Personal Selling – Meaning and Personal Selling Process

Q. What is Personal Selling ? Write a detail note on personal selling process.

Ans. Meaning of Personal Selling: Personal Selling is an important part of the promotion mix. It is an important and most effective method of selling. It is the process of assisting and persuading a prospective buyer to buy a product in a face to face situation. It is a major promotional tool used to increase profitable sales by offering wont satisfying products to the customers. 

It renders valuable services to consumers, producers and the society. It is a effective form of direct sales promotion, involving face to face relationship between sellers and the potential customers. The objective is not only to sell the product but also to make permanent customers. Personal sellings is very much essential for the survival and growth of business. 

According to Richard Buskirk, “Personal selling consists of contacting a prospective buyer of a product personally”.

Personal Selling Process: Selling process is the sequence of steps involved in the conversion of human desire into demand for a product or a service. It is purely a psychological process because, the mind of a customer runs through certain mental stages before he makeup his mind to buy a product or service. The selling process differs from salesman to salesman. There are certain steps involved in the personal selling process for the conversion of human desires into demand for a product or service.

The process of personal selling consists of the following steps: 

Personal Selling Process

Pre-Sale Preparations

⬇

Prospecting for Potential Customers

⬇

Pre-Approach

⬇

Approaching

⬇

Presentation

⬇

Demonstration

⬇

Overcoming the Objections

⬇

Closing the Sale

⬇

Follow up

1. Pre-Sale Preparations: The first step in personal selling is the preparation of sale persons. The sales persons must be properly selected,  trained and motivated for the job. Before going in the field, it is essential for the salesman to prepare thoroughly on all the important aspects of selling. He must know who are the prospective customers, what are their problems and solution to their problems. He must know the relative strengths and weaknesses of the product as compared to his competitor’s product. He must know about himself, his company, his product and about the need and desires of the consumers. He should prepare himself about competing brand, the competing products, competitor’s marketing strategies and his selling strategy. Prior knowledge of its product, Company and competitors constitute the essence of pre-sale preparations. 

2. Prospecting For Potential Customers: Prospecting in personal selling refers to the process of acquiring basic demographic knowledge about the potential customers (i.e. prospects) for the product or services. Prospecting generation consists of obtaining names and addresses of persons, who may turned out to be prospects. Prospect is the person, who has wants to be satisfied and has ability and willingness to buy. 

In this step, the sales person prepares a list of potential customers and tries to identify who really needs the product and has a purchasing power and willingness to purchase. Its purpose to locate the potential buyers and to avoid those who appear to be unprofitable and to make sure that the sales efforts should not be wasted. It should always be remembered that everyone is not a prospective customer.

The prospective customers can be discovered from various sources such as the company’s sales records, customer’s information requests from advertisements, other customers, newspaper announcements, public records, telephone and trade directories, lists of trade associations, past and present customers, etc. 

3. Pre-Approach: Before calling on the prospective customers, the salesperson should try to get information about their nature and behaviour. He must possess the detailed information relating to prospective customers with regard to their education status, income, occupation, their preferences, personality traits, products they are using, brands they are buying, likes, dislikes, etc. This information will help in approaching the prospective customers and making presentation in a better way. Following are the objectives of pre-approach:

(i) To obtain maximum information for planned presentation. 

(ii) To save time and energy.

(iii) To select the best approach to meet the perspective customers. 

(iv) To meet the prospective customers with confidence and enthusiasm. 

(v) To provide additional information.

(vi) To avoid serious mistakes.

4. Preparation: This step also includes a preparation made by the sales person. He must be well dressed, well informed and well equipped with sample of products, sales literature, etc. It also involves the training of sales persons, making them well acquainted with the product, market trends and techniques of selling. Some more information should be given to them about the prospective customers so that he is able to communicate precisely (exactly/accurately) with the prospective. A travelling salesman must get an appointment to meet the prospective customer.

5. Approaching: Approaching the customer means taking the initial contact with the prospective customer. This is the most critical step because the customer’s first impression about the sales person may be a lasting impression that has long-run consequences. This step is based on AIDAS formula. 

Before doing anything else, the sales person must introduce himself and his products to the prospective customer. He has to attract attention of prospective customer to his product. Selling process cannot be developed further as long as the customer is not attracted and ready to give due attention to the sales talk. He should be very polite while approaching and must make the customer realise as to how the product will benefit him, so that he may not have much difficulty at the time of presentation.

