Salesmanship

This unit covers general

knowledge about salesmanship. It
provides you educative information that
will help you understand the importance
and difference of personal selling and
salesmanship, the different types of
selling jobs and opportunities, and the
characteristics one should possess to be
successful in the field of sales. This unit
is divided into three modules with
lectures and other online educational
resources
 Unit 1 Nature, Rewards and Ethical Standards in
Salesmanship

Module 1 Nature and Importance of Salesmanship and Personal selling

Prof. Myra M. Salindong

Module Introduction

This module is designed to introduce students to the world of professional

selling. This course introduces students to the nature and importance of personal
selling and salesmanship in achieving the organization's sales objective. Students
will be provided with in-depth knowledge of the commandments and creed of
salesmanship to fully understand the ethical standards in selling.

Module Objectives

At the end of this module, the students should be able to:

1. Differentiate the characteristics of selling and salesmanship

2. Determine the nature and importance of personal selling and salesmanship
3. Define the Commandments of Salesmanship
4. Understand the Creed of Salesmanship

Discussion Proper

Selling is one of the essential elements in marketing that plays an important

role in achieving an organization's profit goals. It is regarded as the lifeblood and
heart of the organization that brings favorable output both on the company and its
target market.

The growth in the trade and industry, substantially increase the scope of
selling in the past decades. Persuasive selling skills are used not only by
organizations whose objective is to earn a profit but also by non-profit organizations.
Because of the eclectic characteristics of selling jobs, professional selling has
developed into a specialized area of management.

Selling is the process of transferring ownership of goods to buyers. It involves

planned communication and personalized presentation – thus, employing an
artistical approach of motivating and persuading customers to influence purchase
 Unit 1 Nature, Rewards and Ethical Standards in
Salesmanship

Module 1 Nature and Importance of Salesmanship and Personal selling

Prof. Myra M. Salindong

This module is designed to introduce students to the world of professional selling.

It aims to acquaint students to the nature and importance of personal selling and
salesmanship in achieving the organization's sales objective.
Students will be provided with in-depth knowledge of the commandments and
creed of salesmanship to fully understand the ethical standards in selling.

Module Objectives

At the end of this module, the students should be able to:

1. Differentiate the characteristics of selling and salesmanship

2. Determine the nature and importance of personal selling and salesmanship
3. Define the Commandments of Salesmanship
4. Understand the Creed of Salesmanship

Introduction

Selling is one of the essential elements in marketing that plays an important role
in achieving an organization's profit goals. It is regarded as the lifeblood and heart of
the organization that brings favorable output both on the company and its target market.

The growth in the trade and industry, substantially increase the scope of selling
in the past decades. Persuasive selling skills are used not only by organizations whose
objective is to earn a profit but also by non-profit organizations. Because of the eclectic
characteristics of selling jobs, professional selling has developed into a specialized area
of management.

Selling is the process of transferring ownership of goods to buyers. It involves

planned communication and personalized presentation – thus, employing an artistical
approach of motivating and persuading customers to influence purchase decisions and
ensure satisfaction.

The distinction between Salesmanship and Selling

Salesmanship

Salesmanship is the ability and skills in selling (Arante & Gomez, 2006). It is the
art of influencing or persuading people in favor of the company’s offerings.

Dutta & Girish (2011) defined and regarded “Salesmanship as a process of

winning the confidence of consumer”. Its essential features are summarized as follows:

1. Salesmanship is the ability to persuade.

2. Salesmanship benefits both the buyers and sellers.
3. Salesmanship stands for commercial honesty.
4. Salesmanship aims at winning the buyers’ confidence.
5. Ideal salesmanship aims at serving the producer, distributor, and consumer.
6. Salesman acts as a link between the seller and the consumer.
7. Salesmanship is an educative process.
8. Salesmanship creates satisfied customers.

Selling

As stated earlier, selling is a process of transferring the title of the goods to the
customer.

Selling, according to Arante and Gomez (2006), falls under two classifications:

Personal selling, known as the hard-selling, is a direct face to face interaction

between the buyer and the seller. It is an oral presentation through conversation with
buyers to make a sale, and

Non-personal selling, known as soft selling, is selling through the aid of some
forms of media. It requires less effort on the part of the salesman, only gentle and subtle
persuasion using promotion techniques.

Both personal selling and non-personal selling used salesmanship to motivate

and persuade the target market to buy the company's products and offerings.

