Sales

Things We Should Know in Personal Selling for Victory

Written by Parastoo Khalaj
editor
Things We Should Know in Personal Selling for Victory

Personal selling is one of the oldest selling methods, and it has maintained its importance in this era since we still need a human touch in almost everything.

Personal selling can be defined as a face-to-face communication process between a salesperson and a potential customer, in which the salesperson identifies the customer's needs and tries to satisfy them by introducing a product or service. 

This term is also used when a company uses the sales force as one of the main ways of communicating with customers. Personal selling occurs when a sales representative meets with a potential customer to close a deal. It can be in person or online.

This article defines personal selling, why it is important, what steps it has, and more. 

In personal selling, a salesperson introduces a product to the customer.

What Is Personal Selling?

Economic Times defines personal selling as “A face-to-face selling technique by which a salesperson uses interpersonal skills to persuade a customer to buy a particular product. The salesperson highlights various product features to convince the customer that it will only add value.”

As you may know, selling requires more than attending meetings. Each face-to-face meeting requires a significant investment on the part of both parties to the transaction—much more than contacting the customer via email or phone. 

Also, travel expenses and the time spent preparing for and attending the meeting and appointment should be considered. For this reason, before choosing a personal selling method, it’s important to consider the value and type of product you’re trying to sell and the likelihood of closing the deal. However, face-to-face meetings still have their place.

Pay attention to these statistics:

A research indicates that 68% of B2B customers are lost because of salespeople’s indifference or inattention, not their mistakes. Attending a sales meeting is a great solution to this problem because it shows that you value the customer’s time and money.

As Mailshake states, “Buyers state that 58% of sales meetings aren’t valuable and that there should be a greater focus on the value you can deliver them.”

Advantages and Disadvantages of Personal Selling

So far, we’ve found that personal selling is one of the oldest marketing techniques. Even in the time of our ancestors, a tailor would face the buyers directly to market his work and introduce them to his services and products. Here are some advantages and disadvantages of personal selling. 

Let’s check its advantages first:

The list of personal selling advantages.

1. Facilitating Two-Way Communication and Immediate Feedback

Personal selling creates a two-way relationship in which the seller and the potential buyer can interact simultaneously. This way, the seller provides the customer with information about the product or service. 

At the same time, the customer raises questions about the product or even the problems they want to solve. Because the salesperson receives immediate feedback from the prospect, they can adjust his sales presentation and approach to match the customer’s expectations.

2. Build Trust

Since personal selling is the traditional form of interactive marketing, it is much easier to gain people’s trust this way. It doesn’t matter what you sell. Vacuum cleaner? Jewelry? Car? Skin care products? Whatever you sell, you must first gain the trust of the leads in the product and yourself, and what better way to gain trust than personal selling?

3. More Time

In personal selling marketing, you have more time to interact with the customer than, for example, social media advertising or billboard advertising. This allows you to build a deeper relationship with the leads and give them better explanations about the product or service.

4. Improving the Brand Image

Many potential customers are usually not sure whether to buy a product because the description related to that product should be more accurate, and this causes suspicion. However, in personal selling, if you are a marketing professional, you can accurately describe the product or service information to the prospects and not only clear their doubts but also highlight the image of your business brand.

See also  What Is Sales? Discover Secrets Behind Successful Deals

5. Facilitating the Sale of Complex Products and Services

Businesses that sell complex services and products, such as SaaS businesses, can sell what they offer more easily by using personal selling techniques. 

A personal sales call allows sales representatives to demonstrate products and logically highlight relevant benefits to decision-makers. Professional sellers of these products can adjust their descriptions based on the level of understanding of potential customers, their interests, and their needs.

6. Shorten the B2B Sales Cycle

Face-to-face sales are a huge advantage for companies with long sales cycles. Typically, B2B sales involve multiple decision makers and have a long sales cycle with multiple steps, such as identifying product needs, evaluating different options, comparing supplier offers, and finally deciding to sell.

Face-to-face selling helps sales representatives influence every step of the B2B sales process and ensure potential customers know the product’s benefits and capabilities. They can also provide the best product pricing and offers to convince and persuade decision-makers. 

Although the personal selling process generally brings positive results, there are a few disadvantages to using this method, including:

The list of personal selling disadvantages.

1. Expensive and Time Consuming

Face-to-face sales require trained and professional salespeople to establish effective communication with prospects. This requires spending money, time, and energy. You know that it is not only the issue of their training but also the issue of salesmen’s salaries, travel expenses, telecommunication expenses, etc.

