1. Discuss the role of personal selling in promoting products. What advantages d
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Question
1. Discuss the role of personal selling in promoting products. What advantages does personal selling offer over other forms of promotion? 2. What are the key differences between relationship selling and traditional methods of selling? Which types of products or services do you think would be conducive to relationship selling? 3. What do you think is the future of mobile technology? How do you think mobile technology will change people’s daily lives? How will it change marketing? What are the three basic defenses that a seller can use if accused under the Robinson-Patman Act? What is the difference between a price strategy and a price tactic? Give an example.
Explanation / Answer
Discuss the role of personal selling in promoting products
Personal selling is oral communication with potential buyers of a product with the intention of making a sale. The personal selling may focus initially on developing a relationship with the potential buyer, but will always ultimately end with an attempt to “close the sale”
Importance of personal Selling Personal selling is an important element of promotion mix and an effective promotional tool. Personal Selling offers the following compensation. Despite the above advantages, personal selling suffers from several disadvantages. Firstly personal selling is the costliest method of promotion. Secondly, it can cover only limited number customers at a time.
Role of personal selling
Personal selling is a process in which an individual salesperson works one-on-one with a customer to try to match a product to her needs. This sales discipline is practiced by many companies in the retail industry and in business-to-business sales.
The role of personal selling are:
(1) Prospecting – trying to find new customers
(2) Communicating – with existing and potential customers about the product range
(3) Selling – contact with the customer, answering questions and trying to close the sale
(4) Servicing – providing support and service to the customer in the period up to delivery and also post-sale
(5) Information gathering – obtaining information about the market to feedback into the marketing planning process
(6) Allocating – in times of product shortage, the sales force may have the power to decide how available stocks are allocated
What advantages does personal selling offer over other forms of promotion?
One key advantage personal selling has over other promotional methods is that it is a two-way form of communication. In selling situations the message sender (e.g., salesperson) can adjust the message as they gain feedback from message receivers (e.g., customer). So if a customer does not understand the initial message (e.g., doesn’t fully understand how the product works) the salesperson can make adjustments to address questions or concerns. Many non-personal forms of promotion, such as a radio advertisement, are inflexible, at least in the short-term, and cannot be easily adjusted to address audience questions.
The interactive nature of personal selling also makes it the most effective promotional method for building relationships with customers, particularly in the business-to-business market. This is especially important for companies that either sell expensive products or sell lower cost but high volume products (i.e., buyer must purchase in large quantities) that rely heavily on customers making repeat purchases. Because such purchases may take a considerable amount of time to complete and may involve the input of many people at the purchasing company (i.e., buying center), sales success often requires the marketer develop and maintain strong relationships with members of the purchasing company.
Finally, personal selling is the most practical promotional option for reaching customers who are not easily reached through other methods. The best example is in selling to the business market where, compared to the consumer market, advertising, public relations and sales promotions are often not well received.
2. What are the key differences between relationship selling and traditional methods of selling? Which types of products or services do you think would be conducive to relationship selling?
The biggest difference between relationship selling and traditional personal selling is that relationship selling focuses on the long term. Its goal is to build a relationship with the buyer and build loyalty so they will continue to purchase from the company. It helps the customer believe that buy being a long term customer they are gaining value. It also gives customers a point of contact to bring future concerns or purchases to.
Which types of products or services do you think would be conducive to relationship selling?
The service of a lawyer benefits from relationship selling because the client and lawyer need to have a good relationship and be able to trust each other. Also, the service of a realtor assisting people in buying and selling houses. In order for a realtor to know which houses to show a family, they must have insight into the family’s finances which requires a great deal of trust in a relationship
3. What do you think is the future of mobile technology? How do you think mobile technology will change people’s daily lives? How will it change marketing? What are the three basic defenses that a seller can use if accused under the Robinson-Patman Act? What is the difference between a price strategy and a price tactic?
Future of Mobile Technology
Wearable mobile technology is definitely the future of mobile technology. Seven years is a relatively short period of time, but if we are talking about mobile technology seven years might seem as an eternity. If we think about what happened seven years ago in the world of mobile technology, we will remember that it was the year when the iPhone emerged and all other mobile phones became obsolete.
At that time, mobile applications or cloud technology were unexplored fields. There was no Twitter and no WhatsApp. None of the things we use to communicate nowadays. The smartphone concept as we currently understand it (an object that we always carry around in our pockets) will soon take other forms.
If you look around you, you will see that it has already started. I mean all the smart watches and smart glasses that are available currently on the market. In the following years these gadgets will change their anatomy, changing into dental fillings, tattoos or button covers.
Smartphones’ glass screens will be considered relics as soon as electroluminescent polymers prove their abilities. Telecommunications experts are sure that in the future holograms will be a regular thing. Sound and image will break all technical barriers and users will be able to call each other and communicate like princess Leia with Obi-Wan Kenobi, C-3PO and Luke Skywalker. There will be no large screen wars when we’ll be able to talk through holograms.
How do you think mobile technology will change people’s daily lives?
Mobile technology will allow to identify its user’s identity much more efficiently than current passports do. Credit cards will also become obsolete when mobile payments will take over. Biometrics (voice, fingerprint or retina) will come to replace PIN codes and passwords. In October 2013 Apple actually launched an iPhone model (iPhone 5S) that included fingerprint ID recognition, but as it was discovered, it had many flaws.
What are the three basic defenses that a seller can use if accused under the Robinson-Patman Act?
The Robinson-Patman Act provides three defenses for the seller charged with price discrimination (in each case the burden is on the defendant to prove the defense): 1) cost—if the prices represent manufacturing or quantity discount savings, 2) market conditions—if the price variations are designed to meet fluid product or market conditions, or 3) competition—if the price is reduced to stay even with the competition.
What is the difference between a price strategy and a price tactic? Give an example
A price strategy defines the initial price and gives direction for price movements over the product life cycle. The price policy is a strategy set for a specific market segment, based on a well-defined positioning strategy.
Price tactics used to fine-tune a base price are the following: discounts (such as cash, quantity, and functional or seasonal discounts); allowances (such as promotional allowances); and rebates. All three are ways to induce buyers to do something they might otherwise not do. Geographic pricing tactics (such as FOB origin, uniform delivered, zone, freight absorption, and basing-point pricing) all moderate the impact of shipping charges as a portion of the product price. Special pricing tactics (such as single-price tactics, flexible pricing, price lining, professional services pricing, leader pricing, odd-even pricing, bait pricing, price bundling, and two-part pricing) can be used for a variety of reasons.
For example, a business might decide to introduce a new product at a high skimming price, but use some price tactics such as rebates or freight absorption to induce trial.
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