Q. What is Personal Selling? Explain its advantages and limitations.
A. Meaning of Personal Selling: Personal selling is one of the elements of promotion mix of marketing along with advertising, sales promotion and publicity. In personal selling, direct contact is made between salesman and customer. It is a face to face communication. Personal selling is a process involving face to face interaction between prospective buyer and salesman, where the purpose is to persuade the buyer to purchase the product. Personal-selling makes use of direct personal communication to influence target customers. Personal selling is more flexible than other tools of promotion mix, because salesmen can adjust their message according to the response of prospective customers.
Advantages of Personal Selling: The main advantages of personal selling are as follows:
(1) Immediate Feedback: Unlike advertising, personal selling is a two-way communication that takes place between buyer and salesman. So, salesman can get immediate feedback from the prospective buyer.
(2) Flexible: Personal selling is flexible as sales presentation can be adjusted as per the need, reaction, availability of time and response of prospective buyer.
(3) Demonstration: Personal selling is the only component of promotion mix where physical demonstration of product is possible. Salesman demonstrate the product and explain the method of using the product.
(4) Most suitable for Technical and Industrial Products: Technical and industrial products are marketed through personal selling as their number of customers is small, the producer are costly, requiring personal convincing, products are technical, requiring detailed explanation of technicalities of the product. So, in case of technical and industrial products, personal selling is more suitable than advertising.
(5) Minimum Wastage of Selling Efforts: In personal selling, selling efforts can be directed towards target customers, whereas in case of advertisement, message is directed to the mass audience, which may include persons who have no interest in the advertised product.
(6) Clarification of Doubts, Queries and Objections: While making sales call, the prospective customer can raise his doubts, queries and objections. The salesmen can solve his doubts, which is not possible in case of other components of communication mix.
(7) Performs Entire Selling Job: Personal selling performs all the activities of selling process like informing about the product, persuading the buyer to buy the product, actual selling of product, whereas in advertising, actual selling cannot be done. For example, companies like Amway, Tupperware are selling their products through personal selling.
(8) More Customer Satisfaction: In personal selling, there is face-to-face communication between salesmen and customer. Customer gets his doubts cleared, he also learns about the method of using the product from salesman, hence customer feels more confident in his purchase decision. All this promotes level of customer satisfaction.
(9) Very Suitable for Marketing of Services: Services like banking, insurance can better be marketed through personal selling, because through personal persuasion, the buyer is made to realise the need of services.
(10) Creation of Demand: Pioneering salesmen are helpful in creating new uses of the product, searching new customers, thus creating demand and promoting sales of the organisation. These salesmen create desire in the mind of prospective customer and convert this desire into demand.
(11) Promotes New Products: With the fast changes in technology, various new products are entering into the market. Personal selling is very useful in marketing of such new products. Personal salesmen carry these products and convince the prospects regarding the uses of these new products. It helps the organisation to promote the new products.
(12) Increases Knowledge of Customers: While making sales calls salesmen display the product, convey its uses, method of handling the product and clarify the doubts, queries of the prospects. Salesmen also provide knowledge about the product viz., how this product can be installed, from where it can be purchased, repaired, etc. All this increases the knowledge of customers.
(13) Collects Market Information: Salesmen are in direct contact with the prospective buyers in the actual market situation. Salesmen collect first hand information about the liking, disliking, desires, doubts, objections, queries, suggestions of customers and send all this information to the top management. This information is very useful in future decision making and sales planning.
(14) Increases Employment: Personal selling provides employment to various persons who are working as salesmen.
(15) Helpful in Facing Competition: Personal selling helps the organisation in facing competition. In case of high competition, personal selling is very useful tool of promotion mix.
(16) Helpful in Relationship Marketing: Through personal selling, organisations can develop and maintain long term relationship with customers. Personalised customer services are provided which improve relations with customers. It, in turn, helps to procure repurchase orders.
Limitations of Personal Selling: Despite its benefits, personal selling has some limitations which are as follows:
(1) Very Costly: For personal selling, business unit will have to appoint a large sales force. If number of customers is large and customers are scattered, then personal selling proves very costly as travelling expenses of sales force will be more.
(2) Turnover of Sales Force: Business unit has to spend large amount on recruitment, selection and training of sales force. But when salesmen leave the job, it is a loss to the business unit. Salesmen turnover also badly affects the image of business unit.
(3) Not Much Useful for Convenience Consumer Goods: Personal selling is not much useful for selling convenience consumer goods like toothpaste, soap, pens, etc as here profit margin is low and it cannot justify the cost of sales call.
(4) Inefficient Sales Force: If sales force is inefficient, untrained, short-tempered, inexperienced, then personal selling will not be effective.
(5) Time Consuming: It takes lot of time to contact prospective customers. If immediate results are required, personal selling is not suitable.
(6) Busyness of Customers: Now-a-days, everyone has very busy life. The target customers often avoid salesman. When a salesman comes to make sales call, people don't even allow him to enter the house on one pretext or the other.
(7) Wrong Tactics Adopted by Some Salesmen: Some salesmen cheat the buyers by stating wrong facts about the product. This affects the profession of salesmanship badly as salesmen lose trust-worthiness.
