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

needs and to close the sale. This is a problem-solving approach—in which the

customer and salesperson work together to satisfy the customer’s needs. That’s why

it’s sometimes called the need-satisfaction approach. Exhibit 15-6 shows the partic-

ipation of the customer and the salesperson during such a sales presentation.

The consultative selling approach is most useful if there are many subtle differ-

ences among the customers in one target market. In the extreme, each customer may

be thought of as a separate target market—with the salesperson trying to adapt to

each one’s needs and attitudes. This kind of selling takes more skill and time. The

salesperson must be able to analyze what motivates a particular customer and show

how the company’s offering would help the customer satisfy those needs. The sales

rep may even conclude that the customer’s problem is really better solved with some-

one else’s product. That might result in one lost sale, but it also is likely to build real

trust and more sales opportunities over the life of the relationship with the customer.

As you might expect, this is the kind of selling that is typical in business markets

when a salesperson already has established a close relationship with a customer.

The selling formula approachstarts with a prepared presentation outline—much

like the prepared approach—and leads the customer through some logical steps to

a final close. The prepared steps are logical because we assume that we know some-

thing about the target customer’s needs and attitudes.

Exhibit 15-7 shows the selling formula approach. The salesperson does most of

the talking at the beginning of the presentation—to communicate key points early.

This part of the presentation may even have been prepared as part of the marketing

strategy. As the sales presentation moves along, however, the salesperson brings the

customer into the discussion to help clarify just what needs this customer has. The

salesperson’s job is to discover the needs of a particular customer to know how to

proceed. Once it is clear what kind of customer this is, the salesperson comes back

to show how the product satisfies this specific customer’s needs and to close the sale.

This approach can be useful for both order-getting and order-taking situations—

where potential customers are similar and firms must use relatively untrained

salespeople. Some office equipment and computer producers use this approach. They

know the kinds of situations their salespeople meet and roughly what they want them

to say. Using this approach speeds training and makes the sales force productive sooner.

AIDA—Attention, Interest, Desire, Action: Most sales presentations follow this

AIDA sequence. The how-to-do-it might even be set as part of the marketing strat-

egy. The time a sales rep spends on each of the steps might vary depending on the

situation and the selling approach being used. But it is still necessary to begin a

presentation by getting the prospect’s attentionand, hopefully, to move the customer

to actionthrough a close.^24

Each sales manager and salesperson needs to think about this sequence in decid-

ing what sales approach to use and in evaluating a possible presentation. Does the

presentation get the prospect’s attention quickly? Will the presentation be interest-

ing? Will the benefits be clear so that the prospect is moved to buy the product?

Does the presentation consider likely objections and anticipate problems so the sales

rep can act to close the sale when the time is right? These may seem like simple

things. But too frequently they aren’t done at all—and a sale is lost.

As in every other area of marketing communications, ethical issues arise in the

personal selling area. The most basic issue, plain and simple, is whether a salesper-

son’s presentation is honest and truthful. But addressing that issue is a no-brainer.

No company is served well by a salesperson who lies or manipulates customers to

get their business.

On the other hand, most sales reps sooner or later face a sales situation in

which they must make more difficult ethical decisions about how to balance

444 Chapter 15

Selling formula
approach—some
of both

AIDA helps plan
sales presentations

Ethical issues
may arise

Time

ParticipationCustomer

Salesperson

Time

Participation

Customer

Salesperson

Exhibit 15-6
Consultative Selling Approach
to Sales Presentation

Exhibit 15-7
Selling-Formula Approach to
Sales Presentation