A counter sales person should also approach the customer properly to gain his attention. He should make the customer feel that he is getting undivided attention. If the sales person is busy with some other customer, he should assure the new customer that he would be attended very soon. The prospective customer is convinced that he will be rewarding to spend time with him. He should treat the customer and make him feel at home. 

There are four prime methods for approaching the customer:

(i) Reference approach: When the sales person uses the reference letter to approach the customer.

(ii) Introduction approach: When the sales person uses his identity card or visiting card. Give his self introduction and introduces the company under which he is engaged. 

(iii) Product approach: In this, salesperson puts his products before the customer when he meets him. 

(iv) Customer benefit approach: The sales person explains the benefit which a customer can obtain from the product or dealing with the company. 

6. Presentation: Before making presentation, a salesman should try to understand the nature, need and spending power of the customer. The presentation should be such that the customer takes continuous interest in the product. He must be curious to know more about the product, its features, its merits etc. 

The first step in the sales presentation is to get the attention of the customer towards the product. Attention can be drawn by using the following tricks:

(i) Mentioning the names of mutual friends or well known persons. 

(ii) Placing the product sample or visual aids before the customers.

(iii) Allowing the customer to touch, hold or actually use the product. 

(iv) Complementing the customer on the appearance of his store, office, plant or residence.

(v) Demonstration about the use of the product.

Once the customer’s interest has been obtained, the next step is to arouse the interest in his product. The sales person should clearly explain the functions of the product, how it is better than other brands, how it is used, its price, etc. His emphasis is on the benefits of the product to the customer rather than on technical specifications. The success of the sales person depends upon the attitude of the buyer.

7. Demonstration: The next step in the process of personal sharing is giving demonstration. It is the best method of presentation. Through demonstration the customer can be satisfied that the product will satisfy his needs. Demonstration creates desire for the product. The process of demonstration also includes the involvement of the prospective customer. He may also be informed of the special features, merits and benefits of the product. 

The sales person can also show the survey reports, photographs, catalogues, related materials, relevant data, referring to specific problems in other products, free gifts, consumer benefit schemes, etc. The customer must be convinced and interest to possess the product must be aroused. “You and not I” attitude must be followed. 

8. Overcoming the Objections: After demonstrating and explaining the product, its features, price, benefits, etc. the sales person should entertain certain queries from the customer. Queries and objections should not be considered to be an unpleasant task. A sales person should realise that it is the golden opportunity to convince and persuade the customer. This also gives him a chance to give some additional information about the superiority of the product over the competitive products in the market

The sales person should handle these queries, doubts and objections with full confidence, intelligence, enthusiasm and patience. He should not feel irritated by the queries and should never argue with the customer white handling doubts even though the customer disagrees violently and persistently. He should write time and again to convince the prospective customer to buy the product. 

9. Closing the Sale: This step is the climax of the selling process. It aims at taking an order for the products from the prospective customer. A sales person has to act with patience and intelligence to close the sale. He can employ a trial close by which he can judge the customer’s willingness to buy the product. 

A sales person must know the right moment at which the sales story can be closed.  When he is convinced that the customer has made up his mind to buy the product, then he should close the sale by asking questions: What design have you decided ? Which colour have you decided ? Do you want this gift wrapped ? What else would you like to buy ?, etc. 

The sales should be closed in such a manner that the customer feels that he has made the right choice. A sales person should reassure the customer that he has made the right choice. The customer should also be reassured of better services in future. 

10. Follow-up: The next step in the process of personal selling is follow up. It removes all the posts-sales problems. It also provides feedback from the customers. Follow up action refers to the activities undertaken to ensure the customers that he has taken the right decision of buying the product. These activities include: execution of order as per the specifications agreed with the customer, installation of product (if required), checking and testing its smooth performance, maintenence service,  etc. After sale services should be quick, punctual and satisfactory. 

Human Resource Planning – Meaning, Objectives, Process and Steps

Q. Discuss the steps involved in Human Resource Planning in a business organisation.

OR

What are the objectives of manpower planning? Explain its process. 

OR

What is human resource planning? Explain the steps involved in human resource planning process. 

