Lecture 1

Question 1

What is personal selling?

Answer 1

A part of marketing that relies on interpersonal interaction between buyers and sellers to initiate, develop, and enhance customer relationships

Question 2

Advantages of personal selling

Answer 2

High customer attention

Message is customised

Interactivity

Persuasive impact

Potential for the development of the relationship

Adaptable

Opportunity to close the sale

Question 3

Disadvantages of personal selling

Answer 3

High cost

Labour intensive

Expensive

Only reach a limited number of customers

Question 4

What is trust-based relationship selling?

Answer 4

A form of personal selling requires that salespeople earn customer trust and that their selling strategy meets customer needs and contributes to the creation, communication, and delivery of customer value.

Question 5

What are customer-perceived values?

Answer 5

Personal benefit -> monetary cost

Product benefit -> psychic cost

Service benefit -> energy cost

Image benefit -> time cost

Question 6

Alternative personal selling approaches

Answer 6

Stimulus-response selling

Metal state selling

Need satisfaction selling

Problem-solving selling

Consultative selling

Question 7

Stimulus-response selling

Answer 7

Limitations:
Buyers have no active role in the buying process

Lack of flexibility, most suitable for unimportant purchase decisions

Question 8

Mental states selling

Answer 8

Assume that the buying process for most buyers is essentially identical and buyers can be led through certain mental states in the buying process.

Curiosity - interest - conviction - desire - action

Limitations:
Difficult to determine in which state the buyer is

Not customer-oriented -> focus on mental state rather than the needs

Question 9

Need satisfaction selling

Answer 9

Based on that the customer is buying to satisfy a need or set of needs.

Salesperson more questioning and listening to uncover these needs.

Question 10

Problem-solving selling

Answer 10

Extention of need satisfaction selling to find alternative solutions for satisfying these needs.

Question 11

Consultative selling

Answer 11

Helping customers reach their strategic goals by using products, services, and expertise of the sales organization

Fulfil the three primary roles:
Strategic orchestrator
Business consultant
Long-term ally