understand the customer’s needs and satisfy the same by offering the customer the opportunity to buy something he has to offer.
- Persuasion: Personal selling isn’t just about informing prospective customers about the company’s offerings. It also involves using the power of persuasion to make customers accept the seller’s point of view or convince the customer to take a particular action.
Types of personal selling
Order Takers: Order takers receive requests and queries from the customers. In simple terms, the customer approaches these salespersons. They usually hold positions like retail sales assistant or telemarketer and focus mainly on determining customer needs and pointing to inventory that meets such needs.
Order Getters: Order getters reach out to new prospects and persuade them to make a direct purchase. These are in-field salespersons who bring in new clients to the business.
Order Creators: Order creators don’t close the deal, but persuade the customers to promote the business’s offering, leading to sales eventually. For example, a pharmaceutical company reaching out to a doctor to persuade him to prescribe the company’s medicine.
Selling as a career;
The salesmen’s job has become so important. Increasing population growth with high expectations of life, social and cultural development in almost all the economies of the world, consumer awareness, cyclical fluctuations in business conditions, acute competition, complexity of business operations etc. have created challenging opportunity to people to join this profession.
Kirpatric writes “Although selling is a difficult and competitive function, those who likes this profession has an interesting job. Salesmen deal in people and in their motivations. They work for human values and individual satisfaction.” Earnest and Davall observe, “Those who dream a challenging career, can obtain a marketing job.” They are presented here in the form of arguments in favour and against.
Advantages of accepting “selling as a career”:
1. Higher Earnings:
The supporters show a view to believe that the persons working in the selling field have physical and mental qualities. This is the reason that they have been provided with higher remuneration. In addition to regular salary they are paid with commission on the basis of increased volume of sales. Their incomes are in direct proportion to the time, energy and thoughts devoted by them to their jobs.
2. Opportunity for Advancement:
Opportunity for advancement in the sales job provides with opportunity in career, such as merit-wise promotion as sales supervisor, branch manager, divisional sales manager, Asstt. Sales manager, Dy. Sales director, etc.
3. Personal Satisfaction:
Everyone needs psychic income too. Selling provides personal satisfaction also. Salesman earns his satisfaction through customer satisfaction by solving customer problems. In the words of Kirkpatric, “salesmen earn happiness because they make buyers happy; they sell satisfaction and in return find their own satisfaction.”
4. Security:
Certain people believe that salesmanship is a job involving risk and uncertainty. At times of cyclical changes or during trade depressions much challengers are attached with their jobs. They may even face a situation of retrenchment. If they are able to create and maintain the demands even during the seasonal variations, they will have job security.
5. Sense of Proud:
Salesmen represent the producer, the society and the business world as a whole. They feel sense of proud and social prestige. H. M. Taylor writes, “The social position of a salesman depends on his personality, functions and achievements. No salesman should feel inferiority in his job.”
6. Freedom and Guidance:
Salesman has his own control on his timings of selling duties. He has freedom in functioning and decision making upto certain limits. He has freedom to deal with his customers in his selling territory and the products that he deals with. He himself is the administrator and guide for his functions in the field.
7. Pleasure of Traveling:
The main functions of a traveling salesman are to contact the customers in his territory and gets the sales orders for the producer. Traveling salesman travels throughout the country and his gives him an opportunity to visit and see different places, meeting with various people of different cultures, languages, and traditions. Traveling also provides him opportunity to make new friends and new relationships.
8. Development of Personality and Responsibility:
Selling develops various challenges before a salesman. In a changing situation, he has to deal with different people. This will help in his mental development and maturity of personality. In addition to this, he becomes self-disciplined and responsible as he gets the knowledge for self-decision-making and initiatives.
Measures for making selling an attractive career
- Increase compensation, fringe benefits and retirement benefits
- In addition to salary, offer liberal incentives linked with performance
- Provide on the job and off the job training for career growth
- Introduce rapid promotions for outstanding performance
- Give adequate autonomy and say in decision making
- Provide a sense of achievement, recognition and challenge
Key takeaways
Salesmen deal in people and in their motivations. They work for human values and individual satisfaction
Classification of a successful sales person
Characteristics of good salesman
Physical Qualities
(a) Sound Health: Just like a normal human being, a salesperson must also be of sound health. A salesperson would be mentally and physically fit only if he has a good health. For a sound health, a salesperson must eat well, sleep well and exercise regularly.
(b) Good Appearance: Good Appearance always attracts people. A salesperson must not be too fat or thin. He must carry his body well.
(c) Cheerful Disposition: A scholar has rightly said that smile is like plague. If the salesperson is cheerful and happy he can make his customer cheerful and happy, which directly helps to have a good conversation and chances of sales increases.
