16 Give the description of personal selling. How does it differ from other tools of promotion mix?

Personal selling, or selling a customer face-to-face, is different from impersonal selling such as advertising and sales promotion. Salespeople can inform customers and demonstrate technical products, at the same time customizing (индивидуализируют ) the sales messages to what that specific customer needs to hear.

Personal selling includes sales presentations, trade shows, and incentive programs

Personal selling is the personal communication of information to persuade somebody to buy something. Personal Selling occurs when a company representative comes in direct contact with a customer in order to inform a client about a good or service to get a sale. Personal selling is especially important for business-to-business marketers since products and services are complex and expensive.

The main thing that sets personal selling apart from other methods of selling is that the salesperson conducts business with the customer in person. Though personal selling is more likely to be effective with certain types of products or services, it has important applications for nearly all kinds of small businesses. In fact, most of history's successful entrepreneurs have been skilled salespeople, able to represent and promote their Personal selling offers entrepreneurs both advantages and disadvantages in comparison with the other elements of the promotion mix. On the positive side, personal selling allows the salesperson to target the message specifically to the audience and receive immediate feedback. In this way, it is more precise than other forms of promotion and often has a greater persuasive impact. Conversely, personal selling cannot reach as many potential customers as advertising, plus the cost of each contact is much higher. Another advantage is that personal selling can be an important source of marketing information. Salespeople may learn about competitors' products, for example.

17 How to develop an effective message.

1) Identify the Target Audience

A marketing Communicator must start with a clear target audience in mind. The audience may be potential buyers of the company’s products, current users, deciders, or influence. The audience may be individuals, groups, particular publics or the general public. The communicators should research the audience’s needs, attitudes, preference and other characteristics as a prelude to setting communication objectives. One of the most important things to establish is the audience’s current image of the object.

2) Image Analysis

A major part of audience is to assess the audience’s current image of the company, its product, and its competitors. People’s attitudes and actions towards an object are highly conditioned by their beliefs about the object. Image is the set of beliefs, ideas and impressions that a person holds of an object.

3) Determining the communication Objectives

Once the target audience and its characteristics are identified, the marketing communication must determine what response is sought. The ultimate response of course, is purchase. But behavior is the end result of a long process of consumer decision making. The marketing communicator needs to know how to move the target audience from where it now stands to a higher state of readiness to buy. We will work with the “hierarchy – of – effects “models and described the six buyer – readiness states: Awareness, Knowledge, liking, Preference, Conviction, and Purchase, depending upon the degree of consumer involvement and the degree of brand differences.