Behavioural Approach to Industrial Selling

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Behavioral ApproachTo Industrial Selling

Marutisinh RAJ

Evening MBA(IVth Sem)





Road to success in Industial sales

Many industrial marketers think that they

know their customers and treat them as if they were completely rational and not

susceptible to selling techniques beyond the

presentation of product features

This leads to failure of most industrial

marketers to realize their full sales potential



The Exception ± Carborundum

Full-fledged effort to adopt behavioral

science concepts for the purpose of creatingexcellence in its industrial selling

Mix of behavioral science concepts used to

accomplish several other closely related

company objectives



Related objectives - Carborundum

To strengthen company¶s total marketing

communication network

To utilize company¶s human resources moreeffectively

To develop an organization with marketingflexibility



Carborundum background

³Organization flexibility is best achieved

when individuals themselves are flexible andhave the capacity to deal with change´

Carborundum :-

A producer & marketer of specialized

industrial materials & material systems

Market :- Multinational & multi-industry



Contd.

Integrated production from raw material to

final form Decentralized organization with each profit

centre interrelated with many others

Operating with divisional profit centres that

include complete sales forces, the companymarkets its goods through various types of distributors, and, in many case, directly toultimate industrial customer



Contd.

In addition to divisional profit centres, the

company has a central marketing organizationthat provides complete staff assistance to all

divisions on a worldwide basis

This covers development of marketing plans,

advertising and sales promotion programsincluding the actual production of these

programs, complete PR & product publicity

programs, sales training & marketing research.



Marketing Philosophy

Long advocator of selling of systems rather thanindividual products

Systems frequently cut across divisional & companylines

To sell system effectively- e.g to sell a cut off machine produced by one profit centre (a division of company) in combination with abrasives produced

by another profit centre ± the groups & individualsneed a common understanding of companyobjectives and policy concerning the marketing of the products



Contd.

In addition, each group must have a common bond

of knowledge and skills to penetrate markets throughcustomer oriented, team selling efforts

We sought this bond of knowledge and skills through

a behavioral science program based on the key

premise- itself drawn from the behavioral sciences-

that personal motivation & growth can be generatedby the physical & mental involvement of individuals

in small group situations



Developing the program

Involvement is crucial if a program is to cut

across company & divisional lines, if attitudesare to be changed, if knowledge is to be

absorbed, and if people to people interaction

skill is to be developed

Research shows this may be bestaccomplished through small group

participation techniques



Contd.

Each individual must get involved, must

expose his thoughts, his feelings and hisbehavior pattern in people-to-people

situations.

He must also get reactions to these factors

from other participants

Finally, he must have an opportunity to enact

and practice alternative behaviour patterns



Contd.

Program methodology was a variation of the

pure case approach in which a case dialogueprovided the material for discussion at

conference table setups



Concepts in action

Three closely related behavioral science

concepts- readiness, empathy, sourcecredibility are discribed in related to selling

function

Readiness :- it denotes an educational

psychology concept that focuses attention onthe individual¶s ability & desire to interact or

communicate with another individual



Contd.

A term ³double readiness´ could be used

meaning that two individuals, say a salesman& a customer are equally involved inreadiness

Readiness refers to the respondent in thecommunication situation, and not to thesource of the message; yet it fixes theresponsibility for the learning process on thesource



Contd.

Empathy :- totally concerned with feelings

Empathy is an intellectual or imaginativeunderstanding of another¶s situation or as taking the

role of another

By & large it is an learned quality

Being empathetic means exhibiting a mix of behavior activities (words & actions) that develops a feeling

on the part of the respondent in the communication

process that the sales man understands the situation



Contd.

An empathetic salesman is one who will notrecommend his product line unless it offers solutions

designed to improve the respondents situation; andthe result may be that the respondent views thesalesman as one who does indeed understand hissituation

Finally, since the way a decision maker feels about a

salesman determines to some degree whether heviews the salesman¶s idea positively, negatively, or neutrally, the concept of empathy overlaps into thatof source credibility



Contd.

Source credibility :- The third set, source credibility,

is the trust, confidence, and faith that the respondenthas in salesman¶s words and actions

In short, is the salesman believed ???

This is crucial factor in selling

The salesman represents a company selling ideas,products and/or services.

His selling success many times depends on his

credibility as source



Contd.

The level of credibility that the respondent

assigns to the sales person in turn directlyaffects how he views sales man¶s ideas,

products or services

Source credibility involves the entire world of

verbal & non verbal communication; yet for abrief analysis, the factors of trustworthiness,

competence, and dynamism can be useful



Contd.

Research shows that in addition to the cues theviewer gets from the appearance of an individual,certain traits, such as logic, honesty, fairness,reliability, dependability and open mindedness areare associated with trustworthiness

Competence is demonstrated through the salesmans technical knowledge plus application of thatknowledge to the user¶s situation

Dynamism is not forcefulness; it is not so calledextroversion



Contd.

In selling, it is better associated with positivenessand purposefulness in words & actions

It is associated with energy in the sense of positivehandshake & positive posture in contrast to a weakhandshake & timid shuffle

These three factors ± Trustworthiness, competence,

and dynamism ± must be in balance. Too much trustworthiness or an overemphasis of

competence or dynamism could reduce anindividual¶s credibility



Thank You !!!

Happy Selling..

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Behavioural Approach to Industrial Selling