ELECT 5

PROFESSIONAL SALESMANSHIP
Credit Hours: 3
Instructor Information
Instructor: Angelo Paolo C. Acosta
Email: angelopaolo.acosta@gmail.com
Phone: 09750192882
Institution: Core Gateway College Inc.
© 2020 A.C. ACOSTA
Copyright Notice: This course pack may be used only for the CGCI educational purposes. It
includes extracts of works from outside sources which are duly cited and acknowledged on this
material. You may not copy or distribute any part of this course pack to any other person. Where
this course pack is provided to you in an electronic format you may only print from it for your
own use. You may not make a further copy for any other purpose. All rights reserved.

Course Description

Covers steps involved in a sale, customer psychology and creative selling techniques as applied
to selling situations. Examines obligation to self, employer and customers

Course Objective

The content of this course includes, but is not limited, to the following topics:
1. Explain the steps involved in a sale, customer psychology, and creative selling techniques as
applied to selling situations.
2. Demonstrate an understanding of a salesman’s obligation to himself, his employer, and his
customers.
3. Discuss concepts of sales management

Course Delivery Method – Second Term (January – May 2021)

This course will be delivered via distance learning that will enable students to complete
academic work in a flexible manner, completely online which includes *synchronous and
asynchronous activities. Course materials and access to an online learning management
system will be made available to each student. Students should respond to Forum questions on
Edmodo account (accomplished in groups through a threaded forum). Virtual class lectures
through videoconferences will be conducted via Zoom or Google Meet. Online assignments will
be submitted on Google Classroom as noted. Faculty will assist and support the students on the
use of online resources throughout this course.
*Synchronous and Asynchronous Activity refer to two modes of online learning. Synchronous activities happen in
real-time, usually via videoconferencing. Asynchronous activities are online learning activities that students can do on
their own and at their own pace, within a reasonable time frame.
 Virtual Class Schedule

Every Tuesday and Thursday 1:00p.m.-2:3:0 p.m. (January – May 2021)

Course Materials

References for the course:

1. P. Kotler and G. Armstrong (2016). Principles of Marketing.

2. https://tools.mheducation.ca

3. https://willyoulaugh.com

4. https://www.saleshacker.com

5. https://www.linkedin.com

Evaluation Procedures

Forum

Please join the forums each week. Students must post a reply and comment on uploaded topics
on Edmodo class. The Forums are for student interactions in order to fully participate in the
discussions. Students should demonstrate their own knowledge in the forums and avoid copying
and pasting from websites.

Assignments

Throughout the semester you will write responses to questions. These responses will involve
analyses of readings, comparing and contrasting the views of authors, and critique of arguments
presented by the readings or the class. Questions will be posted on Google Classroom. Papers
will be graded for accuracy of interpretation, rigor of argument, and clarity of expression.

All writing assignments, unless otherwise noted, should be: 1) composed as Microsoft word
documents, 2) written using 11pt Arial font, 3) double-spaced, 4) submitted electronically. 10
points will be deducted for every day an assignment is late. Be sure to edit, proofread, use spell
check, double check your grammar and correct all errors before submitting your weekly writing
assignments. Title your work with your full last name, given, middle initial, class, then
assignment/activity number or name.

The success of this course depends on your ability to read the assigned readings closely, think
carefully about the points raised or ignored by authors, and bring to the group your questions
and concerns. Prior to each new week in the class, please review announcements and lessons.
Having prepared and read the required readings prior to class ensures your productive
participation. We should work to achieve conversational exchanges with each other through
Forums and emails, constructively challenging each other to think broadly and critically about
ideas or assertions posed by the readings.

GRADING SYSTEM

Examination = 40%

Quizzes = 30%

Projects = 25%

Attendance on virtual lectures =5%

TOTAL =100%

Policies

Please see the Student Handbook for full reference on all College policies.

Citation and Reference Style

Attention Please: Students will follow the American Psychological Association (APA) manual
(6th edition) as the sole citation and reference style to be used in written works as part of
coursework. See http://www.apastyle.org/ and http://www.apastyle.org/learn/tutorials/basics-
tutorial.aspx.

Websites: Do not quote or paraphrase published sources, including assigned readings and Web
based sources, without explicit reference to the original work. Credit the source using APA style.
Cutting and pasting from a website without citing the electronic source is plagiarism, as is taking
phrases, sentences and/or paragraphs from textbooks without referencing the source.

Documents/Files: When uploading assignments, make sure they are in Word doc format. Make
sure to properly format papers (or PowerPoint) with a cover sheet. Use black 12 Times New
Roman or Arial.

Plagiarism

Specifically, all students in this course are to follow these guidelines:

 Do not quote or paraphrase published sources, including assigned readings and Web-
based sources, without explicit reference to the original work. Cutting and pasting from a
website without citing the electronic source is plagiarism, as is taking phrases,
sentences and/or paragraphs from textbooks without referencing the source.
 Do not insert parts of class lectures, online modules, or tutorials, including examples,
into your own work, without permission or citation. These are published by the
instructors, who properly cite the sources of any externally published sources.
  Do not insert parts of previous students’ work or current students’ work into your own
work, without permission and/or citation.

You are expected to use your own words to demonstrate your understanding of the content of
this course. While it is appropriate to reference experts and outside resources, students should
do so judiciously to avoid simply summarizing and paraphrasing what all other sources have
stated about a given topic. Remember to always cite any work that is not your own intellectual
property. Failure to do so may result in failing an assignment and/or course; and ultimately may
result in being removed from the program due to a violation of professional dispositions.

Late Assignments

Students are expected to submit classroom assignments by the posted due date and to
complete the course according to the published class schedule. As adults, students, and
working professionals, I understand you must manage competing demands on your time.
Should you need additional time to complete an assignment, please contact me before the due
date so we can discuss the situation and determine an acceptable resolution. Routine
submission of late assignments is unacceptable and may result in points deducted from your
final course grade.

Netiquette

Forums on the Internet can occasionally degenerate into needless insults and “flaming.” Such
activity and the loss of good manners are not acceptable in an educational setting – basic
academic rules of good behavior and proper “Netiquette” must persist. Remember that you are
in a place for the rewards and excitement of learning which does not include indecent or
personal attacks or student attempts to stifle the Forum of others.

Disclaimer Statement

Course content may vary from the outline to meet the needs of this particular group.

Course Outline

Week Topic(s) Learning Outcome(s) Reading(s) Assignment(s)

1st - 2nd The Life,  To learn the Chapter 1 Activity 1
Week Times, and basics of
Career of the selling
 Professional  To understand
Salesperson the different
types of sales
jobs.
3rd- 4th History of  To understand Chapter 2 Activity 2
week Selling Selling in Pre-
Internet Era
 To learn the
evolution of
selling.
5th – 6th 12 Time  To learn the Chapter 3 Activity 3
Week Management different
Secrets from strategies and
Billionaires lifestyles of
billionaires.
 To learn the
guidelines to
be a billionaire.
7th – 8th The Top 15  To understand Chapter 4 Activity 4
Week Traits and how to be an
Qualities of a effective sales
Good Sales person.
 To learn the
Person
dos and don’ts
in selling.
9th – 10th Consumer  To learn the Chapter 5 Activity 5
Week Markets and Characteristics
Buyer Behavior Affecting
Consumer
Behavior.
 To understand
the different
types of Buying
Decision
Behavior
11th – 12th Introduction to  To learn the Chapter 6 Activity 6
Week Personal nature of
Selling personal
selling
 To learn the
Designing the
Sales Force
Strategy and
 Structure.
13- 14th Personal  To learn the Chapter 7 Activity 7
Week Selling Process Personal
and Sales Selling Process
Promotion  To understand
how Sales
Promotion
works.
15- 18th Selling Activity  To practice all Sales Quota
Week the theories
learned from
the subject.
Chapter 1: The Life, Times, and Career of the Professional Salesperson

What is Selling?
Many people consider selling and marketing synonymous terms. However, selling is actually
only one of many marketing components. In business, personal selling refers to the personal
communication of information to persuade a prospective customer to buy something—a good,
service, idea, or something else—that satisfies that individual’s needs, on a personal level, or on
a business level when an individual is purchasing for a company.
This definition of selling involves one person helping an individual or group. The
salesperson often works with prospects or customers to examine their needs, provide
information, suggest a product to meet their needs, and provide after-the-sale service to ensure
long-term satisfaction.
The definition also involves communications between seller and buyer. The salesperson
and the buyer discuss needs and talk about the product relative to how it will satisfy the
person’s needs.
Everybody Sells!
If you think about it, everyone sells. From an early age, you develop communications
techniques for trying to get your way in life. You are involved in selling when you want someone
to do something. For example, if you want to get a date, ask for a pay increase, return
merchandise, urge your professor to raise your grade, or apply for a new job, you are selling.
You use personal communication skills to persuade someone to act. Your ability to
communicate effectively is a key to success in life.
This is the reason so many people take sales courses; they want to improve their
communication skills to be more successful in both their personal and business lives.
The skills and knowledge gained from a selling course can be used by a student who plans to
go into virtually any field, such as law, medicine, journalism, or the military, or by those who start
their own business.
 Selling is not just for salespeople; it is a must for everyone. Even if you never actually
hold a “sales job,” you will have a need to sell in a range of activities that include everything
from your own garage sale to selling yourself in a job interview.
In today’s competitive environment, where good interpersonal skills are so valued, the
lack of selling capability can put anyone at a disadvantage. So, as you read this book and
progress through the course, think about how you can use the material both personally and in
business.
WHY CHOOSE A SALES CAREER?
Five major reasons for choosing a sales career are
(1) the wide variety of sales jobs available,
(2) the freedom of being on your own,
(3) the challenge of selling,
(4) the opportunity for advancement in a company, and
(5) the rewards of a sales career.
Types of Sales Jobs
We can group sales jobs into broad categories. It is instructive to recognize that while industry
or business classification may vary from an intangible service, such as mutual funds, to a range
of tangible products such as autos, the same basic principles of selling contained in this text will
always apply.
For illustration purposes we will consider five categories:
1. Retail sales
2. Wholesaler or distributor sales
3. Selling for a manufacturer—consumer goods
4. Selling for a manufacturer—industrial goods
5. Sales of services
The biggest difference in these categories is in customer focus. In retail sales, the
primary focus is selling directly to the consumer. This type of sales involves not only selling
within the confines of a typical retail store but also any direct customer contact outside the
traditional retail store, such as with Amway products.

