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 445

company interests, customer interests, and personal interests. Conflicts are less

likely to arise if the firm’s marketing mix really meets the needs of its target mar-

ket. Similarly, they are less likely to arise when the firm sees the value of

developing a longer-term relationship with the customer. Then the salesperson

is arranging a happy marriage. By contrast, ethical conflicts are more likely when

the sales rep’s personal outcomes (such as commission income) or the selling

firm’s profits hinge on making sales to customers whose needs are only partially

met by the firm’s offering. But how close must the fit be between the firm’s prod-

ucts and the customer’s needs before it is appropriate for the salesperson to push

for a sale?

Ideally, companies can avoid the whole problem by supporting their salespeople

with a marketing mix that really offers target customers unique benefits. However,

marketing managers and salespeople alike should recognize that the ideal may not

exist in every sales call. Top executives, marketing managers, and sales managers set

the tone for the ethical climate in which a salesperson operates. If they set impos-

sible goals or project a “do-what-you-need-to-do” attitude, a desperate salesperson

may yield to the pressure of the moment. When a firm clearly advocates ethical sell-

ing behavior and makes it clear that manipulative selling techniques are not

acceptable, the salesperson is not left trying to swim “against the flow.”^25

Keebler salespeople use an

interactive tool called Instant Data

Evaluation Access (“IDEA”)

Wizard on their laptop

computers. It provides research

data related to the marketing of

cookies and crackers on topics

such as shelf space management

and consumer purchase patterns.

The sales rep can use the Wizard

to support a consultative selling

approach in working to develop

closer relationships with retailers.

Conclusion

In this chapter, we discussed the importance and

nature of personal selling. Selling is much more than just

getting rid of the product. In fact, a salesperson who is not

given strategy guidelines may have to become the strategy

planner for the market he or she serves. Ideally, however,

the sales manager and marketing manager work together

to set some strategy guidelines: the kind and number of

salespersons needed, what sales technology support will be

provided, the kind of sales presentation desired, and se-

lection, training, and motivation approaches.

We discussed the three basic sales tasks: (1) order-

getting, (2) order-taking, and (3) supporting. Most sales

jobs combine at least two of these three tasks. Once a

firm specifies the important tasks, it can decide on the

structure of its sales organization and the number of

salespeople it needs. The nature of the job and the level

and method of compensation also depend on the blend

of these tasks. Firms should develop a job description for

each sales job. This, in turn, provides guidelines for se-

lecting, training, and compensating salespeople.