Personal Selling:

Involves use of sales people to communicate the product to the market. It involves face to face contact between the sales person and the prospective customer. Because of the personal contact personal selling is the most expensive of the promotional elements but it can also be the most rewarding and effective in clinching deals.

Sales people besides just selling the product have other duties which include: after-sales servicing, information gathering, communicating new information to customers and prospecting.

To be effective sales people need information about the company, the products offered, sales and profit targets, customers, sales plan, promotional material, techniques of selling and a knowledge of competitor products.

A company must decide on how to structure its sales force depending on the product and the market being targeted. The alternative forms of sales force structure include:

i. Territorial Structured Sales Force-here each sales person is assigned an exclusive territory in which to represent the company's full line.

ii. Product Structured Sales Force-where each sales person is in charge of a specific product or line of products.

iii. Customer Structured Sales Force-where sales force are set up for different groups of customers.

iv. Combined Structure (Complex)

Sales force effectiveness can be measured either by net sales achieved, call rate, value of sales per call, number of new sales or by sales expenses in proportion to sales achieved.