Basic Marketing: A Global Managerial Approach

Perreault−McCarthy: Basic
Marketing: A
Global−Managerial
Approach, 14/e

15. Personal Selling Text © The McGraw−Hill
    Companies, 2002

Personal Selling 443

Three kinds of sales

presentations may be

useful

The prepared sales

presentation

Many firms provide their reps with specially developed computer programs to help

with this process. Most of them use some grading scheme. A sales rep might esti-

mate how much each prospect is likely to purchase and the probability of getting

and keeping the business given the competition. The computer then combines this

information and grades each prospect. Attractive accounts may be labeled A—and

the salesperson may plan to call on them weekly until the sale is made, the rela-

tionship is in good shape, or the customer is moved into a lower category. B

customers might offer somewhat lower potential and be called on monthly. C

accounts might be called on only once a year—unless they happen to contact the

salesperson. And D accounts might be transferred to a telemarketing group or even

ignored—unless the customer takes the initiative.^22

Once the salesperson selects a target customer, it’s necessary to plan for the sales

call. This precall planning usually involves preparing a sales presentation—a sales-

person’s effort to make a sale or address a customer’s problem. But someone has to

plan what kind of sales presentation to make. This is a strategy decision. The kind

of presentation should be set before the sales rep goes calling. And in situations

where the customer comes to the salesperson—in a retail store, for instance—plan-

ners have to make sure that prospects are brought together with salespeople.

A marketing manager can choose two basically different approaches to making

sales presentations: the prepared approach or the consultative selling approach.

Another approach—the selling formula approach—is a combination of the two.

Each of these has its place.

The prepared sales presentationapproach uses a memorized presentation that is

not adapted to each individual customer. A prepared (canned) presentation builds

on the stimulus-response ideas discussed in Chapter 6. This model says that a cus-

tomer faced with a particular stimulus will give the desired response—in this case,

a yes answer to the salesperson’s prepared statement, which includes a close,the

salesperson’s request for an order.

If one trial close doesn’t work, the sales rep tries another prepared presentation

and attempts another closing. This can go on for some time—until the salesperson

runs out of material or the customer either buys or decides to leave. Exhibit 15-5

shows the relative participation of the salesperson and customer in the prepared

approach. Note that the salesperson does most of the talking.

In modern selling, firms commonly use the canned approach when the prospec-

tive sale is low in value and only a short presentation is practical. It’s also sensible

when salespeople aren’t very skilled. The company can control what they say and

in what order. For example, Novartis uses missionary salespeople to tell doctors

about new drugs when they’re introduced. Doctors are busy, so they only give the

rep a minute or two. That’s just enough time to give a short, prepared pitch and

leave some samples. To get the most out of the presentation, Novartis refines it

based on feedback from doctors whom it pays to participate in focus groups.^23

But a canned approach has a weakness. It treats all potential customers alike. It

may work for some and not for others—and the salespeople probably won’t know

why or learn from experience. A prepared approach may be suitable for simple

order-taking—but it is no longer considered good selling for complicated situations.

The consultative selling approachinvolves developing a good understanding of

the individual customer’s needs before trying to close the sale. This name is used

because the salesperson is almost acting as a consultant to help identify and solve

the customer’s problem. With this approach, the sales rep makes some general ben-

efit statements to get the customer’s attention and interest. Then the salesperson

asks questions and listens carefullyto understand the customer’s needs. Once they

agree on needs, the seller tries to show the customer how the product fills those

Time

Participation

Customer

Salesperson

Exhibit 15-5

Prepared Approach to Sales

Consultative selling—

builds on the marketing

concept