Personal Selling

Personal selling is a strong force that affects our everyday lives. Now more than
ever, it plays an even more important role in the industry and economy.

Marketing the company’s product or service is not the sole focus of personal
selling, it involves creating permanent customers and servicing people – servicing both
the company and the customer.

There are two types of selling as claimed by Dutta and Girish (2012): 1) the
inside selling and 2) outside selling.
 Inside selling is known as across-the-counter selling, a type of selling where the
customer goes to the salespeople to buy a product or service. It involves retail stores,
the salespeople in the stores, and the salespeople who take telephone orders.

Outside selling is a type of personal selling, where salespeople go to the

customer. These salespeople sell in person at a customer's place of business or home.

Outside selling is also termed as field selling. It includes

1. Producers whose representatives sell directly to the household consumers (e.g.)

insurance companies.
2. Representatives of retail organizations who go to the consumer's house to
demonstrate a product give advice or provide an estimate such as salespeople for some
furniture stores, home heating, and air-conditioning retailers.
3. A representative of non-profitable organizations (e.g.) charity fundraisers, workers for
political candidates.

Personal Selling Objectives

Personal selling is used to meet the five objectives of promotion in the following
ways as mentioned in an article posted by KnowThis.com (2020):

1. Building Product Awareness

A common task of salespeople, especially when selling in business markets, is to
educate customers on new product offerings. But building awareness using personal
selling is also important in consumer markets. Word of mouth marketing is leading to
personal selling — a useful mechanism for introducing consumers to new products.

2. Creating Interest
The fact that personal selling involves person-to-person communication makes it
a natural method for getting customers to experience a product for the first time.
Creating interest goes together with building product awareness as sales
professionals can often accomplish both objectives during the first encounter with a
potential customer.

3. Providing Information
Marketing organizations provide their sales staff with large amounts of sales
support including brochures, research reports, computer programs, and many other
forms of informational material. The salespeople provide their customers with clear
information about the company's product or service. He engages his customers in a
large part of the conversation focusing on product information.

4. Stimulating Demand
 The most important objective of personal selling is to convince customers to
make a purchase. Salespeople accomplish this when they offer detailed coverage of the
selling process to gain customer orders.

5. Reinforcing the Brand

Most personal selling is intended to build long-term relationships with customers.
A strong relationship can only be built over time and requires regular communication
with a customer. Meeting with customers regularly allows salespeople to repeatedly
discuss their company's products and by doing so helps strengthen customers'
knowledge of what the company has to offer

Nature of Salesmanship: Its Features and Importance (Dutta & Girish, 2011)

Basic Features of Salesmanship

a. Salesmanship involves persuasion of customers

Persuasion is the soul of modern salesmanship. Gone are the days when a sale
was forced on the customers. Modern salesmanship does not rely on pressure tactics or
compulsion to clinch a sale. The customer is led to a favorable buying decision through
careful and imaginative handling. The salesman necessarily creates a favorable
impression on the prospective buyer’s mind by presenting the benefits associated with
the product or service being offered for sale.

b. Salesmanship involves winning buyer’s confidence

Modern salesmanship aims at educating the customer and providing a solution to
his problems. This helps in winning his confidence. It aims at winning the confidence of
the buyers by persuading and educating them about the availability of products and
services, their special features, and their utility in satisfying their respective needs.

c. Salesmanship involves providing information

Salesmanship is an educative process. It tells customers how they can satisfy
their needs. Salesman provides information about products available, their broad
features, and their uses and utility to the customers.

d. Salesmanship aims at mutual benefit

Salesmanship is a two-way process. It results in benefits not only to the sellers
but also to the buyers. It helps in solving the problems of the buyers and satisfying their
needs. Customer satisfaction leads to an increase in profitable sales volume for the
salesman.

e. Salesmanship creates satisfied customers

Salesmanship in modern days aims at creating satisfied customers, rather than
just profit-generating sales. In any marketing transaction, a sale once made would
indicate the end of the process. However, once there is a satisfied customer, it is the
beginning of a long-lasting relationship that leads to more sales in the future. Modern
salesmanship always aims at creating satisfied customers who will most likely purchase
his goods and services as and when necessary.

