Personal selling is one of the oldest professions in the world. The people who do the selling go by many names, including salespeople, sales representatives, agents, district managers, account executives, sales consultants, and sales engineers.

People hold many stereotypes of salespeople—including some unfavorable ones. Salesman may bring to mind the image of Dwight Schrute, the opinionated Dunder Mifflin paper salesman from the old TV show The Office, who lacks both common sense and social skills. Or you may think of the real-life “yell-and-sell” TV pitchmen, who hawk everything from the Flex Seal to the FOCUS T25 Workout and the Ove Glove in infomercials. However, the majority of salespeople are a far cry from these unfortunate stereotypes.

As the opening Salesforce story shows, most salespeople are well-educated and well-trained professionals who add value for customers and maintain long-term customer relationships. They listen to their customers, assess customer needs, and organize the company’s efforts to solve customer problems. The best salespeople are the ones who work closely with customers for mutual gain. Consider GE’s diesel locomotive business:

It takes more than fast talk and a warm smile to sell a batch of $2-million high-tech locomotives. A single big sale can easily run into the hundreds of millions of dollars. GE salespeople head up an extensive team of company specialists, all dedicated to finding ways to satisfy the needs of large customers. The selling process can be nerve-rackingly slow, involving dozens or even hundreds of decision makers from all levels of the buying organization and layer upon layer of subtle and not-so-subtle buying influences. A major sale can take years from the first sales presentation to the day the sale is announced. After getting the order, salespeople then must stay in almost constant touch to keep track of the account’s equipment needs and to make certain the customer stays satisfied. The real challenge is to win and keep buyers’ business by building day-in, day-out, year-in, year-out partnerships with them based on superior products and close collaboration.

The term salesperson covers a wide range of positions. At one extreme, a salesperson might be largely an order taker, such as the department store salesperson standing behind the counter. At the other extreme are order getters, whose positions demand creative selling, social selling, and relationship building for products and services ranging from appliances, industrial equipment, and airplanes to insurance and IT services. In this chapter, we focus on the more creative types of selling and the process of building and managing an effective sales force.

Personal selling is the interpersonal arm of the promotion mix. It involves interpersonal interactions and engagement between salespeople and individual customers—whether face-to-face, by phone, via email or social media, through video or online conferences, or by other means. Personal selling can be very effective in complex selling situations. Salespeople can probe customers to learn more about their problems and then adjust the marketing offer and presentation to fit each customer’s special needs.

The role of personal selling varies from company to company. Some firms have no salespeople at all—for example, companies that sell only online or companies that sell through manufacturers’ reps, sales agents, or brokers. In most firms, however, the sales force plays a major role. In companies that sell business products and services, such as IBM, DuPont, or GE, salespeople work directly with customers. In consumer product companies such as P&G or Nike, the sales force plays an important behind-the-scenes role. It works with wholesalers and retailers to gain their support and help them be more effective in selling the company’s products to final buyers.

Linking the Company with Its Customers

The sales force serves as a critical link between a company and its customers. In many cases, salespeople serve two masters—the seller and the buyer. First, they represent the company to customers. They find and develop new customers and communicate information about the company’s products and services. They sell products by engaging customers and learning about their needs, presenting solutions, answering objections, negotiating prices and terms, closing sales, servicing accounts, and maintaining account relationships.

At the same time, salespeople represent customers to the company, acting inside the firm as “champions” of customers’ interests and managing the buyer–seller relationship. Salespeople relay customer concerns about company products and actions back inside to those who can handle them. They learn about customer needs and work with other marketing and nonmarketing people in the company to develop greater customer value.

In fact, to many customers, the salesperson is the company—the only tangible manifestation of the company that they see. Hence, customers may become loyal to salespeople as well as to the companies and products they represent. This concept of salesperson-owned loyalty lends even more importance to the salesperson’s customer-relationship-building abilities. Strong relationships with the salesperson will result in strong relationships with the company and its products. Conversely, poor salesperson relationships will probably result in poor company and product relationships.