Table of Contents

Table of Contents...................................................................................................................................1

Introduction............................................................................................................................................3

Major research.......................................................................................................................................3

The objectives and the relationship between the different elements of the communication mix..3

The understanding of buyer behavior can be used in personal selling..........................................6

Culture:.........................................................................................................................................6

National culture:.........................................................................................................................7

Branches of culture:...................................................................................................................7

Level of society:.........................................................................................................................8

Society: .........................................................................................................................................9

Family and reference groups:.....................................................................................................9

Personal. ....................................................................................................................................10

Age:..........................................................................................................................................10

Career:......................................................................................................................................10

Economic circumstances:.........................................................................................................11

Psychological factors:................................................................................................................11

Motives:...................................................................................................................................11

Perception:...............................................................................................................................13

Learning:..................................................................................................................................13

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 Attitude and belief:..................................................................................................................14

The environmental and managerial forces affecting personal selling.........................................14

The environmental forces affecting personal selling..............................................................15

The managerial forces affecting personal selling....................................................................16

The main types of personal selling................................................................................................17

Order getting: ............................................................................................................................17

Order taking: ............................................................................................................................18

Order supporting: .....................................................................................................................18

The principles of personal selling..................................................................................................18

Analyze the stages in the personal selling process........................................................................20

Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................22

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 Introduction
The capital city’s population has increased remarkably in recent decades. The city was home to
more than 3 billion in 2004, with an average density of over 17,800 people per kilometre.
However, this rate is much higher in the central districts such as Hoan Kiem District, Hai Ba
Trung District. Because of almost all of the narrow, twisty roads are lined with tiny shop
houses with ground floor retail accommodation, development site are almost impossible to
assemble. There are few buildings above 4-6 floors and all were built since the past and most in
dreadful condition. Thus, there are also very few bespoke retail developments such as Vincom
tower, Trang Tien plaza....In this report, Vincom Shopping Center is the major research.

Major research

The objectives and the relationship between the

different elements of the communication mix
The main objective of communication mix of Vincom Plaza is to improve communication with
customer. This objective can be measured by the number of customers that visit Vincom, go to
shops and buy product or use services. In order to that achieve the objective, Vincom Plaza can
use Public Relation and Sale Promotion effectively alongside with Personal Selling

First, Public Relation refers to the communication between the organization and its public. It is
important to building up and maintaining mutual understanding and awareness between an
organization and the public. Nowadays, the market is extremely competitive. Vincom Plaza is
not the only centre for customers to shopping and entertaining. It is not the ‘rare’ place as in the
end of 2004. Hanoian can visit Trang Tien Plaza, Parkson Plaza, The Garden Plaza and so on.
Therefore, the main objective of public relation is to enhance Vincom’s reputation and make it
stand out from the crowd. The reason for the using of public relation in Vincom Plaza is place.
Vincom Plaza located in the good place in Ba Trieu Street where even in rush hours; the traffic
jam matter still does not happen so much. It is not too far from the city centre as Parkson or The
Garden. It is also not too much centre as Trang Tien Plaza which is difficult for customers to

3
parking. As the result, it provide Vincom Plaza a lot of convenience if the Plaza use some public
relation tools such as organizing charitable and public events. Many people will go into Vincom
to feel the enthusiastic and animated atmosphere of the occasions. Hence, in some special
occasions such as Valentine, Christmas or Mid-Autumn Festival, Vincom may has some new
design outside of the building which can attract customers think about that special time.

Second, Sale Promotion relates to the purchase incentives that the company provide to the
customer. The objective of sale promotion is to attract new customers and retain the existing
customers so that increasing sale. Sale promotion tools can include premiums, price discounting,
coupons, gift, bonus and so on. In the case of Vincom, sale promotion has a significant job. The
reason is that people can visit Vincom for window shopping and relaxing but they tend to go to
other place such as Chua Boc or Ton Duc Thang Street where they can bargain to buy product.
Thus, sale promotion activity should be organized to encourage customers of Vincom to buy
more. While visiting a shopping centre, customers are generally attracted towards the product or
service that offers discount or gift on buying. Clothes and fashion floor of Old Vincom is the
place where sale promotion applied most effective. Many stores offer price discounting. Blue
Exchange, for example, can lure price conscious consumer by showing discount and sale items.
From VND 30.000 – VND 80.000, customers can buy a high quality T-shirt or mini skirt. This
price may be not found in Chua Boc Street. As the result, the customers feel incentive to buy.

