Professional Selling: Overview

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Business of Selling – An Overview

KeyPoints to develop in your own time!

Introductory concepts in professional Selling by OxfordCambridge.Org all for free.

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To introduce the reader to the fundamentals of professional selling.

Aim of publication


After going through the KeyPoints outlined in this publication, the reader should be able to:

☺ explain the scope of selling☺ describe what sales staff do☺ explain how companies communicate☺ identify the needs of different types of customers☺ explain the steps involved in an organisational buying process☺ identify different types of buying decisions☺ respond to different types of organisational buyers☺ explain buying motives☺ explain how needs develop☺ deduce what a buyer can afford☺ begin a relationship properly☺ deal effectively with grievances☺ know how to build trust

Learning Objectives


1. Defining Personal Selling

2. Buying Processes

3. Customer Needs

4. Cultivating Relationships

Sections list


☺ Scope of selling

☺ Sales activities

☺ Communication

Defining Personal Selling

To explain what personal selling is.

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Defining Personal Selling - Highlights

☺ After going through these KeyPoints you should be able to:

• discuss the changing role of the salesperson

• discuss organisational learning

• describe the activities common to all types of sales jobs

• discuss the changing role of the sales force

• discuss organisational change

• outline the different methods that organisations use to communicate with customers

• discuss the strengths and weaknesses of different communication methods


Defining Personal Selling - Summary

☺ Personal selling is an interpersonal communication process, that involves satisfying the needs of customers and building long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with them.

☺ Sales personnel should be able to analyze customer needs and effectively explain these needs to the organisation.

☺ Adaptive learning occurs when an organisation uses knowledge acquired from the sales force to improve its current activities.

☺ Generative learning, on the other hand, occurs when an organisation uses this knowledge to develop new products.

☺ Sales personnel are involved in finding new customers, increasing sales to existing customers, demonstrating products, negotiating, and writing orders.



☺ Sales personnel work with other company employees to make sure that the product meets the customer's demands.

☺ Because the role of the sales force is changing to accommodate long-term relations with customers, organisations are changing their structures.

☺ Hierarchies structures tend to be replaced with flatter, more efficient ones that focus on core processes such as customer relations, and multifunctional teams are becoming more important in organisations.

☺ Sales personnel work with other company employees to make sure that the product meets the customer's demands.



☺ Because the role of the sales force is changing to accommodate long-term relations with customers, organisations are changing and will change their structures.

☺ Hierarchies structures tend to be replaced with flatter, more efficient ones that focus on core processes such as customer relations, and multifunctional teams are becoming more important in organisations.

☺ Organisations use marketing communications to provide customers with information about a product and how it can be purchased.



☺ The main methods of marketing communications are personal selling, advertising, sales promotion, publicity, and word of mouth.

☺ The methods differ in terms of the control, flexibility, and credibility they offer, and in terms of their cost to the organisation.


☺ Types of customers

☺ Organisational buying concept

☺ Organisational buying decisions

☺ Selling to organisations

Buying Processes

To explain how buying decisions are made in organisations.


Buying Processes - Highlights

☺ After completing these KeyPoints you should be able to:

• describe the role of customers who are producers and re-sellers

• describe customers from government agencies and institutions as well as the general consumer

• describe how Sales personnel negotiate with customers

• describe the buying process

• describe new-task decisions

• describe straight and modified re-buys

• identify the strategies required in organisational selling


Buying Processes - Summary

☺ Customers that Sales personnel encounter include producers, resellers, government agencies, institutions, and consumers.

☺ Producers can act as original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) or as end-users and resellers.

☺ Government agencies and institutions such as churches, hospitals, and colleges have intricate purchasing procedures that Sales personnel need to acquaint themselves with before negotiations can begin.

☺ Selling to an organisation requires more skill than selling to ordinary consumers because negotiations are more complex.

☺ Sales personnel need to interact with a wide variety of people in the customer's company and coordinate various departments in their own companies.


Buying Processes - Summary

☺ The buying process involves recognizing the need for a product; defining and specifying the product; soliciting, analyzing, and evaluating proposals from suppliers; placing the order; and evaluating performance.

