MKT Chapter 19 Concepts- Personal Selling and Sales Management

Salesperson duties: Sales Support Personnel

Employees who enhance and help with a firm's overall selling effort, such as by responding to the customer's technical questions or facilitating repairs.

True or false: Salespeople tend to be closely supervised on a day-to-day basis.

False (Salespeople are evaluated primarily based on results, and so they are typically not closely supervised.)

Once background information has been obtained, and the objectives for the meeting are set, the salesperson is ready for the ______.

sales presentation

The Value Added by Personal Selling

-salespeople provide information and advice -salespeople save time and simplify buying -salespeople build relationships

Personal Selling as a Career

1) flexible lifestyle 2) variety of the work 3) lucrative 4) visibility for promotion

Salesperson Duties

1) order getter 2) order taker 3) sales support personnel 4) combination duties 5) selling teams

The Personal Selling Process

1. Generate and qualify leads 2. Preapproach 3. Sales presentation and overcoming reservations 4. Closing the sale 5. Follow-up

Ethical and Legal Issues in Personal Selling

1. sales manager and sales force 2. sales force and corporate policy 3. salesperson and customer

Recruiting and Selecting Salespeople

A company should analyze the sales job and the characteristics of its most successful salespeople. Personality optimism resilience self-motivation empathy

Recruiting and Selecting Salespeople: Self-Motivation

As we have already mentioned, salespeople have lots of freedom to spend their days the way they believe will be most productive. But if salespeople are not self-motivated to get the job done, it probably won't get done.

Salesperson duties: Selling Team

Combinations of sales specialists whose primary duties are order getting, order taking, or sales support but who work together to service important accounts.

Which activities are planned, directed, and controlled through sales management? (Choose every correct answer.)

Compensating and evaluating Training and motivating Personal selling

Ethical and legal issues that salespeople need to worry about include the relationship between the sales manager and the salesperson, conflicts between corporate policy and the sales rep's personal ethics, and issues that arise in the salesperson's interaction with ______.

Customers

Recruiting and Selecting Salespeople: Empathy

Empathy is one of the five dimensions of service quality: Good salespeople must care about their customers, their issues, and their problems.

Recruiting and Selecting Salespeople: Personality

Good salespeople are friendly, sociable, and, in general, like being around people. Customers won't buy from someone they don't like.

Recruiting and Selecting Salespeople: Resilience

Good salespeople don't easily take no for an answer. They keep coming back until they get a yes

Recruiting and Selecting Salespeople: Optimism

Good salespeople tend to look at the bright side of things. Optimism also may help them be resilient—the third trait.

What are dimensions of service quality offered by a good salesperson? (Choose every correct answer.)

Having empathy Being reliable

Roberto is manager of a Xerox sales team that emphasizes relationship selling. His team works with customers to provide technical support and customer service. What is Roberto's relationship selling goal?

Help customers find beneficial solutions

Which of the following are some reasons that professional selling can be a satisfying career? (Check all that apply.)

Independence Flexibility Autonomy

In the selling process, what term is used to describe prospective customers whose potential must be assessed?

Leads

Issues for the Sales Manager and the Sales Force

Like any manager, a sales manager must treat people fairly and equally in everything he or she does. With regard to the sales force, this fairness must apply to hiring, promotion, supervision, training, assignment of duties and quotas, compensation and incentives, and firing.

Which factors are improved when companies behave ethically with their customers? (Choose every correct answer.)

Long-term relationships Quality of business

Which is the only area in which equal employment opportunity laws allow discrimination in hiring, promotion, or firing?

Performance

What term is used to describe the communication between a buyer and seller in which the seller's goal is to influence the buyer to make a purchase?

Personal selling

Which step in the personal selling process occurs prior to meeting the customer for the first time and continues the qualification of leads research?

Preapproach

____________ selling is a sales philosophy and process that is committed to maintaining sales over the long term and investing in opportunities that are mutually beneficial to all parties.

Relationship

What is most likely to deteriorate quickly if customers believe that they have not been treated in an ethically proper manner?

Relationships

Match the dimensions of service quality listed below (on the left) with each element's meaning in the context of personal selling (on the right).

Reliability The salesperson and the organization must deliver the right product or service on time. Responsiveness The salesperson must be ready to deal with questions or issues promptly. Assurance Sellers must offer customers sufficient guarantees that their purchase will perform as expected. Empathy The salesperson must be able to understand problems and issues faced by customers. Tangibles The company's website, marketing communications, and other materials must communicate a professional image.

Identify all components which may make up a salesperson's financial compensation? (Choose every correct answer.)

Salary Commission Bonus

Which of the following groups is directed and controlled through sales management?

Sales force

What are the primary duties of salespeople? (Choose every correct answer.)

Sales support Taking orders Getting orders

What are the major areas in which salespeople need training? (Choose every correct answer.)