Blue Exchange Shop

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Third, Personal Selling is a direct and face-to-face form of communication. One of the objectives
of personal selling is to convince customers to make purchase. People are the most important
element of any service. “People buy from people”. Any customer facing personnel can have an
impact on overall satisfaction. After attract customer to visit, give them incentive to buy, the job
of personal selling is to “use demonstration of the product, persuasion and negotiation to make
the sale” (Edexcel HNC & HND Business, 2004). Personal selling becomes more important for
expensive, complex and infrequently brought products or services such as electronic and
technological products. Personal selling helps inform and educate the consumers about this new
product. In Vincom, the electronics supermarket is called Caring Centre which occupied almost
the whole floor. Consumers can go shopping easily to get the products of other brands such as
LG, Samsung, and Sony. There is the need to explain the benefit of a complex product. Massage
chair, for instance, is a new product for Vietnamese people. Sale person can explain the use, the
utility of the product, how it solves customers’ problem, answer customers’ questions and
provide them demonstration and try-out. Hence, personal selling also can create the desire in
customers and motivate them to buy. Furthermore, as a face-to-face communication, sale persons
can take feedback from customers immediately through customers’ complaints, questions and
difficulties in using the product. Thus, they will be able to collect information about customers’
wants and needs in order to give suggestions to the manufactures to improve the current products
and develop the new product.
Public relation, sale promotion and personal selling have a strong relationship to improve
communication with customer of Vincom Plaza. The customers have to know about the
existence of the stores before they can buy products of them. When they see the product, they
might buy because majority of buying decisions are made in store. Hence, Vincom must gain
attention of the customers and attract customers visiting Vincom. Public relation has a big role in
this case. Effective public relation helps creating interest, building awareness and a positive
image of the organization for customers so that they tend to come to try out. After attract
customers to the shopping centre, it is important to sell product. Purchase incentives need to be
offered to encourage customers to buy the product because most of Vincom customers prefer
Chua Boc and other public places to purchase products. Thus, sales promotion can be applied as
an effective tool to increase the sale. While sale promotion encourages customers to try new
product and buy more, personal selling convinces or persuades them to buy the products or
5
services by provide more information, explain about the product and answer questions about
products’ usage. As this relationship, each element of the communication mix can support each
other in order to achieve the common objective of improve the communication with customers.
Public relation creates the positive attitude toward the shopping centre, the stores and the
products. Next, sale promotion encourages and gives purchase incentives to customers. Finally,
personal selling convinces those potential customers to accept and purchase the products. In
addition, it provides customers after-sale services in order to win repeat sales such as confirming
delivery correctly and on time, giving additional customer care services, obtaining feedbacks and
so on

The understanding of buyer behavior can be used in

personal selling
Marketing is the sciential subject which aims to meet the needs, wants and demands of the
customer. However, understanding the buyer behaviour is not an easy work. The customers may
talk about their wants and needs in one way, but they can act in the different way. The reason is
people normally do not exactly know their main factors which influence their buying decision,
especially, when that main factor happens, people will apply it and decide their choice.
Regarding to that fact, the marketer must research carefully about the demands, habits, and buyer
behaviour of the potential customers in order to make the plans for the product development,
price, or promotion, etc… As the market consultant of Vincom Plaza, the buyer behaviour of the
potential customer of the company can be separated into some main sectors:

Culture:
Every region has its own culture; it can be defined as an unconditioned reflex. For example:
before deciding to buy something, people will answer by themselves the question that: “is it fit to
the culture?” the answer for that question is the decision of the customer even the customer likes
these goods or not. The culture of customers affects hardly the buying decision. That sector
involves three levels:

6
 Level 3
.Le
vel
Level 2
Bra
nch
Level 1
Nati
onal

National culture:

National culture is the basic factor which decides the behaviour and wants of everybody in
society. During the growth time of people in society, they have accumulated the value,
awareness, hobby, and behaviour through their family and some other basic values. For example:
American will get the influence from their culture as freedom, individualistic, success,
innovation, humanitarianism, etc…

In the case of Vincom plaza, the bad news for that company is Vietnamese under the education
of the socialist state is learnt that: “Behinds wealth is a crime” and most goods in Vincom plaza
is luxury. However, Vietnamese also has the own culture that is described by the statement: “The
characteristic of one people is described through his/her face and clothes”, it is the good
opportunity for the personal selling department of each shop in Vincom to attract customers
through marketing activities which aim to make customers the feeling that: “These goods can
improve their social standing”.

