Page 518 - Foundations of Marketing

Personal Selling and Sales Promotion | Chapter 17 485

Figure 17.1 General Steps in the Personal Selling Process

1 Prospecting

2 Preapproach

3 Approach

4 Making
the presentation

5 Overcoming
objections

6 Closing the sale

7 Following up

From Pride/Ferrell, Marketing 2014, 17E. 2014 Cengage Learning.

from them to seek out new prospects. Obtaining referrals requires that the salesperson have a
good relationship with the current customer and therefore must have performed well before
asking the customer for help. As might be expected, a customer’s trust in and satisfaction with
a salesperson influences his or her willingness to provide referrals. Research shows that one
12
referral is as valuable as 12 cold calls. Also, 80 percent of clients are willing to give referrals,
but only 20 percent are ever asked. Among the advantages of using referrals are more highly
qualified sales leads, greater sales rates, and larger initial transactions. Some companies even
award discounts off future purchases to customers who refer new prospects to their salespeo-
ple. Consistent activity is critical to successful prospecting. Salespeople must actively search
the customer base for qualified prospects that fit the target market profile. After developing
the prospect list, a salesperson evaluates whether each prospect is able, willing, and authorized
to buy the product. Based on this evaluation, prospects are ranked according to desirability
or potential.

Preapproach

Before contacting acceptable prospects, a salesperson finds and analyzes information about
each prospect’s specific product needs, current use of brands, feelings about available brands,
and personal characteristics. In short, salespeople need to know what potential buyers and
decision makers consider most important and why they need a specific product. The most
successful salespeople are thorough in their preapproach, which involves identifying key
decision makers, reviewing account histories and problems, contacting other clients for infor-
mation, assessing credit histories and problems, preparing sales presentations, identifying
product needs, and obtaining relevant literature. Marketers are increasingly using information
technology and customer relationship management systems to comb through databases and
thus identify their most profitable products and customers. CRM systems can also help sales

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