The other categories are primarily focused on what are best described as business-to-
business sales. In these categories, the first-line buyer is part of the overall distribution strategy
for the company and is generally buying for resale to other intermediaries or to consumers, or
for further processing as part of a final product.
Careers in Selling
To understand the options available to individuals entering the field of professional sales, it is
instructive to identify the responsibilities of salespeople in each of the categories listed above.
Retail Sales. Of the 3.7 million Canadians employed in Statistics Canada’s “Sales and
Services Occupations” classifications, one-third are employed as retail salespeople. The range
of sales expertise varies from high-school and college-aged people employed in part-time sales
positions with retailers to those people possessing a high degree of technical knowledge selling
items such as computers. The general responsibilities of sales personnel, referred to as sales
clerks or sales associates in retail, include providing information and sales assistance to
customers, handling customer-service-related issues, such as returns and credit arrangements,
merchandising and display activity, and maintenance of stock levels.
Wholesaler or Distributor Sales. Wholesale salespeople typically work within an
assigned territory under the supervision of a sales manager. The primary responsibility is
servicing existing customers; the secondary goal is gaining new customers. Wholesale selling is
a unique type of selling since you are required to sell various manufacturers’ products on an
ongoing basis to the same customers, and in some cases you may be competing against a
wholesaler carrying the same product lines. This is especially true in what is defined as the
“tobacco, confectionery, and variety” wholesale trade where the same brands of cigarettes and
chocolate bars, for example, are readily available from numerous wholesale sources in the
same market area. In the past wholesale salespeople were branded as “order-takers” as
opposed to “order-winners.”
This description was based on the fact that most wholesalers carried hundreds and
sometimes thousands of products, making it impossible for any sales representative to spend
time selling the full line of products available from the wholesaler. As competition increased,
manufacturers moved to establish relationships with wholesale intermediaries whose breadth
and depth of products are controlled so that more focus can be applied to specific product lines.
In some cases in the consumer goods markets, this control has resulted in exclusive distribution
arrangements where only a small number of wholesalers in protected territories are assigned
sales responsibility for a manufacturer’s products. These arrangements are even more common
with wholesalers whose business is focused on selling industrial products to manufacturers.

Manufacturer Sales—Consumer Goods. Sales professionals employed in manufacturer sales

represent many of Canada’s largest well-known companies. Proctor and Gamble, makers of
Tide, Scope, and other world-renowned brands, is an example. The sales function is generally
structured by establishing fixed territories of customers and allocating salespeople to service
these territories. With the continuing consolidation of retailers in Canada, more business is
concentrated in fewer, large chain store accounts
such as Safeway in the grocery business and The
Bay in department stores. Corporate buyers at the
head office of such organizations decide which
products are sold to consumers through their outlets. Each manufacturer’s product the chain
sells is called a “listing.”
Manufacturer Sales—Durable Goods. The durable goods segment of professional sales
generally requires a different approach than for nondurable goods. While territory structure is
common, these territories reflect a customer base that is typically much smaller than for
companies selling through retailers though it may be large in geographic terms. It is possible for
a territory to be a province, and in rare cases the entire country, simply because the number of
customers is small and their locations widespread. Many organizations that fall within this
classification sell to industrial buyers and other manufacturing organizations, and this requires a
more technical skill set for their salespeople. You can appreciate the differences in the
knowledge required to sell soup and to sell a printing press.
Many sales professionals in these industries have technical backgrounds and
specialized knowledge in respect to application, performance, or design. Further, especially
where capital goods (processing machinery and equipment) are concerned, the sales process
may begin months or years before the actual buying decision is made. In addition, follow-up
service, training, and other intangibles become important aspects of the actual product being
sold. Sales representatives in these industries are often called technical sales representatives.
Selling of Services. The foregoing has focused on tangible product sales careers. However, as
the Canadian economy continues to move rapidly to a service-based economy, opportunities for
sales professionals will expand at a pace consistent with the overall expansion of service-based
businesses. The selling challenge is to communicate the features and benefits of intangibles.
For example, the telecommunications, computer-based
services, and financial service industries require individuals
with exceptional selling skills as well as education and
training in the technology supporting these industries. The
future for sales professionals in terms of career growth and
remuneration is unlimited.
Opportunities for Advancement Are Great
Successful salespeople have many opportunities to move into top management positions. In
many instances, this advancement comes quickly. For example, General Mills and Quaker Oats
may promote successful salespeople to managerial positions, such as district sales managers,
after they have been with the company for only two years
A sales personnel career path, as Exhibit 1–3 depicts, is the upward sequence of job
movements during a sales career. Occasionally, people without previous sales experience are
promoted into sales management positions. However, 99 percent of the time, a career in sales
management begins with an entry-level sales position. Firms believe that an experienced sales
professional has the credibility, knowledge, and background to assume a higher position in the
company.
Most companies have two or three successive levels of sales positions, beginning at the
junior or trainee level. Beginning as a salesperson allows a person to
  Learn about the attitudes and activities of the company’s salespeople.
 Become familiar with customer attitudes toward the company, its products, and its
salespeople.
 Gain firsthand knowledge of products and their application, which is most important in
technical sales.
 Become seasoned in the business world.

When asked why they like their jobs, first-line sales managers say it is because of the rewards.
By rewards, they mean both financial rewards and nonfinancial rewards, such as the challenge
and the feeling of making a valuable contribution to their salespeople and the company.
Managers also frequently mention that this position represents their first major step toward the
top. They have made the cut and are on the management team. Instead of being responsible for
$1 million in sales as a salesperson, the manager is responsible for $10 million.
With success, many jobs throughout the sales force and in the corporate marketing
department open up. These jobs can include sales training, sales analysis, advertising, and
product management. Frequently, travelling the upward career path involves numerous moves
from field sales to corporate sales, back to the field, then to corporate, back to the field, and so
on. However, sales experience prepares people for more responsible jobs in the company.
Success also brings financial rewards. The larger a company’s revenues, the heavier the
responsibility of the chief executive, and the larger the compensation. Today, it’s common for a
CEO of a large national corporation to receive compensation totaling more than $1 million
annually.
IS A SALES CAREER RIGHT FOR YOU?
It may be too early in life to determine whether you really want to be a salesperson. The balance
of this book will aid you in investigating sales as a career. Your search for any career begins
with you. In considering a sales career, be honest and realistic. Ask yourself questions such as
  What are my past accomplishments?
 What are my future goals?
 Do I want to have the responsibility of a sales job?
 Do I mind travel? How much travel is acceptable?
 How much freedom do I want in the job?
 Do I have the personality characteristics for the job?
 Am I willing to transfer to another city? Another province?
Your answers to these questions can help you analyze the various types of sales jobs
and establish criteria for evaluating job openings. Determine the industries, types of products or
services, and specific companies in which you have an interest.
College placement offices, libraries, and business periodicals offer a wealth of
information on companies as well as sales positions in them. Conversations with friends and
acquaintances who are involved in selling, or have been in sales, can give you realistic insight
into what challenges, rewards, and disadvantages the sales vocation offers. To better prepare
yourself to obtain a sales job, you must understand what companies look for in salespeople.
A Sales Manager’s View of the Recruit
The following discussion of what sales managers consider when hiring a salesperson is based
on a summary of a talk given by a sales manager to a sales class. It is reasonably
representative of what companies look for when hiring salespeople.
We look for outstanding applicants who are mature and intelligent. They should be able to
handle themselves well in the interview, demonstrating good interpersonal skills. They
should have a well-thought-out career plan and be able to discuss it rationally. They should
have a friendly, pleasing personality. A clean, neat appearance is a must. They should have
a positive attitude, be willing to work hard, be ambitious, and demonstrate a good degree of
interest in the employer’s business field. They should have good grades and other personal,
school, and business accomplishments. Finally, they should have clear goals and objectives
in life. The more common characteristics on which applicants for our company are judged are
(1) appearance, (2) self-expression, (3) maturity, (4) personality, (5) experience, (6) enthusiasm,
and (7) interest in the job.
People often consider sales careers because they have heard that people can earn good
salaries selling. They think anyone can sell. These people have not considered all the facts. A
sales job has high rewards because it also has many important responsibilities. Companies do
not pay high salaries for nothing. As you will see in this book, a sales career involves great
challenges that require hard work by qualified individuals. Let us review the characteristics of a
successful salesperson.
RELATIONSHIP MARKETING
Organizations today have targeted new and present customers. The emphasis is shifting from
selling customers today to creating customers for tomorrow. Thus, business is finally beginning
to think more long term than short term.
Relationship marketing is the creation of customer loyalty. Organizations use
combinations of products, prices, distribution, promotions, and service to achieve this goal.
Relationship marketing is based on the idea that important customers need continuous
attention.
An organization using relationship marketing is not seeking a simple sale or transaction.
It has targeted a major customer that it would like to sell now and in the future. The company
wants to demonstrate to the customer that it has the capabilities to serve the account’s needs in
a superior way, particularly if a committed relationship can be formed. The type of selling
needed to establish a long-term collaborative relationship is complex. General Motors, for
example, prefers suppliers who can sell and deliver a coordinated set of goods and services to
many locations, who can quickly solve problems that arise in their different locations, and who
can work closely with them to improve products and processes.
Most companies, unfortunately, are not set up to
meet these requirements. Today, the level of customer
relationships varies. Many organizations still sell customers
and then forget them. Other organizations develop a close
relationship—even a partnership—with their customers.
LEVELS OF RELATIONSHIP MARKETING
What type of relationships should an organization have
with its customers? Is the cost of keeping a relationship
worth it? To answer these questions, let’s define the three
general levels of selling relationships with customers:

 Transaction selling: customers are sold and not contacted again.