Branches of culture:

Every national culture always involves many branches of culture. These branches of culture may
be grouped into four groups: “ethnic groups (e.g. H’Mong, Kinh, Tay, Thai, Muong), religious
(e.g. Islam, Buddhism, Catholicism, Protestantism), race (e.g. Jewish, Germanic, Arab, Slavs),
regions (e.g. rural, urban, North and South Vietnam). Each branch has the individual culture as

7
Jewish thinks that the most important is knowledge, Islam focuses on the pure of body (Ramadan
week), etc…

There is no way to satisfy all branches of culture, so Vincom plaza must concentrate on the
specific branch, in Vietnam market, regions group seem to be easy to research. Rural area does
not seem to be the potential customer of Vincom because they can not have enough money to
buy goods in that place, and they do not care much about their appearance so Vincom is not fit
for them. However, the number of the wealth in rural area is increasing because of the
government’s policies and these people want to spend money to improve their image as soon as
possible, Vincom can take advantage of that behavior. On the other hand, urban area is quite
different than rural area, they know what they want and really take care of their appearance
which can help their work. Moreover, luxury centers are familiar with them and they do not feel
uncomfortable when buying goods in there. According to the main culture of each area, personal
selling department can decide the development plan to attract their potential customers, as
improve the design of each shop to make it more familiar with the customers, hiring the
professional sellers, or held more events to attract the wealth in rural area, etc…

Level of society:

Most countries in the world obviously show the different levels of society. There are three main
levels which have the individual culture: “upper class (1% to 2% of population) controls the
largest amount of money in society, middle class (12% to38%) normally is employee who works
in office, lower social class (the rest) is the main workers in the society but lack of skills at work
so they get the low salary”. Upper class mainly focuses on the development of the country and
they are the market for most luxury goods. On the other hand, middle class wants to become an
upper class through working and learning, while spending a lot of money to improve their level
of society. The last level, besides the low salary, the lower social class lives by the insurance of
the government and mostly do not receive the good education system.

Firstly, Vincom plaza is the luxury place which does not suitable for the lower social class, that
segment is not the potential customer of Vincom. Secondly, with upper class, spending money
into the luxury goods to improve and maintain their image is their culture; so Vincom plaza can
be described as the paradise in their mind. Thirdly, Vincom can not forget the second level of

8
society, middle class who has the biggest ambition to stand in the upper class. Through these
comments of each level, personal selling department must renew their marketing process to
assess their shops as focusing points of upper and middle class, make their shops to be more
modern, professional, and familiar.

Society:
Society is one of the most basic influences on an individual’s needs, wants and behaviour, people
live in one place must be affected by some groups, for example: their family, their reference
groups or their company’s managers. These effects can cause the buying decision making of
customers, as if their family only choose one brand of goods to buy, obviously that brand also
will be their chosen in the future.

Family and reference groups:

Groups that an individual looks to (uses as a reference) when forming attitudes and opinions are
described as reference groups. Primary reference groups include family and close friends, while
secondary reference groups include fraternal organizations and professional associations. A
buyer may also consult a single individual about decisions, and this individual would be
considered a reference individual. A person normally has several reference groups or reference
individuals for various subjects or different decisions. For example, a woman may consult one
reference group when she is purchasing a car and a different reference group for lingerie. As an
important part of reference groups, family has been suggested that the household, rather than the
individual, is the relevant unit for studying consumer behaviour. This is because within a
household the purchaser of goods and services is not always the user of these goods and services.
Thus, it is important for marketing managers to determine not only who makes the actual
purchase but also who makes the decision to purchase.

In the case of Vincom, personal selling must look at these groups to choose the decision on
increasing the sales volume. In Vietnam, reference groups can be idols (famous singers, actors,
models etc…) or maybe the company’s managers, but far away these groups, Vietnamese has a
culture itself that they attach much more important to advice of one’s parents, then if personal
selling can attract their family, so easy for the company to attract them. There are many ways to
improve the image of the company in the eyes of customers as using the image of the famous
9
brands which are made in Japan (electric products), advice the customers that their family will
like that product, etc… The final statement for the personal selling that: “To be the people who
make the decision to purchase not the people who make the actual purchase”.