Ans. Meaning of Human Resource Planning: Human Resource Planning is also known as Manpower planning. It is a forward looking function. It may be defined as a procedure by which the management ensures the right number of people and right kind of people at the right time, doing the right things for which they are suitable for the achievement of goals of the organisation.

Human Resource Planning is a process which determines how an organisation should move from its current manpower/human resources position to its desired manpower/human resources position. 

Objectives: HRP is required to achieve the following objectives:

1. To recruit and maintain the HR of requisite quantity and quality.

2. To predict the employee turnover and make the arrangements for minimising turnover and filing up of consequent vacancies. 

3. To meet the requirements of the programmes of extension, diversification etc.

4. To anticipate the impact of technology on work, existing employees and future human resources requirements. 

5. To progress the knowledge, skills, standards, ability and discipline etc.

6. To appraise the surplus or shortage of human resources and take actions accordingly. 

7. To maintain pleasant industrial relations by maintaining optimum level and structure of human resource. 

8. To minimise imbalances caused due to non-availability of human resources of right kind, right number in right time and right place.

9. To make the best use of its human resources.

10. To estimate the cost of human resources. 

So, human resource planning is required to achieve the objectives of estimating potential human resources requirements, to cope with changing requirements of the organisation taking into consideration the changing technology, to make full utilization of existing and potential workforce of the organisation; and career planning of employees.

Human Resource Planning  Process: Process of human resource planning involves the following steps: 

(1) Analysing Organisational Objectives, Plans and Policies: The person concerned with human resource planning must be clear about the objectives, plans and policies of the overall organisation. He must also be clear about the objectives of woman resource planning. The objective of human resource plan are derived from organization’s objectives. The objectives of human resource plans must be in consistency with the objectives of overall organisation. The ultimate objective of human resource planning is to relate future human resource requirements to future organisational needs. Human Resource Department should begin the human resource planning process with analysis of objectives, plans and policies of the organisation. He should also analyse various other plans e.g. expansion, diversification, technological, financial, marketing, production etc. Analysis of overall organisational plans and other plans will help in making decisions about potential HR requirements. Further, organisational policies and HR policies regarding personnel should also be analysed. Organisation’s plans relating to production technique and automation will help in forecasting of human resources requirements. Thus, analysis of organisational objectives, plans and policies are the starting points for forecasting human resource requirements.

(2) Forecasting Human Resource Demand: Forecasting human resource demand is the process of estimating the future human resource requirement of right quality and right number. Analysis of employment trends, the replacement needs of employees due to death, resignations, retirement termination, productivity of employees, growth and expansion of organisation, absenteeism and labour turnover are the relevant factors for human resources forecasting. Demand forecasting is affected by a number of external and internal factors. 

There are number of techniques of estimating/ forcasting human resources demand:

(a) Managerial Judgement: Managerial judgment technique is very common technique of demand forecasting. This approach is applied by small as well as large scale organisations. This technique involves two types of approaches i.e., ‘bottom-up approach’ and ‘top-down approach’. Under ‘bottom-up approach’, line managers send their departmental requirement of human resources to top management. Top of manages management ultimately forecasts the human resource requirement for the overall organisation on the basis of proposals of departmental heads. Under the ‘Top-down approach’, top management forecasts the human resource requirement for the entire organisation and various departments. This information is supplied to various departmental heads for their review and approval. However, a combination of both the approaches i.e. ‘Participative Approach’ should be applied for demand forecasting. Under this approach, top managements and departmental heads meet and decide about the future human resource requirement. So, the demand of human resources can be forecasted with unanimity under this approach. 

(b) Work-Study Technique: This technique is also known as ‘work-load analysis’. This technique is suitable where the estimated work-load is easily measurable. Under this method, estimated total production and activities for a specific future period are predicted. This information is translated into number of man-hours required to produce per units taking into consideration the capability of the workforce. Past experience of the management can help in translating the work-loads into number of man-hours required. Thus, demand of human resources is forecasted on the basis of estimated total production and contribution of each employee in producing each unit items. 

(c) Ratio-Trend Analysis: Demands for manpower/human resources is also estimated on the basis of the ratio of production level and number of workers available. This ratio will be used to estimate demand of human resources. 

(d) Econometrics Model: These models are based on mathematical and statistical techniques for estimating future demand. Under these models relationship is established between the dependent variable to be predicted (e.g. manpower/human resources) and the independent variables (e.g. sales, total production, wotk-load, etc.). Using these models, estimated demand of human resources can be predicted.