 Relationship selling: the seller contacts customers after the purchase to determine
whether they are satisfied and have future needs.
 Partnering: the seller works continually to improve the customers’ operations, sales,
and profits.
Most organizations focus solely on the single transaction with each customer. When
you go to McDonald’s and buy a hamburger, that’s it. You never hear from them again unless
you return for another purchase. The same thing happens when you go to a movie, rent a video,
open a bank account, visit the grocery store, or have your clothes cleaned. Each example
involves low-priced, low-profit products. Also involved are a large number of customers who are
geographically dispersed, making it very difficult and quite costly to contact customers. The
business is forced to use transactional marketing.
Relationship marketing focuses on the transaction—making the sale—along with follow-
up and service after the sale. The seller contacts the customer to ensure satisfaction with the
purchase. The Cadillac Division of General Motors contacts each buyer of a new Cadillac to
determine the customer’s satisfaction with the car. If that person is not satisfied, General Motors
works with the retailer selling the car to make sure the customer is happy.
Partnering is a phenomenon of the 1990s. Businesses’ growing concerns over the
competition not only in Canada but also internationally revitalized their need to work closely with
important customers. The familiar 80/20 principle states that 80 percent of sales often come
from 20 percent of a company’s customers. Organizations now realize the need to identify their
most important customers and designate them for their partnering programs. The organization’s
best salespeople are assigned to sell and service these customers.
Activity #1

1. Define “Selling” on your own words.

2. Give an example about how you will be able to use Selling skills in other areas of your
life.

3. What type of sales job will you be more likely to choose or enter? Explain.

4. What is the importance of relationship marketing?

5. Do you think “selling career” is for you? Why or why not?

Chapter 2: History of Selling

Selling is one of the oldest recorded professions that have witnessed numerous developments,
books, practices, and inventions. They have shaped the way we sell and the way customer
buys. And am sharing few developments (Pre-Internet era and post internet era) that I believe
are meaningful and relevant in shaping buyer and seller relationship.
Pre-Internet Era:
The earliest documented mention of SELLING can be found in
the name "SNAKE OIL SELLING" around the year 1780. Snake
oil selling refers to fraudulent selling practices and the term
originated from Chinese laborers involved in the building of the
First Continental Railroad. The Chinese sold it to Europeans,
claiming that when the oil is rubbed on the skin at the painful
site, it would bring relief. 
Then followed traders filled in wagons dropping in the cities to
sell goods “door to door salesman.” However fast talking
salesman focus was the seller, not the customer.
1886: John H. Patterson, president of National Cash Register (NCR) developed his own method
of selling. Patterson is credited as the first person to professionalize sales as a profession.
The cash registers were sold to the most important person in the company, and then
those people were encouraged to arrange demos of the new equipment to other businesses in
the territory or region.
The 1920's: Then came the industrial revolution popularizing “Science of Selling” that Ford
Motor Company included in their sales training - the following message "sell the vehicle
according to the shape of the prospect's head. High foreheads leave room for larger
development and indicate people who are less likely to resist new ideas"
Around the same period, IBM introduced their selling methodology and few
of the best practices FUD (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt) and smart dress
code (the blue blazer and a tie). 'Nobody was fired for buying IBM' was the by-product
of FUD.

1925: Then came the Great Depression wherein people struggled to make a living, many

turned to sales because of the low barriers to entry. Most did not have much training. Mood
Selling was developed by Bible Salesmen who called on prospects door-to-door. With no sales
training, most salesmen during this time appealed to emotion to make a sale. Hence, the name
“Mood Selling.”
1935: “How to Win Friends and Influence People”:  was published by Dale Carnegie that
changed the focus from seller to customer and numerous principals advocated in this book are
practiced in the present day selling methodologies.
The 1930's: The Psychology Selling: Henry Link introduced Psychology Selling in his book
"Psychology of Selling and Advertising". The premise of this approach was that salespeople
should learn basic psychological analysis of their customers in order to learn what made them
"tick". This is where the technique of asking prospects "WHAT KEEPS YOU UP AT NIGHT"
comes from.
The 1960s: Phone had been invented way back in 1840 but
now it was becoming popular and installable in the business
world. It helped sales to cold call prospect from the comfort
of their offices.

Post-Internet Era: Second half of chess board era

1960’s: Internet was invented followed by Mosaic –
browser that changed the customer perspective of
buying. Before Internet era customers were totally
dependent on sales for product information and
knowledge. But later Mosaic; web pages were launched
and customer became independent completing their
product search and research on the net. This was the
beginning of SELLING truly being replaced
by PURCHASING.

Fax: Fax Came Saw and Conquered the world of

business communication. But was routinely replaced
by much efficient Email and scanning technologies.
SMS: SMS still continues to help conduct blast messages
(Outbound marketing) and telecoms are widely monetizing
on the SMS services.

Email: Email became another tool of sales communication

and till date, it remains a powerful tool to prospect and
close business.

CRM: Customer Relationship Management helped organizations document and protect

customer information to make informed decisions. And integrate them with financials application
to automate customer relations and order fulfillment processes. CRM has now matured
into CEM – Customer Engagement Management system.
1984: Book on Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion was published by Dr. Robert
Cialdini. He identified six principles of persuasion (Like, Reciprocity, Social Proof, Authority,
Scarcity, Commitment & Consistency) that became the cornerstone of Social Media
platform and understanding why customer behaved the way they behave. It helped people
understand the pattern of behaviors and is widely leveraged in the Social Media.

2003 - 2010: Social Selling:  LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms
were launched. LinkedIn the professional networking platform was launched in 2003. It
helped the seller to practice "social selling" and address some of the emerging purchase
behaviors i.e. "90% of the buyers avoid taking up cold calls." " Buyer’s completed 50% - 70% of
the buying journey online searching, researching, educating and shortlisting their product or
services requirements online without sales being involved."  And then calling upon sellers to
quote for the products and services. Thus it leaves only prices to be negotiated.
2020: Going forward with Artificial Intelligence, Big data and Analytics it is estimated
that 80% of the contact center jobs would be replaced by machines. Most of the mundane task
performed by sales people would also be replaced by automation such as searching for
information, navigating through product information, shortlisting products and so on. Sales jobs
that would be outside the performance zone of automation would be Sales Consultancy and a
new paradigm of selling i.e. teach, Tailor and challenge customer thinking.
Finally, nothing is constant except change and author of Book “WHO MOVED MY
CHEESE” has rightly packaged message in the books that - "always smell the cheese and
continue looking for new cheese."

Activity #2
Instruction: Among the twelve tips from Billionaires; choose your top three tips that you need in
order for you to succeed in life. Explain why you choose that tip and explain how you will apply it
in your life. 

Tips:

1 

Why?

How?

2.

Why?

How?

3. 

Why?

How?
Chapter 3: 12 Time Management Secrets from Billionaires

There are around 2,000 billionaires in the world. And by definition, they’re some of the best

at time management. They’re bombarded with thousands of emails. They have a thousand
things they could do: meet with an employee, schedule a meeting, find a new marketing
strategy, work on a product design, etc. How do they choose what’s most important and still
effectively build their wealth to $10,000 per day or more? It’s not a “myth” that people succeed
because they’re more productive.
 The female billionaire Sheryl Sandberg has stated in her books that she made sure to
leave work at 5:30 every day because her children were a priority.
 Richard Branson has over 400 companies to run but he still has time to kite-
surf because he puts his fitness as a priority.
 President Bush has a million things to do: foreign leaders to call, CIA briefings to read,
voters to please, and so on. Yet he was able to still read 95 books in a year: more than
most people ever read.
 Doug Conant, CEO of Campbell Soup, sent 20 handwritten thank you notes a day while
running a Fortune 500 company.
Here are the top tips on billionaire productivity tips I know (which I learned from this
book and all the other videos and podcasts I consumed):
1. Eliminate Meeting Time That Isn’t Useful
3 billionaires (Mark Cuban, Steve Jobs, and Jack Dorsey) were referenced in the book on
reducing or eliminating meetings. Mark Cuban said to never have a meeting unless you stand

to make a lot of money from them.