Personal.
The buying decision making of the customers depends on their individual features as age, career,
salary, characteristic, etc… The different feature will cause the different decision. Some basic
groups are given below:

Age:

Different age will cause different needs and wants of the individual, e.g. baby only focuses on
food; teenager wants to buy clothes to make them more beauty; mature people buy the suitable
goods which support their career rather than support for their habits. The marketer must choose
the target group from these groups as a potential market for them to maximum the sales volume.

Personal selling departments in Vincom is separated to many different brands which support
different demands, as Megastar cinema wants to attract more young people, Gucci, LV brands
demand to have a lot of customers from 18 to 50, etc… Then the design of each shops must
follow these target market, moreover, the seller also must be educated to catch the habits of the
target group the company aims to.

Career:

Everybody know that career affects hardly the decision making of personal, workers will buy
clothing, shoes workers; chairmen on the other hand are in higher level, they will buy luxury
goods, travel by plane, join in some clubs for the upper class. The marketers need to assess the
group of career who concentrate on their products to teach the personal selling department the
customers’ career habits. Vincom also is not in different situation, the design of office clothing
shops must be suitable for the career of the customers, and the sellers in these shops also must
have professional skills to persuade them to buy products.

10
 Economic circumstances:

Different economic circumstances will cause different decision making, the rich has the choice
of the rich, and the poor has the choice of the poor. If the economic crisis happens, the rich
becomes poorer, they will change their buying decision making. The marketers have to predict
economic tendency to develop the marketing process which suitable for their potential
customers.

At that time, the global economic is going down, even in Vietnam. The personal selling in
Vincom must know that fact and have some plans to prevent the damage which economic crisis
gives them. Some solutions can do that: “cut down the number of shop which does not make
much profit in Vincom, push the customers to buy goods through some cheap types of
advertising (hiring models to promote the goods rather than advertise it in the television)”.

Psychological factors:
These are internal to an individual and generate forces within that influence her/his purchase
behaviour. The major forces include motives, perception, learning, attitude and personality.

Motives:

A motive is an internal energizing force that orients a person's activities toward satisfying a need
or achieving a goal. Actions are effected by a set of motives, not just one. To determine the
factors which motive customer, Maslow recognized five factors: Physiological, Safety, Love and
Belonging, Esteem, Self Actualization. If marketers can apply these motivation factors into their
works then they can better develop a marketing mix.

Satisfy all these factors of customers is the impossible mission for the personal selling in
Vincom, but with concrete brands, the managers of personal selling can make the decision
himself to meet these factors. As the design of food and drink restaurants can make the customer
feel hungry:

11
Or the design of entertainment center also makes the customer to feel more excited (self
actualization):

They are some examples to improve the design of each shop in Vincom, and then the advice for
the personal selling department in Vincom is: “Trying to meet all the motive factors of the
customers which are suitable for the brands of each shop”.

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 Perception:

Perception is the process of selecting, organizing and interpreting information inputs to produce
meaning. IE we chose what info we pay attention to, organize it and interpret it. Information
inputs are the sensations received through sight, taste, hearing, smell and touch.

Through that definition, the personal selling must memorize the basic thing that: “Information
inputs are the sensations received through sight, taste, hearing, smell and touch”. For example:
If one person has the perception of the seller that he is a big mouth and only talks some rubbish
things, then immediately, his goods can not sell to that customer. In contrast, if that customer
thinks the seller is very intelligent and only wants to give the useful information to him, then the
goods can be sold very soon. Moreover, not only the seller has the responsibility on selling
goods, but also the design of the shop influences the decision making of customers, e.g. when the
customer wants to buy perfume, they will choose the shops with nice design and noble lighting:

In conclusion, to meet the good perception from the customer, the personal selling must be
careful with their appearance through the design of the shops, the attitude of the sellers.

Learning:

Learning is the process through which a relatively permanent change in behavior results from
the consequences of past behavior. It influences the buying decision making of customer in the

13
different way that: “the customer feels good after using one brand, in the future, that brand will
be his/her experience and it will be the big advantage for that brand if the customer compares it
with the similar things”.

