Personal Selling and Customer Focus Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Personal Selling and Customer Focus - Essay Example Of all these methods forestalling and boomerang methods are the most effective methods of encountering objections. Forestalling can be termed as the best method of dealing with objections. Salespeople should understand that no product is perfect. There are bound to be certain vulnerable areas or features of their product or services. These features have immense chances of being materially different from other competitive products in the market or getting misunderstood by a section of the target audience. There may be many disadvantages attached to a product one is trying to sell like high prices, limited features, lack of service representative in the immediate area, absence of cash discount etc. No matter what the drawbacks are, through the forestall method of objection the salespeople raise the objections before giving the buyer the chance to raise them. For e.g. if the price of a product is high. Before letting the buyer to raise the issue during the sales presentation the salesperson should forestall the objection in the following way: " Though you might feel that the price of this product i s higher than the competitors' product you would have to appreciate the fact that no competitor gives the after sales service as good as we do. Also, the latest technologies have been used to design this product which ensures that it would last longer than any other product in the market." Hence if the salespeople are able to forestall the objection convincingly the buyers are surely going to changer their thoughts without articulating the objection that was in their minds. Boomerang method is also very effective. In the words of Weitz et.al " By using the boomerang method of responding to objections, the salesperson turns the objection into a reason for acting now." (1992, p. 290) Though this method appears very pushy, it can be effectively applied to all personality types. In today's fast pace world every body is short of time and might totally want to ignore the salespeople who are eager to seek an appointment or sell their products. The most common answer to sales call is that " Sorry I don't have enough time now. Perhaps we can talk about it later." Through boomerang technique the salesperson can make use of the time constraint of the buyer in the following way: " I know you have a very busy schedule and that is why this product is most suitable to you because it has the capacity of saving a lot of your time everyday which you can devote in other meaningful activities or in chores that you are longing to do but are not able to do due to lack of ti me." Time and money are the two main constraints of the buyer and through the boomerang method the salesperson can sell the product by making him realize the "benefit of investing these resources." (Weitz et.al., 1992, p. 291) Part 2 To resolve the issue in question the 7 Problem Resolution and Recovery Procedures is the best option. The General Manager should deal with the customer in the following manner: Listen: Listening is the most important thing to do when a customer is complaining about something. Even if the General Manager knows about the entire incident she should listen to the customer attentively. This skill would help in resolving the conflict amicably. Its often found that just by listening attentively to a complaining customer his anger or dissatisfaction