If you think about it, it makes sense. As Gary Vaynerchuk says, many meetings are an
easy way to waste time. They have the potential to get tons of people together to small talk
about irrelevant things not related to making the business more money. If you pay each person
$30 an hour on average and ten people show up for a useless hour-long meeting, they have just
taken $300 from you.
Jason Fried, a multi-millionaire, has said in his book Rework to only invite necessary
people to a meeting. He also recommends setting an objective at the start and a timer for how
long the meeting goes for. It’s all about not wasting people’s time. As the boss, you’re paying for
that time.
Try Stand-Up Meetings with A Time Limit and Purpose
If you do have meetings, try having stand-up
meetings. Billionaire Richard Branson has 10-minute stand-up
meetings. He says this is because:
 It emphasizes real communication.
 It makes it quicker to get to business and seal a deal.
 It wastes less time.
 No one nods off.
 Decisions are made quicker.
A 1999 study from the Journal of Applied Psychology found
that sit-down meetings were 34% longer than stand-up meetings but produced no better
decisions.
Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis found that stand-up meetings
produced far better outcomes than sit-down meetings. In Social Psychological & Personality
Science, they found that stand-up meetings led to better collaboration, more engagement, less
possessiveness, and more problem-solving creativity.
Try A Walking Meeting
Richard Branson said he prefers walking meetings for the reasons listed above. Also, seeing
running waters from rivers or oceans makes him more creative. According to the book, Mark
Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, and Jack Dorsey also had walking meetings.
2. Start the Day with Your #1 Most Important Task
Most people let the day lead them rather than the other way around. They start their day
by opening their email inbox and letting low and medium priority tasks take over their day.
Nathan Blecharczyk, billionaire, and cofounder of Airbnb, says he fills his calendar from
reverse.
He schedules things from the end of the day to the start so that he can focus on the real
work in the morning. He makes sure to leave meetings for late in the day because they’re not as
important.
You want to start your day with your #1 most important task and finish it first  because
otherwise, you get distracted with less important requests, tasks, and email.
3. Don’t Multitask
Billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes gave some short advice for the book: “Do one thing at once.
Stop multitasking!”
When I was young, I grew up with multitasking and
could do it better than most people. I used to pride myself
on the process.
Later on, I did some research on multitasking.
Studies show that it decreases productivity, especially for
the young people who have done it for longer. The
American Psychological Association found that task
switching can lead to a 40% decrease in productivity.
4. Have Themed Days
The youngest billionaire in history and founder of Facebook and Asana, Dustin Moskovitz, said:
“Have a themed day of the week where you don’t have   meetings. He says it  allows for no
interruptions and focus on individual work.”
At Asana, they have No Meeting Wednesday’s.
Billionaire Jack Dorsey of Twitter and Square also has themed days. Jack, like Elon
Musk, works 80 hour weeks, 40 at each company.
In a 2011 interview at Techonomy, Dorsey said he accomplishes this by having themed
days and being very disciplined. 
Every day has a theme and he does the same things around that theme at each
company on a specific day.
These themes let him deal with interruptions and distractions. If a task or request is not
in theme with the day, he does not do it. It sets a cadence for the rest of the company to
deliver and check their progress:
His Mondays are for management. His Tuesdays are for product. Wednesday’s are
marketing and growth. Thursdays are for developers and partnerships. Friday’s are on culture
and recruiting. Saturday’s, he takes off. Sunday’s are for reflection, strategy, feedback, and
getting ready for Monday.
5. Discipline Matters More Than Intelligence
The billionaire Andrew Mason, co-founder of Groupon and Detour, said that he’s met a lot of
people who are smarter but less successful than him because they lack the discipline to do what
they say they will: 
“I often meet people who seem smarter than me yet are less capable because they don’t
have the self-discipline and/or self-confidence to introspect on their ability to do what they think
they’re going to do and find ways to iteratively improve. Amazingly, it’s as simple as that. It’s
kind of a sore spot for me because I can’t understand why people don’t take it more seriously.”
-Andrew Mason
He says it’s that simple. It’s not rocket science. Being disciplined about forming great
habits is a true key to success. 
Andrew said that if he was playing a video game that replicates real life business and
had 10 points to distribute into skills, he’d put 7 into discipline and 3 into intelligence.
Nothing into Ability Power, Attack Damage, or Mana, Andrew? I jest. Nerd joke. The
point is to improve your willpower because it matters more than pure IQ.
6. Recharge and Refresh Mid-Day to Keep Up Your Mental Agility
The youngest billionaire in Africa, Mohammed Dewji, says that mental fitness and a fresh mind
are keys to success.
By 1pm, he has already worked 7 hours and it’s natural for him to feel drained and tired.
He has a daily workout during his lunch hour to recharge and refresh.
This let’s him attack the 2nd half of his day as hard as he did the 1st half. He
recommends finding what works best for you to stay invigorated and recharge. He
acknowledges that people have different ways of doing it that work best.
There are hundreds of studies, articles, and books that prove how exercise is so
beneficial to you in so many ways. Studies show that exercise increases your focus, energy,
happiness, productivity, attractiveness, health, and longevity. Look at it as
an investment rather than a time cost. 
Dustin Moskovitz, billionaire cofounder of Facebook, wrote a whole Medium post saying
how he regretted not exercising and eating better because he would have achieved his
success even faster, and without the arguments and health problems he had.

7.  Devote At Least 50% of Your Time to Building Great Products. Avoid Ego-Gratifying
Activities.
Mark Pincus is the billionaire founder of Zynga, a video game app platform built on the back of
the social network Facebook.
Mark says that if you want to build great products, you should spend at least 50% of your
work time to building great products.
He says don’t accept speaking opportunities if they don’t benefit your users or
company. 
The same goes for any ego-boosting activities that don’t contribute to the bottom line
success of your company, such as going on talk shows. Good To Great is a book that outlines
the downfalls of doing this. Lee Iacocca was a bad-ass entrepreneur who took Chrysler from
near-bankruptcy to a full revival. But during the second half of his tenure, he started spending
most of his time on talk shows, TV shows, and other ego-boosting events. Chrysler’s stock took
a huge plunge.
8. Write It Down on Paper
In the book, Greek billionaire Aristotle Onassis is quoted giving advice on writing things
down.
He calls it his “million dollar lesson they don’t teach in business school.”
He recommends you write everything down in a notebook. Everything. This includes
ideas, information about a new person you met, or interesting facts.
He says that if you write things down, you’re more likely to act on things. If you don’t, you
forget.
Many successful people still write things down on paper ; this includes Brian Tracy,
Napoleon Hill, Bill Gates, and Richard Branson.
Richard Branson has spent a great deal of time emphasizing the importance of writing
everything down immediately so you do not forget, especially in his articles online and his
books The Virgin Way and Business Stripped Bare.
He says this is so important because:
1. No one else does it.  They think they can remember everything in their head and they
end up forgetting most of it. He is always the only one writing things down in a notebook.
2. You have proof if someone questions your memory later on.
Richard tells the story of a man he knew who had the most incredible memory but forgot
something at the absolutely worse time: during an important business deal. I have heard almost
the exact same story from people in real life back when I tried to rely on my memory for
everything.
Write it down on paper because it burns it into your brain and subconscious more than
typing it out does. Ever since I started writing everything down, I realized how much I forget on a
daily basis by looking at my notes later.
Even the genius rapper Eminem said in a 60 Minutes Interview that he always wrote
things down whenever he had an idea for a lyric.
Taylor Swift has admitted in many interviews that she immediately records a voice
memo if she has a song idea on her iPhone.
9. Be Willing To Say Not To Requests
CEO of LinkedIn Jeff Weiner schedules “do nothing” time on his calendar. He schedules 90
minutes to 2 hours in total a day a day, broken into 30 to 90-minute blocks.
No one can disturb him during this time. He developed this system after having no time
to process anything. His schedule was always packed with back-to-back meetings. He realized
these breaks were absolutely necessary to do his job well.
Many millionaires I have come across have voiced similar realizations. They’ve burned
out after years overwork to the point of physical illness and had to finally give themselves free
time.
 This includes some of the most followed people on social media, like Cara DeLevingne,
Alicia Keys, and Lady Gaga. These three have spoken publicly about it. Cara suffered from skin
and health issues from overwork. Her modeling agency shipped her to a hospital for a quick,
unhealthy drug fix rather than tell her to rest.
10. Nail Exercise, Health, and Diet
This one is a common themes from millionaires, like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gary Vaynerchuk,
and Tony Robbins. It’s basic but no one does it. Are you exercising rigorously on a daily
basis?
Richard Branson runs a multi-billion dollar business, yet he still carves out time every
day to exercise because it’s an obvious investment with a high return. See the video below for
his explanation:
Basic fundamental habits are most easily looked over because they’re “too obvious.” Yet
everyone is too lazy to actually do them consistently. If you don’t even have these squared
away, don’t look any further. There is a hitch in your productivity process already.

Along with consistent exercise comes related habits worth considering:

 Staying fully hydrated
 Eating nutritious food

11. Simplify Your Calendar

Warren Buffett has said in many interviews that he keeps his calendar very simple. In the
Charlie Rose interview below, he shows his actual calendar, which has only three to-do
activities for the month.
Bill Gates was stunned when he learned about this from Warren. Before he met him, he
was more so at the whim of whoever wanted his time. Warren taught him that you are in
charge of your time, not someone else. 
Bill still maps out every minute of his day to control his productivity, but is more
thoughtful with what he chooses to put on there. As you can tell, there are different styles based
on your preferences. But there are universal mindsets that you should still have.
Warren has an infinite amount of things he could do. But by focusing on an amount he
can count with his fingers for the month, it clears out all the low-impact, distracting activities he
should de-prioritize.
12. Make Sure Meetings and Activities Are As Efficient As Possible
Chett Holmes wrote a book that is famous in the sales world called The Ultimate Sales
Machine. He worked with the billionaire Charlie Munger and numerous Fortune 500 CEO’s. In
his book, he details the process for his meetings with Charlie.
 If you didn’t have an agenda, purpose, presentation, and all the materials prepared for a
meeting, it would get canceled. Why so strict? Because it prevents meetings from dragging on
unnecessarily. Many hours every week are wasted because people don’t come with an agenda
to a meeting and end up getting side-tracked with random conversation.
Charlie and his partner, Warren Buffett, are known for being strict when it comes to what
they’ll do with every second of their time.
They’re not rude. They just know they can’t buy time and they don’t have much time left.
They want to make sure it doesn’t go to waste. I bet that even when they were young, they had
a similar level of strictness. You can get started now so you can save plenty of time by the time
you’re their age.
Chapter 4: The Top 15 Traits and Qualities of a Good Sales Person

There’s nothing special or magical about the traits of top salespeople. They’re simple traits —
some may even seem obvious — but simple doesn’t mean everyone has them. We’re going to
fix that.
The first step is identifying the problem. So, let’s look at what traits you need to launch your
sales career, and turn you into a sales wizard.
Success Trait #1: Upbeat
You’re going to hear a lot of “no” in sales. Unfortunately, there’s no way around this. Hearing
negative responses on a regular basis can be extremely disheartening. But for successful
people, “no” doesn’t mean the end.
Successful salespeople face setbacks with a positive attitude, they learn from them, and
always look for an opportunity. They come out of the most difficult of situations stronger than
before.
Success Trait #2: Passionate
Being passionate about your job means more than working to
meet a quota. Salespeople who are truly passionate work
towards achieving bigger goals, such as personal excellence
and building long-lasting relationships. Being passionate about
the right things will have long-term benefits that will
continuously pay back during your entire career.
Top salespeople are passionate about growing their
careers, and making sure they always bring their A-game.
However, they are primarily focused on impacting people’s lives, and they work towards that
goal every day.
Success Trait #3: Creative
Creativity is important in sales. You may not think so, because creativity is often associated with
writers and artists, but it’s true. The top performers in sales look at things differently.
Their creative thinking and analytical skills
enable them to offer solutions that others just don’t see.
They are resourceful, making the best out of whatever
they have. If you want to be the best, you need to be a
creative problem solver who can come up with new and
novel ways to help your customers — and by
extension, your company as well.
Success Trait #4: Empathetic
Empathy and compassion are prerequisites to excellent
customer service. Empathetic salespeople listen intently to what affects people, and then
provide them to express their thoughts and concerns.
The best salespeople will put themselves in other
people’s shoes — with no judgment or ulterior motives — to
truly understand the other person. This tells them how best to
help their clients.
You should always keep your customer’s
success front-of-mind. If you truly care for your prospects,
customers, and colleagues, it will show, and you will reap the
rewards that trust will bring.
Success Trait #5: Accountable
Accountability is important. Whether you’re taking credit for a success or a failure, you need to
take responsibility for your actions. The best salespeople take complete ownership over their
work, and they do it with dignity and respect.
If something goes wrong, they take it upon themselves to
find out why and fix it. If something goes great, they find out
why and cultivate it. Successful salespeople don’t pass the
buck.