The lesson for personal selling in Vincom that they can sell the products with the image of some
users who have the good feeling when using those products. Moreover, the places of the shops
also influence the feeling of customers, as if the customers have learnt that any shops which
located in the lobby always sell the cheap and bad quality of products, then so hard for these
shops to attract customers.

Attitude and belief:

Attitude and belief are the result of learning and actions. These factors affect the decision
making of the customers. Belief is the thinking of human which confirmed about the experience
they gain. For example: the Japan goods have created the good belief of the users that they have
a best quality, long products age, etc… through the long-time experience Vietnamese use it. On
the other hand, attitude describes the knowledge and positive and negative feelings about an
object or activity-maybe tangible or intangible, living or non- living... People always have the
attitude with every activity in the world, as religious (Islam is the religious of terror) or Chinese
goods always are the worst goods in the world.

After understanding these factors of the customers, the personal selling department of many
companies in Vincom must give the customer the good image of their goods in order to create
the good belief and attitude in the mind of customers. For examples: If the shops are belong to
the famous brands, the sellers must push the focusing point of the customers into that brands to
assess it as the best products over the world. Furthermore, the design of that shop also must be
more professional to have the good belief from the customers.

The environmental and managerial forces affecting

personal selling
Environmental and managerial forces are factors which influences on selling directly. Therefore,
knowing those factors will help company do business better. As Vincom case, we indentify the
forces as follow:
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 The environmental forces affecting personal selling
Environmental factors involve macro and micro factors. For macro factor, it could be
government policy, geography, economic rate such as CPI, average income, inflation, etc and
culture. In the field of micro factors, the factors could be competitors, customers and suppliers.

First, as our watching, Vincom Plaza is a expensive place. Almost of products in here are luxury
goods. Otherwise, if the goods is the same (same product, same brand), the price goods is
normally higher than outside store. It can be understood that Vincom stores have to pay a lot of
money for place, so the price must be higher for ensuring the business in Vincom. It Vietnam is a
developing country, therefore the income of people is just around USD1000$ per year. Although
the growth rate of economic is always around 6-7% percents, but the income of people is still
quite low when comparing with other country as Thailand, Malaysia, Indonexia, etc. So it is very
hard for people to purchase goods at there.. In addition, the world suffers the financial crisis in
year 2008. Vietnam is also affected by it. It make the income of people reduce, or losing job in
bad situation. Hence, the demand of purchasing good is reduced. All these factors affect on
personal selling directly not just in Vincom but all distribution chain stores, plaza. However, now
Vietnam government has some policies to push the economic come up again. The typical
example is the program “Vietnamese like using Vietnam good”. According to this program,
Vietnamese goods will be supported by government to reduce the price. The price will be sale
off 30% to 50% percent. This program will attract more customers come to Vincom to
purchasing goods.

For micro factors, Vincom has to compete with many other competitors such as Home Centre
plaza, Media Plaza, Pico Plaza, Trang Tien Plaza, Parkson, etc. Although Home Centre, Media
and Pico Plaza only focus on electric goods but it also affect on personal selling of Vincom
because it has a floor for electric good (Caring store). For Trang Tien and Parkson Plaza, they
are do quite similar business as Vincom. Trang Tien is the first plaza in Hanoi with its many
advantages. For example, Trang Tien Plaza has run business in a long time, so they have a lot of
experiences of this field of business. They also already have loyal customers. Moreover, it
locates in the centre of Hanoi, nearly Old Quarter where one of the tourism place attract foreign
customer come to visit. Thus, Trang Tien has opportunity to approach foreign customer. Parkson
Plaza is just opened on short time, but with the style of decoration and the famous of brand, it
15
has attracted a lot of young customer. It will be a potential competitor of Vincome. For the field
of customer, Vincom locates in Hanoi, place where people is quite saved. So they do not want to
pay extra money just for the convenience and beautiful place, they would like to go outside
where the price is cheaper and more suitable for them. Hanoi people just consider plazas as
relaxing place such as walking or hiding hot air and so on. This is the reason why there are a lot
of people visit to Vincom but it is little of them buying good.

