Sales and advertising are both important components of the promotional element of the marketing mix. Sales involves personal one-to-one communication between a company sales representative and a prospective buyer. Advertising is paid placement of persuasive messages that convey company or product benefits through mass media. Selling has several advantages over advertising, making it prominent in the promotional mix.
Marketing Mix
The marketing mix, also known as the 4 P's of marketing, is a critical part of a business' marketing strategy. Product, place, price and promotion are the four elements. Marketing plans should outline how these four elements work together to present a formidable marketing approach. Product is what the company sells; place is the location or distribution process; price is how much the product sells for; and promotion includes all the ways the company markets its products to prospective customers, including sales and advertising.
Personalized
Advertising is generally impersonal communication. Messages are delivered by the advertiser through a medium in hopes the target market responds. Selling is a more personalized process in which the salesman and buyer interact. This allows the seller to ask questions to assess the customer's needs. He can then listen to the answers and determine the best solution to meet the buyer's needs. Finally, he can deliver an in-person and customized sales pitch to emphasized the benefits of the recommended product.
Quick Response
Unlike typical advertising, salespeople have the advantage of garnering quick feedback from prospects after delivering a sales presentation. This feedback usually comes in the form of questions or concerns. This allows the salesman to adjust the message to immediately address those questions and concerns. When consumers have similar questions after an ad exposure, they have to wait for the possibility of resolving their questions. Salespeople can more effectively and immediately persuade the prospect that benefits outweigh the drawbacks or concerns.
Engaging
Traditional advertising has received criticism because of the propensity for consumers to miss out on, avoid, ignore or simply receive no effect from ad messages. In personal selling, salespeople can engage prospects directly, which often causes prospects to feel compelled to offer a response. Even if the response is a "no" or a deflection, it allows the salesman to ask follow-up questions and to target those areas of special interest to each individual customer.
Advantages of Personal Selling
Personal selling can prove to be a used promotional method in several ways including:
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].
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].
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.
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].
Disadvantages of Personal SellingPersonal selling has a number of drawbacks that may not make it the best promotional option for some organizations including:
Negative Perception of Salespeople – Possibly the biggest disadvantage of personal selling is the degree to which this promotional method is misunderstood as many view salespeople as being overly aggressive or even downright annoying, and only interested in making a quick sale.
Expensive to Maintain a Sales Force – Organizations face numerous expenses when utilizing this method of promotion including:
High cost-per-action [CPA] – As noted in the Types of Promotion Tutorial, promotional success can often be evaluated using the cost-per-action [CPA] measure. For an organization, the money spent to support a sales staff can be steep. These costs include compensation [e.g., salary, commission, bonus], providing support materials [e.g., product literature], allowances for entertainment spending, travel expenses, office supplies, telecommunication, and much more.
Training Costs – The cost of training a sales team can also be quite high and include such expenses as travel, hotel, meals, and training equipment, and while salespeople are in training, an organization is most likely also paying certain fixed costs including the trainee’s salary, health care, and other expenses [e.g., mobile phone].
High Job Turnover – Job turnover in sales is generally much higher than it is for other marketing positions. Turnover may leave a company without representation in a customer group [e.g., customers in a geographic region] for an extended period of time while the company recruits and trains a replacement.