Personal selling between sellers and buyers

Personal selling between sellers and buyers. Personal selling is direct communication (face to face) between sellers and potential customers to introduce a product to potential customers and form customer understanding of the product so that they will then try and buy it. The characteristics of personal selling include:

• Personal confrontation, namely the relationship that is alive, direct, and interactive between 2 or more people.
• Cultivation, which is a trait that allows the development of all kinds of relationships, ranging from buying and selling relationships to a more intimate relationship.
• Response, namely situations that seem to require customers to hear, pay attention, and respond.

Because of these characteristics, this method has advantages, including more flexible operations because sellers can observe customer reactions and adjust their approach, wasted effort can be minimized, interested customers usually buy immediately, and sellers can build long-term relationships with their customers. .

However, because it uses a relatively large sales force, this method is usually expensive. In addition, the specifications of the seller that the company wants may be difficult to find. Even so, personal selling is still important and is usually used to support other promotional methods.

1. Functions of personal selling

Personal selling activities have several functions as follows:

1. Prospecting, namely finding buyers and establishing relationships with them.
2. Targeting, namely allocating the seller’s time scarcity to the buyer’s.
3. Communicating, namely providing information about the company’s products to customers.
4. Selling, namely approaching, presenting and demonstrating, overcoming rejection, and selling products to customers.
5. Servicing, namely Providing various services and services to customers.
6. Information gathering, namely conducting research and market intelligence.
7. Allocating, namely determining the target customer.

Read too Measuring the results of promotions

2. Criteria for personal selling

Sellers assigned to carry out personal selling must meet the following criteria:

1. Salesmanship Sellers must have product knowledge and master the art of selling, such as how to approach customers, give presentations and demonstrations, overcome customer rejection, and encourage purchases.
2. Negotiating The seller must have the ability to negotiate the terms of the sale.
3. Relationship marketing Sellers must know how to build and maintain good relationships with customers.

3. Classification of seller’s position

Based on their duties and position, sellers can be classified into six types, namely: 

1. Deliverer (driver salesperson), namely the seller whose main task is to deliver the product to the buyer’s place.
2. Order getters, namely sellers who are looking for buyers or come to buyers (the nature of their work outside).
3. Order takers, namely sellers who serve customers in outlets (the nature of work is inside).
4. Missionary salespeople (merchandisers, retail), namely salespeople assigned to educate/train and build goodwill with customers or potential customers. For example training intermediary salespeople, explaining the company’s promotion program to intermediaries.
5. Technical specialist (technician), namely the seller who must have or provide technical knowledge to customers.
6. Demand creator, namely sellers who must have creativity in selling products (tangible and intangible).