the problem solving view of personal selling is an extension of

Supercharge your Cold Emails

The Complete Guide to Personal Selling: Definition, Examples, and Best Practices

Personal selling gets a bad rap sometimes. Stereotypes of pushy, annoying salespeople persist. Some see it as a dying form of marketing rendered obsolete by digital self-service and automation. But as humans, we intrinsically crave personal connections and expertise. That’s why personal selling not only survives but thrives into the future – when done right.

This comprehensive guide dispels myths about personal selling. It reveals the immense value uniquely human sales conversations deliver for both customers and businesses. Read on to learn proven personal selling strategies and competencies to master in the modern buyer’s journey. The human touch remains an irreplaceable competitive advantage.

Page Contents

What is Personal Selling?

Definition and overview of personal selling.

Personal selling is a promotional method that involves direct communication between sales representatives and potential customers. It’s a personalized approach focused on understanding customers’ needs and building relationships.

In essence, personal selling is about forming connections. Rather than blasting out generic ads, sales reps interact one-on-one with leads. They tailor their pitches, answer questions, and provide information specific to each prospect. Their goal is to educate, advise, persuade, and ultimately convert leads into buyers.

Some key characteristics of personal selling:

• Person-to-person communication: There’s face-to-face, voice-to-voice, or screen-to-screen interaction between the sales rep and lead.
• Customized sales presentations: Sales reps alter their messaging and product recommendations based on each customer’s unique needs.
• Relationship building: Developing rapport and trust with leads over time is a priority.
• Product education: Sales reps inform customers on product features, benefits, and value propositions.
• Question answering: Reps address any objections or concerns from leads directly and in real-time.
• Feedback gathering: Conversations allow reps to collect insights about prospects’ problems, desires, and preferences.

While personal selling often happens in person, advancements in technology have expanded options for remote selling via phone, email, social media, and live chat. The interpersonal dynamic remains central regardless of the medium.

Personal selling is commonly used in high-value, complex sales that require expertise and consultant-like guidance. Extensive interaction allows sales reps to steer customers towards the best solutions for them. It remains an indispensable sales strategy despite automation and digital disruption.

Evolution and History of Personal Selling

Personal selling has evolved substantially over the centuries, tracing its origins back to antiquity. Here’s a brief overview of the major eras:

• The Antecedents Era: Personal selling emerged in pre-modern times. Merchants bargained with customers at bazaars, fairs, and wholesale markets. Shopkeepers provided personalized service.
• The Emergence Era: The Industrial Revolution brought rapid manufacturing growth in the 1800s. Companies needed sales forces to sell inventory being mass-produced in factories. The first sales reps were often factory agents or distributors.
• The Golden Age of Selling: The early 20th century saw salesforces expand dramatically. New products like cars and appliances increased demand. Sales skills training became formalized, with an emphasis on relationship selling versus “pitch” selling.
• The New Profession Era: From the 1960s onwards, selling further professionalized. Large sales teams became the norm. Sales reps focused on consultative selling and solving customer problems. Relationship management software emerged.

Today, personal selling remains ubiquitous and essential in both B2B and B2C contexts. However, sales roles require digital fluency and emotional intelligence more than ever. Consultative, insight-driven selling is ideal. As technologies like AI enter the fray, the human touch remains personal selling’s core strength.

Personal Selling vs Other Sales Methods

Personal selling stands in contrast to transactional sales models that use broad promotional channels. Main differences include:

Personal Selling

• One-on-one communication
• Customized messaging and product recommendations
• Builds personal relationships and rapport
• Higher cost per customer acquisition
• Higher conversion rates and order values
• Complex, high-consideration purchases

Advertising

• Mass media broadcasts (TV, radio, online ads)
• Generic, less personalized messaging
• Lower customer acquisition cost
• Brand building over conversions
• Simple, low-consideration purchases

Direct Marketing

• Broadcast messages to buyer databases
• Some personalization at scale possible
• Response tracking capabilities
• Lower-effort sales cycle
• Mid-complexity consideration level
• Self-service buying via web/mobile platforms
• Product-focused vs relationship-focused
• Low touch, high convenience model
• Low customer acquisition cost
• Routine reorders and simple purchases

Social Selling

• Loose integration of social media and sales
• Relationship building at scale
• Brand building and conversions

In short, personal selling is the most high-touch, customized approach to sales. It thrives for big-ticket, complex solutions that require expertise and trust. While other models have their place, the human touch of personal selling remains unmatched when done right.

Types of Personal Selling

Personal selling comes in many shapes and sizes. Sales roles vary extensively based on factors like product, target customer, sales cycle, and more. Here are some of the most common forms of personal selling.

Direct Selling

Direct selling refers to person-to-person sales away from a fixed retail location. It often relies on direct seller networks and multi-level marketing structures. Some examples include:

In-Home Product Parties: The sales rep (often an independent contractor) conducts an in-home product party. They demonstrate and recommend products to the host and guests. Popular examples include Tupperware, Pampered Chef, and cosmetics companies like Mary Kay or Avon.

Independent Contractors: Businesses recruit networks of distributors, wholesalers, or sales agents to sell products. These independent reps receive commissions on sales and do much of the legwork of lead generation and customer management.

Multi-Level Marketing (MLM): Direct sellers recruit new distributors into their “downlines” and earn commissions on their sales. MLMs like Amway, Herbalife, or LuLaRoe use this model. However, MLMs are controversial, with many resembling pyramid schemes. Legitimate MLMs focus on selling products first and have buyback policies for inventory.

Direct selling commonly focuses on consumer packaged goods, cosmetics, wellness products, clothing, accessories, and home goods. Its personalized nature helps showcase products customers want to see, touch, or try on before buying. However, recruitment and retention challenges, as well as questionable MLM practices, plague parts of the industry.

Telemarketing

Telemarketing uses phones to connect sales reps with customers remotely. It rose to prominence in the 1960s and became maligned by the 1990s for unsolicited “cold calls.” Here are some telemarketing approaches:

Cold Calling: Sales reps call prospects from purchased lead lists with no prior relationship. Success depends on quick rapport building and value communication when interrupting people unannounced.

Warm Calling: Reps call leads with some prior brand awareness or expressed interest. Response rates improve over cold outreach.

Upselling: Calling existing customers to promote upgrades, cross-sells, and add-ons. Leverages an existing relationship.

Lead Generation: Calls qualify inbound leads and route them to appropriate sales reps.

Fundraising: Nonprofits solicit donations from supporters and members via phone drives.

Tele-surveys: Market research firms conduct surveys by phone.

While disruptive cold calling soured perceptions, telemarketing remains cost-efficient for qualifying leads at scale. Caller ID, do not call lists, and voicemail prompt adaptations like limited call blocks and voicemail dropping. As customer expectations evolve, integration with digital and personalized relationships marketing sharpens telemarketing success.

Door-to-Door Selling

Door-to-door sales teams visit homes personally to demonstrate and sell products. Common product categories include:

• Household goods like cookware, cleaning supplies, or personal care items
• Home services like security systems, satellite TV, energy suppliers, or home repair
• Home improvement like windows, roofing, siding, solar panels, or HVAC upgrades
• Newspaper and magazine subscriptions

Door-to-door selling peaked in the 1950s-1970s but waned with more women entering the workforce. Safety and privacy concerns also sparked no-soliciting policies. However, in-person visits allow personalized product education and needs assessment impossible via mass advertising.

Sellers must quickly build rapport and trust while respectfully overcoming resistance. Demonstrations and free samples help. Many door-to-door reps are independent contractors with commission-based compensation. Strong vetting and oversight by the hired company ensures professional conduct.

Business-to-Business (B2B) Selling

B2B selling targets organizational clients versus individual consumers. Lengthy sales cycles sell high-ticket, complex products and services. Examples include:

Technology: Software, hardware, IT infrastructure, and digital platforms for enterprise. Account management is paramount post-sale.

Business services: HR platforms, marketing automation, CRM, accounting, legal services, and more for organizations.

Heavy equipment/machinery: Industrial equipment, machine tools, commercial vehicles, manufacturing machinery, and more with lengthy sales cycles.

Raw materials and components: Ingredients, chemicals, textiles, electronics components, industrial parts/supplies, metals, and more sold business to business.

Management consulting: Large management consulting firms sell strategic advice, operational improvement, technology implementation, and change management services.

B2B selling usually involves long sales cycles spanning multiple stakeholder discussions and consensus building. Sales reps position themselves as trusted advisors guiding clients to business solutions, not just transacting orders. Patience and insight into organizational decision-making are critical.

