Personal selling: what it is, its advantages and disadvantages
Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2025 5:39 am
Personal selling is very useful for establishing a relationship of trust with clients, understanding their problems and being more effective when doing business.
If you are a person who faces direct sales situations in your business, personal selling is a great option for you, as it helps you gain greater trust from your customers, understand their needs and increase the possibility of doing business with them .
Those in sales face challenges of various kinds, including phone leads natural resistance from potential customers. Why does this happen? When you are on the buyer's side and someone tries to sell you something, don't you feel that person is often forcing things to get you to buy a product?
A Salesforce survey shows that 79% of buyers consider it absolutely critical or very important to interact with a salesperson who is a trusted advisor, not just a sales rep.
Customers now seek personalized interactions with brands and expect sales reps to learn, understand and anticipate their needs.
For this reason, in this article we will show you what personal selling is and how you can adopt a strategy to boost it in your business.
What is personal selling?
Personal selling refers to a face-to-face selling process in which the seller interacts directly with his potential consumer to persuade him to buy his product.
Personal selling is very useful for generating personalized experiences with customers and transmitting key messages, as well as clearly establishing the differentiators or added values of a product or service compared to competitors.
Since it is the opposite of a mass sales message, personal selling is often much more effective , although it depends largely on the skill of the salesperson.
How do personal sales work?
Personal selling can use different methodologies, but generally, these processes incorporate seven basic steps:
Prospecting and qualification
Preparation
Approach to address
Presentation
Handling objections
Closing
Follow-up
We show you more details about each of these steps.
1. Prospecting and qualification
This is the stage where you and your sales team look for new clients for your products or services and it is key to create a very detailed profile of that lead .
It's not just about addressing demographic aspects, but also about understanding their behavior and interests, so that you can gather all the factors that influence their purchasing decision.
Remember that a lead is anyone who has interacted with your company. They may or may not become a customer. A qualified lead is anyone who has met the criteria to assess their quality as a potential customer and their willingness to buy.
If you are a person who faces direct sales situations in your business, personal selling is a great option for you, as it helps you gain greater trust from your customers, understand their needs and increase the possibility of doing business with them .
Those in sales face challenges of various kinds, including phone leads natural resistance from potential customers. Why does this happen? When you are on the buyer's side and someone tries to sell you something, don't you feel that person is often forcing things to get you to buy a product?
A Salesforce survey shows that 79% of buyers consider it absolutely critical or very important to interact with a salesperson who is a trusted advisor, not just a sales rep.
Customers now seek personalized interactions with brands and expect sales reps to learn, understand and anticipate their needs.
For this reason, in this article we will show you what personal selling is and how you can adopt a strategy to boost it in your business.
What is personal selling?
Personal selling refers to a face-to-face selling process in which the seller interacts directly with his potential consumer to persuade him to buy his product.
Personal selling is very useful for generating personalized experiences with customers and transmitting key messages, as well as clearly establishing the differentiators or added values of a product or service compared to competitors.
Since it is the opposite of a mass sales message, personal selling is often much more effective , although it depends largely on the skill of the salesperson.
How do personal sales work?
Personal selling can use different methodologies, but generally, these processes incorporate seven basic steps:
Prospecting and qualification
Preparation
Approach to address
Presentation
Handling objections
Closing
Follow-up
We show you more details about each of these steps.
1. Prospecting and qualification
This is the stage where you and your sales team look for new clients for your products or services and it is key to create a very detailed profile of that lead .
It's not just about addressing demographic aspects, but also about understanding their behavior and interests, so that you can gather all the factors that influence their purchasing decision.
Remember that a lead is anyone who has interacted with your company. They may or may not become a customer. A qualified lead is anyone who has met the criteria to assess their quality as a potential customer and their willingness to buy.