(e) Delphi Technique: Delphi technique is also very important technique used for estimating demand of human resources.  This is a technique takes into consideration human resources requirements given by a group of experts i.e. managers. The human resource experts collect the manpower needs, summarise the various responses and prepare a report. This process is continued until all experts agree on estimated human resources requirement.

(f) Other Techniques: The other techniques of human resources demand forecasting are:

(a) Following the techniques of demand forecasting of human resources used by other similar organisations.

(ii) Organisation-cum-succession-charts.

(iii) Estimation based on techniques of production.

(iv) Estimates based on historical records

(v) Statistical techniques e.g. co-relation end regression analysis. 

(3) Forecasting Human Resource Supply: The demand forecasting helps in determining the number and type of personnel/human resources required in future. The next step in human resource planning is forecasting supply of human resources. The purpose of supply forecasting is to determine the size and quality of present and potential human resources available from within and outside the organisation to meet the future demand of human resources. Supply forecast is the estimate of the number and kind of potential personnel that could be available to the organisation.

The above figure illustrates that supply for the forecasting can be estimated based on the following:

(a) Present/Existing human resources: The first step in forecasting supply of human resources is to start with the present/existing human resources of the organization. Existing inventory of human resources refers to the present inventory of human resources department-wise, age-wise, sex-wise, marital-status wise, skill wise, experience wise, qualification wise, training wise and potential wise. Internal mobility of the employees as a result of transfer and promotion etc. should also be evaluated. So, present inventory of human resources is availability of talent in terms of skills, performance and potential.

(b) Potential additions of human resources: There may also be potential additions to the force of human resources. These are editions to human resources may be due to fresh retirement, selections, transfers and promotions of human resources in the various departments of the organisation.

(c) Potential losses of Human resources: In a running organisation, there may be potential losses of human resources. These potential doses of human resources may be due to deaths, retirements, resignations, retrenchment, discharge and promotions, transfers etc. There may also be losses of human resources due to absenteeism and labour turnover.

(4) Human Resource Programming or Estimating Net Human Resources Requirement: After estimating the future demand and supply of human resources, the next step is to ascertain the human resource gap between demand and supply. This gap has to be measured both in quantitative and qualitative terms. Human resource programming is also called estimating net human resources requirement. The net human resources requirement can be obtained by subtracting estimated supply of human resources from demand of human resources. It will help in determining number and kind of employees required in various departments and the entire organisation. On the basis of human resources programming surplus or shortage of human resources requirement can be determined.

(5) Implementation of HR Plan: The next step after determining net human resources requirement is implementation of human resources plans. Human resources programming indicates the shortage or surplus of availability of human resources. If HR programming indicates that there will be shortage of human resources, then the decision to adjust separate the surplus human resources will have to be implemented. The excess human resources in one department can be adjusted in other department or given some other job after training or retrenched. However, if there will be shortage of human resources, then plan for recruitment, selection and placement has to implemented. 

(6) Control and Appraisal of Human Resource Plan: The final step of human resource planning is the control and review mechanism. Finally, the organisation should assess their human resource planning efforts. It should be assessed to determine how far it has helped in achieving organisational objectives. If human resource planning has not worked effectively there is need for either reviewing the human resource plan or modifying the organisational plan. 

Cost of Living Index Number – Meaning, Uses and Formulas

 Q. What is the cost of Living Index Number? Discuss its uses. Give formulas you will use in the construction of cost of living index number.

Ans. Meaning of Cost of Living Index Number: Cost of living index numbers show the direction and magnitude of change taking place in the cost of living of specific group of persons at given time and place. Its purpose is to know how much increase or decrease has taken place in the expenditure made by a consumer on his living, therefore these are also known as consumer price index. Effect of changes in the prices is not uniform on all the classes of a society because different classes of people consume different commodities and changes in the prices of the commodities are different. Therefore, separate cost of living indices are constructed for different classes of people and for different places. Consumer Price Index Numbers are those index numbers which measure the effects on living conditions of different classes of consumers for any change in the level of prices over a period of time. Such types of indices are constructed in order to find out how the economic progress of a country has affected the standard of living of a particular class of people. 

Uses of Consumer Price Index: The different uses of consumer price index are given below.