Success Trait #6: Well-Prepared

Impressing clients and persuading them to spend money is no cakewalk. Closing a deal
requires a tremendous amount of research, confidence, and a flawless execution. There are a
lot of ways to get it wrong, and only one sure fire way to impress — be prepared.
 Highly successful salespeople use every resource at their disposal to research and
prepare for every call, meeting, and deal. They know all about their product, every potential
objection, and they know exactly what they are going to pitch before they ever walk into the
meeting room.
They do NOT go on-and-on about products and services without offering something of
value in easy-to-understand, jargon-free, talk. Every presentation is tailor made and
meticulously prepared for. There’s no excuse for getting this one wrong. It simply boils down to
doing the work.
Success Trait #7: Tech-Savvy
Technology is an important aspect of Sales, and every year it gets a bigger role. CRMs,
automation tools, AI, and every other innovation, past and future, have changed the way sales
is done on a daily basis. In today’s sales world, if you’re not on the cutting edge, you’re behind.
Winning salespeople stay updated on the latest
market trends, products, and technology. They use any
and all kinds of sales tools available to be more efficient
and more successful. The most successful salespeople
are ahead of the game for a reason — they invest time in
their tools.
Success Trait #8: Highly Engaged
Being engaged is important. You need to be active and
present every day at your company. You need to love being a part of the organization you
represent. Top salespeople love their job and the people they work with. They believe in their
product, which means they can sell with complete conviction.
They are active and plugged in to their organization. They participate in assessments,
surveys, and training programs. They take advantage of every resource their company provides.
If you do this, your organization will also invest in you. When a company recognizes it has a
superstar, they won’t risk losing you. So be plugged in.
Success Trait #9: Goal-Oriented
I think most salespeople are goal-oriented. That’s likely part of the reason you ended up
in sales in the first place. Top sales pros take it to another level. They don’t just have a vague
goal or direction. They know exactly what they want to accomplish (and by when), and they will
plan everything around these targets.
The best salespeople also set ambitious goals — ambitious but achievable. Successful
salespeople set long-term goals that help them grow as an individual and as a professional.
Reaching these goals requires patience, planning, and a long-term vision. If you don’t
know where you’re going, how are you going to get there?
Success Trait #10: Relationship-Driven
Sales is all about relationships. The best salespeople know the importance of building trust, and
ensuring satisfaction with every deal. They also know these things can take time, which is why
they follow up with prospects and clients regularly over time, not only when they’re trying to
close a deal.
The key here is authenticity. The relationship needs to be authentic, not simply
transactional. There will be wins and losses, but the most successful salespeople never say
goodbye to clients.
They continue to help and support those they’ve already sold to, and reach out to people
who have said no in the past. The most effective salespeople know relationships are what
drives sales, and they are personally driven by forming these long-term relationships.
Success Trait #11: Hungry to Succeed
One who is hungry for growth doesn’t require motivation and training. He just needs an
opportunity… Hunger is an intense desire or craving for something or, in this case, good sales.
Hunger equals ambition. When you’re ambitious, you’ll exploit each and every selling
opportunity you manage to lay your hands on. Successful salespeople are gauged by the
number of sales they are able to score in a day, week, month or year.
All well-performing salespeople are hungry to make more and more sales to raise the
bar even higher. Ambition is a good sale behavior that drives your sales locomotive to a higher
sales town.
Also, these folks have an urge to sell that goes beyond money. I believe they have a
personal ego that can only be stroked and satisfied with high numbers. That’s why they continue
to push sales regardless of how many noes they get, obstacles they face and competition
encountered on the way.
Success Trait #12: Competitive
Salespeople who succeed are competitive. Being competitive is all about having the desire to
be more successful than others. And that’s one of the common drives among well-performing
salespeople. In short, they’re competitive.
And they just don’t want to get better at what they do, but they also want to be the best.
When you’re a thirsty salesman looking to outperform other people in the industry, it goes
without saying your numbers will pretty much be impressive. Don’t get me
wrong, competitiveness doesn’t mean being jealous. Instead, it’s all about being willing and
ready to work the extra mile to knock out your competition.
Success Trait #13: Multitasking
Most people have a negative view of multitasking. I don’t blame you. Often, multitasking is
linked to shoddy work and messing things up. But, successful salespeople have mastered the
art of multitasking. They can juggle between getting more leads and closing on promising leads.
This means that they are constantly juggling between answering emails, making phone
calls, and following up on potential clients. Most successful salespeople are excellent
multitaskers. They utilize every minute in working towards closing a sale. And we all know that
time isn’t the main thing, it’s the only thing.
Success Trait #14: Curiosity
Another important quality of a good salesperson is curiosity. Curiosity killed the cat, but in this
case, it makes a successful salesman. Basically, curiosity is the desire to always learn
something. Being curious about products and clients is only the start. 
Successful salespeople are also curious about their
competition, the latest market trends, what is happening in
the industry and their latest clients’ preferences. This, in turn,
pushes them to become the best at what they do. However,
this requires a lot of time, dedication, market and sales
processes research. But, success with a little effort is worth
it.
Success Trait #15: Good Listener
Good listening involves paying close and keen attention to
what your clients need. This is what is called perspective listening. Most sales people fail to
close a sale because of what I like to call a ‘consumer communication barrier.’ They fail to get
into the mind of their leads and understand them inside out.
The only way to get to understand your client
and know what they want is by listening to what your
prospects are saying. Good listening skills are also
essential, especially when getting sales advice from
gurus on how to be a better salesperson. Successful
salespeople know good listening and the role it plays
in making good sales.
Activity #3

Instruction: Among the Top 15 Traits and Qualities of a Good Sales Person, choose top 5
Traits and Qualities that you think you need to become an effective sales person. Explain WHY
you need it, and explain HOW will you apply it in real life.

Example:

1. Passionate

Why?
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
How?
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
Chapter 5: Consumer Markets and Buyer Behavior

Consumer buyer behavior refers to the buying behavior of final consumers—individuals and
households that buy goods and services for personal consumption. All of these final consumers
combine to make up the consumer market.
Model of Consumer Behavior

Characteristics Affecting Consumer Behavior

Consumer purchases are influenced strongly by cultural, social, personal, and psychological
characteristics, as shown in the figure. For the most part, marketers cannot control such factors,
but they must take them into account.
CULTURAL FACTORS
Culture is the most basic cause of a person’s wants and behavior. Human behavior is largely
learned. Growing up in a society, a child learns basic values, perceptions, wants, and behaviors
from his or her family and other important institutions.
Marketers are always trying to spot cultural shifts so as to discover new products that might be
wanted.

Each culture contains smaller subcultures, or groups of people with shared value systems
based on common life experiences and situations. Subcultures include nationalities, religions,
racial groups, and geographic regions. Many subcultures make up important market segments,
and marketers often design products and marketing programs tailored to their needs.
Almost every society has some form of social class structure. Social classes are society’s
relatively permanent and ordered divisions whose members share similar values, interests, and
behaviors.
Social class is not determined by a single factor, such as income, but is measured as a
combination of occupation, income, education, wealth, and other variables. In some social
systems, members of different classes are reared for certain roles and cannot change their
social positions.
SOCIAL FACTORS
A consumer’s behavior also is influenced by social factors, such as the consumer’s small
groups, social networks, family, and social roles and status.
Many small groups influence a person’s behavior. Groups that have a direct influence and to
which a person belongs are called membership groups. In contrast, reference groups serve
as direct (face-to-face interactions) or indirect points of comparison or reference in forming a
person’s attitudes or behavior. People often are influenced by reference groups to which they do
not belong. For example, an aspirational group is one to which the individual wishes to belong,
as when a young basketball player hopes to someday emulate basketball star LeBron James
and play in the NBA.

Word-of-mouth influence can have a powerful impact on consumer

buying behavior. The personal words and recommendations of
trusted friends, family, associates, and other consumers tend to be
more credible than those coming from commercial sources, such as advertisements or
salespeople.
Marketers of brands subjected to strong group influence must figure out how to reach opinion
leaders—people within a reference group who, because of special skills, knowledge,
personality, or other characteristics, exert social influence on others. Some experts call this
group the influentials or leading adopters.

Marketers are working to harness the power of these

new social networks and other “word-of-Web”
opportunities to promote their products and build closer
customer relationships. Instead of throwing more one-
way commercial messages at consumers, they hope to
use the Internet and mobile social networks to interact
with consumers and become a part of their
conversations and lives.
Family members can strongly influence buyer
behavior. The family is the most important consumer
buying organization in society, and it has been researched extensively. Marketers are interested
in the roles and influence of the husband, wife, and children on the purchase of different
products and services.
Personal Factors
A buyer’s decisions also are influenced by personal characteristics such as the buyer’s age and
life-cycle stage, occupation, economic situation, lifestyle, and personality and self-concept.
Age and Life-Cycle. Stage People change the goods and services they buy over their lifetimes.
Tastes in food, clothes, furniture, and recreation are often age related. Buying is also shaped by
the stage of the family life cycle—the stages through which families might pass as they mature
over time. Life stage changes usually result from demographics and life-changing events—
marriage, having children, purchasing a home, divorce, children going to college, changes in
personal income, moving out of the house, and retirement. Marketers often define their target
markets in terms of life-cycle stage and develop appropriate products and marketing plans for
each stage.

Occupation. A person’s occupation affects the goods and services bought. Blue-collar workers
tend to buy more rugged work clothes, whereas executives buy more business suits. Marketers
try to identify the occupational groups that have an above-average interest in their products and
services. A company can even specialize in making products needed by a given occupational
group.
Economic Situation. A person’s economic situation will affect his or her store and product
choices. Marketers watch trends in spending, personal income, savings, and interest rates.
Types of Buying Decision Behavior
Buying behavior differs greatly for a tube of toothpaste, a smartphone, financial services, and a
new car. More complex decisions usually involve more buying participants and more buyer
deliberation. The figure shows the types of consumer buying behavior based on the degree of
buyer involvement and the degree of differences among brands.

