Ch. 17- Personal Selling and Sales Management

 Personal selling and sales management are a very important part of a companies success especially Apple. Sales promotions are part of important strategies to increase sales. Unfortunately for the consumers, Apple doesn’t offer many promotions even though recently the company unlocked certain Apps for free. However, maybe Apple is right to choose not to focus on promotions because they can still sell their products pretty well without using aggressive promotional campaigns. This is the difference between Apple’s market and other competitors.

According to the text personal selling has several advatanges that other forms of promotion don't  have for example: Personal selling provides a detailed explanation or demonstration of the product,the sales message can be varied according to the motivations and interests of each customer, Personal selling can be directed only to qualified prospects, and Personal selling costs can be controlled by adjusting the size of the sales force in one-person increments. Also Personal selling is considerably more effective than other forms of promotion in obtaining a sale and gaining a satisfied customer.
 

 

 Although Apple does not focus on promotions, the company cares and focuses more on personal selling. One of the reasons why Apple has a lot of loyal customers is because the company understands the importance of building a relationship with its customers. The company's Apple Stores are home to many young and knowledgeable sales representatives who are trained thoroughly in both product information and customer service. They are salespersons, but they are unlike traditional salespersons. They don’t attempt to persuade the consumers to buy its products. The primary job for these sales representatives is to answer and help the customers with any questions or corncerns they have. Walking into any Apple Store will reveal that employees are often young and friendly. When the company releases new products and upgrades these sales representatives are able to assist customers to make purchasing decisions. Today, the explosion techonology has caused people to either accept the new changes or quickly fall behind. For those who fall behind, these sale representatives are able to help them catch up. Apple uses one of many techniques called relationship selling which is a sales practice that involves, building, maintaining and enhancing interactions with customers in order to develop long term satisfaction. A perfect example of this is the Apple store sales associates themselves and how they interact with customers which is one the reasons behind their success. According to Forbes Apple representive use specific sales steps to make a consumer buy an A product specifically the Iphone and at the same time make the customer happy these steps are:

Step 1: Approach with a personalized, warm welcome.

Step 2: Probe politely to understand all the customer’s needs.

Step 3. Present a solution for the customer to take home today.

Step 4. Listen for and resolve issues or concerns.


Step 5. End with a fond farewell and invitation to return.

Sales promotions are not Apple's strength but the Personal Selling techniques along with other Marketing Strategies the company uses add to the reasons why Apple is one of the top Brands in the world.