(d) Agile: A good salesperson should always be agile. A lazy and boredom salesman can never attract customers.
(e) Postures: the gestures and postures of a salesman are also crucial in influencing customers. Unnecessary hand-eye movements, shoulder movements etc. creates wrong impression in the mind of prospective buyers.
(f) Cleanliness: No person likes to sit around and listen to a dirty fellow. A good salesman must have a good hair style, must be well shaved, must have clear nails etc.
(g) Clothing: A well-dressed salesman often attracts customers very easily. He should wear a formal suit with tie. Dressing sense of a salesperson often increases his confidence and likability by the customers.
Speaking qualities
(a) Clear Pronunciation: A salesperson should have clear pronunciation. Otherwise prospects may misinterpret things. A person without good pronunciation can never became a good salesman.
(b) Proper Vocabulary: while giving presentations, proper choice of word is very important. A salesman must have a good vocabulary to create lasting impression with words. A salesman must use those words which are easy to understand and easy to pronounce. Technical jargons must be avoided.
(c) Effective delivery: many times, ‘how we speak’ is more important than ‘what we speak’. If the delivery style is not good, a salesperson may not be able to persuade the customer with good pronunciation and vocabulary.
Mental qualities
(a) Resourcefulness: A resourceful person is one, who understands and behaves according to the changing circumstances. A good salesperson changes his behavior according to different customers and situations.
(b) Intelligence: A salesperson must be intelligent. A good salesperson could handle objections carefully and easily with his intelligence.
(c) Sharp Memory: To be successful, a salesperson must have sharp memory. He must be able to remember previous meetings with customers, likes and dislikes of the customers along with various offers being provided by the company.
(d) Maturity: A salesperson must be mature enough to understand his duties and obligations. He must have sense of what he is talking about and how it will affect the sales of the company.
(e) Self-confidence: Self-confidence is a thing which could help a person to tackle any kind of situation. A good salesman should confident be confident on his presentations skills and objection handling techniques.
(f) Ability to Observe and Judge: The success of a salesperson depends highly on his ability to observe the conditions around him and his ability to take prompt decisions.
Social qualities
(a) Sociable: a good salesperson must be sociable. He must treat everyone equally and meet with them frequently. He must have contacts with everyone whether rich, poor, middle class people etc.
(b) Courtesy: it is said that courtesy has no cost but has high impact. Salesperson must deal everyone with courtesy.
(c) Co-operative: A salesman himself needs cooperation from various people. So, he must be cooperative with other members of the salesforce, sales managers, customers etc.
(d) Convincing Conversationalist: salesman must be a good conversationalist. He must have the ability to speak complicated things in a clear and concise manner. He must be able to influence other with his communication skills.
(e) Patience: A salesman has to meet with various kinds of people. Some people deliberately tries to annoy the salesperson. Many times sales presentations do not result in effective sales. In such a situation a salesman must remain patient and do not lose his calm.
Moral qualities
(a) Honesty: it is said that “honesty is the best policy”. A salesperson should not lie to his customers and deliver according to his promises. A dishonest salesperson can never become successful in the long run.
(b) Loyalty: To be successful, a salesperson must be loyal towards his company, sales manager, fellow salespersons and customers.
Professional qualities
(a) Educated and trained: well-educated and trained salesman could increase sales turnover of the company by his ability to engage with customers. Training helps a salesman to tackle different situations with proper care.
(b) Knowledge about the institution: A salesman must know each and every minute details about the company for which he is working. Past and present performances, types of product being offered, the credit policies of the company Etc. must be known to the salesperson.
c) Knowledge of product: Ernest and Da Vall has rightly said that ‘nothing is important to the salesman than knowing his product’ salesman must know all the features and ingredients of the product he is offering. He must also know about the different varieties of the same products.
(d) Communication Skills: it is said that personal selling involves a two-way communication between salesman and customer. It is the communication skill of salesman which helps in persuading the customer to buy the product.
Types of sales person
- Order Takers Order takers do not have the responsibility to persuade customers to buy products and increase the sales. Rather, they are only supposed to book customers’ orders and pass on the information to the company for delivery arrangements. Order takers should should provide accurate information to the company and customer about booking of orders and date of delivery.
- Inside order-takers: They are retail sales assistants (like sales assistants in Vishal Megamart). Customer has full freedom to choose products without the presence of a salesperson. The sales assistant’s task is purely transactional – receiving payment and passing over the goods. Another form of inside order-taker is the telemarketing sales team who support field sales by taking customers’ orders over the telephone.
- Outside order-takers: They travel to customers. Use laptop computers to improve tracking of inventory and orders etc. These salespeople visit customers, but their primary function is to respond to customer requests rather than actively seek to persuade.