The managerial forces affecting personal selling

The managerial forces could be direct marketing and qualification sale persons and sale
managers. The direct marketing could be promotion (sale off, etc), online sale, etc. The
marketing program can attract customer directly come to Vincom. At this point, Vincom had
done quite well. First, Vincom have set the positioning of this brand as luxury. It means that the
customer of it is high income people. To do this positioning, Vincom only allow luxury brands to
locate in Vincom such as Valentino, CK, etc. On the ways to popular its brand Vincom to
customer, Vincom also agree for company to locate its office in the building. People in these
companies almost are high income people. There are many companies in Vincom, so that there
are so many people who know Vincom. Because the buying centre is just under the place where
they work, it is convenient for them for purchasing goods. Moreover, there is a game room on
the 5th floor in both two buildings and a big cinema on 6th floors. They attract young people very
well. It shows that way of setting area of Vincom affect directly to personal selling. Although
each store of Vincom has own promotion program but Vincom still do its own promotion. For
example, for celebrities such as Christmas, Vincom decorated its building itself. It would attract
people come to Vincom more and more. In the field of qualification sale person, almost company
qualify its sale based on the sale volume. Each store in Vincom has own employees and own
training program, promote program. The sale volume depends on each store because Vincom do
not do business directly to consumer. We thought that job of sale person and manager of Vincom
is just about leasing business. They find customer who want to lease square in Vincom for office
or selling. However, to qualifying sale person, it still based on the sale volume.

16
 The main types of personal selling
Personal selling is one task of the promotional mix. It plays an important role in firm’s marketing
strategy. The most advantage of personal selling is to get strong relationship with customers.
Although the advantages of using personal selling strategy are too high, some companies only
want to use the direct-sales force. One of the reasons for asking is that the cost of employing sale
people is very expensive. The salespeople must be well-graduated and experience to do this job.
The personal selling is separated into three types: order getter, order taker and support personnel.
However, there were two types of personal selling for customers in VinCom plaza including
order getting and order taking.

Order getting:
One of the order getters’ jobs is to increase firm’s sales by selling to new customers. They are
called pioneers. They will provide customers with information about the product, persuade them
to buy goods. The one who do this job must be talented, good experience and patient with some
fastidious customers. In addition, the sale person also convince existing customer to buy new
products of the company. They are called account managers. It is easier to persuade current
customers to buy products than the others. The order getter can be inside the seller’s store such
as a machinery or clothing sales person. In Vincom plaza, we can easily realize the washing
machine or television sales people at a big store on second floor. When customers first come
inside the store, they ask them which they want to buy and provide them some information about
the goods. Clients might not know what we needs; the job of the order getter is to identify the
needs. We can easily see the order getters in Vincom plaza. They satisfy customers, make
customer feel that they are cared much. In clothing shops, order getters paid attention to
customers by their nice voice and presentation. They will advise clients which side or style of
clothes they should use. Seeing order getters is a good choice to know what you want and what is
suitable for you.

Furthermore, the order getter can be outside by a field sales force. They will visit customers and
contact them. This method is probably effective but its cost is very high. The company must pay
orders getters who work outside the bonus, travel-fee or some other benefit. Hence, the firms

17
tend to use the telemarketing strategy nowadays. This solution is not only decreasing the cost of
marketing outside but also developing the number of customers.

Order taking:
Different from order getters, order takers are someone who only needs to take an order to
customers without giving them the representation. They perform an order processing function
and complete the transaction. Normally, the order takers work in simple purchase situation. In
Vincom plaza, we will easily realize the order getters in fast food shop or movie center. There is
a fast food shop in the fourth floor. Most of the sale people here are order takers. Everyday, they
deal with the similar customers. When people first came to the fast food shop, the order takers
will ask them if they are ready to order. Afterward, they listen carefully what customer is
ordering, read the order back to the customers and ask them to give the payment. Later on, the
order takers will check the payment and give the extra money back to their customers. The order
getters’ job is not to persuade anyone to buy something from the shop. Thus, they are paid
minimum salary and had no special training. However, they worked quite professional. Order
takers will serve clients as soon as they ask. Customers will feel satisfy with this serve style.

Order supporting:
The third type of personal selling is order supporting. Support personnel often do not sale
products and service but play an important role in maintaining existing customers and resolving
the customer’s concerns. Generally, there are two types of support personnel: missionary and
technical specialist. The missionary sale people will introduce new product and perform the
promotion strategy for company. For example, a Pharmaceutical will go to the hospital, convince
the doctors to buy their medicines. Technical specialists‘duty is to solve the customer’s problem
or instruct them how to use the product, especially electronic products. They must be trained to
explain how to use the product and its limitations.