(i) To Examine the Effects of Changes in Retail Prices: It is used to examine the effect of change in the retail prices on the cost of living of a particular class of people. 

(ii) Helpful in Policy Formulation: The government may decide its price control, minimum wages, rationing policies in the light of the changes in the cost of living index.

(iii) Fixation of Dearness Allowance: The amount of dearness allowance and revision of wages of different categories of employees are decided on the basis of consumer price index. 

Construction of Consumer Price Index: The procedure of constructing a consumer price index is as follows:

(1) Decision about the Class of People: First of all, it should be ascertained that for which class consumer price index will be constructed, i.e., whether the index is related to industrial workers, teachers, office employees, etc. At the same time, the scope of the index should also be well defined. 

(2) Conducting Family Budget Enquiry: After deciding about the specific class, some families from that class should be selected by random sampling and their budgets should be studied to make findings about their items of income-expenditure, quantities of commodities and size of families etc. According to convenience, the items of consumption are divided into five main categories: (i) Food, (ii) Clothing, (iii) Fuel and Lighting, (iv) House Rent, (v) Miscellaneous. 

(3) Obtaining Price Quotations: After selecting the commodities, their retail prices are obtained. Retail prices of the selected comodities are collected from the reliable sources and from those places from where the people of that class buy goods.

(4) To Decide Weight: To express the relative importance of the items of consumption, selective weights are assigned to them. Weights can be given into two ways: (i) In the proportion of consumption quantity in the base year (q₀) (ii) In the proportion of expenditure made on each commodity in the base year (p₀q₀)

(5) Methods of Constructing Consumer Price Index: After this, consumer price indices are constructed by the following methods:

▶ (i) Aggregate Expenditure Method: In this method, wages are assigned to items on the base of base year quantities.

Consumer Price Index (P₀₁) =

∑ p₁q₀∑ p₀q₀

× 100

Aggregative expenditure method is equal to Laspeyre’s Method.

Steps for Calculation

• (i) Quantity in base year (q₀) and prices in current year (p₁) are multiplied and their sum (∑ p₁q₀) is taken. This is the aggregate expenditure in current year.

• (ii) Quantity in base year (q₀) and price in base year (p₀) are multiplied and their sum (∑ p₀q₀) is taken. This is the aggregate expenditure in base year.

• (iii) ∑ p₁q₀ is divided by ∑ p₀q₀ and the quotient is multiplied by 100.

▶ (2) Family Budget Method: Under this method, the weights are assigned to items on the basis of percentage expenditure on the items.

Consumer Price Index (P₀₁) = 

∑ PW∑ W

Where, P = Price Relatives = 

p₁p₀

× 100,

W = Total Expenses = p₀ q₀.

If the geometric mean is used, then,

 P₀₁ = AL[

∑ W log P∑ W

]

Family budget method is equal to Weighted Average of Price Relative Method.

Steps for Calculation

• (i) Price relative of current year for each commodity is computed by the following formula:

• P = 

  p₁p₀

  × 100
• (ii) Price relative of each commodity is multiplied by the expenditure on it or (Value Weight or W) to find out weighted price relatives.
• (iii) Weighted price relatives are summed up (∑PW)
• (iv) ∑W, i.e., summation of weights which is ∑ p₀q₀ is determined.
• (v) ∑PW is divided by ∑W and the quotient is multiplied by 100.

Note I. It should be noted that prices and quantities must be same in units while multiplying. If the units of price and quantity are different, then the unit of quantity must be changed into the unit of price before carrying out multiplication. For example, if the price is per quantal and the quantity purchase is kg, then kg must be to be converted into quindals before carrying out multiplication.

Note 2. The consumer price index numbers (or cost of living index) obtained by both the methods are the same.

Note 3. Aggreate expenditure method should always be preferred to in as much as it proves to be easier than the family budget method so far as calculations are concerned. 

Security Concerns in E-Commerce and Their Solutions

 Q. Explain security concerns in E-Commerce with solutions. 

Ans. Essential security requirement for safe electronic payments are: 

1. Confidentially: Information should be protected from eyes of unauthorized internal users,external hackers and from being intercepted during transmission on communication networks by making it unintelligible to the attacker. 

2. Integrity: Ensuring that information will not be accidentally and maliciously altered or destroyed during transmission. On retrieval or receipt at the other end of a communication network the Information should appear exactly as was stored or sent. It should be possible to generate an alert on any modification, addition or deletion to the original content. 

