Advantages and Disadvantages of Personal Selling

Personal selling happens when companies and business firms send out their salesmen to use the sale force and sell the products and services by meeting the consumer face2face. The salesmen aim to inform and encourage the customer to buy, or at least try the product.

Advantages of Personal Selling

Personal selling can prove to be a used promotional method in several ways including:

Effective in Building Personal Relationships: The interactive nature of personal selling makes it the most effective promotional method for building relationships with customers, which is particularly important when purchases take a considerable amount of time to complete (e.g., business-to-business purchasing).

Two-Way Form of Communications: Unlike other promotional methods, personal selling is a two-way form of communication, which enables a salesperson to adjust the message as she/he gains feedback from the customer (e.g., adjust message if customer does not fully understand how the product works).

Best Promotion for Hard-to-Reach Customers: Personal selling is the most practical promotional option for reaching customers who are not easily reached through other methods (e.g., do not response to advertising, public relations, and sales promotions).

Important in International Sales: Building relationships is also a critical part of the personal selling process when doing business internationally, especially in such area as Asia and Latin America, where personal relationships between buyer and seller are often more important than seeking the best business deal.

Disadvantages

More administrative problems:

Personal selling involves more of administrative problems than impersonal selling. Since, the firm is to deal with manpower a driving force behind sales the company has to meet the challenges in the areas of manpower-planning, organizing, directing, coordinating, motivating and controlling. The solutions to these problems, even if found out, are not everlasting because, human content in management is unique.

Stake in consumer loyalty:

Personal selling is such a process-direct and close between the customer and salesman that the consumer loyalty depends on the presence of such a salesman. The firm’s fortunes are tied to the loyalty of consumers which, in turn, depends on the very presence of salesman. The moment the salesman moves out, the clientele drops down to the detriment of the firm.

It is expensive:

Personal selling as a method of promotion is quite expensive. Getting salesman is one thing and retaining him for long is another. Further, there are no definite correlations between his stay and cost of retaining and the contributions of his, in return, to the firm, for such costs.

Training Costs:

Most forms of personal selling require the sales staff be extensively trained on product knowledge, industry information and selling skills. For companies that require their salespeople attend formal training programs, the cost of training can be quite high and include such expenses as travel, hotel, meals, and training equipment while also paying the trainees’ salaries while they attend.