Personal Selling

The very qualities that make sales people effective—enthusiasm for working with people one-on-one—make some of them less effective in activities that require patience, working alone, meticulous attention to detail, and certain types of concentration. For this reason personal selling staffs frequently require backup to ensure good order, organization, and follow-through.

TYPES OF PERSONAL SELLING

Sales positions or their equivalents range between the sales clerk with minimal selling skills up to the chief executive officer in public and in private enterprises. At the bottom of the sales-pyramid the primary skill is taking an order and guiding customers to the product; at the top great ability to present complex, often controversial and abstract cases persuasively, usually as just a part of other functions, is required. Most personal selling takes place in the middle.

Sales positions are classified as "inside" and "outside." Inside sales above the clerk level involve telephone sales, mainstream retail sales in stores where product knowledge and presentation skills are required, and auto sales and similar equipment sales where customers visit the dealership. Inside sales may be combined with other functions such as scheduling and early information gathering for an outside agent.

Outside sales take place either at the prospective client's residence or place of business or in a third-party location: real estate sales have this form. Outside sales may be combined with estimating tasks as in the case of bidding on construction work; it may also be combined with product delivery. The driver-salesperson has a stocking function sometimes combined with sales responsibilities. A special category is the sales engineer highly skilled in some aspect of industrial operations and thus able both to understand requirements and to provide technical support.

In many types of financial, consulting, market research, engineering, construction, and equipment sales categories personal selling may be both inside and out. In the consulting industry the manager likely to oversee a contract is likely to be the leading salesperson for the job. In such situations buyers may call on the seller and vice-versa depending on the circumstances.

The Reps

An important category of personal selling is provided by manufacturers' representatives, usually called rep organizations or selling agents. These individuals, sometimes working in groups, are independent sellers representing a manufacturer, usually in exclusive territories, compensated by commissions only. Hiring a rep firm allows a small business to avoid the cost of an in-house sales force. In addition, an established rep may provide the business instant access to an established sales territory. Agents are particularly helpful for businesses with seasonal sales; the rep is only paid when sales are made. The chief disadvantage of selling agents is that they usually work for several different firms and do not devote all of their time to one client.

TRENDS

A broad movement is discernible in modern commerce to replace personal selling in all areas except those in which the service is indispensable or pricing permits its continuance: because personal selling is expensive. Packaging, promotion, and lower-cost and lower-skill clerks are replacing the sales person even in technical fields. An example of this is the distribution of computers and software. More and more such products are sold in standard packaged forms, even in retail outlets; the sales function is reduced to clerking aimed to help customers find—not to understand—products. Servicing products (including their installation) is being transferred overseas to lower labor-cost markets; the service is provided by telephone. Private selling remains central in selling financial products, real estate, and major consumer durables (autos, appliances, boats, furniture, carpeting, etc.). It is also used in service categories like construction and maintenance. And personal selling continues to be present in up-scale retail where high prices not only justify but require attention to customer needs. It also survives in analogous distribution systems attempting to reach more modest income levels with high margin but hard-to-sell (because expensive) products. In business-to-business or business-to-institution sales personal selling remains the principal mode of selling capital goods, raw materials, and parts, as well as services.

Personal selling is thus used either where it cannot be avoided or where it is paid for as a service but as part of the product. The absence of attentive sales assistance itself constitutes a kind of hidden demand in the economy which some small businesses have learned effectively to exploit. But doing so requires products able to carry its costs. Paradoxically, one might say, selling itself has to be sold as part of an ambiance or shopping experience. But it can be a hard sell. The erosion of personal selling owes as much to the collusion of the consumer (who is willing to put up with impersonal sales environments in order to save a little money) as to the cost-avoidance reflex of those intent on maximizing profits.

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