The Personal Selling Process

Converting leads into buyers involves navigating prospective customers through a series of sales stages. Let’s explore the typical steps in the personal selling process:

Prospecting

Prospecting involves researching, identifying, and qualifying potential customers. Sales reps use various tactics to discover prospects:

• Reviewing existing customer and prospect lists within the company’s CRM system
• Obtaining leads from trade shows, webinars, and events
• Gathering referrals from current customers and partners
• Purchasing third-party lead lists based on demographics, interests, and intent signals
• Leveraging LinkedIn Sales Navigator and social selling techniques
• Subscribing to lead enrichment tools for demographic and firmographic data appending
• Calling prospects from relevant industries and titles found through research
• Mining website traffic for visitors exhibiting defined lead behaviors
• Capturing inbound inquiries from marketing activities

Qualifying determines if prospects align with the ideal customer profile (ICP) based on need, budget, authority, and timeline. Qualified leads pass to the sales development stage while unqualified leads circle back for further nurturing by marketing.

Pre-Approach and Approach

The pre-approach prepares the groundwork for an effective sales call. Sales reps:

• Research prospects using LinkedIn, company websites, news mentions, and social media
• Identify pain points and needs from public information
• Segment and personalize outreach strategies for key prospect groups
• Craft value propositions tailored to each prospect’s role and priorities
• Coordinate sales call timing based on trends like fiscal schedules

The approach makes the initial outreach, often by email or cold call, to introduce the company and offering. Sales reps:

• Grab attention with subject lines demonstrating relevance
• Establish credibility by mentioning current customers from the same industry
• Convey value quickly and invite conversation
• Suggest next steps like scheduling a call, demo, or meeting

Simple cold outreach works occasionally for transactional sales. But for complex sales, a steady drip campaign across multiple channels over time is ideal to warm up prospects.

Presentation and Demonstration

Sales presentations educate prospects on the product or service. The presentation should revolve around the customer’s pains and needs identified earlier.

• Features vs. benefits: Explain how product capabilities deliver value. Align features to prospect needs and use cases.
• Compare with competitors: Demonstrate competitive differentiation and advantages. Use benchmark data.
• Social proof: Provide customer testimonials, reviews, and case studies relevant to the prospect’s industry and goals.
• Trial opportunities: Let prospects directly experience the offering via free trials, demos, or samples tailored to their use case.
• Visuals: Use decks, one-pagers, videos, sample reports, and infographics to showcase value clearly.
• Q&A: Pause for open-ended questions and objections. Listen closely.

Virtual presentations using screen sharing, live demos, and interactive e-docs make distance sales possible. Send presentation summaries and resources to cement concepts.

Overcoming Objections

Objections reveal prospects’ inherent concerns. Sales reps should welcome objections as opportunities versus threats.

Common techniques to overcome objections include:

• Listen fully: Let prospects voice concerns. Rephrase to confirm understanding.
• Empathize: Acknowledge the rationality of objections given prospects’ vantage points.
• Isolate: Determine if the concern stems from personal priorities, company norms, or faulty assumptions.
• Clarify: Ask questions and provide information to correct misperceptions. Share facts and data.
• Refocus: Shift attention back to main needs and value propositions.
• Follow up: Promise action that addresses concerns raised.

Getting past objections builds credibility. But know when to walk away from deals poorly aligned with the solution.

Closing the Sale

Closing converts qualified, committed prospects into paying customers. Sales reps:

• Summarize agreements: Recap areas of aligned vision, needs, and value during discussions.
• Propose clear next steps: Request the sale, contract signing, or concrete follow-up actions progressing the deal.
• Provide options: Offer choices like trial periods, scaled packages, or flexible payment terms to close fence sitters.
• Highlight benefits: Emphasize how the solution addresses prospects’ objectives, pains, and challenges one last time.
• Create urgency: Note time-sensitive incentives like discounts expiring soon. Outline risks of delaying.
• Ask questions: “Do you have any other concerns before getting started?” Uncovers final barriers to close.
• Stop talking: After the ask, be silent and let prospects respond. Don’t interrupt their thinking.

Avoid scripted, high-pressure tactics. Consultative sales focuses on mutual value realization. Still, modest urgency prompts action.

Follow-Up and Maintenance

Follow-up continues nurturing deals to completion while laying groundwork for repeat sales.

• Set implementation plan: Coordinate equipment delivery, integration, training, data migration, and rollout schedule. Guide customer-success team handoff.
• Ensure adoption: Check in periodically on usage, challenges, and outcomes. Resolve friction and satisfaction gaps. Share best practices.
• Request referrals: Ask happy clients for testimonials, reviews, and referrals to their networks to stimulate viral growth.
• Upsell and expand: Discuss upgrades, additional modules, premium tiers, and expanded use cases.
• Renew and retain: Before contract expiration, highlight continued value and negotiate renewal. Retaining customers costs less than attracting new ones.
• Manage churn risks: Watch for usage declines and reduced engagement as potential precursors to non-renewal. Intervene promptly.

Ongoing education, outreach, and account management maximize customer lifetime value long after initial sale closure. The trusted advisor relationship extends across the entire customer journey.

Skills and Qualities of Successful Salespeople

What separates stellar sales reps from the average? While sales aptitude varies by personality, top performers share several common traits:

Communication Skills

Master communicators connect with prospects skillfully:

• Verbal dexterity: Articulate complex ideas clearly. Display confidence using industry terminology. Answer questions thoughtfully.
• Concise messaging: Summarize value propositions succinctly. Don’t ramble.
• Audience alignment: Adapt vocabulary, style, and tone for each audience. Balance professionalism and friendliness. Mirror prospect language.
• Storytelling: Communicate engagingly. Paint before-and-after pictures with anecdotes and analogies.
• Presenting: Convey ideas persuasively to groups. Create crisp, visually appealing slides.
• Writing: Craft compelling emails, social media posts, and collateral. Excellent grammar, structure, and editing.
• Non-verbal cues: Make eye contact, smile, face prospects, and use open gestures. Align body language with words.
• Media fluency: Choose the right communication channels and formats for each purpose and prospect. Blend digital with personal interactions.

Great communicators inspire audiences consistently. Hone these skills through practice, coaching, and learning from mentors.

Listening Skills

Communication is a two-way street. Superior listening allows personal connections:

• Focused attention: Listen without distractions and mental filtering. Be present and engaged.
• Comprehension: Grasp in-depth what is spoken, particularly emotions, subtle cues, and nuances.
• Open-ended questioning: Ask “what,” “how,” and “why” questions to uncover needs, goals, and concerns. Dig deeper with follow-up probing.
• Paraphrasing: Rephrase key points to confirm understanding. Summarize long responses concisely.
• Notetaking: Jot down important details. Revisit notes to identify themes and next steps. Ask permission first.
• Non-verbal cues: Notice prospects’ body language, facial expressions, and tone. Are they engaged, angry, or confused?
• Patience: Let prospects speak without interrupting. Don’t jump in with rebuttals.
• Empathy: Hear what isn’t said. Imagine being in the prospects’ shoes. Validate emotions.

Active listening builds rapport and trust. It’s an underappreciated skill. Hearing prospects’ contexts allows personalized solutions.

Product/Industry Knowledge

Sales reps must be subject matter experts on their solutions:

• Features and capabilities: Understand functionality, integrations, configurations and use cases inside-out.
• Value propositions: Articulate credible benefits and outcomes for different customer profiles.
• Competitive intelligence: Know competitors’ strengths, weaknesses, and points of differentiation deeply.
• Industry trends: Stay on top of market forces, disruptions, regulations, and innovations.
• Common challenges: Grasp typical customer pain points and needs in the industry.
• User workflows: Learn how clients utilize products day-to-day within business processes and systems.
• Pricing models: Explain pricing, packaging, and licensing options accurately. Calculate order values.
• Implementation: Familiarize with rollout, adoption, integration, and result measurement methodologies.

Ongoing education is essential as offerings evolve. Skilled reps translate technical details into compelling business value for customers.

Persuasion and Influence Skills

Persuasive communicators inspire action:

• Framing: Position messages in ways that resonate using prospect language patterns. Know each audience.
• Social proof: Cite credible facts, statistics, testimonials, and examples that provide credibility.
• Brevity: Be succinct. Make every word count. Avoid excessive jargon.
• Curiosity triggering: Pose interesting questions, novel views, or thought experiments that spark engagement.
• Emotion invoking: Tactfully invoke positive emotions of hope, pride, curiosity through stories.
• Call-to-action: Convert engagement into commitments to defined next steps. Clearly propose the action required.
• Responding to pushback: Defuse objections, skeptics, and conflicts calmly. Rebuild consensus.

Persuasion avoids manipulation or coercion. Skilled influencers enlighten audiences for win-win outcomes. They sell visions ethically with facts.