The principles of personal selling

One basic principle of personal selling is that personal selling is a form of dyadic communication
and it allows for more efficient communicative interchange between sale person and customer.
“Dyadic communication means a direct or one-on-one communication between two people” (M.

18
C. Cant & C. H. van Heerden). Personal selling is the two-way communication where the seller
can communicate with customer directly. Advertising, for example, is the useful way to get the
attention of the customer and let them know about the product. However, there is no guarantee
that the customers will receive and understand the full meaning of the messages of that
advertises. Personal selling can improve the understanding of marketing message because the
product’s benefits and utilities are explained and demonstrated directly to the customers. It is
important to know that customers tend to prefer a sales display and presentation that is suitable to
their need and solve their problem than a memorable and impressive canned advertisement.
Panasonic refrigerator, for instance, is one of the popular kitchen appliance advertisements for
every people. All most people know that Panasonic’s slogan is “ideas for life” and the
refrigerator is “a state of the art home appliance created to make your life easier and more
convenient”. Nevertheless, not many people know about the product in actual. The role of sale
person, therefore, is important. The sale person can show the customer how Panasonic
refrigerator is easy to see, easy to get and easy to arrange. He also can explain the way the new
technology refrigerator saving energy, reducing electricity consumption, eliminating unpleasant
smell and so on. The customers, as the result, are motivated and convinced that if they purchase
the product; it will be a smart and wisely act. The buying decision of customer can be affected in
this way. The customers may change from the undecided customers who just want to find
information about the product to first-time customers and repeat customer.
Another character of personal selling is that personal selling is flexible. It means that the sales
presentation can be change in different situation. For example, not all customers who come to
buy refrigerator want to know about anti-bacteria effect or hygienic clean system. The sale
person can focus on the point which the customers’ interests adapt the message which is suitable
to the customer at the time. The sale person can answer question about customers’ current
problems and provide them solutions, advices and directions immediately. As the result, personal
selling has ability to guide customers in selecting goods that are best suited to their requirements
based on their interest and question about the product. For instance, the sale person not only tries
to persuade customers to buy the specific product which they saw in the magazine or television,
the sale person can give more details about available model and the data of each model that make
customers opportunity to choose the best one for themselves. In this case, personal selling also
has affection customers’ decision making. Most of the time, customers come to the store because
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they want to know more about the product in order to make a final decision. Effective personal
selling will be a powerful tool to match customers’ problem with the correct solution and help
them reach the decision more quickly.

Analyze the stages in the personal selling process

The sales process is a logical, sequential series of actions that can greatly increase the chances of
making a sale, bearing in mind that the ultimate aim is to address customer needs and build long
term relationships. This process has seven steps that every salesperson should go through in
order to be efficient and effective at landing sales

The first step is prospecting which involves finding qualified sales leads. This step is a process
of identifying likely customers from creative sources such as prior customers, trade associations,
government publications and observation. In this step, salespersons need to plan a sales
approach focused upon the needs of the customer. After that, salespersons determine which
products or services suitable for customer’s needs. For instance, all clothes shop in Vincom,
salesperson always pay attention to know which styles of clothes customers want and need.
Thus, customers will concentrate to the product of shops.

The pre approach step involves collecting information about the potential customer prior to the
initial visit. The pre approach is obtaining an interview and determining sales call objectives. If
salespersons are on the sales floor, this means studying their demeanor and attitude while
scanning the shelves. If salesperson is on a computer, conduct a little research about your
customer before contacting them. The goal of this stage is to make a good impression and to
solidify the customer’s willingness to listen to the sales presentation. The information will be
used to make the presentation. For example, in LG store, salespersons do not understand about
the features or application of products, they cannot show for customers know what the better
products are.

The approach stage involves the first meeting between the salesperson and prospect, where the
objectives are to gain the prospect’s attention, stimulate interest, and build the foundation for the
sales presentation itself and the basis for a working relationship. The first impression is
important and sellers should be able to recognize and adapt to the potential customer’s social
style. If the customer is looking for facts, give them facts. If they are looking for opinions, give
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them opinions. The salesperson should ask probing questions of the prospective customer to
determine their needs. Open-ended questions are things which the customer feels comfortable to
respond. For instance, in the shops in Vincom, it is common for two or three meetings to occur
before the new product are released. Customers are also very important. Salesperson should
print the business cards in English on one side and the in Vietnamese on other. In some cosmetic
shop, salespersons always make customers feel comfortable in the first impression. They seek
what customers need and want, after that consulting for customers and building a strong
relationship with customer for the next time.