Selling and negotiation Product and service knowledge Technologies used in the selling process

Sales Training

Selling and negotiation techniques Products and service knowledge Technologies used in the selling process Time and territory management Company policies and procedures

Simone is an insurance agent. Though the area Simone covers is prone to earthquakes, she has been instructed by management to tell homeowners earthquakes are not a problem and to suggest that basic earthquake damage is covered in the standard homeowners policy, even though this is not true. If legal action arises, who will be held accountable? (Choose every correct answer.)

Simone and Simone's employer

Which step in the selling process involves generating a list of potential customers and assess their potential?

Step 1: Generate and Qualify Leads

The Personal Selling Process: Step 3: Sales Presentation and Overcoming Reservations

The Presentation Once all the background information has been obtained and the objectives for the meeting are set, the salesperson is ready for a person-to-person meeting. Handling Reservations An integral part of the sales presentation is handling reservations or objections that the buyer might have about the product or service. Although reservations can arise during each stage of the selling process, they are very likely to occur during the sales presentation.

Issues for the Sales Force and Corporate Policy

The firm may have a policy to sell goods or services to people who cannot afford them or to people who should not have them.

The Personal Selling Process: Step 1: Generate and Qualify Leads

The first step in the selling process is to generate a list of potential customers (leads) and assess their potential (qualify). Salespeople can generate and qualify leads in a variety of ways.12 They might discover potential leads by talking to current customers, doing research on the Internet, or networking at events such as trade shows, industry conferences, or chamber of commerce meetings. Salespeople can also generate leads through cold calls and social media. Trade Shows Cold Calls Telemarketing

sales management

The planning, direction, and control of personal selling activities, including recruiting, selecting, training, motivating, compensating, and evaluating, as they apply to the sales force.

Which personal traits have managers and sales experts identified for success in personal selling? (Choose every correct answer.)

The traits of successful salespeople include personality, optimism, resilience, self-motivation, and empathy.

An insurance agent, whose compensation is based on commission, is asked by a homeowner if damage from earthquakes is covered by the policy. It is company policy to avoid providing information about earthquake damage, so the salesperson misleads the homeowner. The salesperson ______.

can be held accountable

Closing the sale means obtaining ______ from the customer to make a purchase.

commitment

When closing the sale, the customer ______ making a purchase.

commits to

Once a salesperson has learned about the customer, the next step is to conduct additional research and ______ for meeting with the customer.

develop plans

There might be some situations where there is inconsistency between the corporate policy and salesperson's personal ______ comfort zone.

ethical

Issues for the Salesperson and the Customer

feeling like you've been treated unethically by a salesperson

Although personal selling is an essential part of many firms' ______ strategies, it offers its own unique contribution to the four Ps.

integrated marketing communications

CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

involves managing all aspects of a customer's relationship with an organization to increase customer loyalty and retention and an organization's profitability

Salesperson duties: Order Getter

is a salesperson whose primary responsibilities are identifying potential customers and engaging those customers in discussions to attempt to make a sale. Also responsible for following up to ensure that the customer is satisfied and to build the relationship.

Salesperson duties: Order Taker

is a salesperson whose primary responsibility is to process routine orders, reorders, or rebuys for products.

Personal Selling

is the two-way flow of communication between a buyer or buyers and a seller, designed to influence the buyer's purchase decision. Personal selling can take place in various situations: face-to-face, via video teleconferencing, on the telephone, or over the Internet

When a company considers putting together a sales force, it may choose to hire salespeople directly or use ______.

manufacturer's representatives

The Personal Selling Process: Step 4: Closing the Sale

means obtaining a commitment from the customer to make a purchase. Without a successful close, the salesperson goes away empty-handed, so many salespeople find this part of the sales process very stressful.

In relationship selling, the buyer and seller invest in opportunities that are ______.

mutually beneficial

The Personal Selling Process: Step 2: Preapproach and the Use of CRM Systems

occurs prior to meeting the customer for the first time and extends the qualification of leads procedure described in Step 1. Although the salesperson has learned about the customer during the qualification stage, in this step he or she must conduct additional research and develop plans for meeting with the customer.

The Personal Selling Process: Step 5: Follow-Up

offers a prime opportunity for a salesperson to solidify the customer relationship through great service quality. Let's apply the five service quality dimensions to understand the follow-up: Reliability Responsiveness Assurance Empathy Tangibles

The two-way flow of communication between a specific buyer and seller designed to influence the buyer's purchase decision is called _____________ selling.

personal

Xerox sells to different customers in different sales situations. In order to capture customer commitment, Xerox salespeople must determine what steps in the ______ process are appropriate.

personal selling

Depending on the sales ______ and the buyer's readiness to purchase, the salesperson may not use every step in the personal selling process.

situation

Successful salespeople need to have appropriate personal traits as well as solid ______.

training