Before George Clooney became a famous Hollywood actor, he held several odd jobs, including a stint as a door-to-door insurance salesman. Door-to-door sales may have fallen out of fashion in recent decades, but other types of personal selling are still very much alive. Though Clooney told David Letterman that he wasn’t the best at it, there are plenty of success stories. Personal sales can be a great tool to add to your company’s sales strategies.
If you run an ecommerce site, you know much of today’s marketing can be done from behind a computer monitor. However, there is still a lot of opportunity in human-to-human connection. Adding personal selling to your approach can be effective—albeit a little tricky.
Dive into some pros and cons of personal selling and check out a few ways to incorporate it into your marketing and sales strategy.
What is personal selling?
Personal selling is a person-to-person marketing strategy that focuses on building personal relationships to sell a product or service. Personal selling can be done in person, like door-to-door sales, or remotely, like telemarketing and online chats.
Personal selling also includes other forms of face-to-face marketing, like a salesperson in a retail store or a sales rep chatting with prospective customers at a trade show. Thanks to the possibility of complete personalization, this form of sales can be very effective. However, it can also be expensive and time-consuming.
Types of personal selling
Several different types of one-on-one sales fall under the umbrella of personal selling. Here are a few possible forms to incorporate into your own personal selling strategy:
Online
If you run an online business or ecommerce store, much of your marketing strategy may already be online. And though the usual personal selling process consists of in-person conversations, it is possible to strike up an online relationship between a sales representative and a potential customer.
Online personal selling occurs when a prospective customer reaches out to customer service via email, social media comments, or a live chat box on your website. From there, your sales representatives can answer customer questions and start the relationship-building process digitally.
Business to business
Personal selling strategies can include relationships with other businesses. For example, if you run an online print shop, many of your customers may be other business owners who hire you to print their promotional material. Building a personal relationship in a business-to-business (B2B) capacity means providing your customer’s business with quick and easy solutions.
Conventions and trade shows
A good way to reach prospective customers who have a parallel interest in what you’re selling is to hire sales reps to attend relevant conventions, networking events, and trade shows. This type of personal selling has a key advantage: initial contact will be with people already interested in something similar to your product, so your sales pitch will likely be relevant to their needs. For example, if you sell a novel type of vehicle seat cover, attending automotive trade shows could help you connect with your target market.
In-store
In-store personal selling involves a store employee or sales rep building a quick personal connection with a prospective buyer to identify their unique needs and customer concerns. From there, they can connect the customer with a product they might like. Kat Kavner, founder of Heyday Canning, offers advice on theShopify Masters podcast.
“Do in-store sampling and demos so that you can catch shoppers and actually give them a taste of your product and convince them in that moment to buy,” says Kat.
This kind of in-person marketing can break through the noise of typical, easy-to-ignore advertising.
Telemarketing
Telemarketing is a form of personal selling that aims to spread awareness and build customer relationships, often by cold calling potential customers or reaching out to customers whose phone numbers your company has already collected from previous contact. This form of marketing can be unpopular; however, its effectiveness hinges on sales professionals building relationships with potential customers who’ve expressed interest.
Door to door
Like telemarketing, door-to-door sales can be unpopular and has fallen out of fashion in recent years. But at its core, door-to-door sales gives individual sales representatives the opportunity to have face-to-face meetings with potential customers. This can not only generate leads and sell products but can also be a way to get customer feedback in real time. Of course, door-to-door sales involve hiring somebody to travel from house to house—an example of how time-consuming personal selling can be.
Consultative
Consultative selling is when the salesperson is also acting as a consultant for the potential customer or business. For instance, if you run an online audio gear store, you or your sales team may act as consultants to a new podcaster, advising on what microphones and hardware will work best for their project. This can overlap with some of the other forms of personal selling—like in-store, online, and B2B—but it ultimately hinges on expertise and trust, building strong customer relationships to produce a successful sale.
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How to use the personal selling process
Personal selling follows a standard series of steps:
1. Prospecting
This is the very first part of the sales process, where you identify potential paying customers. Sales prospecting can be done by cold calling, reaching out on social media, finding people at conventions or networking events, getting referrals from previous customers, or offering lead-generation forms on your website.
2. Pre-approach
Once you’ve identified possible customers, you may want to immediately call and start the sales pitch. But not so fast. The pre-approach is an invaluable stage of personal selling, allowing you to research the customer and identify their needs. Before calling, take the time to get as much background information as you can to set your initial contact up for success.
3. Approach
The approach is the first sales meeting and the customer’s first impression of you or your company. This step is all about initial relationship building. The approach is important for two key reasons: It lets the customer know more about you, and it helps you understand why (and if) your product is right for the customer.
4. Pitch
The sales pitch, or sales presentation, is the main attraction where you present your product to the customer. It’s more than just reading sales scripts and PowerPoints; you (or your sales reps) will use information from the pre-approach and approach to apply a personal touch to the presentation.
5. Conversation and response
After the pitch, you can use active listening to understand the customer’s reservations or objections. By hearing their immediate feedback, you can approach their concerns with genuine interest and quell those worries or offer information that will change their mind.
6. Closing
There is no single way to close a sale, but this is the point of the process where the customer makes a final decision. If you don’t seal a deal at this meeting, all is not lost. Frédéric Aubé, founder of furniture brand Cozey, offers closing advice on the Shopify Masters podcast.
“We don’t want to force them to close a sale. That’s not the point,” says Frédéric. “We want to focus on the experience. If you provide a great experience and a great product, then sales are going to follow naturally.”
7. Follow up
Though the sale (or lack thereof) may sound like the final step, making a follow-up call can ensure customer satisfaction, provide ongoing support, and make sure you’re building relationships with customers, ultimately leading to referrals or even repeat business.
Personal selling FAQ
What is an example of personal selling?
One example of personal selling would be if your online soap company set up a booth at a cosplay convention and you or your sales staff met with people walking by to explain how your new soap helps moisturize skin after heavy makeup use.
When should you use personal selling?
If you sell expensive products that require considerable research before customers make a purchase, you might benefit from personal selling. The disadvantages of personal selling mainly come down to time and resources. It’s not cheap to hire salespeople (let alone sales teams), because selling products on a one-on-one basis takes a lot of time per product. But there are many personal selling advantages, like the ability to build relationships and possibly find repeat customers.
What is online personal selling?
Online personal selling is a form of marketing that uses direct communication over the internet to sell your company’s products or services. You can do this through a chat box on your ecommerce website, emails, or video chats.
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