Chapter 1 Relationship Selling Opportunities in the Information Economy

Personal Selling Today

Why go wholesale: Access, not have to set up retail store, has access to buyers

Involves person-to-person communication with a prospect

 It is a process of:
 developing relationships;
 discovering customer needs;
 matching appropriate products with those needs; and
 communicating benefits through informing, reminding, or persuading.

Strategic/Consultative Selling Model

Emergence of Relationship Selling in the Information Economy

 Information economy – an economy where there is an emphasis on information processing.
Four major developments:
1) Major advances occur in information technology and electronic commerce
2) Information is a strategic resource
3) Business is defined by customer relationships
4) Sales success depends on adding value
Value-added Selling - improving the sales process to create value for the customer by:
 offering better advice and product solutions
 carefully managing customer relationships
 providing better service after the sale

Considerations for a Future in Personal Selling

One of the largest job posting categories online
 Careers in selling offer:
 Financial rewards
 Recognition
 Security
 Opportunities for advancement
 Approximately 10% of Canadian workforce
Activities Performed by Salespeople: Face-to-face selling, sales prep, administrative tasks, travel
and waiting.

Titles Used In Selling Today

 Two factors contribute to new titles:
Shift from “selling” to “partnering”
Reflection of differing education and skill sets
Account Executive  Account Representative  Account Manager  Relationship Manager 
District Representative  Marketing Partner  Sales Consultant  Business Development
Manager  Sales Associate  Marketing Representative  Channel Partner
 Above-average income
 Above-average psychic income –
 Helps to satisfy the need for recognition and security, and motivates us to achieve higher
levels of performance
 Opportunity for advancement
 Opportunities for women

Employment Settings in Selling Today

 Careers in sales include inside and outside sales
 Inside Salesperson – performs selling activities at the employer’s location, typically using the
telephone and email
 Take orders
 Make calls on customers
 Provide support for outside salespeople
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 Inside salesperson sometimes called a customer service representative
 Providing a number of support services on behalf of outside salespeople
 Telemarketing – a common form of outbound inside sales that serves several purposes,
including sales and service
 Can include technical support personnel

 Outside Salesperson – travels to meet prospects and customers in their place of business or
residence
 Inside and outside salespeople for the same company often work together and rely heavily
upon each other

Selling Through Channels

 Sales jobs exist throughout the distribution chain
 Trade Selling –the sale of a product or service to another member of the channel of
distributiondemand among channel members
Career Opportunities in the Business Goods Channel
Manufacturers employ sales and sales support personnel in a variety of different positions:
 Industrial salespeople
 Sales engineers or applications engineers
 Field salespeople – regularly visit face-to-face with new customers and current customers
 Missionary salespeople
 Well-trained salespeople can add value to the traditional shopping experience
 Retail salespeople
 Direct salespeople – independent contractors who represents manufacturers selling products or
services directly to consumers, usually face-to-face but also via the telephone or Internet
Network (or multilevel) marketing – manufacturers rely on a large network of independent
consultants or distributors to sell the product or service directly to consumers or businesses
 Earns income through direct sales commission and sponsoring new consultants
 Rapidly growing form of direct sales

“Master Skills for Success”

 Emphasis on effective and adaptive interpersonal interaction
 Crucial to professional success
 “Nonsales selling” people spend:
 40% of time at work persuading, influencing, and convincing others inside the company
 24 minutes per hour moving others
 Knowledge worker – individuals whose work effort is centred around creating, using,
sharing, and applying knowledge.
 Customer relationship Management:
 Managerial Personnel  Professionals  Entrepreneurs  Marketing Personnel and Customer
Service Representatives

Managerial Personnel
 Leaders are constantly involved in capturing, processing, and communicating information
 Customer information is the most valuable
 Rapid growth in “executive selling”
 Executive, Manager, or Administrator

Entrepreneurs
 People who want to start a new business frequently need to sell their plan to investors and
others
 Once open, owners rely on personal selling to build their business

Marketing Personnel and Customer Service Representative

 Customer Service Representative (CSR) knowledge workers who process reservations, accept
orders by phone or other means, deliver products, handle complaints, provide technical
assistance, and assist full-time sales representatives