Relationship Building

Connecting personally cultivates sales success:

• Rapport building: Establish trust quickly through warmth, humor, and approachability. Find common ground.
• Network expanding: Continuously expand personal and professional networks. Leverage contacts.
• Referral seeking: Earn referrals by delighting customers with outstanding service.
• Follow-through: Do what you promise, when promised. Follow-up until completion.
• Loyalty: Support customers long-term. Their success leads to your success.
• Cultural attunement: Respect and accommodate different personalities, work styles, hierarchies, and values.
• Account planning: Strategically manage key accounts. Understand their businesses in-depth.
• Team selling: Coordinate seamlessly with colleagues across departments to orchestrate unified relationships.

Nurturing relationships for the long haul wins. Transactional interactions always underdeliver. Put people first.

Adaptability and Resilience

Selling requires embracing ambiguity:

• Flexibility: Adjust strategies smoothly based on new inputs. Pivot gracefully. Modify personal styles.
• Creative problem-solving: Improvise solutions when the script fails. Overcome obstacles with innovative thinking.
• Tech savviness: Continuously learn new sales productivity and automation tools. Use data.
• Self-monitoring: Assess your performance accurately. Seek constructive feedback.
• Grit: Persist through rejections, disappointments, and tough markets. Have a thick skin. View setbacks as growth.
• Balancing drive and patience: Be hungry and ambitious but also tolerant of long sales cycles. Avoid desperation.
• Self-care: Manage stress and energy proactively for sustainable peak performance. Stay positive.
• Lifelong learning mindset: Continuously invest in self-improvement. Read, get coaches, and find mentors.

Selling evolves quickly. Reps who stay nimble, optimistic, and growth-oriented will thrive through disruptions. Assess gaps objectively and address them.

Examples of Personal Selling

Personal selling permeates industries. While execution and product nuances vary, core selling principles remain constant. Let’s explore archetypes.

Retail Sales Associates

Retail sales reps assist shoppers in stores. Responsibilities include:

• Greeting customers entering the store warmly
• Explaining product features and benefits
• Demonstrating product usage
• Advising on purchase options for different needs
• Upselling additional items that complement main purchases
• Overcoming pricing objections with value messaging
• Processing transactions at checkout
• Following up on purchases via email and surveys
• Managing merchandise inventory and presentation
• Providing excellent customer service pre- and post-transaction

Traits like patience, friendliness, honesty and product passion excel in retail. Sales associates build personal customer relationships beyond one-off transactions. They strive to provide memorable experiences and become trusted advisors.

Many associates work on commissions, so sales skills directly impact their incomes. Strong visual merchandising, store traffic analysis, and conversion rate optimization skills help maximize sales. Omnichannel capabilities like order online, pickup in-store expand retail selling.

Car Salespeople

Car sales reps help buyers choose vehicles:

• Building rapport quickly during walk-ins, warm chats while test driving, and casual small talk
• Asking questions to understand customer needs – budget, usage, priorities
• Tailoring recommendations based on needs analysis – family, luxury, off-roading
• Demonstrating and test driving relevant models
• Explaining details like mileage, cargo space, technology, safety ratings
• Detailing pricing and financing options transparently
• Handling objections and reluctant buyers gently via incentives
• Guiding customers through purchase paperwork
• Arranging future servicing and maintenance packages
• Following up for reviews, referrals and repeat/upgrade purchases

Salespeople overcome pushy stereotypes by becoming trusted advisors. They educate customers, not pressure them. Emotional intelligence and reading body language helps navigate negotiations. Car sales remains a relationship-driven business requiring consultative guidance.

Real Estate Agents

Real estate agents connect home buyers and sellers:

• Assessing clients’ needs and budgets for their ideal properties
• Researching local markets deeply to match clients and homes
• Listing and marketing homes for sale through staging, photography and tours
• Advertising homes through MLS listings, digital and print campaigns
• Qualifying buyer leads from marketing and referrals
• Showcasing homes to prospective buyers via tours and open houses
• Negotiating purchase agreements and prices between parties
• Overseeing home inspections, appraisals, financing and closings
• Maintaining consistent communication throughout the lengthy process
• Follow-up marketing to past clients for repeat business

Estate selling combines sales skills with extensive property and market expertise. Agents must network continuously to generate new leads and referrals. Keeping clients engaged throughout months-long transactions tests patience and tenacity. But ideal matches create joyful outcomes.

Insurance Agents

Insurance agents educate and sell policies:

• Conducting needs assessments – life stage, assets, medical history, risks
• Explaining insurance plans and coverages for needs identified
• Comparing pricing and features of relevant provider policies
• Advising on appropriate coverage levels and ideal mixes
• Overcoming reluctance and mistrust – insurance is pushed, not sold
• Handling underwriting paperwork
• Coordinating application and enrollment logistics
• Servicing ongoing policy needs – claims, billing, changes, renewals
• Upselling and cross-selling additional policies at renewal
• Retaining customers long-term through consistent care

This type of selling fights perceptions of pushy sales and complex policies. Agents that simplify education and focus on protecting customers gain trust. They sell peace of mind amid life’s unpredictability.

Business Development Roles (B2B)

Business development reps sell products and services to other companies. Responsibilities include:

• Researching target accounts and contacts on LinkedIn, company databases, etc.
• Specializing in specific industries, product lines or geographies
• Running inbound and outbound campaigns – email, calls, events, social media
• Qualifying leads for sales readiness based on authority, need, budget
• Producing personalized email outreach sequences for key accounts
• Scheduling sales calls and discovery meetings with stakeholders
• Conducting remote demos and presentations for groups
• Answering RFPs/RFIs by conveying value propositions and differentiation
• Building consensus across buyer committees delicately
• Coordinating proposal and procurement processes patiently
• Consulting strategically on optimal solutions for client challenges
• Developing long-term, trusted advisor relationships across accounts
• Forecasting and reporting on pipeline growth and conversion metrics

B2B selling requires technical aptitude, organizational savvy, and perseverance. Complex sales cycle navigation separates average from stellar BDRs. Mastering sales technology and processes boosts productivity.

Benefits of Personal Selling

Despite myths that personal selling is passé, human interactions deliver immense value. Benefits include:

Deliver Customized Customer Experiences

Personal selling conversations uncover nuances impossible to gather through mass interactions. Sales reps tailor discussions and recommendations to match each customer’s unique needs and contexts.

• Ask probing questions to deeply understand customer challenges, workflows, and environments. Mass marketing lacks this depth.
• Recommend specific product configurations, integrations, and servicing options based on use cases.
• Guide customers through complexity with tailored advice – offline support impossible at scale.
• Resolve questions and objections instantly that generic content cannot address.
• Delight customers with personalized experiences that exceed expectations.

Customization requires sales proficiency and creative thinking. But it cements satisfaction and loyalty. Customers value partners invested in their success.

Build Relationships and Loyalty

Personal connections build rapport and trust that transactional interactions lack.

• Human conversations reveal shared interests, values, and purposes beyond business.
• Ongoing dialogue strengthens familiarity and comfort over time. Reps become trusted advisors.
• Discussing non-sales topics like family, hobbies, or sports helps relationships feel authentic, not forced.
• Following through reliably on promises and concerns discussed earns customer confidence.
• Sincere interest in helping customers achieve goals cements loyalty beyond a single sales transaction.
• Relationships based on candor and care inspire referrals and repeat sales.

Loyalty cannot be encoded into a website or automated. It flows from human bonding. Skilled salespeople cherish relationships.

Educate and Advise Customers

Personal selling allows customized education unscalable through static content alone.

• Answer wide-ranging customer questions in real-time during conversations.
• Share tips and best practices tailored to customers’ precise needs.
• Recommend configurations, integrations, and usage strategies based on workflows.
• Provide ongoing value-adds like free training resources, upgrades, and content.
• Proactively advise customers on optimizations and new capabilities as products evolve.
• Become trusted advisors guiding customers through complex purchasing decisions.
• Build awareness and understanding of new innovations difficult to grasp from specs alone.

Education establishes credibility. Customers follow advice from experts focused on their success.

Upsell and Cross-sell

Human conversations naturally uncover expansion opportunities missed by arms-length selling.

• Discuss overall business objectives during sales dialogue to expose latent needs.
• Make thoughtful suggestions on additional products/services benefiting customers.
• Remind customers of neglected capabilities already available to them to spur adoption.
• Propose upgrades or higher tiers that improve customers’ outcomes.
• Highlight integration opportunities with complementary partner solutions.
• Guide customers through bundling options and packages providing greater value.
• Review contracts and renewals to identify expansion possibilities.

Upsells must provide true value, not pressure buyers. When done right, customers appreciate personalized expansion recommendations from trusted advisors.

Gather Customer Insights and Feedback

Personal selling supplies qualitative insights difficult to extract at scale.

