Personal Selling
Personal selling involves marketing specifically by one sales rep to one individual at a time. Companies spend the most on this type of marketing. Why are businesses willing to spend so much on this personal selling? Because it provides the most directed type of advertising, making it the most effective. A member of the sales team can customize his or her sales message to the customer so the customer receives the best message to encourage more sales.
Personal selling is not just about calling new people to encourage them to become customers. It also includes taking orders from existing customers and providing customer service. When these sales people are taking orders, they make sure the customers are purchasing the right product for them. If the customers need something else, these salespeople make sure the customers are sold the additional items.
How does sales management relate to the salespeople that do personal selling? Sales management is there to provide both direction and motivation. Without good sales management in place, the sales team may not be as motivated and performance may drop.
Providing Direction
Providing direction involves setting the objectives for the sales team. The objectives can be the number of products sold, dollar amount sold, or the number of orders compared to the number of phone calls made. With an objective in place, it gives the salesperson something to work towards.
Once the objectives have been set, then sales management has the task of organizing the sales team. This involves dividing up the sales team so some are seeking out new customers while others are handling existing customers. Some of the sales team may be on the phone calling new people, while others in the sales team are out visiting various individuals or businesses. To handle existing customers, some of the sales team may be on the phone answering customer calls, while others have the job of fixing or repairing the products of existing customers.
If new salespeople are needed, it is also the responsibility of sales management to look for and hire skilled, new salespeople. Once hired, sales management then needs to train these new people so they know how to sell the company's products.
Providing Motivation
As the sales people continue to work, sales management also needs to provide motivation. The sales field has high turnover because it is a high stress job. It is the job of sales management to provide the proper motivation so the sales team can operate at their best. Sales management can only do this by the use of various forms of financial compensation, such as bonuses when each salesperson reaches a certain number of sales.
Financial rewards are key, but non-financial incentives are also important. These include job security and working conditions. Some companies also have a built in promotion system where salespeople can go from Sales Person Level 1 to Sales Person Level 2, and perhaps all the way up to Sales Team Supervisor.
Salespeople need to know how important they are to the company in addition to having their financial and working needs met. Good sales management makes sure that each salesperson has his or her goals to work towards, and also makes sure that each salesperson has his or her working needs met. With proper direction and motivation, the sales team can flourish and increase the sales of the business.
Lesson Summary
Let's review what we've learned. Personal selling involves marketing specifically to one individual at a time. The sales management of a company has an important role to play in providing both direction and motivation for the sales team. A good sales management sets reachable goals for each salesperson as well as finds ways to meet the working needs of its salespeople.
