Diversity Of Personal Selling Strategies

Different sales positions require different amounts and kinds of service and developmental selling. McCurry and Arnold classify positions on a spectrum ranging from the very simple to the highly complex.

Group A( Service Selling)

Inside order taker: Waits on customers Delivery sales person: Route or merchandising Salesperson: operates as an order taker but works in the field. Missionary: aims only to build goodwill or to educate the actual or potential user and is not expected to take an order. Technical Sales person:

Group B (Developmental Selling)

Creative Salesperson of Tangibles: Creative Salesperson of Intangibles:

Group C ( basically developmental selling but requiring unusual creativity)

Political, Indirect or Back-Door salesperson: sells big ticket items with no truly competitive features. Sales are consummated through rendering highly personalised services with little or no connection with the product. Salesperson engaged in multiple sales-Involves sales of big ticket items where the salesperson must make presentations to several individuals in the customers organization usually on of which can say yes but all of them can say no.

Theories Of Selling

AIDAS theory of selling Right Set of Circumstances Theory Buying- Formula Theory Behavioural Equation Theory

AIDAS Theory

According to this theory the prospects mind passes through five successive mental states: attention, interest, desire, action and satisfaction. Attention: The goal is to put the prospect in a receptive frame of mind. If the salesperson has previously made an appointment, this phase presents no problem, but even then mental alertness and ability to start and hold a conversation is very important.

Gaining Interest: Enthusiasm for the product is very important. When the product is technical in nature sales portfolios, flipcharts and other visual aids help. Questions designed to elicit responses that help in the identification of interests, experience of the salesperson all help in whipping up curiosity. The other factors include buyers basic motivations, closeness of the interview subject, timeliness, mood etc.,

Kindling Desire: The salesperson must keep the conversation running along the mainline towards the sale. Sales obstacles must be handled well and ways found to get around them. The process becomes more effective when the obstacles are anticipated and answered before the prospect raises them.

Inducing actions: Experienced salesperson rarely goes for a close until they are positive that the prospect is convinced about the product. The trial close, the close on a minor point and trick close are done to test the clients reactions.

Building Satisfaction: The prospect need reassurance after the close of the sales that his/her decision has been correct, to minimize post sales dissonance. It means thanking the prospect for the order, seeing that the order is filled as written and following up on promises made.

Right Set Of Circumstances Theory

Also called the situation- response theory holds that particular circumstances prevailing in a given selling situation cause the prospect to respond in a particular way. It is a seller oriented theory and stresses the importance of the salesperson controlling the situation. It does not assign sufficient importance to the response side of the theory.

Buying- Formula Theory

The buyers needs or problems receive major attention, and the salespersons role is to help him in finding a solution. The buying formula is a schematic representation of a group of responses, arranged in psychological sequence. Since this theory focuses on the motivations of the buyer the internal factors are taken care of and it is assumed that the salesperson will take care of external ones.

Contd.

The term was coined by E.K.Strong,Jr The mental process involved in a purchase are

Need or problem

solution

purchase

Because the outcome of a purchase affects the chance of a relationship, the fourth element has
Adequacy

Need( or problem)

Solution Product/service/Trade Name

Purchase

satisfaction

Pleasant Feelings

Behavioural Equation Theory

This theory uses the stimulus-response model and incorporates findings from behavioral research. J.A.Howard describes buying behaviour in terms of the purchasing decision process and is taken as a part of the learning process. Four essential elements of the learning process included in the model are drive, cue, response and reinforcement.

Drives: are strong internal stimuli that impel the buyers response. The drives are innate or learned. Cues: are weak stimuli that will tell when the buyer will respond. Triggering cues affect the decision making process of any given purchase. Nontriggering cues affect the decision making process but do not activate it. They can be product cues like color of the package, weight etc., and informational cues like ads, conversations with other people (salesperson ).

Response: is what the buyer does. A reinforcement is any event that strengthens the buyers tendency to make a particular response. Howard has incorporated these four elements into an equation. B= P x D x K x V B= response or the internal response tendency P= predisposition or the force of habit. D= amount of motivation/ present drive level K= incentive potential / value of the product/ potential to satisfy. V= intensity of all cues.