Personal Selling Strategies
FORMULATING PERSONAL-SELLING STRATEGY
• Sales Management achieves personal-selling objectives through personal-selling strategy
• Key decisions in personal – selling strategy are : a) The kind of sales force required and b) The size of sales force required
• The decision on the kind of salespersons defines the role that sales personnel play in their contacts with customers & prospects. The decision on the size of the sales force dictates deployment of sales personnel as well the frequencies & intensities of their contacts with customers & prospects
• Personal selling objectives & personal setting strategies vary with the kind of competitive setting prevailing in the industry.
• When the qualitative personal selling objectives change, changes are required in the kind of sales force.
• When quantitative personal selling objectives change, changes are usually required in the size of the sales force
COMPETITIVE SETTINGS
• Individual companies operate in different competitive settings that define the nature & intensity of competition the sales force will face in the market
• Economists have identified 4 basic kinds of competitive market settings. They are : Pure or perfect competition Monopolistic competition Oligopolistic competition No direct competition
Pure Competition
• A market setting characterized by :
1) a large number of buyers & sellers, none powerful enough to control or influence the prevailing market price
2) No single buyer or seller is large enough to appreciably affect the product’s demand or supply
3) All sellers’ products are identical, so buyers are indifferent as to which seller they buy from
4) All buyers are always fully informed about all the sellers’ products & prices
5) No artificial restraints on prices exist
• If these assumptions represented the real world in an industry, then no company would bother
• Sales Management achieves personal-selling objectives through personal-selling strategy
• Key decisions in personal – selling strategy are : a) The kind of sales force required and b) The size of sales force required
• The decision on the kind of salespersons defines the role that sales personnel play in their contacts with customers & prospects. The decision on the size of the sales force dictates deployment of sales personnel as well the frequencies & intensities of their contacts with customers & prospects
• Personal selling objectives & personal setting strategies vary with the kind of competitive setting prevailing in the industry.
• When the qualitative personal selling objectives change, changes are required in the kind of sales force.
• When quantitative personal selling objectives change, changes are usually required in the size of the sales force
COMPETITIVE SETTINGS
• Individual companies operate in different competitive settings that define the nature & intensity of competition the sales force will face in the market
• Economists have identified 4 basic kinds of competitive market settings. They are : Pure or perfect competition Monopolistic competition Oligopolistic competition No direct competition
Pure Competition
• A market setting characterized by :
1) a large number of buyers & sellers, none powerful enough to control or influence the prevailing market price
2) No single buyer or seller is large enough to appreciably affect the product’s demand or supply
3) All sellers’ products are identical, so buyers are indifferent as to which seller they buy from
4) All buyers are always fully informed about all the sellers’ products & prices
5) No artificial restraints on prices exist
• If these assumptions represented the real world in an industry, then no company would bother