• Provide an open forum for customers to share their experiences candidly.
• Ask engaging questions during conversations to gain suggestions.
• Probe on difficulties, pain points, and desired improvements.
• Gather rich feedback on new releases and features from engaged users.
• Capture emotional, nuanced impressions impossible to glean from surveys and data alone.
• Gain early warnings of satisfaction issues and churn risks that metrics miss.
• Turn individual conversations into patterns revealing broader customer needs.

Customer insights, when shared internally, focus improvements and innovation. But insights require engaged listening first.

Challenges of Personal Selling

Personal selling is high-touch by nature. But the human element poses challenges including:

Requires Extensive Training

Mastery demands extensive skill building. Consider:

• Sales process, methodology, tools, and systems training.
• Product capability and industry domain training.
• Objection handling, negotiation, and closing skills development.
• Customer needs analysis and questioning techniques.
• Presentation, communication, and active listening skills.
• Relationship selling mindsets and emotional intelligence.
• Ongoing training as products evolve.

Comprehensive training is resource-intensive yet essential. Untrained reps struggle. Roleplaying and apprenticeships accelerate skills. But poor selling reflects badly on brands. Invest in talent.

Difficult to Scale and Automate

Human interactions are nuanced and contextual. Key challenges in scaling personalized selling include:

• Limited selling hours in the day constrains reps’ bandwidth.
• Increasing sales team size impacts culture fit and consistency.
• Lengthy sales cycles limit volume a rep can handle.
• Custom conversations resist automation and scripting.
• Buyer emotions and unspoken cues are tough to standardize.
• Holistic relationship building takes time and consistency.
• Individual judgment is required for situational nuance.

While analytics and AI assist, selling still requires human competency applied case-by-case. There are no shortcuts. Accept selling’s intrinsically high-touch nature.

Performance Fluctuations Between Reps

Sales aptitude and work ethic vary individually. Management struggles include:

• Hiring selectivity is challenging at scale. Screen for competency and drive.
• Incentives and compensation impact motivation levels.
• Ongoing micromanagement is hard across distributed teams.
• Underperformers damage customer experiences before identification.
• Turnover requires frequent hiring and onboarding.
• Keeping top talent engaged as they expand skills.
• Preventing burnout and overwork during growth spurts.

Optimizing team composition, morale, and productivity takes work. Balance technology efficiency with human nurturing.

Requires Significant Time Investment

Personal selling is labor intensive:

• Lead generation and prospecting takes extensive hours.
• Discussions and relationship building cannot be rushed.
• Following up and managing account hygiene is constant.
• Time zones constrain connections with global prospects.
• Sales cycles with long close horizons demand persistence.
• Post-sale relationship management continues indefinitely.

While sales technology assists, human touch remains time-intensive. Eliminate low-value time sinks, but avoid rushing authentic customer engagements.

Potential for Unethical Selling Practices

Professionalism is imperative to avoid:

• High-pressure product pushing rather than customer education
• Misrepresenting capabilities, benefits, pricing, or other details
• Not disclosing hidden fees, gotchas, and caveats
• Enrolling customers in services they don’t need
• Promising deliverables the company cannot meet
• Neglecting customers post-sale after securing contracts
• Poaching competitive accounts unethically

Avoid short-term optimization that damages long-term customer experiences. Transparency and integrity nurture sustainable success.

Unethical sales destroys trust. Prioritize customer advocacy over sales quotas. Foster healthy, ethical sales cultures.

Best Practices for Effective Personal Selling

How can organizations optimize personal selling success? Key best practices include:

Provide Ongoing Sales Training

Continuous skills development is imperative:

• Explain sales methodology , processes, and tools thoroughly during onboarding. Ensure comprehension through testing.
• Conduct regular product and industry training workshops to sharpen reps’ domain expertise.
• Invest in advanced negotiation, objection handling, and closing skills courses. Practice techniques through roleplaying.
• Send top reps to specialized sales skills seminars and conferences to bring back insights.
• Arrange mentorships and apprenticeships for junior reps to learn from veterans.
• Monitor calls and provide individualized coaching and feedback to improve.
• Foster a growth mindset culture via reading, e-learning, book clubs, and discussion groups.
• Share customer engagement best practices through a sales knowledge management portal.
• Standardize onboarding and skills development with sales enablement technology.

Skills erode rapidly without exercise. Maintain a robust training curriculum blending formal and informal learning.

Set Clear Goals and Performance Metrics

Align activities with outcomes using:

• Define key performance indicators for essential sales results – calls, deals closed , revenue, etc.
• Breakdown targets by rep. Consider specializations, tenures, and territories.
• Set standards for important activities like calls per day, referral requests, and touchpoints per prospect.
• Track lead response times, sales cycle length, and customer retention metrics.
• Generate leaderboards and sales contests to gamify skill building.
• Review progress transparently in 1:1s and team meetings. Identify gaps.
• Reward top performers publicly. Have underperformers shadow them.
• Adjust goals based on market conditions, seasonal trends, and product changes.

What’s measured improves. Metrics provide focus, accountability, and motivation.

Leverage CRM and Sales Enablement Tools

Technologies streamline selling:

• Centralize prospect/account data in CRM systems saleswide. Keep organized and accessible.
• Build targeted prospecting lists for call campaigns within CRMs.
• Automate lead scoring and routing rules based on behaviors and profiles.
• Template common playbooks, email outreach campaigns, and collateral to ensure consistency.
• Store winning proposals in databases for easy reuse and modification.
• Share approved presentation decks, product one-pagers, case studies and other sales assets.
• Automate customer lifecycle marketing and reminders triggered by milestones.
• Integrate tools into reps’ workflows through single sign-on consoles. Minimize task switching.

Technology eliminates drudgery so reps can focus on high-value selling. Simplify their work.

Motivate and Incentivize Sales Teams

Engaged reps perform better:

• Compensate competitively with base salaries, uncapped commissions, equity, and bonuses.
• Recognize top performers publicly through awards, praise, and promotions.
• Enable flexible schedules and remote work options to support work-life balance.
• Foster team camaraderie through offsite outings, events, and friendly competitions.
• Gather ongoing feedback to incrementally improve rep experiences.
• Promote positive, collaborative cultures vs individual competition.
• Share inspirational customer success stories. Make meaning and impact tangible.
• Offer development opportunities, career pathing, and leadership mentoring.
• Intervene with underperformers through supportive coaching, not punishment.

Purpose-driven, high-morale sales teams thrive. Sustain mental health and prevent burnout.

Build a Customer-Focused Sales Culture

Ethical practices earn trust:

• Hire reps motivated by customer advocacy, not self-gain. Screen for empathy.
• Train reps to educate, guide, and advise – not manipulate prospects.
• Emphasize long-term relationships and lifetime value – not one-time sales.
• Discourage unethical behaviors strictly. Never pressure or mislead customers.
• Institute controls preventing misconduct – scripts, recorded calls, etc.
• Solicit customer feedback about interactions. Address concerns promptly.
• Let customers depart freely if uninterested. Never harass.
• Share feedback internally to continually improve customer experiences.
• Publicly recognize reps delivering outstanding customer experiences.

Customer-centric cultures drive sustainable success. Never sacrifice integrity for sales.

The Future of Personal Selling

How will personal selling evolve in the digital age? Key trends shaping its future include:

Omnichannel Sales Experiences

Sales interactions will seamlessly blend digital and physical channels:

• Prospects engage on websites, then switch to emails, social messages, phone calls, video conferences, in-person meetings, and more.
• Reps interact on prospects’ preferred platforms, integrating tools into a unified experience.
• Showroom product demonstrations integrate with virtual try-ons and augmented reality.
• Appointments pivot smoothly between video, chat, and in-person as needed.
• CRM data stays consistent across channels through mobility and integration.
• Analytics track omnichannel customer journeys for optimization.
• Automation coordinates follow-ups across channels triggered by prospect actions.

The future adapts selling to customers’ channel-hopping behaviors. Linked physical and digital relationship building will become the norm.

Virtual Selling and Remote Workforces

Mobile digital selling will expand:

• Video meetings replace physical visits through platforms like Zoom, WebEx, and Skype.
• Collaboration apps enable content sharing, screen peering, and workflows.
• AI meeting assistants schedule meetings automatically.
• Sales reps work flexibly from home, shared offices, and onsite with clients.
• BYOD mobility and unified clouds enable productivity anywhere with single sign-on.
• Digital asset management provides on-demand access to latest collateral.
• Sales training gamifies learning through apps, simulations, and VR.
• Analytics harness data from email, calls, video chats, and social media.
• Culture reflects values and mindsets appropriate for distributed teams.

Technology removes geography as a sales limitation. Virtual selling broadens talent pools and work-life flexibility.

