THE NATURE AND ROLE OF SELLING

The simplest way to think of the nature and role of selling (traditionally called salesmanship) is that its function is to make a sale. This seemingly obvious statement dis-guises what is often a very complex process, involving the use of a whole set of principles, techniques and substantial personal skills, and covering a wide range of different types of selling task. Later we will establish a more precise meaning for the term selling, but first we will examine the reasons for the intense interest in this area of business activity.The literature of selling abounds with texts, ranging from the more conceptual approaches to the simplistic ‘how it is done’ approach. Companies spend large sums of money training their sales personnel in the art of selling. The reason for this attention to personal selling is simple: in most companies the sales personnel are the single most important link with the customer. The best designed and planned marketing efforts may fail because the sales force is ineffective. This front-line role of the salesperson means that for many customers the salesperson is the company. Allied with the often substantial costs associated with recruiting, training and maintaining the salesforce, there are powerful reasons for stressing the importance of the selling task and for justifying attempts to improve effective-ness in this area. Part Three of this book addresses this important area of sales techniques.The term selling encompasses a variety of sales situations and activities. For example, there are those sales positions where the sales representative is required prima-rily to deliver the product to the customer on a regular or periodic basis. The emphasis in this type of sales activity is very different from the sales position where the sales representative is dealing with sales of capital equipment to industrial pur-chasers. In addition, some sales representatives deal only in export markets whilst others sell direct to customers in their homes. One of the most striking aspects of sell-ing is the wide diversity of selling roles.

             CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN SELLING –

Customer retention and deletion: many companies find that 80 per cent of their sales come from 20 per cent of their customers. This means that it is vital to devote considerable resources to retaining existing high volume, high potential and highly profitable customers. Key account management has become an important form of sales organisation because it means that a salesperson or sales team can focus their efforts on one or a few major customers.

Database and knowledge management: the modern sales force needs to be trained in the use and creation of customer databases, and how to use the internet to aid the sales task (e.g. finding customer and competitor information). In the past salespeople recorded customer information on cards and sent in orders through the post to head office.

Customer relationship management: customer relationship management requires that the sales force focuses on the long term and not simply on closing the next sale.1 The emphasis should be on creating win–win situations with customers so that both parties to the interaction gain and want to continue the relationship. For major customers, relationship management may involve setting up dedicated teams to service the account and maintain all aspects of the business relationship. This form of organisational structure, key account management, is discussed in Chapter 9, and Chapter 10 is devoted to relationship selling.

Marketing the product: the modern salesperson is involved in a much broader range of activities than simply planning and making a sales presentation. Indeed, face-to-face presentations can now sometimes be replaced by information presented on web pages and by email attachments that give the customer up-to-date information on many topics more quickly and comprehensively, and in a more time-convenient manner than many face-to-face interactions.2 The role of the salesperson is expand-ing to participation in marketing activities such as product development, market development and the segmentation of markets, as well as other tasks that support or complement marketing activities such as database management, provision and analysis of information, and assessing market segments.3

Problem solving and system selling: much of modern selling, particularly in business to business situations, is based upon the salesperson acting as a consultant working with the customer to identify problems, determine needs and propose and im-plement effective solutions.4

Satisfying needs and adding value: the modern salesperson must have the ability to identify and satisfy customer needs. Some customers do not recognize they have a need. It is the salesperson’s job in such situations to stimulate need recognition.