The presentation is at the core of order getting selling process, and its objective is to convert a
prospect into a customer by creating a desire for the product or service. When making
presentation, salespersons need to focus on the real benefits of the product or service to the
specific needs of their customers. If this step goes well, the customer will seriously consider
purchasing the product. As jewelry shop, salesperson will introduce to customer the special
features of product and find out what customer pay attention. Customers want to know about the
real benefits of the products rather than listing the formal features of products. For example, in
Sony Ericsson store, salesperson need to show why the new product is more expensive than
others. Salesperson should base on special applications of new products as camera 8.1
megapixels, wifi … which the existent products do not have.

After presenting your sales pitch, the potential customer will likely have objections. If you can
comfort the consumer about their objections, they will probably make their final decision to buy.
Some objectives are valid and are on the characteristics of the product or service or price.
However, some objectives are invalid. There are some techniques which can be used to deal
with objections in a courteous, ethical, and professional manner. First of all, acknowledge and
convert the objections is using as a reason for buying. For example, in Mango shop in Vincom,
the customer might say, “the price is too high”, the salesperson reply: “Yes, the price is high
because we use the material. Let me show you….” besides, the postpone technique is used when
the objection will be dealt with later in the presentation. Most of the time salesperson should be
answered immediately, but occasionally they should be put off.

The closing stage in the selling process involves obtaining a purchase commitment from the
prospect. It is the most important and the most difficult stage because the salesperson must
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determine when customer is ready to buy. The salesperson can base on some features includes
statements and questions. For instance, in statement, salesperson in an electronic store can
realize, customer might say “this equipment should reduce our maintenance cost”. In Adidas’s
store, customer might ask a question “can I try the shoes with a smaller size”. Another example
for conversion close, buyer might say: “I cannot really afford it this quarter”, seller might say:
“at this special low introductory price can you rally afford to wait?” When customer is clearly
ready to buy, the close is used, and a salesperson asks for the order.

The following up is the final step of the personal selling process. Salesperson must complete any
agreed upon actions (i.e. bonus, rebate) and stay in touch after the sale. This stage of the selling
process also solidifies the buyer seller relationship. The cost and effort to obtain repeat sales
from a satisfied customer is roughly half of that necessary to gain a sale from a new customer.
As Megastars in Vincom, the prices of tickets reduce 40,000 vnd on Monday. Not only has that,
customer can have opportunity to get a small gift.

All steps in personal selling process are important. No subsequent steps can succeed without
preparation; no objections can be handled unless the customer is found. Salesperson will deal
with a logical, step by step process. Some managers pay attention to train salesperson about
sales presentation techniques and the ways of talking to customers into a close. Other managers
focus on planning techniques includes gathering relevant information about the customer, setting
sales call objective, selecting an appropriate presentation style. All steps link together thus no
step can be considered as the most important step in personal selling process. Salespersons want
to achieve the goals; they must go step by step in this process.

Conclusion
To summarize, the report has provided information the roles of personal selling within the
overall marketing of organizations and the stages in the selling process. The major research of
this report focus on the relationship between the different elements of communication mix, the
understanding of buyer behavior, the environmental and managerial forces affecting personal
selling, the principles of personal selling, and the stages in the personal selling process. All
researches apply on Vincom Tower.

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 Reference

Edexcel HNC & HND Business, (2004) Sales Planning and Operations, 1st Ed. London: BPP
Professional Education.

J. Paul Peter and James H.Donnelly, (2000), A preface to marketing management, 8th Ed, Mc
Graw Hill.

M. C. Cant & C. H. van Heerden, (2004),Personal Selling, 1st Ed. Lansdowne: Juta & Co Ltd.4-6

Philip Kotler, (2001), Marketing principles

alex@udel.edu, (no date), what is consumer buying behaviour?,

http://www.udel.edu/alex/chapt6.html#psychological.

About.Com:Psychology, (No date), Colour Psychology, [online], Available from:

http://psychology.about.com/od/sensationandperception/a/colorpsych.htm [Assessed: 27
September 2009]

Marketing teacher, personal selling, [online], available at:

http://www.marketingteacher.com/Lessons/lesson_personal_selling.htm [assessed: 27 October
2009]

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