4 �Ps' IN SELLING PROCESS - written by V S RANGARAJAN

4 'Ps' IN SELLING PROCESS
I) Introduction

The 4 P's mentioned are not the 4 P's of Marketing Mix (Product, Price, Promotion and Place ).

The 4P's mentioned are the stages of the non - buyer getting converted into buyer of the seller's product, when the seller adopts the process of performing the selling function

The stages of the buyer as perceived by the company are mentioned below which is in sequential order and this is 4 P's in selling as considered by the author of this article

1) Probable Customer
2) Potential Customer
3) Prospective Customer
4) Permanent customer

Selling is an activity done by an indvidual. There is no concept in the name of Selling Management.
Sales Maagement refers to managing he Sales Force

I) MARKETING AND SELLING

Marketing

Marketing is a functional activity of selecting the Target market from the identified markets for the product proposed to be sold, selling the Product using 4Ps ( using decision of Product Type, Price, Place and Promotion ) in a given environment ultimately to make Profit

Hence the Company's sub functional activity of selling is performed after the Company's overall functional activity of marketing is performed

Marketing process in a company could be described broadly in the following manner

Marketing Process

1) Identifying the Target Market Segment
2) Assessment of Resources and Man Power availability
3) Developing a Marketing Strategy using 4Ps ( product,price,place,promotion )
4) Preparing tactics / policies / guidelines to implement the strategy
5) Resource mobilisation and Man Power Planning

Selling

In any company the major functional activity marketing is performed first by the Top management of the company leaving the next sub functional activity of selling to the middle / low level management

Selling is one or group of persons handing over the product / service ( physical goods, title, service, information on how to use, etc ) to a person or group of persons in exchange for a value

Selling involves exchange process.

In the exchange process at least two persons are involved, Seller and buyer.

But in selling process apart from the above two parties other parties are also involved in exchange process like government, public, competitors, stakeholders, service providers, middlemen , neighbors, employees and others

Selling Process

To perform the Selling function the Seller has to follow the steps mentioned below

1) identify the Probable Customers who may buy ( People with need )
2) convincing the People on their capability to buy, by increasing the confidence level of the people making them feel that they could be the Potential Customers ( People with capacity to buy )
3) convert them as Prospective Customers by increasing their willingness to buy by providing and motivating them with the information required ( People with willingness to buy )
4) facilitate the Prospective Customers enabling them to take decision to make them users and further permanent users of the product ( ie ) Permanent Customer ( People with the attitude of affinity towards company's product )

The above function in commercial terms could be described in the following manner;

The salesman of the company canvass orders, ensure supply, obtain feed back, ensure collection of bill amount and maintains good relationship with the customers

III) STAGES OF THE CUSTOMER FROM THE SELLER'S PERCEPTION

For executing the above function the seller has to adopt to different tactics suitable for the customer according to the stage in which he exists.

Stage I - Probable Customer

Basically the need should exist among the people. Need cannot be created by the seller if he wants to do business in ethical manner ( Physiological need ). Need can be created if the seller adopts to unethical practices. Awareness could only be created about the need of the people, by the seller. The seller can make the need recognized by the people. In this money making process the seller is also helping the society by creating awareness about the genuine good products and its benefits and ensures availability of the same

On the other hand Want ( the refined way of satisfying the need )which is of both Physiological and Psychological, could be created / motivated and is considered ethical. One school of thought considers creating want by the seller to the people who cannot afford to buy is unethical.

The seller first tries to find out, Why people buy ? From that information he arrives at the Probable Customer

As we know need can be classified into Physiological need and Psychological need

Physiological need refers to food, clothing, shelter and sex. This is also known as primary need

Psychological need is the advanced need of Physiological need that refers to ego, status, prestige, etc. this is also known as secondary need

Contented people likely to have less Psychological needs whereas among the Possessive type of people it is vice versa

Production concept is adopted by the companies catering to the market which requires need satisfaction and Marketing concept is adopted by the companies catering to the market which requires want satisfaction

People buy products to satisfy Physiological needs to avail only the functional benefits

Products which are bought only for satisfying Physiological needs could be classified as need satisfying products ( essential commodities, wheat, rice, sugar, etc )

People buy products to satisfy only Psychological needs to avail only emotional benefits

The products which are bought only for satisfying Psychological needs could be classified as want satisfying products, ( paintings, flower bouquets, entertainments, etc )

People buy products to satisfy both Physiological and Psychological needs to avail both functional and emotional benefits

The products which are bought both for satisfying Physiological and Psychological needs are classified as both need and want satisfying products ( eating in restaurants, hair cutting, textile garments, etc ).

The person in the process of satisfying the Physiological need gives scope for the Psychological need to enter his buying decision thus converting the situation from need based situation to want based situation.

The seller identifies the purpose for which the customer buys the product ( to avail functional benefit or emotional benefit or for both ) to target the Probable Customers. For this he may conduct a quick market research.

Example

When one of the popular brand Textile shirt manufacturing company from abroad was asked the logic behind entering Indian Market ( where huge population is below poverty line ) and people cloth for covering their body, the company CEO replied that a considerable segment of people ( equivalent to the size of US population )cloth for exhibiting their status symbol also and he said that it is his target market.

Stage II - Potential Customer

In the Probable Customers the customers who have the capacity to buy are the Potential Customers

The seller at this stage puts all his efforts in convincing the Probable Customers as Potential customers as they also possess the required capacity to buy the product. Seller comes out with innovative suggestions on available means of finance from the external sources

For the same he adopts different tactics which are discussed below

1) The seller suggests the idea of joint purchase of users ( group of persons can jointly consider purchasing the product there by reducing the financial strain on the individuals )

Example Giving suggestions to the boys in the hostel to buy costly branded shirts jointly which they can use during their interviews at different occations

2) By providing assurance on obtaining financial support from outside loan lending agencies
3) By putting up the proposal of selling the product on installment basis / Hire purchase basis
4) Offering the product in smaller packets which is affordable by the Customer
5) Seller coming out with suggestions to increase the income level of the buyer either through using the product or some other means
6) By finding a buyer for the assets to mobilize funds / exchange offer

Using the above mentioned tactics the seller creates confidence on the Customer that finance is not going to be a problem for the purchase of the product

Stage III - Prospective Customer

The seller having created the confidence on the customer about the capacity to buy then he wants to motivate the customer by increasing the willingness to buy

For the same he adopts to the following tactics like

1) By ensuring the reliability of the seller's company, seller's Product, seller himself, etc with the buyer through the sales kit ( brochures, audio / video tapes, samples, etc ) which he carries during selling
2) By quoting references who have purchased and are using the product satisfactorily
3) By providing warrantee / Guarantee to the product
4) By highlighting the suitability of the customer's requirements with the features of the product
5) By providing suggestions to the customer to solve his problems which comes in the way of purchase decision
6) By emphasizing the Unique Selling Proposition ( USP ) of the company's product compared to he competitors
7) By convincing the customer that the benefits are many fold compared to the risk that he going to take in the purchase
8) By giving an impression to the customer that he is important for him and to have him as his customer he is given special treatment like price discount, free delivery at the site, etc
9) By regular follow up with the customer

Stages IV - Permanent Customer

1) adopting Customer Relationship Marketing concept at the seller's level like making a courtesy call to the customer, partying with the customer, etc
2) helping to attend to the personal work of the customer, etc

IV) Conclusion

The author of this article to discuss 4P's concepts has considered selling situation of selling consumer product selling to the consumer market. This discussion is expected to hold good even for the selling situations selling consumer products to industrial market, sold to industrial products sold to industrial market.