What is Personal Selling? What are its features? What are the Process of personal Selling?

PERSONAL SELLING
Personal selling is the art of convincing the prospects to buy the given products and services. Though it is a method of communication, it is two way as it involves direct face to face contact between the salesman and the prospect. It is the ability to convert human needs into wants. It is the process of contacting prospective buyers personally and persuading them to buy the products.

According to the American Marketing Association,” Personal selling is the oral presentation in a conversation with one or more prospective purchasers to make sales; 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 words of Garfield Blakde, ”Salesmanship consists of winning the buyers confidence for the seller’s house and goods, thereby winning the regular and permanent customer.”

FEATURES OF PERSONAL SELLING
1. It is one of the important tools for increasing sales.
2. It is two-way communication between salesmen and the prospect.
3. It is a persuading process to buy goods and services.
4. The objective of personal selling is to protect the interest of both seller and buyer.
5. The essence of personal selling is the interpretation of product and service features in terms of benefit and advantages.

PROCESS OF PERSONAL SELLING
Selling is the sequence of steps involved in the conversion of human desire into demand for a product or service. The personal selling process involves the following stages.

1. Prospecting: It is the work of collecting the names and addresses of persons who are likely to buy the firm’s product or services. While collecting the details, ‘suspects’ must be separated from ‘prospects’ to avoid waste of time.

2. Pre approach: Pre approach is to get more detailed facts about a specific individual to have effective sales appeal on him or her. It is a closer look of prospects like habits, financial status, social esteem, family background, material status, tastes, and preferences, etc.
 

3. Approach: Approach means the meeting of the prospect in person by the salesmen. It is a face to face contact with the prospect to understand him better.

4. Presentation and demonstration: A good sales presentation is one that not only gives all the benefits that the prospect gets but also proves to the latter that he or she will better off after the product is bought and used. An effective sales presentation demands the salesperson use skills like presentation and explanation.

5. Managing objections: This is the most important stage of personal selling. For every action of a salesman, there is prospect’s pro-action or reaction, ie, approval or disapproval. An efficient salesman can identify the reasons for raising objections by the prospects and the ways to overcome these objections.

6. Sale: If all the above stages have been concluded successfully, then the next stage is the ultimate sale of the product.