Importance of Salesmanship

a. Benefits to consumers
A salesman acts as a friend and guide to consumers. He informs them of new
products and new uses of existing products. He helps them in choosing products, which
match their needs and incomes. A salesman guides the customers in buying products
that will provide maximum satisfaction.

b. Benefits to businessman
Salesmen help businessmen to build up a favorable corporate image necessary
to secure repeat sales. They help in the creation of demand for new products and the
extension of markets for existing ones.

c. Benefits to society
Salesmanship helps to expand the employment and income of a country through
large and rapid sales turnover. Salesmen provide marketing information to producers so
that consumers can get new and better products. Salesmen perform several non-selling
tasks, e.g., after-sale service, meeting complaints, conducting marketing research,
providing credit information, delivering goods, collecting payments, etc. Salesmen help
minimize price fluctuations and trade cycles by matching demand and supply.

Fundamental Rules of Salesmanship

Commitment, discipline, and dedication are some of the important ingredients in

successful salesmanship. Every organization wants positive and profitable deals.

As cited in the article published by Business.com (2020), the sales managers

want their salespeople to close as many deals as they can, thus they have developed a
process and set of rules for their team to follow; however, salespeople should also have
a set of fundamental rules to be successful.

1. Always tell the truth (or build trust).

The truth is the foundation of trust. Whatever you sell, tell the truth, no matter
what. It's all about trust. Whatever you report (through your pipeline or weekly meetings
or partner meetings) be sure you can deliver. Your partners depend on what you say.
Your company is making plans based on what you report. Nobody can hold it against
you if you report bad news. On the contrary, most of your bosses may increase their
trust in you.

2. Always keep your promises.

If you promise to deliver, be sure you can. Otherwise, the level of trust in you by
your partners will fall; eventually, your bosses will start to receive complaints about you,
or you will face a sharp decline in order intake. If you fail to deliver on your promises,
word will spread to others, and these days, any market is small. It doesn't end there.
Eventually, your company will receive a bad reputation.

3. Never be late.
Some individuals say that being late a maximum of 15 minutes is OK. No, it is
not. By arriving on time (not earlier or late), you show respect to your customers and
your partners. Remember, your partners' time is valuable to them; they are giving you
their time for free. Don't abuse it. If you say you will do something on a certain day and
time, do it on that day and at that time exactly.

4. Always keep in touch.

It is always nice to keep in touch with your contacts. You never know what lies
ahead. By nurturing and growing your contacts, you increase your chances of already
having valuable contacts in your next endeavor.

5. Be a support to your customer.

Sometimes, your customer may not know what they want. Help them to decide
but find a solution that suits your company and your customer at the same time.

6. Always know what you sell.

Don't let your customers teach you about the solution you sell; instead, educate
them, explain it to them, show them how the product or service works.

7. They are not customers, they are partners.

Don't sell products, sell a solution, or rather, sell a solution to a problem. If you
sell sailing rope, big trucks, or a mobile subscription, it comes down to one point: the
customer needs help. You are not the only one to provide the service or good, and you
may not offer the cheapest solution. However, by explaining how your product or
services solves the problem, this differentiates you from your competition and at the
same time, helps your customer, and solves their problems. Listen to your customer,
derive their needs, and present a solution.

8. Learn, develop, and be proactive

Things change, solutions change – these days even faster than before. The
internet is a great thing. Give new ideas, suggest a solution to internal problems, and
make suggestions.

9. Know your competition

Remember, your competition does not sleep. They know all about you and your
market. You should know all you can about them. Your customers will compare you to
them, and you need to have the answers ready.

10. Never mix private life with professional life

Keep your thoughts and emotions to yourself. Your customers don't need to
know how you feel today. You are a professional, act like one.
The Professional Salesman’s Creed (Arante L. & Gomez J., 2006)

1. I will place customer and company interest above self – interest.

2. I will be constantly alert to the concept that successful selling must bring mutual and
continuous benefits to both the buyer and seller.
3. I will maintain an optimistic and positive attitude toward my business at all times.
4. I will maintain loyalty to my company, my associates, and my customers.
5. I will do everything possible to support the free – enterprise system based upon
open competition and freedom of choice in the marketplace.
6. I will continue to develop new knowledge, skills, and attitudes to keep pace with the
changing technological and social environment.
7. I will make every effort possible to utilize efficiently my total capacities in rendering
quality service to my customers and company.
8. I will never violate the trust and confidence of my customers or associates.
9. I will maintain honesty and integrity in all my dealings with my customers,
competitors, colleagues, and company.
10. In all of my activities, I will attempt to do what is right and just for all parties
concerned.