- Delivery salespeople: The salesperson’s task is primarily concerned with delivering the product. In the India, milk, newspapers and magazines are delivered to the door. There is little attempt to persuade the household to increase the milk order or number of newspapers taken: changes in order size are customer-driven. Winning and losing orders is dependent on reliability of delivery and the personality of the salesperson.
2. Order-Creators/Missionary Salespeople Order creators are the salespeople who help in pulling the customer toward product. Missionary salespeople are best order creator’s Missionary salespeople do not take purchase orders. Rather, they are involved in dissemination of information about the product. They help in increasing goodwill of the company and educate customers about the product. They do not not call the ultimate buyers but approach to those who make advices to the buyer about the product. For example, A salesperson from a book publisher calls a professor urging them to use certain books, but the actual buyers are the students who buy and use the books. Similarly, medical representatives approach to the doctors, the doctor does not use the drugs but advices patients to buy the drugs.
3. Order-Getters/Front-Line Salespeople Order-getters consists of those salespersons whose major objective is to persuade customers to make a direct purchase. They are required to acquire new businesses for the company and negotiate with new prospects. These are the front-line salespeople and should have several skills like ability to identify new prospects, persuading and negotiating, and ultimately building new and profitable business. They generate customer leads, provide information, persuading customers and closes the sale. The job of order getters is most challenging than any other type of salespersons.
4. Support Salespeople
- Technical support salespeople: This type of salesperson provide sales support to front-line salespeople. When a product is highly technical and negotiations are complex, a salesperson may be supported by product and financial specialists who can provide the detailed technical information required by customers.
- Merchandisers: These people provide sales support in retail and wholesale selling situations. Orders may be negotiated nationally at head office, but sales to individual outlets are supported by merchandisers who give advice on display, implement sales promotions, check stock levels and maintain contact with store managers.
- Trade Salespeople: Spend much time helping customers, especially in retail stores, Restock the shelves, set up displays.
- Service Salespeople: interacts with customers after sale is complete.
Functions of Salesman
1. Selling
The fundamental duty of a salesman is selling. This duty includes meeting the prospects, presenting and demonstrating the products, inducing the prospects to buy, taking orders and effecting sales.
2. Guiding the buyers
A salesman should guide the buyers in buying the goods they want.
3. Attending to complaints
A salesman should attend to the complaints of the customers immediately and try to settle their grievances quickly and sincerely.
4. Collection of bills
Sometimes, a salesman may be required to collect the outstanding bills relating to the goods sold by him. In such a case, he has to collect the bills and remit the amount to his firm.
5. Collection of credit information
A salesman may, sometimes, be required to collect information about the credit-worthiness of the customers. In such a case, he has to collect detailed information and submit it to his firm in time.
6. Reporting
A salesman, especially a traveling salesman, is required to send daily, weekly or monthly reports to his firm, providing information about the calls made, sales effected, services rendered, route schedule, expenses incurred, business conditions, competition, if any, etc.
7. Organizing
A salesman, i.e., a traveling salesman, is required to organize his tour programme. He has to prepare the route and time schedules for his tour so as to systematize his sales efforts.
8. Attending sales meetings
A salesman is required to attend the sales meetings convened by his employer at periodical intervals to discuss the marketing problems, sales promotion activities, sales policies, etc.
9. Touring
A traveling salesman, has to undertake touring regularly to cover the sales territories assigned to him.
10. Arranging for packing and delivery
A salesman, i.e., a counter salesman, has to arrange for the packing of the goods sold and the delivery of the packages to the buyers.
11. Window and counter displays
A salesman, i.e., an indoor or counter salesman, has to arrange for the window and counter displays of the products in an attractive manner so as to attract or induce the prospects to buy.
12. Promotion of goodwill
Every salesman has to build up satisfied clientele (i.e., customers) for his employer and thereby promote the goodwill of his firm.
13. Recruiting and Training
Recruiting new salesmen, imparting training, by accompanying them while making sales calls.
14. Working with Middlemen
Salesmen establish direct relations with middlemen — distributors, wholesalers, etc., and collect market information and pass it on to their firm.
Key takeaways –
- Promotions allude to the whole arrangement of exercises, which impart the product, brand or administration to the client
- Promotion-mix refers to an optimum combination of different promotional tools and techniques; with a view to maximizing sales and profits.
References:
- Basic Marketing- Concepts, Decisions and Strategies- Cundiff, Edward, W. & Still, R.R.
- Marketing Management - Kotler, Phillip
- Principles of Marketing - Kotler, Phillip & Armstrong, Gray
- Marketing Management - Mamoria, C.B,Mamoria Satish & Suri, R.K.