2. Limited Access

One disadvantage of personal selling is that you can only reach a few customers quickly. You can only communicate and talk with one or two customers at once.

3. Customer Loyalty

Personal selling creates deep relationships between the customer and the marketing and salesperson. Now imagine that a salesperson is leaving your company. The same thing raised as an advantage in personal selling now works against you, and the customer may be lost.

7 Main Stages of Personal Selling

Personal selling consists of seven main steps, each of which has its importance. Paying attention to each step allows the sales team to easily identify and address the prospect’s needs. Correct implementation of these steps leads to more product sales and customer satisfaction.

In the following, we explain each of these steps:

A roadmap of the main seven stages in personal selling.

1. Finding New Customers

The first step in the personal selling process is to search for and find new potential customers who will eventually become your leads. Remember that personally selling anything is directly related to finding the right solution to offer to customers, which means that not all audiences are suitable to be your customers.

2. Identification of Customer Needs and Preferences

After identifying the interested and qualified customers, you should prepare to make the initial contact with them. Remember that the first contact with the customer is of particular importance, and if you intend to enter into a two-way relationship with him, you must create a sense of confidence in him. At this stage, you should communicate with the potential customer and identify the customer’s needs and preferences.

3. Initial Communication with the Customer

At this stage, the sales team should contact a potential customer by calling, introducing themselves and the collection, and starting a conversation. This communication can be through phone calls, emails, and social media. In such a situation, the seller should communicate with the customer according to his situation and personality. This approach aims to attract attention and interest, build trust with the customer, and transfer the sales process to the next stage.

At this stage, the sales team must focus on designing questions to understand how the product or service can best meet the customer’s needs. The customer’s answer to these questions will help the team determine their needs and wants and find the most suitable way to approach him, which can ultimately make the final sale.

4. Product or Service Introduction

At this stage, your sales team introduces your product or service to the customer. Using the information gathered in the previous steps, the sales team should focus on how the brand proposition can be useful and persuasive to the potential customer. The “introduction” stage closely relates to the customer’s wishes and needs.

See also  Company Database

5. Resolving Customer Doubts

Potential customers may need clarification about the collection’s brand, products, and services or even have questions. Again, the sales team’s duty becomes apparent; they must correct any misconceptions in the customer’s mind, handle any objections, and patiently answer his questions. Remember that this step’s purpose is not to change the potential customer’s mind or force them to buy. We intend to accompany the customer to reach a useful and effective solution.

6. Closing the Deal

After overcoming the obstacles to sales and providing problem-solving solutions to the customer, everything is ready for the final action: the sale. The only thing the sales team members have to do at this stage is to “close the deal.”

The deal is closed in personal selling.

7. Follow Up After Sales

The last step in personal selling is related to “post-sale follow-up.” At this point, the sales team, which has now managed to make a successful sale, should contact the customer and measure their satisfaction with the service or product experience.

In fact, at this stage, the seller tries to maintain customer satisfaction by providing after-sales services and building long-term loyalty. According to research, 90% of Americans use customer service to decide whether to buy from or work with a company. As Threekit claims, “80% of consumers are more likely to do business with a company that offers personalized experiences.”

In addition to the above statistics, other surveys state that about 89% of consumers are more likely to be encouraged to buy another from the same collection after receiving after-sales service and having a positive experience.

Top 3 Personal Selling Strategies

It may seem exaggerated, but the whole category of sales marketing is a battlefield, and you need different strategies to win each battle. In this section, I describe three of the best personal selling strategies I have experienced in sales.

The leading personal selling strategies.

1. Don’t Forget the Buyer’s Persona

As the sales team searches for new leads and qualifies prospects, remind them of buyer personas. One of salespeople’s most common mistakes is trying to sell to anyone. As  Hubspot says, “Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales-ready leads at 33% lower cost.”

2. Ask a Lot of Questions

Your sales team should listen more than talk. If they do not know potential customers’ concerns and questions, they cannot help them. Then, ask sales professionals to ask questions about what excites prospects. With the right questions, you can determine what features meet your customers’ needs and goals.

3. Focus on Product Benefits, Not Features

As a sales professional, once you know the customer’s needs, take the time to explain the benefits of the product or service you offer. Make a list of the benefits that the customer will get by buying from you, and instead of repeating the features of the product or service you offer, say exactly what the solution to the customer’s need was.


