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What is salesmanship?

What is salesmanship?

What is salesmanship?

What is salesmanship?

Ans.

Salesmanship

It is one of the skills used in personal selling. It is the art of successfully persuading prospects or customers to buy products or services from which they can derive suitable benefits, thereby increasing their total satisfactions. Now, it implies consultative selling i.e. creating long-term, mutually beneficial sales relationships with customers by helping them to improve their profit through products and services. It is seller-initiated efforts that provides prospective buyers with information and other benefits, motivating or persuading them to decide in favour of the seller’s product or service.

Both personal selling and advertising make use of salesmanship techniques. It involves buyer and seller interaction. It implements personal selling efforts. However, advertising and personal selling often supplement or support each other, and the buyer reacts to their combined impact.

‘Salesmanship’ is the art of winning the hearts of consumers to dispose the firm’s products and services. It is the wit act of persuasian. It is the science of understanding the human instincts and paving the way to their fulfilment. It is the art of stressing the appropriate values of firm’s products and services to fit the individual and varying needs of different buyers called on. It is the ability of a person to persuade the people to buy the goods and services for mutual gain namely, satisfaction to the buyer and profit to the seller.

Salesmanship is referred to as, “the power or ability to influence people to buy,” “art of persuading people to buy only those goods which a firm wants to sell,” “conscious effort on the part of salesman to turn a prospect into a buyer.”

According to T.S. Knox, “Salesmanship is the ability to persuade to want what the already need.” This definition points out the following aspects of salesmanship:

1. Persuation: There must be persuasion by the salesman.

2. Converting Need into want: The effect of persuasion should be of converting need into want. Want is the effective need. A customer may feel the need of a thing but since it is not effective and hence cannot be called want. Effective need compels the consumer to create resources of satisfying it.

“Salesmanship is an art of persuading man to buy what have to sell.” The definition points out the following aspects that are involved in salesmanship:

1. It is an art of persuading man.

2. The effect of persuasion is to buy only those things which the seller wants to sell.

According to H.H. Houghton, “Salesmanship is the personal service rendered to the community with the marketing of goods.”

According to R.S. Davar, “Salesmanship may be defined as the art of persuading persons to buy goods which will give them lasting satisfaction by the use in the process. It is the ability to convert human needs into wants. Salesmanship is the persuasion and not compulsion.”

According to W.G. Carter, “Salesmanship is an attempt to induce people to buy goods.”

Thus, it can be concluded that salesmanship is personal skill by which the seller persuades the prospective customers to buy goods and services for their mutual profit and satisfaction.

About the author

Salman Ahmad

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