Automation and AI for Improved Efficiency

Emerging technologies will amplify human productivity:

• Leads get qualified automatically based on behaviors, profiles, and machine learning.
• Intelligent assistants schedule meetings via natural language conversations.
• Call analysis discerns emotions, keywords, and trends to refine messaging.
• Analytics prescribe ideal next actions during sales based on past wins.
• Chatbots answer common questions to offload simple inquiries.
• Documents get populated automatically with customer data and intelligence.
• Administrative tasks like data entry and reporting become automated.
• Predictive analytics identify at-risk accounts for early intervention.
• Lifecycle marketing triggers personalized, timed outreach automatically.

Automation handles high-volume drudgery so reps focus on high-value selling. AI augments human judgment.

Focus on Consultative and Advisory Roles

Selling will shift from transactions to business transformations:

• Reps become trusted advisors guiding customers through change, not just salespeople.
• Business reviews analyze entire customer lifecycles holistically beyond deals.
• Conversations focus on long-term business impact versus features.
• Reps proactively suggest improvements vs waiting for inbound issues.
• Success plans outline transformation roadmaps, not just adoption.
• Expansion identifies new business opportunities vs simple upsells.
• Teams integrate internally across departments to orchestrate consultative partnerships.

Consultative relationships enable mutual growth beyond one-off sales events. Shared purpose drives lasting partnerships.

Data-Driven Personalization and Customization

Rich analytics will customize engagements:

• Unified customer data provides 360-degree perspectives saleswide.
• Metrics highlight usage patterns, workflows, and pain points for tailored advice per account.
• Predictive analytics flag customer needs proactively before they request help.
• Lifecycle stage triggers appropriate messaging for each phase.
• AI assistants recommend configurations and optionality tailored to each customer during conversations.
• Customer language patterns inform unique styles and vocabularies for each rep-buyer relationship.
• Testing refines outreach content and swag for ideal personalization.
• Outbound campaigns feature dynamic content using CRM integration.
• Engagement data guides human judgment, not replaces it.

Customization powered by data science maximizes relevance. But relationships remain human-driven.

The future of selling remains brightly human. With enabling technologies, personal selling will evolve to elevate customers further through trust and insight.

Key Takeaways on Personal Selling

• Personal selling involves personalized, consultative communication between sales reps and prospects. It focuses on building relationships and meeting unique needs.
• Personal selling shines for complex, high-value purchases requiring expertise. It allows tailored education, advice, and custom solutions impossible at scale.
• Various personal selling types exist, from retail associates toinsurance agents. But core competencies like communication skills, product knowledge, and relationship building apply across roles.
• An in-depth sales process underpins success. Steps include prospecting, presenting, handling objections, closing, and account management.
• Skills like emotional intelligence, listening, problem solving, and resilience characterize top sales professionals. Mastery takes continual training.
• Benefits include personalized experiences, loyalty, education, expansion sales, and customer insights impossible via self-service.
• Challenges range from training needs to unethical practices. Mitigations include culture building, goal setting, and sales enablement technology.
• Best practices span training, performance tracking, motivating teams, optimizing processes, and prioritizing customer advocacy.
• The future points to omnichannel sales capabilities, virtual workforces, analytics-driven customization, automation, and consultative partnerships.
• Yet for all technologies may improve, the human touch remains integral to selling done right. Personal connections drive results .

Personal selling retains central importance in the digital age by providing human relationships, expertise, and adaptation difficult to automate. Mastering both art and science makes sales professionals more valuable than ever.

Frequently Asked Questions About Personal Selling

What is personal selling.

Personal selling is a promotional method that involves personalized, consultative communication between a salesperson and prospect. It focuses on understanding needs, solving problems, building relationships, and customizing solutions.

What are the main types of personal selling?

Major personal selling approaches include retail sales, door-to-door selling, telemarketing, insurance sales, automotive sales, real estate sales, financial services sales, pharmaceutical sales, and business-to-business sales.

What skills make a good salesperson?

Top salespeople excel at communication, emotional intelligence, listening, problem-solving, relationship-building, product expertise, persuasiveness, resilience, adaptability, and managing ambiguity.

What are the main steps in the sales process?

The key stages in the sales process are prospecting, pre-approach, approach, needs assessment, presentation, overcoming objections, closing, and follow-up account management.

What are the main benefits of personal selling?

Benefits of personal selling include customized solutions, relationship-building, loyalty, personalized education, expansion sales via upsells/cross-sells, gathering insights and feedback, and high-touch service.

What are some challenges with personal selling?

Challenges of personal selling include extensive training requirements, difficulty scaling, performance inconsistencies, time-intensiveness, unethical practices, and fluctuating sales.

How is personal selling evolving in the digital age?

Personal selling is evolving to blend physical, digital, and virtual channels while leveraging automation, data, and AI to enhance human productivity and relationships.

How can you optimize personal selling success?

Best practices to optimize personal selling include training, goal-setting, sales enablement technology, collaboration, specialization, customer-centric culture building, and ethical relationship focus.

What separates average salespeople from top performers?

Top sales professionals differentiate themselves by strong communication abilities, emotional intelligence, problem-solving skills, resilience, self-improvement focus, customer orientation, and relationship-building.

Module 13: Promotion: Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC)

Reading: personal selling, people power.

Effective personal selling addresses the buyer’s needs and preferences without making him or her feel pressured. Good salespeople offer advice, information, and recommendations, and they can help buyers save money and time during the decision process. The seller should give honest responses to any questions or objections the buyer has and show that he cares more about meeting the buyer’s needs than making the sale. Attending to these aspects of personal selling contributes to a strong, trusting relationship between buyer and seller. [1]

Common Personal Selling Techniques

Common personal selling tools and techniques include the following:

• Sales presentations : in-person or virtual presentations to inform prospective customers about a product, service, or organization
• Conversations : relationship-building dialogue with prospective buyers for the purposes of influencing or making sales
• Demonstrations : demonstrating how a product or service works and the benefits it offers, highlighting advantageous features and how the offering solves problems the customer encounters
• Addressing objections : identifying and addressing the concerns of prospective customers, to remove any perceived obstacles to making a purchase
• Field selling : sales calls by a sales representative to connect with target customers in person or via phone
• Retail selling : in-store assistance from a sales clerk to help customers find, select, and purchase products that meet their needs
• Door-to-door selling : offering products for sale by going door-to-door in a neighborhood
• Consultative selling : consultation with a prospective customer, where a sales representative (or consultant) learns about the problems the customer wants to solve and recommends solutions to the customer’s particular problem
• Reference selling : using satisfied customers and their positive experiences to convince target customers to purchase a product or service

Personal selling minimizes wasted effort, promotes sales, and boosts word-of-mouth marketing. Also, personal selling measures marketing return on investment (ROI) better than most tools, and it can give insight into customers’ habits and their responses to a particular marketing campaign or product offer.

When to Use Personal Selling

Not every product or service is a good fit for personal selling. It’s an expensive technique because the proceeds of the person-to-person sales must cover the salary of the sales representative—on top of all the other costs of doing business. Whether or not a company uses personal selling as part of its marketing mix depends on its business model. Most often companies use personal selling when their products or services are highly technical, specialized, or costly—such as complex software systems, business consulting services, homes, and automobiles.

In addition, there are certain conditions that favor personal selling: [2]

• Product situation : Personal selling is relatively more effective and economical when a product is of a high unit value, when it is in the introductory stage of its life cycle, when it requires personal attention to match consumer needs, or when it requires product demonstration or after-sales services.
• Market situation : Personal selling is effective when a firm serves a small number of large-size buyers or a small/local market. Also, it can be used effectively when an indirect channel of distribution is used for selling to agents or middlemen.
• Company situation : Personal selling is best utilized when a firm is not in a good position to use impersonal communication media, or it cannot afford to have a large and regular advertising outlay.
• Consumer behavior situation : Personal selling should be adopted by a company when purchases are valuable but infrequent, or when competition is at such a level that consumers require persuasion and follow-up.

It’s important to keep in mind that personal selling is most effective when a company has established an effective sales-force management system together with a sales force of the right design, size, and structure. Recruitment, selection, training, supervision, and evaluation of the sales force also obviously play an important role in the effectiveness of this marketing communication method. [3]

Advantages and Disadvantages of Personal Selling

Personal selling also minimizes wasted effort. Advertisers can spend a lot of time and money on a mass-marketing message that reaches many people outside the target market (but doesn’t result in additional sales). In personal selling, the sales force pinpoints the target market, makes a contact, and focuses effort that has a strong probability of leading to a sale.

As mentioned above, an additional strength of personal selling is that measuring marketing effectiveness and determining ROI are far more straightforward for personal selling than for other marketing communication tools—where recall or attitude change is often the only measurable effect.

