Selling Essentials: Understanding Customers and Products

1. Marketing Essentials nChapter 12 Preparing for the Sale Section 12.1 Selling

2. SECTION 12.1 Selling What You'll Learn • The definition and goals of selling • The various sales situations encountered in the business world • The definition of feature-benefit selling • How customers make decisions and the difference between rational and emotional buying decisions

3. SECTION 12.1 Selling Why It's Important Learning how to research products and customers is helpful when selling any type of product or idea. Learning how to find customers is also essential. In this chapter you will be exposed to key selling concepts that link products to customers.

4. SECTION 12.1 Selling Key Terms • personal selling • business-to-business selling • telemarketing • feature-benefit selling • product feature • customer benefit • rational motive • emotional motive • extensive decision making • limited decision making • routine decision making

5. SECTION 12.1 Selling Knowing Your Product and Your Customer • Personal selling is direct contact between a salesperson and a customer. • Business-to-business selling may take place in a manufacturer's or wholesaler's showroom (inside sales) or a customer's place of business (outside sales). • Telemarketing is the process of selling over the telephone. Slide 1 of 2

6. SECTION 12.1 Selling Knowing Your Product and Your Customer • The goal of selling is to help customers make satisfying buying decisions. • Salespeople accomplish this by solving customers’ problems and by understanding their needs and wants. Slide 2 of 2

7. SECTION 12.1 Selling Feature-Benefit Selling • Matching the characteristics of a product to a customer's needs and wants is called feature-benefit selling. • Example:A computer is purchased to increase productivity.

8. SECTION 12.1 Selling Product Features • Product features are the basic, physical, or extended attributes of the product: • Basic features are a product’s intended use. • Physical qualities differentiate it from competing brands and models. • Additional features add value and justify price differences between models.

9. SECTION 12.1 Selling Customer Benefits • Customer benefits are the advantages or personal satisfaction a customer will get from a good or service. To determine customer benefits, salespeople need to answer two questions about each product feature: • 1. How does the feature help the product’s performance? • 2. How does the performance information give the customer a personal reason to buy the product?

10. SECTION 12.1 Selling Feature-Benefit Chart A feature-benefit chart combines a product or extended feature with its corresponding customer benefit to create selling points. One without the other is not sufficient. Feature-benefit charts help customers make buying decisions.

11. SECTION 12.1 Selling Customer Buying Motives • Salespeople must know what motivates customers to buy and what decisions customers make before the final purchase. Customers' motives fall into the following categories: • rational • emotional Slide 1 of 2

12. SECTION 12.1 Selling Customer Buying Motives • A rational motive is a conscious, logical reason for a purchase, such as dependability or time savings. • An emotional motive is a feeling experienced by a customer through association with a product, such as social approval, recognition, power, or prestige. Slide 2 of 2

13. SECTION 12.1 Selling Customer Decision Making • There are three distinct types of decision making: • extensive • limited • routine • Decisions are based on a person’s previous buying experience and the importance and perceived risk of the purchase.

14. SECTION 12.1 Selling Extensive Decision Making • Extensive decision makingis used when there has been little or no previous experience with an item. • Extensive decision making is used when there is a high degree of perceived risk. • It is usually used for goods and services that are very expensive or have high value to the customer.

15. SECTION 12.1 Selling Limited Decision Making • Limited decision making is used when a person buys goods and services that he or she has purchased before but not regularly. • In limited decision making, there is a moderate degree of perceived risk. • When making this type of decision, the customer often needs some information before buying.

16. SECTION 12.1 Selling Routine Decision Making • Routine decision making is used when a person needs little information about a product. • In routine decision making, there is a high degree of prior experience. • It is usually used for goods and services that have a low perceived risk (because an item is inexpensive, is bought frequently, or satisfaction with the product is high).

17. ASSESSMENT 12.1 Reviewing Key Terms and Concepts • 1. What is personal selling? • 2. Name three settings where personal selling may occur. • 3. What are the goals of selling? • 4. Explain the concept of feature-benefit selling. • 5. What are the three levels of decision making that customers may use when purchasing goods or services?

18. ASSESSMENT 12.1 Thinking Critically • Think of a purchase you or your family recently made that required at least limited decision making. Use that product to explain the meaning of this statement: • Customers do not buy products, rather they buy what the products will do for them.

19. 12.1 Graphic Organizer Types of Customer Decision-Making Processes CUSTOMER Expensive or Highly Valued Item No Experience with Item Information Needed Some Experience with Item HighProduct Satisfaction Much PriorExperiencewith Item High Perceived Risk Moderate Perceived Risk Low Perceived Risk Extensive Decision Making Limited Decision Making Routine Decision Making

20. Marketing Essentials End of Section 12.1