Personal Selling vs. Other Sales Methods

As we said, personal selling is one of the oldest and, at the same time, the most effective marketing and sales methods. Many businesses favor this method because it provides the ability to create deeper and more personal connections with prospects. 

However, you should also consider that personal sales are slower than digital sales and attract fewer customers. Digital and automated sales techniques like email marketing, social media campaigns, and sales automation tools are effective for reaching larger audiences. In contrast, personal selling focuses on face-to-face interactions, which help build deeper connections with potential customers.

Salespeople who use this method easily understand their potential customers’ needs and pain points and can provide solutions for these problems. These conditions increase the conversion rate of these prospects into customers. 

See also  What is a Sales Funnel? And How to Build One for 2025

At the same time, automated methods such as social selling, which do not require much personal touch, are more suitable for industries where sales can be complex or businesses looking to sell in bulk. These methods can reach more customers in less time and are cheaper and faster.

Of course, even in these sales methods, personal selling should be involved because these automatic sales methods may be more easily used for leadership development, initial development, or awareness; it may take more work to close or negotiate complex contracts, etc. 

Digital sales methods offer convenience and affordability. Still, they require more human interaction than in-person selling, which can be critical in securing customer loyalty and long-term relationships.

One of the best strategies for upselling is always personalization. When dealing with valuable customers or those active in a specific market, you should offer customized solutions, preferring personal selling to digital marketing. 

For example, in industries such as real estate, luxury goods, or B2B services, building trust through face-to-face or personalized communication often boosts the speed and scalability offered by digital methods.

Digital selling techniques offer scale and reach, but personal selling is preferable for any business when deep customer engagement and relationship building are essential to success.

Technologies in Personal Selling

But who said technology cannot be involved in personal selling? Experience has shown that integrating technology into personal selling can dramatically increase effectiveness. 

Some of the technologies that are used in personal selling.

Tools such as CRM (customer relationship management) systems, AI-powered data analytics, and sales automation platforms are important in helping sales teams by providing valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences.

For example, CRMs like Salesforce and HubSpot help sales teams track customers, their preferences and interactions, manage leads, personalize sales and follow-ups, and focus on using customer information.

Lead generation and automation tools help salespeople make data-driven decisions. Platforms like CUFinder, which specializes in lead generation, allow sales teams to access comprehensive business databases, helping them target the right prospects efficiently.

CUFinder's Prospect Engine for lead generation.
Mobile banner

Artificial intelligence integrates and analyzes this data and can predict which leads will likely become customers. This allows salespeople to focus their efforts on high-potential customers. This helps you save time, energy, and money on personal selling for poor-quality slides.

In a Nutshell

In this article, we defined personal selling, its importance, and its steps and strategies to create an overview of this very important marketing and sales category for you. You should know that you are not compelled to use a certain style to sell products and use your services. The only thing you need to remember is which style to use for which client so that you can do the final selling.

FAQs

1. What are common challenges to personal selling?

Common challenges to personal selling include addressing customer objections, analyzing or working with many prospects, and staying motivated during low sales periods. Concerns can also arise from increasing diversity in customer needs and seeking to keep up with product information, market information, and consumer behavior.

2. What are the main skills of personal selling?

Personal selling heavily depends on interpersonal skills such as listening, empathy, and persuasive conversation. In addition to interpersonal and communication skills, you need sufficient knowledge of the products or services you sell. You also need to know how to modify sales methodology or your personality to fit the style of the customers or prospects.

3. How does personal selling help build long-term customer relationships?

Personal selling focuses on personalizing the customer experience and providing daily service. It allows for uninterrupted visibility of customer profiling and daily interactions. You build trust and loyalty by consistently tailoring your approach to meet customer needs and offering excellent service. This perso relationships. It plays a crucial role in achieving long-term profitability, making it an integral component of a comprehensive marketing strategy.

How would you rate this article?
Bad
Okay
Good
Amazing
Comments (0)
Subscribe to our newsletter
Subscribe to our popular newsletter and get everything you want
Related Posts
Keep on Reading
Marketing Sales Marketing

How to Find a Number?

Sales Sales

The Best CEO Cold Calling Script Ever [Template]

Sales Marketing Sales

What Is Data Enrichment Records?

Marketing Sales Marketing

Domain Name to IP Mapping

Comments (0)