Another advantage of personal selling is that a salesperson is in an excellent position to encourage the customer to act. The one-on-one interaction of personal selling means that a salesperson can effectively respond to and overcome objections—e.g., concerns or reservations about the product—so that the customer is more likely to buy. Salespeople can also offer many customized reasons that might spur a customer to buy, whereas an advertisement offers a limited set of reasons that may not persuade everyone in the target audience.

A final strength of personal selling is the multiple tasks that the sales force can perform. For example, in addition to selling, a salesperson can collect payments, service or repair products, return products, and collect product and marketing information. In fact, salespeople are often the best resources when it comes to disseminating positive word-of-mouth product information.

High cost is the primary disadvantage of personal selling. With increased competition, higher travel and lodging costs, and higher salaries, the cost per sales contract continues to rise. Many companies try to control sales costs by compensating sales representatives through commissions alone, thereby guaranteeing that salespeople are paid only if they generate sales. However, commission-only salespeople may become risk averse and only call on clients who have the highest potential return. These salespeople, then, may miss opportunities to develop a broad base of potential customers that could generate higher sales revenues in the long run.

Companies can also reduce sales costs by using complementary techniques, such as telemarketing, direct mail, toll-free numbers for interested customers, and online communication with qualified prospects. Telemarketing and online communication can further reduce costs by serving as an actual selling vehicle. Both technologies can deliver sales messages, respond to questions, take payment, and follow up.

A second disadvantage of personal selling is the problem of finding and retaining high-quality people. Experienced salespeople sometimes realize that the only way their income can outpace their cost-of-living increase is to change jobs. Also, because of the push for profitability, businesses try to hire experienced salespeople away from competitors rather than hiring college graduates, who take three to five years to reach the level of productivity of more experienced salespeople. These two staffing issues have caused high turnover in many sales forces.

Another weakness of personal selling is message inconsistency. Many salespeople view themselves as independent from the organization, so they design their own sales techniques, use their own message strategies, and engage in questionable ploys to generate sales. (You’ll recall our discussion in the ethics module about the unique challenges that B2B salespeople face.) As a result, it can be difficult to find a unified company or product message within a sales force or between the sales force and the rest of the marketing mix.

A final disadvantage of personal selling is that sales-force members have different levels of motivation. Salespeople may vary in their willingness to make the desired number of sales calls each day; to make service calls that do not lead directly to sales; or to take full advantage of the technologies available to them.

How IMC Supports Personal Selling [4]

As with any other marketing communication method, personal selling must be evaluated on the basis of its contribution to the overall marketing mix. The costs of personal selling can be high and carry risks, but the returns may be just as high. In addition, when personal selling is supported by other elements of a well-conceived IMC strategy, it can be very effective indeed.

Consider the following example of Audi, which set out to build a customer-relationship program:

Audi’s goal was to not have the relationship with the customer end after the sale was made. Operating on the assumption that the company’s best potential customers were also its existing customers, the company initiated an online program to maintain contact, while allowing its sales force to concentrate on selling. Based on its television campaign for the new A4 model, Audi offered a downloadable screensaver that frequently broadcasted updated news and information automatically to the consumers’ computers. After displaying the screensaver option on its Web site, Audi sent an email to owners and prospects offering them the opportunity to download it. More than 10,000 people took advantage of the offer. Audi then began to maintain a continuous dialog with the adopters by sending them newsletters and updates. Click-through rates ranged from 25 to 35 percent on various parts of the site—well exceeding the standard rates—and car sales were 25 percent higher than they were the previous year, even in a down economy. [5]

As a result of several coordinated communication methods (TV advertising, email, downloadable screensaver, newsletters, and product information) and presumably a well-designed customer relationship management (CRM) system, Audi helped its sales force be more effective (by freeing it up to focus on sales and by connecting it with more prospective customers), which, turn, meant higher profits.

• http://smallbusiness.chron.com/strategic-selling-techniques-15747.html   ↵
• http://www.smetimes.in/smetimes/in-depth/2010/Sep/02/personal-selling-when-and-how500001.html ↵
• http://www.zabanga.us/marketing-communications/how-companies-integrate-personal-selling-into-the-imc-program.html ↵
• Revision and adaptation. Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
• Personal Selling, From Boundless Marketing. Provided by : Boundless. Located at : https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-marketing/ . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
• Phone call. Provided by : CWCS Managed Hosting. Located at : https://www.flickr.com/photos/122969584@N07/13780153345/ . License : CC BY: Attribution
• Communicating to Mass Markets, from Introducing Marketing. Authored by : John Burnett. Project : Global Text. License : CC BY: Attribution
• Handshake. Authored by : Cytonn Photography. Provided by : Unsplash. Located at : https://unsplash.com/photos/n95VMLxqM2I . License : CC0: No Rights Reserved . License Terms : Unsplash License

• Data, AI, & Machine Learning
• Managing Technology
• Social Responsibility
• Workplace, Teams, & Culture
• AI & Machine Learning
• Diversity & Inclusion
• Big ideas Research Projects
• Artificial Intelligence and Business Strategy
• Responsible AI
• Future of the Workforce
• Future of Leadership
• All Research Projects
• AI in Action
• Most Popular
• The Truth Behind the Nursing Crisis
• Work/23: The Big Shift
• Coaching for the Future-Forward Leader
• Measuring Culture

The spring 2024 issue’s special report looks at how to take advantage of market opportunities in the digital space, and provides advice on building culture and friendships at work; maximizing the benefits of LLMs, corporate venture capital initiatives, and innovation contests; and scaling automation and digital health platform.

• Past Issues
• Upcoming Events
• Video Archive
• Me, Myself, and AI
• Three Big Points

Five Key Elements of Problem-Centric Selling

When it comes to winning over customers, sales teams need to adopt a new approach.

• Executing Strategy
• Marketing Strategy

Many companies are just like us, and the start of the new year means making their own resolutions as organizations. Often these revolve around increasing their sales metrics and implementing new technologies. But one of the most effective goals is much simpler — something they can, and should, start doing for free.

After 20 years of working in sales, including eight years running my own consulting practice, I’ve discovered that a simple test can help transform how sales teams operate. In fact, I recommend that teams encourage their managers to give them this test.

You may be wondering why we should add a test on top of what are often already heavy burdens for sales teams. The answer: because many teams miss their quotas. In fact, in 2018, Salesforce found that more than half (57%) of sales representatives expected to miss quotas for the year.

The Challenge

The test involves having a manager look at a salesperson’s notes about prospects listed in the salesperson’s customer relationship management (CRM) platform. Without providing names or any identifying information, the manager reads back the notes to the employee.

The employee then tries to identify each prospect based just on that information alone.

I often find that salespeople can’t identify many or most of their clients. And it’s not due to a lack of effort or engagement with the clients. Rather, it’s most often due to a lack of asking clients the right questions and getting the right information to drive sales.

Get Updates on Transformative Leadership

Evidence-based resources that can help you lead your team more effectively, delivered to your inbox monthly.

Please enter a valid email address

Thank you for signing up

Privacy Policy

Problem-Centric Selling

Often, managers are directing their sales teams to focus on determining their prospects’ needs. This advice often boils down to: Ask the client questions, listen to what they say they need or want, and recommend a solution.

The problem is this traditional method is not enough. In many cases, the first thing a client needs or wants doesn’t necessarily solve their core problem. This new method means salespeople must first diagnose the real problem, as in many cases the potential buyer cannot yet articulate it themselves.

An experience I once had as a customer helped open my eyes to this phenomenon. In the early 2000s, I had a then-popular PalmPilot. While in Boston for a conference, I realized the battery had died, and I didn’t have my charger. I walked into a store and asked whether they had one. The salesman said yes, then asked whether he could interest me in something else, such as a case. A bit annoyed that he was trying to upsell me, I said no.

But just as he was about to ring me up, he looked me in the eye and asked me a question: Was the device out of power because when I put it in my pocket or briefcase, buttons got pressed, wasting the battery?

“Yes!” I yelled, excited that he had guessed it. “That’s exactly what happens!”

He then showed me a case specifically designed to prevent that. I bought it.

I had thought I needed only a charger, but I also needed a case. I wasn’t focused on the real problem and didn’t share it with him because I didn’t know what my options or solutions were. But with his problem-centric approach, the salesperson was able to diagnose my issue and make the sale.

Buyers aren’t as similar as they appear. By taking the time to diagnose problems with as much specificity as possible, salespeople discover important differences among potential customers that are crucial for tailoring offerings and pitches.

Take, for example, two buyers who say they need new productivity systems at their businesses that will allow employees to delegate better and spend more time away from the office. Most salespeople would simply offer them the same solution.