☺ It is in the interests of the salesperson to be involved in the early stages of the buying process and to stay involved in the evaluation of a product for future business opportunities.

☺ A customer makes new-task, straight re-buy, or modified re-buy decisions for different types of products at different stages of a company's life.

☺ These decisions focus on different areas of the buying process and entail different strategies on the part of the salesperson.


☺ Defining needs

☺ How needs develop

Customer Needs

To differentiate between types of buying needs and their roles in large and small sales.


Customer Needs - Highlights

☺ After developing these KeyPoints you should be able to:

• differentiate between business needs, personal needs, and task needs

• describe rational and emotional motives for buying and how they relate to product attributes

• describe the differences in customer needs development in small and large sales

• explain the value of implied and explicit needs as buying signals in small and large sales

• discuss the effect of the value equation on customers' buying decisions


Customer Needs - Summary

☺ The awareness of a lack of something provides the initial stimulus to buy. This lack or shortage - whether tangible or intangible - is called a need.

☺ It is often useful to differentiate between needs and wants - a want arises from a need.

☺ Personal needs satisfy basic human behavioral needs, while business needs are the goods and services required for conducting a business.

☺ Task needs are tools and resources that enable people to do their work.



☺ Customers base their buying decisions on rational or emotional buying motives, or on a combination of these.

☺ Sales personnel need to relate their products to the rational and emotional needs of customers at the levels of product features, advantages, and benefits.

☺ Needs develop differently in large and small sales.

☺ For example, in large sales, customers consider more closely the risks of wrong buying decisions.

☺ They also must justify their purchases rationally and tend to involve others in their buying decisions.



☺ Implied needs are expressed in the form of problems or difficulties, while explicit needs are stated as wants or desires.

☺ Small sales become more likely when customers express many implied needs.

☺ To increase the likelihood of large sales, however, Sales personnel need to encourage their customers to voice as many explicit needs as possible.

☺ The value equation - or "value for money" - compares the seriousness of a problem to the cost of its solution.


☺ Beginning the relationship

☺ Dealing with grievances

☺ Handling customer complaints

☺ Building trust

Cultivating Relationships

To demonstrate how sales personnel cultivate relationships with customers and clients.


Cultivating Relationships - Highlights

☺ After developing these KeyPoints you should be able to:

• describe the value of satisfied customers

• explain how to build a relationship properly

• discuss good after-sales service

• discuss how to deal with grievances

• explain techniques for establishing the facts of a customer's claim

• identify solutions that Sales personnel can offer customers

• discuss the importance of following through with action

• discuss ways sales staff can demonstrate dependability

• explain how sales staff can prove competence and customer direction

• describe how sales professionals can demonstrate honesty and geniality


Cultivating Relationships - Summary

☺ Successful companies can maintain a competitive edge by developing partnerships with customers.

☺ When customers need to make buying decisions, they are more likely to return to companies with whom they have a good relationship.

☺ When establishing a good customer relationship, the salesperson should set realistic expectations, monitor order processing, and ensure proper use of the product.

☺ The salesperson may need to provide technical assistance or training to make sure that the customer is able to use the product effectively.

☺ Successfully handling complaints at the beginning of the buyer-seller relationship is particularly important.



☺ The salesperson should encourage the customer to present his or her problem in detail so that the grievance can be fully understood.

☺ Once the nature of a customer's problem has been established, the salesperson should put forward a solution and explain the reasons for the action.

☺ Following through with action improves customer satisfaction and supports the salesperson's previous assurances that the company is dedicated to customer service.

☺ Trust develops from a combination of five factors - dependability, competence, customer direction, honesty, and geniality.



☺ Dependability refers to the customer's perception of whether or not the salesperson, the product, and the company will meet expectations.

☺ Sales personnel can demonstrate dependability by fulfilling their promises.

☺ Sales personnel demonstrate competence by showing that they know what they are talking about and can carry out their tasks quickly and efficiently.

☺ Customer orientation describes the way in which a salesperson places the customer's needs above the need to make a sale.

☺ Honesty is related to dependability and competence; customers tend to rely on Sales personnel who are truthful and know what they are talking about.

☺ Geniality is conveyed by pleasant and friendly communication.


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