Complex Buying Behavior

Consumers undertake complex buying behavior when they
are highly involved in a purchase and perceive significant
differences among brands. Consumers may be highly
involved when the product is expensive, risky, purchased
infrequently, and highly self-expressive. Typically, the
consumer has much to learn about the product category.
For example, someone buying a new car might know what
models, attributes, and accessories to consider or what
prices to expect.
Dissonance-Reducing Buying Behavior
Dissonance-reducing buying behavior occurs when consumers are highly involved with an
expensive, infrequent, or risky purchase but see little difference among brands. For example,
consumers buying carpeting may face a high-involvement decision because carpeting is
expensive and self-expressive. Yet buyers may consider most carpet brands in a given price
range to be the same. In this case, because perceived brand differences are not large, buyers
may shop around to learn what is available but buy relatively quickly. They may respond
primarily to a good price or purchase convenience.
After the purchase, consumers might
experience post purchase dissonance (after-sale
discomfort) when they notice certain disadvantages
of the purchased carpet brand or hear favorable
things about brands not purchased. To counter such
dissonance, the marketer’s after-sale
communications should provide evidence and
support to help consumers feel good about their
brand choices.
Habitual Buying Behavior
Habitual buying behavior occurs under conditions of low-
consumer involvement and little significant brand difference.
For example, take table salt. Consumers have little
involvement in this product category—they simply go to the
store and reach for a brand. If they keep reaching for the
same brand, it is out of habit rather than strong brand loyalty.
Consumers appear to have low involvement with most low-
cost, frequently purchased products.

Variety-Seeking Buying Behavior

Consumers undertake variety-seeking buying behavior in situations characterized by low
consumer involvement but significant perceived brand differences. In such cases, consumers
often do a lot of brand switching. For example, when buying cookies, a consumer may hold
some beliefs, choose a cookie brand without much evaluation, and then evaluate that brand
during consumption. But the next time, the consumer might pick another brand out of boredom
or simply to try something different. Brand switching occurs for the sake of variety rather than
because of dissatisfaction.
In such product categories, the marketing
strategy may differ for the market leader and minor
brands. The market leader will try to encourage habitual
buying behavior by dominating shelf space, keeping
shelves fully stocked, and running frequent reminder
advertising. Challenger firms will encourage variety
seeking by offering lower prices, special deals,
coupons, free samples, and advertising that presents
reasons for trying something new.

The Buyer Decision Process

Now that we have looked at the influences that affect buyers, we are ready to look at how
consumers make buying decisions. The figure shows that the buyer decision process consists
of five stages: need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, the purchase
decision, and post purchase behavior. Clearly, the buying process starts long before the actual
purchase and continues long after. Marketers need to focus on the entire buying process rather
than on the purchase decision only.
Need Recognition
The buying process starts with need recognition—the buyer
recognizes a problem or need. The need can be triggered by
internal stimuli when one of the person’s normal needs—for
example, hunger or thirst—rises to a level high enough to
become a drive. A need can also be triggered by external
stimuli. For example, an advertisement or a discussion with a
friend might get you thinking about buying a new car. At this
stage, the marketer should research consumers to find out what
kinds of needs or problems arise, what brought them about, and
how they led the consumer to this particular product.
Information Search
An interested consumer may or may not search for more
information. If the consumer’s drive is strong and a satisfying
product is near at hand, he or she is likely to buy it then. If not,
the consumer may store the need in memory or undertake an
information search related to the need. For example, once
you’ve decided you need a new car, at the least, you will
probably pay more attention to car ads, cars owned by friends,
and car conversations. Or you may actively search online, talk
with friends, and gather information in other ways.

Evaluation of Alternatives
We have seen how consumers use information to arrive at a
set of final brand choices. Next, marketers need to know
about alternative evaluation, that is, how consumers process
information to choose among alternative brands.
Unfortunately, consumers do not use a simple and single
evaluation process in all buying situations. Instead, several
evaluation processes are at work.
Purchase Decision
In the evaluation stage, the consumer ranks brands and forms purchase intentions. Generally,
the consumer’s purchase decision will be to buy the most preferred brand, but two factors can
come between the purchase intention and the purchase decision. The first factor is the attitudes
of others. If someone important to you thinks that you should buy the lowest priced car, then the
chances of you buying a more expensive car are reduced.
The second factor is unexpected situational factors. The consumer may form a purchase
intention based on factors such as expected income, expected
price, and expected product benefits. However, unexpected
events may change the purchase intention. For example, the
economy might take a turn for the worse, a close competitor
might drop its price, or a friend might report being disappointed
in your preferred car. Thus, preferences and even purchase
intentions do not always result in an actual purchase choice.
Post purchase Behavior
The marketer’s job does not end when the product is bought.
After purchasing the product, the consumer will either be
satisfied or dissatisfied and will engage in post purchase
behavior of interest to the marketer. What determines whether the buyer is satisfied or
dissatisfied with a purchase? The answer lies in the relationship between the consumer’s
expectations and the product’s perceived performance. If the product falls short of expectations,
the consumer is disappointed; if it meets expectations, the consumer is satisfied; if it exceeds
expectations, the consumer is delighted. The larger the gap between expectations and
performance, the greater the consumer’s dissatisfaction. This suggests that sellers should
promise only what their brands can deliver so that buyers are satisfied.

Activity #4 Midterm

Part 1

Instruction: Provide an example or scenario of how these factors affect the consumer buying
behavior.

Cultural Factor
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________

Social Factor

____________________________________________________________________________
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____________________________________________________________________________

Personal Factor

____________________________________________________________________________
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Part 2

Instruction: Provide 3 examples of products for each type of buying decision behavior.

Complex Buying Behavior:

1.

2.
3.

Dissonance-Reducing Buying Behavior:

1.

2.

3.

Habitual Buying Behavior:

1.

2.

3.

Variety-Seeking Buying Behavior:

1.

2.

3.

Part 3

Instruction: Create a scenario or a story that shows the buyer decision process.

____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
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____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________

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____________________________________________________________________________

Chapter 6: Introduction to Personal Selling

Personal Selling
Robert Louis Stevenson once noted, “Everyone lives by selling something.” Companies around
the world use sales forces to sell products and services to business customers and final
consumers. But sales forces are also found in many other kinds of organizations. For example,
colleges use recruiters to attract new students, and churches use membership committees to
attract new members. Museums and fine arts organizations use fundraisers to contact donors
and raise money. In the first part of this chapter, we examine personal selling’s role in the
organization, sales force management decisions, and the personal selling process.
The Nature of Personal Selling
Personal selling is one of the oldest professions in the world. The people who do the selling go
by many names, including salespeople, sales representatives, agents, district managers,
account executives, sales consultants, and sales engineers.
The term salesperson covers a wide range of positions. At one extreme, a salesperson might
be largely an order taker, such as the department store salesperson standing behind the
counter. At the other extreme are order getters, whose positions demand creative selling, social
selling, and relationship building for products and services ranging from appliances, industrial
equipment, and airplanes to insurance and IT services. In this chapter, we focus on the more
creative types of selling and the process of building and managing an effective sales force.
The Role of the Sales Force
Personal selling is the interpersonal arm of the promotion mix. Advertising consists largely of
nonpersonal communication with large groups of consumers. By contrast, personal selling
involves interpersonal interactions and engagement between salespeople and individual
customers—whether face to face, by phone, via e-mail or Twitter, through video or online
conferences, or by other means. Personal selling can be more effective than advertising in more
complex selling situations. Salespeople can probe customers to learn more about their
problems and then adjust the marketing offer and presentation to fit each customer’s special
needs.
The role of personal selling varies from company to company. Some firms have no
salespeople at all—for example, companies that sell only online, or companies that sell through
manufacturers’ reps, sales agents, or brokers. In most firms, however, the sales force plays a
major role. In companies that sell business products and services, such as IBM, DuPont, or
Boeing, salespeople work directly with customers. In consumer product companies such as
P&G or Nike, the sales force plays an important behind-the-scenes role. It works with
wholesalers and retailers to gain their support and help them
be more effective in selling the company’s products to final
buyers.
Linking the Company with Its Customers
The sales force serves as a critical link between a company
and its customers. In many cases, salespeople serve two
masters—the seller and the buyer. First, they represent the
company to customers. They find and develop new customers and communicate information
about the company’s products and services. They sell products by approaching and engaging
customers, presenting their offerings, answering objections, negotiating prices and terms,
closing sales, servicing accounts, and maintaining account relationships

Managing the Sales Force

We define sales force management as analyzing, planning, implementing, and controlling sales
force activities. It includes designing sales force strategy and structure, as well as recruiting,
selecting, training, compensating, supervising, and evaluating the firm’s salespeople. These
major sales force management decisions are shown in Figure 16.1 and discussed in the
following sections.

Designing the Sales Force Strategy and Structure

Marketing managers face several sales force strategy and design questions. How should
salespeople and their tasks be structured? How big should the sales force be? Should
salespeople sell alone or work in teams with other people in the company? Should they sell in
the field, by phone, or using online and social media? We address these issues next.
The Sales Force Structure

 Territorial sales force structure

A sales force organization that assigns each salesperson to an exclusive geographic
territory in which that salesperson sells the company’s full line.

 Product sales force structure

A sales force organization in which salespeople specialize in selling only a portion of the
company’s products or lines.

 Customer (or market) sales force structure

A sales force organization in which salespeople specialize in selling only to certain customers or
industries.
Sales Force Size
Once the company has set its structure, it is ready to consider sales force size. Sales
forces may range in size from only a few salespeople to tens of thousands. Some sales forces
are huge— for example, in the United States, PepsiCo employs 36,000 salespeople; American
Express, 23,400; GE, 16,400; and Cisco Systems, 14,000. Salespeople constitute one of the
company’s most productive—and most expensive—assets. Therefore, increasing their numbers
will increase both sales and costs.
Other Sales Force Strategy

 Outside sales force (or field sales force)

Salespeople who travel to call on customers in the field.