But that solution may require the buyer to contact their manager frequently for approval. This may suit a customer whose motivation for the new technology is to save on gas and avoid road congestion. But it does not suit the other customer who is about to adopt twins with special needs and needs to work off-hours, when the manager isn’t available.

The Five Elements of Problem Diagnosis

To enable problem-centric selling, managers should focus their teams on five critical elements:

• Know key facts about the customer. This include descriptions of the environment in which the buyer works, the processes they use, the structure of the organization, the tools they have, the current goals of the business, etc. Getting to the facts that go beyond basic names, size of company, and industry helps establish the context for where customers’ problems live.
• Understand the problems the buyer is facing. Don’t just go by what they think their problems are. Ask so much about their process that you help them discover what their real problems are. Help to identify the problems before they do.
• Measure the impact of those problems. How does this problem affect their business, their team, and their own work in terms of productivity, revenue, and other important metrics? By applying measurements to the problem, you can help the buyer understand the benefit they’ll get from addressing this root issue.
• Help identify the root causes. Dig deep to find out what’s behind the problems. Offer ideas about possible causes, as a different perspective may help the customer problem-solve in new ways.
• Employ empathy. How is the problem making the customer feel? By cultivating an emotional connection , the sales representative can come to understand and empathize with the client, building trust.

Of course, customers don’t have endless time to spend with your teams. So it’s important for managers to train their employees to get this critical information early on in the process. This is also an opportunity to use customer data that the teams may already have. For instance, user-generated content can provide your teams with great insight into customer needs.

Related Articles

In my experience working with all different kinds of sales managers and teams, I’ve found that when you put problem-centric selling into action, customers are so happy to have someone who “gets it” that they’re ready to spend more time on the phone and, much of the time, more willing to invest in your solution.

About the Author

Keenan is CEO of A Sales Guy Inc. and author of Gap Selling . He tweets @keenan .

More Like This

Add a comment cancel reply.

You must sign in to post a comment. First time here? Sign up for a free account : Comment on articles and get access to many more articles.

Selling Today: Partnering to Create Value, 14/e by Gerald L. Manning, Michael Ahearne, Barry L. Reece

Get full access to Selling Today: Partnering to Create Value, 14/e and 60K+ other titles, with a free 10-day trial of O'Reilly.

There are also live events, courses curated by job role, and more.

Marketing Concept Requires New Selling Models

2.1 Discuss the evolution of personal selling models as an extension of the marketing concept

A careful examination of personal selling practices during the past 50 years reveals some positive developments. We have seen the evolution of personal selling through several stages. The earlier “persuader stage” that was popular prior to the emergence of the marketing concept emphasized pushing or peddling products. At this stage, with little regard for long-term, mutually rewarding customer relationships, salespeople attempted to convince any and all market members to buy products offered. Over the years, personal selling evolved to the “problem-solver stage”— obtaining the participation of buyers in ...

Get Selling Today: Partnering to Create Value, 14/e now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Don’t leave empty-handed

Get Mark Richards’s Software Architecture Patterns ebook to better understand how to design components—and how they should interact.

It’s yours, free.

Check it out now on O’Reilly

Dive in for free with a 10-day trial of the O’Reilly learning platform—then explore all the other resources our members count on to build skills and solve problems every day.

Personal Selling: Meaning, Process, Objectives, Importance, Advantages and Disadvantages

In this article we will discuss about:- 1. Meaning of Personal Selling 2. Features of Personal Selling 3. Process 4. Objectives 5. Role and Importance 6. Functions 7. Requisites 8. Advantages 9. Disadvantages 10. Challenges.

• Challenges of Personal Selling  

Meaning of Personal Selling:

Personal selling is an act of convincing the prospects to buy a given product or service. It is the most effective and costly promotional method. It is effective because there is face to face conversation between the buyer and seller and seller can change its promotional techniques according to the needs of situation. It is basically the science and art of understanding human desires and showing the ways through which these desires could be fulfilled.

According to American Marketing Association, “Personal selling is the oral presentation in a conversation with one or more prospective purchasers for the purpose of making sale; it is the ability to persuade the people to buy goods and services at a profit to the seller and benefit to the buyer”.

In the word of Professor William J. Stanton, “Personal selling consists in individual; personal communication, in contrast to mass relatively impersonal communication of advertising; sales promotion and other promotional tools”.

Personal selling is a different form of promotion, involving two way face-to-face communications between the salesmen and the prospect. The result of such interaction depends upon how deep each has gone into one another and reached the height of the common understanding. Basically the essence of personal selling is the interpretation of products and services benefits and features to the buyer and persuading the buyer to buy these products and services.

Features of Personal Selling :

The main features of personal selling are:

i. It is a face to face communication between buyer and seller.

ii. It is a two way communication.

iii. It is an oral communication.

iv. It persuades the customers instead of pressurizing him.

v. It provides immediate feedback.

vi. It develops a deep personal relationship apart from the selling relationship with the buyers and customers.

Personal Selling Process:

The process of personal selling includes prospecting and evaluating, preparing, approach and presentation, overcoming objections, closing the sale and a follow up service.

1. Prospecting and evaluating:

The effort to develop a list of potential customers is known as prospecting. Sales people can find potential buyers, names in company records, customer information requests from advertisements, telephone and trade association directories, current and previous customers, friends, and newspapers. Prospective buyers predetermined, by evaluating (1) their potential interest in the sales person’s products and (2) their purchase power.

2. Preparing:

Before approaching the potential buyer, the sales person should know as much as possible about the person or company.

3. Approach and presentation:

During the approach, which constitutes the actual beginning of the communication process, the sales person explains to the potential customer the reason for the sales, possibly mentions how the potential buyer’s name was obtained, and gives a preliminary explanation of what he or she is offering. The sales presentation is a detailed effort to bring the buyer’s needs together with the product or service the sales person represents.

4. Overcoming objections:

The primary value of personal selling lies in the sales person’s ability to receive and deal with potential customers’ objections to purchasing the product. In a sales presentation many objections can be dealt with immediately. These may take more time, but still may be overcome.

5. Closing the sale:

Many sales people lose sales simply because they never asked the buyer to buy. At several times in a presentation the sales person may to gauge how near the buyer is to closing.

6. Follow up:

To maintain customer satisfaction, the sales person should follow up after a sale to be certain that the product is delivered properly and the customer is satisfied with the result.

Objectives of Personal Selling:

The major objectives of salesmanship are as follows:

(i) Attracting the Prospective Customers:

The first and foremost objective of a salesperson is to attract the attention of people who might be interested to buy the product he is selling.

(ii) Educating the Prospective Customers:

The salesman provides information about the features, price and uses of the product to the people. He handles their queries and removes their doubts about the product. He educates them as to how their needs could be satisfied by using the product.

(iii) Creating Desire to Buy:

The salesman creates a desire among the prospective customers to buy the product to satisfy specific needs.

(iv) Concluding Sales:

The ultimate objective of personal selling is to win the confidence of customers and make them buy the product. Creation of customers is the index of effectiveness of any salesperson.

(v) Getting Repeat Orders:

A good salesperson aims to create permanent customers by helping them satisfy their needs and providing them product support services, if required. He tries for repeat orders from the customers.

Role and Importance of Personal Selling:

Personal selling consists of individual and personal communication with the customers in contrast to the mass and impersonal communication through advertising. Because of this characteristic, personal selling has the advantage of being more flexible in operation.

A salesperson can tailor his sales presentation to fit the needs, motives, and behaviour of individual customers. He can observe the customer’s reaction to a particular sales approach and then make necessary adjustment on the spot. Thus, personal selling involves a minimum of wasteful efforts. The salesperson can select and concentrate on the prospective customers.

Personal selling helps in sales promotion. It is very important to manufacturers and traders because it helps them to sell their products. It also helps them in knowing the tastes, habits, attitudes and reactions of the people.

The manufacturer can concentrate on producing those goods which are required by the customers. This will further promote the sales. Moreover, a good salesman is able to establish personal support with customers. This way, the business gains permanent customers.

Functions of Personal Selling:

The important functions of a salesperson are as follows:

1. Personal selling is an important method of demonstrating the product to the prospective customers and giving them full information about the product. It is easier to persuade a person to buy a product through face-to-face explanation.

2. In most of the situations, there is a need of explaining the quality, uses and price of the product to the buyer to help him purchase the want satisfying product. Thus, salesmanship is also very important from the point of the buyers.

3. A good salesperson educates and guides the customers about the features and utility of the product.

4. If a product cannot fully satisfy the needs of the customers, the information is transmitted to the manufacturer who will take appropriate steps.

5. Salespersons can also handle the objections of the customers. Creative salesman are always ready to help the customers to arrive at correct decisions while buying certain products.