Learning to Sell
 The principles of adaptive selling, listening, and customer orientation can be learned and
applied by people whose personal characteristics are quite different
 Corporate-Sponsored Training
 Commercial Vendor training
 Certification Programs (CSP)
 College and university courses
Summary
 Each salesperson is encouraged to develop a personal selling philosophy
 Effective exchange of information is the foundation of most transactions
 Sales positions vary greatly by industry but all offer rewarding careers
 Knowledge workers add value by effectively presenting information
 Training can be acquired in various ways

Which one of the following people would NOT be considered a “knowledge worker?”
someone who relays information from one party to another without changing it.

Sales people are considered knowledge workers because:

They position and lay out information in a way that helps buyers understand it

Tamara Grindel is a doctor who practices with a group of other physicians with the same specialty. She is
considering taking a course on selling skills. What is the most important way in which this will help her
medical practice?
Learning selling skills will help Dr.Grindel bring new patients to her practice.

The CEO of SwiftLink spends one week each month going to sales appointments with various
salespeople in the company. In addition to assisting the salespeople with presentations, a likely reason
the CEO goes on sales calls is:
To gather information on customer needs and preferences

Convincing potential donors to support charities financially is an example of:

Using selling skills to support philanthropy
Which of the following is an activity that would be performed by a customer service representative?
Providing telephone support for installation

Which of the following trends in sales had led to an increase in both the education and skills a
salesperson needs?
A shift from “selling” to “consulting”

Of the following activities routinely performed by salespeople, which one contributes LEASET financially
to both the salesperson and the company?
Waiting and traveling

Some top-performing salespeople earn more than their managers, this compensation is made up of:
Base salary, commissions, and bonuses

On average, an experienced, high performing salesperson will find the highest compensation
opportunities with which approach?
Value-added

Psychic income in selling refers to which one of the following?

The job recognition afforded sales personnel

Salespeople have an advantage over workers in other positions when being considered for promotion to
positions of greater responsibilities because:
Salespeople have high visibility within companies already relative to other positions.

There is a pay gap between men and women in the field of sales, with men earning more than women
do. Despite this, sales represent an excellent financial opportunity for women for which of the following
reasons?
The pay gap in sales is less than the pay gap in the workforce overall.

The duties of inside salespeople may overlap heavily with the duties of:
Account managers

Alan Karbashian spends all day driving from customer site to customer site for sales meeting in his job
with a national medical parts manufacturer. Alan is considered:
An outside sales rep.

In a well-structured sales department, inside, and outside salespeople often: work together to generate
leads, close sales, and provide service.

Trade selling and missionary (detail) sales are both examples of sales:
Inside the supply chain but not to the consumer

Sales opportunities in the service sector are expanding because:

The service industry has a higher growth rate than the product industry does.

Which of the following sectors would NOT be considered to the part the service industry?
Chemicals

What event contributed most to the increased need for telecommunications salespeople?
A deregulation of telephone service

Sales engineers are people with expensive knowledge of their product who also:
Communicate the benefit of the product to the customers

Which of the following describes a category of sales personnel in the field of manufacturing?
Sales engineer

Salespeople in the US report that they work in sales primarily to:

make more money

Terri Milano, employed by a manufacturer of home electronics, offers assistance to retailers in such
areas as credit policies, pricing display and store layout. She also collects information regarding
acceptance of her firm’s products. She is performing the duties of a(n):
Detail salesperson

Well-trained sales people can add value to the tradition retail shopping experience. Selling for a retailer
might involve which of the following products?
Fashion apparel, personal computers, and recreational vehicles

Network (multilevel) marketing is different from traditional sales in that it:

Relies on an interconnected network of independent sales people to sell the product directly

Corporate-sponsored sales training usually includes:

Training in CRM software

Commercial vendors who provide sales training offer courses based on:
A variety of sales approaches dating back decades.

A training and education initiative with specific requirements delivered by an industry oversight
organization to salespeople in that industry is an example of a(n):
Certification program