Core Concepts of Marketing by John Burnett - HTML preview

CHAPTER 8

COMMUNICATING TO MASS

Factor

Personal Selling

Mass Selling

Speed

a Large Audience

Slow

Fast

Cost per Individual Reached

High

Low

Ability to Attract Attention

High

Low

Clarity of Communications

High

Moderate

Chance of Selective Screening

Moderate

High

Direction of Message Flow

Two Way

One Way

Speed of Feedback

High

Low

Accuracy of Feedback

High

Low

FIGURE 8.5

Differences in personal selling and mass promotion

sales from existing customers, and developmental selling , which is not as concerned with immediate sales as with converting prospects to customers.

Most sales 1)ositions requ ire some degree of both types of selling. Sales jobs can be

classified on a continuum of service selling

one end to developmental selling at the other.

Nine types of sales jobs are classified on this continuum (see Figure 8.6).

Service selling involves the following participants:

1. Inside order taker-predominantly waits on customer; for example, the sales clerk

behind the neckwear counter in a men's store.

2. Delivery salesperson-predominately engaged in delivering the product; for exam-

ple, persons delivering milk, bread, or fuel oil.

3. Route or merchandising salesperson-predominantly an order taker, but works

in the field; for example, the soap or spice salesperson calling on retailers.

Missionary salesperson-position where the salesperson is not expected or per-

mitted to take an order but to build goodwill or to educate the actual or potential

user; for example, the distiller's missionary and the pharmaceutical company's detail

person.

Low Level of Complexity

Service se lling :

• Inside order taker

• Delivery salesperson

• Route or merchandising salesperson

• Missionary salesperson

• Technical salesperson

Developmental selling:

• Creative salesperson of tangibles

• Creative salesperson of intangibles

Developmental selling requiring high degree of creativity:

• Indirect salesperson

• Salesperson engaged in multiple sales

High Level of Complexity

FIG URE 8.6

A continuum of personal selling positions

SALES PROMOTION AND PUBLIC RELATIONS

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5. Technical salesperson-major emphasis is placed upon technical knowledge;

for example, the engineering salesperson who is primarily a consultant to client

companies.

Developmental selling involves the following participants:

1. Creative salesperson o/tangibles-for example, salespersons selling vacuum clean-

ers, refrigerators, siding, and encyclopedias.

2. Creative salesperson o/intangibles-for example, salespersons selling insurance,

advertising services, and educational programs.

Developmental selling, but requiring a high degree of creativity, involves the following

participants:

1. Indirect salesperson-involves sales of big ticket items, particularly of commodities or items that have no truly competitive features. Sales consummated primarily

through rendering highly-personalized services to key decision-makers in cus-

tomers' organizations.

2. Salesperson engaged in multiple sales-involves sales of big-ticket items where

the salesperson must make presentations to several individuals in the customer's

organization, usually a committee, only one of whom can say yes, but all of whom

can say no. For example, the account executive of an advertising agency who makes

presentation to the agency selection committee. Even after the account is obtained,

the salesperson generally has to work continually to retain it.

While the developmental-service and oriented classifications are helpful to better our

understanding of the selling job, there are several other traditional classifications.

Inside Versus Outside Selling

Inside selling describes those sales situations in which

selling takes place in the salesperson's place of business. Retail selling is inside selling.

Outside selling represents situations in which the salesperson travels to the customer's place

of business. Most industrial selling situations fall into this category.

Company Salespeople Versus Manufacturer Representatives

A manufacturer's

representative is an independent agent who handles the related products of noncompeting

firms. Generally, these agents are used by new firms or firms that have little selling expert-

ise. Company salespeople work fo r a particular company and sell only the product manu-

factured by that company.

Direct Versus Indirect Selling

Indirect selling is characterized by situations in

which people in the marketing channel are contacted who can influence the purchase of a

product. This type of selling occurs in the pharmaceutical industry in which detail sales-

people call on physicians in an effort to convince them to prescribe their firm's brand of

drugs. Direct salespeople call on the person who makes the ultimate purchase decision.

The Selling Process

To better understand the job of a salesperson and how it should be managed, the selling

process can be broken into a series of steps. Each step in the process may not be required

to make every sale, but the salesperson should become skilled in each area in case it is needed.

The steps are shown in Figure 8.7.

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