 Inside sales force

Salespeople who conduct business from their offices via telephone, online and social media
interactions, or visits from prospective buyers.
Recruiting and Selecting Salespeople
At the heart of any successful sales force operation is the recruitment and selection of good
salespeople. The performance difference between an average salesperson and a top
salesperson can be substantial. In a typical sales force, the top 30 percent of the salespeople
might bring in 60 percent of the sales. Thus, careful salesperson selection can greatly increase
overall sales force performance. Beyond the differences in sales performance, poor selection
results in costly turnover. When a salesperson quits, the costs of finding and training a new
salesperson—plus the costs of lost sales—can be very high. One sales consulting firm
calculates the total costs of a bad sales hire at a whopping $616,000.10 Also, a sales force with
many new people is less productive, and turnover disrupts important customer relationships.
What sets great salespeople apart from all the rest? In an effort to profile top sales
performers, Gallup Consulting, a division of the well-known Gallup polling organization, has
interviewed hundreds of thousands of salespeople. Its research suggests that the best
salespeople possess four key talents: intrinsic motivation, a disciplined work style, the ability to
close a sale, and, perhaps most important, the ability to build relationships with customers.
Training Salespeople
New salespeople may spend anywhere from a few weeks or months to a year or more in
training. After the initial training ends, most companies provide continuing sales training via
seminars, sales meetings, and Internet e-learning throughout the salesperson’s career.
According to one source, American firms spent nearly $20 billion on sales training last year.
Although training can be expensive, it can also yield
dramatic returns. For instance, one recent study
showed that sales training conducted by ADP, an
administrative services firm, resulted in a return on
investment of nearly 340 percent in only 90 days.
Training programs have several goals. First,
salespeople need to know about customers and
how to build relationships with them. Therefore, the training program must teach them about
different types of customers and their needs, buying motives, and buying habits. It must also
teach them how to sell effectively and train them in the basics of the selling process.
Salespeople also need to know and identify with the company, its products, and its competitors.
Therefore, an effective training program teaches them about the company’s objectives,
organization, products, and the strategies of major competitors.
Compensating Salespeople
To attract good salespeople, a company must have an appealing compensation plan.
Compensation consists of four elements: a fixed amount, a variable amount, expenses, and
fringe benefits. The fixed amount, usually a salary, gives the salesperson some stable income.
The variable amount, which might be commissions or bonuses based on sales performance,
rewards the salesperson for greater effort and success.
Management must determine what mix of these compensation elements makes the most
sense for each sales job. Different combinations of fixed and variable compensation give rise to
four basic types of compensation plans: straight salary, straight commission, salary plus bonus,
and salary plus commission. According to one study of sales force compensation, 18 percent of
companies pay straight salary, 19 percent pay straight commission, and 63 percent pay a
combination of salary plus incentives. Another study showed that the average salesperson’s pay
consists of about 67 percent salary and 33 percent incentive pay.
Supervising and Motivating Salespeople
New salespeople need more than a territory, compensation, and training—they need
supervision and motivation. The goal of supervision is to help salespeople “work smart” by doing
the right things in the right ways. The goal of motivation is to encourage salespeople to “work
hard” and energetically toward sales force goals. If salespeople work smart and work hard, they
will realize their full potential—to their own and the company’s benefit.
Supervising Salespeople
Companies vary in how closely they supervise their salespeople. Many help salespeople identify
target customers and set call objectives. Some may also specify how much time the sales force
should spend prospecting for new accounts and set other time management priorities. One tool
is the weekly, monthly, or annual call plan that shows which customers and prospects to call on
and which activities to carry out. Another tool is time-and-duty analysis. In addition to time spent
selling, the salesperson spends time traveling, waiting, taking breaks, and doing administrative
chores
Figure 16.2 shows how salespeople spend their time. On average, active selling time accounts
for only 37 percent of total working time. Companies are always looking for ways to save time—
simplifying administrative duties, developing better sales-call and routing plans, supplying more
and better customer information, and using phone, e-mail, online, or mobile conferencing
instead of traveling.
Many firms have adopted sales force automation systems: computerized, digitized sales
force operations that let salespeople work more effectively anytime, anywhere. Companies now
routinely equip their salespeople with laptops or tablets, smartphones, wireless connections,
videoconferencing technologies, and customer-contact and relationship management software.
Armed with these technologies, salespeople can more effectively and efficiently profile
customers and prospects, analyze and forecast sales, engage customers, make presentations,
prepare sales and expense reports, and manage account relationships. The result is better time
management, improved customer service, lower sales costs, and higher sales performance. In
all, technology has reshaped the ways in which salespeople carry out their duties and engage
customers.
Motivating Salespeople
Beyond directing salespeople, sales managers must also motivate them. Some salespeople will
do their best without any special urging from management. To them, selling may be the most
fascinating job in the world. But selling can also be frustrating. Salespeople often work alone,
and they must sometimes travel away from home. They may also face aggressive competing
salespeople and difficult customers. Therefore, salespeople often need special encouragement
to do their best.
Management can boost sales force morale and performance through its organizational
climate, sales quotas, and positive incentives. Organizational climate describes the feeling that
salespeople have about their opportunities, value, and rewards for a good performance. Some
companies treat salespeople as if they are not very important, so performance suffers
accordingly. Other companies treat their salespeople as valued contributors and allow virtually
unlimited opportunity for income and promotion. Not surprisingly, these companies enjoy higher
sales force performance and less turnover.
 Many companies motivate their salespeople by setting sales quotas—standards stating
the amount they should sell and how sales should be divided among the company’s products.
Compensation is often related to how well salespeople meet their quotas. Companies also use
various positive incentives to increase the sales force effort. Sales meetings provide social
occasions, breaks from the routine, chances to meet and talk with “company brass,” and
opportunities to air feelings and identify with a larger group. Companies also sponsor sales
contests to spur the sales force to make a selling effort above and beyond what is normally
expected. Other incentives include honors, merchandise and cash awards, trips, and profit-
sharing plans.

Evaluating Salespeople and Sales Force Performance

We have thus far described how management communicates what salespeople should be doing
and how it motivates them to do it. This process requires good feedback, which means getting
regular information about salespeople to evaluate their performance.
Management gets information about its salespeople in several ways. The most important
source is sales reports, including weekly or monthly work plans and longer-term territory
marketing plans. Salespeople also write up their completed activities on call reports and turn in
expense reports for which they are partly or wholly reimbursed. The company can also monitor
the sales and profit performance data in the salesperson’s territory. Additional information
comes from personal observation, customer surveys, and talks with other salespeople.
Using various sales force reports and other information, sales management evaluates
the members of the sales force. It evaluates salespeople on their ability to “plan their work and
work their plan.” Formal evaluation forces management to develop and communicate clear
standards for judging performance. It also provides salespeople with constructive feedback and
motivates them to perform well.
On a broader level, management should evaluate the performance of the sales force as a
whole. Is the sales force accomplishing its customer relationship, sales, and profit objectives? Is
it working well with other areas of the marketing and company organization? Are sales force
costs in line with outcomes? As with other marketing activities, the company wants to measure
its return on sales investment.
Social Selling: Online, Mobile, and Social Media Tools
The fastest-growing sales trend is the explosion in social selling—the use of online, mobile, and
social media to engage customers, build stronger customer relationships, and augment sales
performance. New digital sales force technologies are creating exciting new avenues for
connecting with and engaging customers in the digital and social media age. Some analysts
even predict that the Internet will mean the death of person-to-person selling, as salespeople
are ultimately replaced by Web sites, online social media, mobile apps, video and conferencing
technologies, and other tools that allow direct customer contact. “Don’t believe it,” says one
sales expert (see Real Marketing 16.1).18 Used properly, online and social media technologies
won’t make salespeople obsolete; they will make salespeople more productive and effective.
The new digital technologies are providing salespeople with powerful tools for identifying
and learning about prospects, engaging customers, creating customer value, closing sales, and
nurturing customer relationships. Social selling technologies can produce big organizational
benefits for sales forces. They help conserve salespeople’s valuable time, save travel dollars,
and give salespeople new vehicles for selling and servicing accounts.

Activity #6

Instruction: Provide a detailed example/scenario that shows the major steps in sales force
management. All the steps must be connected to one another. (minimum of 2 pages)

Designing the Sales Force Strategy and Structure

 
 

Recruiting and Selecting Salespeople

Training Salespeople

Compensating Salespeople

Supervising and Motivating Salespeople

Evaluating Salespeople and Sales Force Performance

Chapter 7: Personal Selling Process and Sales Promotion

The Personal Selling Process
We now turn from designing and managing a sales force to the personal selling process. The
selling process consists of several steps that salespeople must master. These steps focus on
the goal of getting new customers and obtaining orders from them. However, most salespeople
spend much of their time maintaining existing accounts and building long-term customer
relationships. We will discuss the relationship aspect of the personal selling process in a later
section.
Steps in the Selling Process
As shown in Figure 16.3, the selling process consists of seven steps: prospecting and
qualifying, pre-approach, approach, presentation and demonstration, handling objections,
closing, and follow-up.

Prospecting and Qualifying

The first step in the selling process is prospecting—identifying qualified potential customers.
Approaching the right customers is crucial to selling success. Salespeople don’t want to call on
just any potential customers. They want to call on those who are most likely to appreciate and
respond to the company’s value proposition—those the company can serve well and profitably.
A salesperson must often approach many prospects to get only a few sales. Although
the company supplies some leads, salespeople need skill in finding their own. The best source
is referrals. Salespeople can ask current customers for referrals and cultivate other referral
sources, such as suppliers, dealers, noncompeting salespeople, and online or social media
contacts. They can also search for prospects in directories or on the Internet and track down
leads using the telephone, e-mail, and social media. Or, as a last resort, they can drop in
unannounced on various offices (a practice known as cold calling).
Salespeople also need to know how to qualify leads—that is, how to identify the good
ones and screen out the poor ones. Prospects can be qualified by looking at their financial
ability, volume of business, special needs, location, and possibilities for growth.
Pre-approach
Before calling on a prospect, the salesperson should learn as much as possible about the
organization (what it needs, who is involved in the buying) and its buyers (their characteristics
and buying styles). This step is known as pre-approach. A successful sale begins long before
the salesperson makes initial contact with a prospect. Pre-approach begins with good research
and preparation. The salesperson can consult standard industry and online sources,
acquaintances, and others to learn about the company. He or she can scour the prospect’s Web
and social media sites for information about its products, buyers, and buying processes. Then
the salesperson must apply the research gathered to develop a customer strategy.
The salesperson should set call objectives, which may be to qualify the prospect,
gather information, or make an immediate sale. Another task is to determine the best
approach, which might be a personal visit, a phone call, an e-mail, or a text or tweet. The ideal
timing should be considered carefully because many prospects are busiest at certain times of
the day or week. Finally, the salesperson should give thought to an overall sales strategy for the
account.
Approach
During the approach step, the salesperson should know how to meet and greet the buyer and
get the relationship off to a good start. The approach might take place offline or online, in-
person or via digital conferencing or social media. This step involves the salesperson’s
appearance, opening lines, and follow-up remarks. The opening lines should be positive to build
goodwill from the outset. This opening might be followed by some key questions to learn more
about the customer’s needs or by showing a display or sample to attract the buyer’s attention
and curiosity. As in all stages of the selling process, listening to the customer is crucial.