3. Availability: The Information that is being stored or transmitted across communication networks should be available whenever required and to whatever extend as desired within pre-established time constraints.

4. Authenticity: Authenticity is a method to verify the buyer’s identity before payment is authorized. It should be possible to prevent any person or object from masquerading as some other person or object.  When a message is received it should therefore be possible to verify whether it has indeed been sent by the person or object ciming to be the originator.

5. Non-Repudiability: It is the protection against customer’s denial of orders placed and against merchant’s denial of payment mode. After sending/ authorizing a message, the sender should not be able to, at a later date, deny having done so. Similarly, the recipient of a message should not be able to deny receipt at a later date.

6. Encryption: Encryption is a process of making messages indecipherable except by those who have an authorized decryption key.

7. Auditability: Audit data must be recorded in such a way that all specified confidentiality and integrity requirements are met. 

Security Schemes (or Security Solution): Main security schemes for electronic payment systems are :

1. Encryption 

2. Digital Signature 

3. Security Certificates

1. Encryption: 

Control against Network Threats (Encryption): An effective and practical way to safeguard data transmitted over networks is by encryption. The process required an encryption device (key) for converting the original message into a code, as well as decryption device (key) for translating the code back into recognizable text. In business data processing, this can be accomplished by using specialized computer software. There are two types of encryption:

(i) Symmetric encryption or secret key cryptography: Secret key encryption is beased on a single key. In this scheme, the same key is used by a sender (for encryption) and a receiver (for decryption). The most widely accepted algorithm for secret key encryption is the Data Encryption Standard (DES). Essentially, therefore, for every period of partners engaging in secure communications, a new key has to be generated and securely maintained. 

(ii) Asymmetric encryption or public key cryptography: Public key cryptosystems are built around the possession of a pair of keys - a public key and a private key by each entity washing to engaged in secure communications. While, as the name suggests, the public key is known to everyone, the private private key is known only the owner. The algorithm used to generate these keys is such that if either of these keys is used to encrypt a message, only the corresponding key in the key pair will be able to decrypt it. The most popular algorithm with public key cryptography is the RSA (Rivest, Shamir and Adelman) algorithm. This algorithm has never been broken by hackers so it is seen as the safest encription method known to date. This scheme is used to provide both the services of confidentiality and authentication. RSA algorithm is usually used to transmit the secret key of DES algorith because DES algorithm is more efficient and faster in handling encryption and decryption. 

2. Digital Signatures: The digital signatures are a means of ensuring authentication of electronic information. Digital signature is an electronic signature whose authenticity is guaranteed through encryption and a password.

The digital signature technology involves:

(i) Private Key: A unique combination known only do the signer. It is a used to encrypt the message. 

(ii) Message Digest: The encrypted message that is created with the help of private key. 

(iii) Public Key: A code sent to the receiver separately to enable the decryption of the message digest. It is also available on the website of the certification authority.

In this scheme, a message is encrypted with the sender’s private key to generate the ‘signature’. The message is then sent to the destination along with the signature. The recipient decrypts the signature using the sender’s public key, and if the result matches with the copy of the message received, the recipient can be sure that the message was sent by the claimed originator and that the message has not been modified during transmission, since only the originator is in possession of the corresponding encryption key. 

The RSA algorithm is widely used to implement digital signatures. The other popular algorithm is the Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA) developed by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology. 

3. Security Certificates: Just as a passport is a universal way to establish your identity and gain entry to another country, a digital or security certificate provides identification in the electronic world. Certificate authorities (CAs) are organizations that issue security certificates. Much like the role of the passport office, the role of the CA is to validate ate the certificate holder’s identity and to “sign” the certificate so that it cannot be forged or tampered with. Once a CA has signed a certificate, the holder can present the certificate to people, websites, and network resources. 

A certificate is a unique digital ID that can be used to verify the identity of an individual. The certificate always includes a public key, the name of the entity it identifies, an expiration date, the name of the certificate authority (CA) that issued the certificate.

These certificates use public key cryptography to sign and authenticate signatures and are protect protected by public and private key pairs linked by cryptographic algorithms. These keys have the ability to encrypt and decrypt information. The digital signature component of a security certificate is your electronic identity card. The digital signature tells the recipient that the information actually came from you and hasn not been forged or tampered with.