Personal Selling

Personal selling is where businesses use people
(the “sales force”) to sell the product after
meeting face-to- face with the customer.
The sellers promote the product through their
attitude, appearance and specialist product
knowledge. They aim to inform and encourage
the customer to buy, or at least trial the
product.
A good example of personal selling is found in
department stores on the perfume and
cosmetic counters.
A customer can get advice on how to apply the
product and can try different products.
Products with relatively high prices, or with
complex features, are often sold using
personal selling. Great examples include cars,
office equipment (e.g. photocopiers) and many
products that are sold by businesses to other
industrial customers.
The main advantages and disadvantages of
personal selling can be summarised as follows:
Advantages
Disadvantages
High customer attention
Message is customised
Interactivity
Persuasive impact
Potential for development of relationship
Adaptable
Opportunity to close the sale
High cost
Labour intensive
Expensive
Can only reach a limited number of customers
Point-of-sale merchandising can be said to be a
specialist form of personal selling. POS
merchandising involves face-to-face contact
between sales representatives of producers and
the retail trade.
A merchandiser will visit a range of suitable
retail premises in his/her area and encourage
the retailer to stock products from a range.
The visit also provides the opportunity for the
merchandiser to check on stock levels and to
check whether the product is being displayed
optimally.