6. There is direct fact-to-face interaction between the seller and the buyer. The salesperson can receive feedback directly from the customer on a continuous basis. This would help him in modifying his presentation and taking other steps to sell satisfaction to the buyer.

Requisites of Effective Personal Selling:

It is not possible to describe exactly the kind of person who will make a good salesperson. Sales skill has no clear correlation to any combination of appearance, education, technical expertise, or even persuasiveness. There have been successful salesmen who knew little about the technical qualities of the product.

On the other hand, there are many examples of technical champs who could not sell. However, in the modern era of severe competition in the market, it is not easy to become an effective salesman. A business enterprise can develop effective salesman to promote its sales.

In order to achieve effective personal selling, the following requirements must be fulfilled:

1. Personal Qualities:

An effective salesman must possess certain physical, mental, social and vocational qualities.

2. Training and Motivation:

In order to achieve effective personal selling, it is essential to train and motivate the sales persons. The training programme for the sales persons should be designed keeping in view the requirements of the business. The training programme should also aim at imparting knowledge of various selling programme should also aim at imparting knowledge of various selling techniques among the trainees.

For instance, a salesman must be trained how to understand the nature of a customer, how to arouse his interest in the product, and how to close the sales. It is also essential that the person selected for selling has aptitude for this vocation. He has the inner motivation of developing himself into a good salesman. The employer can also motivate him by providing financial and non-financial incentives.

3. Wide Knowledge:

A salesman should have wide knowledge about the following:

The salesman must know himself in order to make use of his personality in selling the products. He should try to know his strong arid week points and remove his weak points through training and experience. He should continuously undertake his self- assessment to know what he requires in order to be an effective salesman.

(b) Employer:

The salesman is a representative of his employer. He should have a thorough knowledge of the origin and growth of the employer’s business. He must know objects, policies and organisational structure of the employer’s firm. This will enable the salesman to make use of the plus points of the firm selling the product.

(c) Product:

The salesman must have full knowledge about the product he sells. He must know what the product is and what are its special features and uses. He should also know the whole process of production so that he may be able to answer the customer’s queries and objections satisfactorily. Mostly, the customers are ignorant about the features, technical details, and benefits of the product and they expect the salesman to give them sufficient information about it.

(d) Competitors’ Products:

The salesman must have complete knowledge about the competitive products because buyers often compare several products before purchasing one of them. The salesman should know the positive and negative features of the various substitutes so that he is in a position to prove the superiority of his product.

(e) Customers:

Before selling something, a salesman must have sufficient knowledge about the customers to whom he is going to sell. He must try to understand the nature of customers, their habits and their buying motives if he is to win permanent customers. There are a number of considerations which make the prospect to buy a particular product.

These considerations may be grouped under two categories of motives, namely (i) product motives and (ii) patronage motives. Product motives explain why customers buy certain products and patronage motives determine why customers buy from specific dealers. A salesman can understand the motives of the customers by his intelligence and experience.

He should deal with the customer according to his nature. He can mix with a customer who is extrovert and remain reserved with a customer who is introvert. He should also try to know whether a customer intends to purchase for personal use or for business use.

Advantages of Personal Selling :

1. The key advantage personal selling has over other promotional methods is that it is a two-way form of communication. In selling situations the message sender (e.g., salesperson) can adjust the message as they gain feedback from message receivers (e.g., customer).

So if a customer does not understand the initial message (e.g., doesn’t fully understand how the product works) the salesperson can make adjustments to address questions or concerns.

Many non- personal forms of promotion, such as a radio advertisement, are inflexible, at least in the short-term, and cannot be easily adjusted to address audience questions.

2. The interactive nature of personal selling also makes it the most effective promotional method for building relationships with customers, particularly in the business-to-business market.

This is especially important for companies that either sell expensive products or sell lower cost but high volume products (i.e., buyer must purchase in large quantities) that rely heavily on customers making repeat purchases.

Because such purchases may take a considerable amount of time to complete and may involve the input of many people at the purchasing company (i.e., buying center), sales success often requires the marketer develop and maintain strong relationships with members of the purchasing company.

3. Finally, personal selling is the most practical promotional option for reaching customers who are not easily reached through other methods. The best example is in selling to the business market where, compared to the consumer market, advertising, public relations and sales promotions are often not well received.

Disadvantages of Personal Selling :

1. Possibly the biggest disadvantage of selling is the degree to which this promotional method is misunderstood. Most people have had some bad experiences with salespeople who they perceived were overly aggressive or even downright annoying.

While there are certainly many salespeople who fall into this category, the truth is salespeople are most successful when they focus their efforts on satisfying customers over the long term and not focusing own their own selfish interests.

2. A second disadvantage of personal selling is the high cost in maintaining this type of promotional effort.

Costs incurred in personal selling include:

(i) High Cost-Per-Action (CPA):

CPA can be an important measure of the success of promotion spending. Since personal selling involves person-to-person contact, the money spent to support a sales staff (i.e., sales force) can be steep. For instance, in some industries it costs well over (US) $300 each time a salesperson contacts a potential customer.

This cost is incurred whether a sale is made or not! These costs include compensation (e.g., salary, commission, and bonus), providing sales support materials, allowances for entertainment spending, office supplies, telecommunication and much more. With such high cost for maintaining a sales force, selling is often not a practical option for selling products that do not generate a large amount of revenue.

(ii) Training Costs:

Most forms of personal selling require the sales staff be extensively trained on product knowledge, industry information and selling skills. For companies that require their salespeople attend formal training programs, the cost of training can be quite high and include such expenses as travel, hotel, meals, and training equipment while also paying the trainees’ salaries while they attend.

3. A third disadvantage is that personal selling is not for everyone. Job turnover in sales is often much higher than other marketing positions. For companies that assign salespeople to handle certain customer groups (e.g., geographic territory), turnover may leave a company without representation in a customer group for an extended period of time while the company recruits and trains a replacement.

Challenges in Personal Selling:

(i) At first personal selling is dyadic in nature. Dyadic simply means of or relating to two people. Thus, personal selling revolves around a marketing relationship developed between two people. Frequently, personal salespeople enlist the help of others in their organizations to sell to and service customers.

And just as frequently, personal salespeople find themselves making presentations to small groups of people or working with multiple individuals within customers’ firms. However, ultimately a successful marketing relationship is built by two people one person selling and person buying. Successful salespeople identify that person early on and work to win their trust and confidence.

(ii) Secondly personal selling is a process, not a single activity. And done correctly, the process continues indefinitely. Salespeople, sales managers, and others inside the seller’s organization frequently see the selling process as culminating or ending with a signed order.

However, in these days of so-called “relationship marketing” and “customer relationship management” successful organizations recognize that signed orders simply represent one point of positive feedback in an ongoing and continuous process.

(iii) Third, personal selling is highly interactive. In advertising, information flow occurs initially in a one-way direction. What feedback the advertiser receives arrives late well after an advertisement has aired.

Moreover, without costly research, the attitudinal effects of advertising may never be known. In personal selling, feedback is largely Personal Selling instantaneous and continuous.

The two-way flow of information that characterizes personal selling creates a communication channel rich with information, much of it nonverbal. Effective personal salespeople become adept at interpreting this information quickly and adapting their responses to it.

(iv) Personal selling is about problem solving. As the marketing concept is adopted by more and more firms, the emphasis of personal salespeople will be more on identifying customers with a true need for the firm’s products and applying those products to solve customer problems. Less emphasis will be placed on simply making a sale.

The focus on problem solving in personal selling reflects a larger trend toward building relationships between customers and clients. Marketers know that to develop these relationships, they must be willing to forego short term gains, particularly when the salesperson realizes that at that moment a purchase might not be in the customer’s best interests.

Related Articles:

• Channels of Distribution: Meaning, Objectives, Role, Factors, Functions and Strategies
• Exporting: Advantages and Disadvantages | International Marketing

Privacy Overview

The Problem-Solving View of Personal Selling Is an Extension Of

Question 35

The problem-solving view of personal selling is an extension of:

A) Needs-satisfaction selling. B) Stimulus-response selling. C) Contingency selling. D) Mental-states selling. E) Problem-solution selling.

Correct Answer:

Unlock this answer now Get Access to more Verified Answers free of charge.

Q30: Which of the five views of personal

Q31: A personal selling approach that involves helping

Q32: The sales process begins with: A) The training

Q33: Which of the roles salespeople play in

Q34: Which of the following is not part

Q36: When practicing trust-based relationship selling, salespeople should

Q37: David is always willing to support his

Q38: The most important part of the salesperson's

Q39: Which of the following is not one

Q40: _________________is the role the salesperson plays in

Unlock this Answer For Free Now!

View this answer and more for free by performing one of the following actions

Scan the QR code to install the App and get 2 free unlocks

Unlock quizzes for free by uploading documents