Presentation and Demonstration

During the presentation step of the selling process, the salesperson tells the “value story” to
the buyer, showing how the company’s offer solves the customer’s problems. The customer-
solution approach fits better with today’s relationship marketing focus than does a hard sell or
glad-handing approach.
The goal should be to show how the company’s products and services fit the customer’s
needs. Buyers today want insights and solutions, not smiles; results, not razzle-dazzle.
Moreover, they don’t want just products. More than ever in today’s economic climate, buyers
want to know how those products will add value to their businesses. They want salespeople
who listen to their concerns, understand their needs, and respond with the right products and
services.
But before salespeople can present customer solutions, they must develop solutions to
present. The solutions approach calls for good listening and problem-solving skills. The qualities
that buyers dislike most in salespeople include being pushy, late, deceitful, unprepared,
disorganized, or overly talkative. The qualities they value most include good listening, empathy,
honesty, dependability, thoroughness, and follow-through. Great salespeople know how to
sell, but more important, they know how to listen and build strong customer
relationships. According to an old sales adage, “You have two ears and one mouth. Use them
proportionally.”
 Finally, salespeople must also plan their presentation methods. Good interpersonal
communication skills count when it comes to engaging customers and making effective sales
presentations. However, the current media-rich and cluttered communications environment
presents many new challenges for sales presenters. Today’s information-overloaded customers
demand richer presentation experiences. For their part, presenters now face multiple
distractions during presentations from mobile phones, text messages, and other digital
competition. As a result, salespeople must deliver their messages in more engaging and
compelling ways.
Thus, today’s salespeople are employing advanced presentation technologies that allow
for full multimedia presentations to only one or a few people. The venerable old sales
presentation flip chart has been replaced with tablet computers, sophisticated presentation
software, online presentation technologies, interactive whiteboards, and digital projectors.
Handling Objections
Customers almost always have objections during the presentation or when asked to place an
order. The objections can be either logical or psychological, and they are often unspoken. In
handling objections, the salesperson should use a positive approach, seek out hidden
objections, ask the buyer to clarify any objections, take objections as opportunities to provide
more information, and turn the objections into reasons for buying. Every salesperson needs
training in the skills of handling objections.

Closing
After handling the prospect’s objections, the salesperson next tries to close the sale. However,
some salespeople do not get around to closing or don’t handle it well. They may lack
confidence, feel guilty about asking for the order, or fail to recognize the right moment to close
the sale. Salespeople should know how to recognize closing signals from the buyer, including
physical actions, comments, and questions. For example, the customer might sit forward and
nod approvingly or ask about prices and credit terms.
Salespeople can use any of several closing techniques. They can ask for the order,
review points of agreement, offer to help write up the order, ask whether the buyer wants this
model or that one, or note that the buyer will lose out if the order is not placed now. The
salesperson may offer the buyer special reasons to close, such as a lower price, an extra
quantity at no charge, or additional services.
Follow-Up
The last step in the selling process—follow-up—is necessary if the salesperson wants to ensure
customer satisfaction and repeat business. Right after closing, the salesperson should complete
any details on delivery time, purchase terms, and other matters. The salesperson then should
schedule a follow-up call after the buyer receives the initial order to make sure proper
installation, instruction, and servicing occur. This visit would reveal any problems, assure the
buyer of the salesperson’s interest, and reduce any buyer concerns that might have arisen since
the sale.
Sales Promotion
Personal selling and advertising often work closely
with another promotion tool, sales promotion. Sales
promotion consists of short-term incentives to
encourage the purchase or sales of a product or
service. Whereas advertising offers reasons to buy a
product or service, sales promotion offers reasons to
buy now.

The Rapid Growth of Sales Promotion

Several factors have contributed to the rapid growth of sales promotion, particularly in consumer
markets. First, inside the company, product managers face greater pressures to increase
current sales, and they view promotion as an effective short-run sales tool. Second, externally,
the company faces more competition, and competing brands are less differentiated.
Increasingly, competitors are using sales promotion to help differentiate their offers. Third,
advertising efficiency has declined because of rising costs, media clutter, and legal restraints.
Finally, consumers have become more deal oriented. In the current economy, consumers are
demanding lower prices and better deals. Sales promotions can help attract today’s more thrift-
oriented consumers.
Major Sales Promotion Tools
Many tools can be used to accomplish sales promotion objectives. Descriptions of the main
consumer, trade, and business promotion tools follow.
Consumer Promotions
Consumer promotions include a wide range of tools—from samples, coupons, refunds,
premiums, and point-of-purchase displays to contests, sweepstakes, and event sponsorships.

 Samples are offers of a trial amount of a product. Sampling is the

most effective— but most expensive—way to introduce a new
product or create new excitement for an existing one

 Coupons are certificates that

save buyers money when they
purchase specified products.
  Price packs (also called cents-off deals) offer consumers savings off the regular price of
a product.

 Premiums are goods offered either free or at low

cost as an incentive to buy a product, ranging from toys
included with kids’ products to phone cards and D VDs.

 Finally,
marketers can promote their brands through event
marketing (or event sponsorships). They can
create their own brand-marketing events or serve
as sole or participating sponsors of events created
by others.

Trade Promotions
Manufacturers direct more sales promotion dollars toward retailers and wholesalers (79 percent
of all promotions dollars) than to final consumers (21 percent). Trade promotions can
persuade resellers to carry a brand, give it shelf space, promote it in advertising, and push it to
consumers. Shelf space is so scarce these days that manufacturers often have to offer price-
offs, allowances, buy-back guarantees, or free goods to retailers and wholesalers to get
products on the shelf and, once there, to keep them on it.

 Manufacturer may offer a straight discount off the list price on each case purchased
during a stated period of time.
 Manufacturers also may offer an allowance (usually so much off per case) in return for
the retailer’s agreement to feature the manufacturer’s products in some way.
 Manufacturers may offer free goods, which are extra cases of merchandise, to resellers
who buy a certain quantity or who feature a certain flavor or size.
 They may also offer push money—cash or gifts to dealers or their sales forces to “push”
the manufacturer’s goods.
 Manufacturers may give retailers free specialty advertising items that carry the
company’s name, such as pens, calendars, memo pads, flashlights, and tote bags.
Business Promotions
Companies spend billions of dollars each year on promotion geared toward industrial
customers. Business promotions are used to generate business leads, stimulate purchases,
reward customers, and motivate salespeople. Business promotions include many of the same
tools used for consumer or trade promotions. Here, we focus on two additional major business
promotion tools: conventions and trade shows and sales contests.
 Many companies and trade associations organize conventions and trade shows to
promote their products. Firms selling to the industry show their products at the trade show.
Vendors at these shows receive many benefits, such as opportunities to find new sales leads,
contact customers, introduce new products, meet new customers, sell more to present
customers, and educate customers with publications and audiovisual materials. Trade shows
also help companies reach many prospects that are not reached through their sales forces.

Developing the Sales Promotion Program

Beyond selecting the types of promotions to use, marketers must make several other decisions
in designing the full sales promotion program. First, they must determine the size of the
incentive. A certain minimum incentive is necessary if the promotion is to succeed; a larger
incentive will produce more sales response. The marketer also must set conditions for
participation. Incentives might be offered to everyone or only to select groups.
Marketers must determine how to promote and distribute the promotion program
itself. For example, a $2-off coupon could be given out in a package, in an advertisement, at the
store, via the Internet, or in a mobile download. Each distribution method involves a different
level of reach and cost. Increasingly, marketers are blending several media into a total
campaign concept. The length of the promotion is also important. If the sales promotion
period is too short, many prospects (who may not be buying during that time) will miss it. If the
promotion runs too long, the deal will lose some of its “act now” force.
Evaluation is also very important. Marketers should work to measure the returns on their sales
promotion investments, just as they should seek to assess the returns on other marketing
activities. The most common evaluation method is to compare sales before, during, and after a
promotion. Marketers should ask: Did the promotion attract new customers or more purchasing
from current customers? Can we hold onto these new customers and purchases? Will the long-
run customer relationship and sales gains from the promotion justify its costs?

Activity #7

Par 1

Instruction: Provide a detailed example/scenario that shows the seven steps of the selling
process. All the steps must be connected to one another. (minimum of 2 pages)

 
Prospecting and Qualifying

Pre-approach

Approach

Presentation and Demonstration

 
 

Handling Objections

Closing

Follow-Up

 Part 2

Answer the following questions.

Q. What is the difference between Advertising and Sales Promotion?

 

Q. Among the different examples of Consumer Promotion, for you, what is the most effective?
Explain.

Q. Among the different examples of Trade Promotion, for you, what is the most effective?
Explain.

Q. Is it better to implement a long period of sales promotion? Yes, or No? Explain.

Selling Activity
Name:
Section:
FIRST TERM
 Product (description & picture) Quantit Pric Date Tota
y e l
Face mask 2 100 Februar 200
y 8,
2021

Alcohol 3 50 Februar 150

y 9,2021

Gcash Load 1 100 Februar 100

y 10,
2021
 First term’s total sales = 450

SUMMARY
Term Total
First Term 450
Second Term
Semi Final Term
Final Term
Final total =