Personal Selling Notes

1. USING COMMUNICATION PRINCIPLES TO BUILD RELATIONSHIPS

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS TROUGH TWO-WAY COMMUNICATION

The communication process

Two-way communication process begins with the sender that wants to communicate some thoughts or ideas, and must to translate these ideas into words (encoding). The receiver must interpret the message and try to understand the meaning (decoding). The feedback expresses if the message has been received well.

Communication breakdowns

Can be caused by encoding and decoding problems and by the environment: noises (sounds unrelated to the message). To improve communication the sp must minimize them (find a quite and comfortable place). Customers don’t always follow the communication model, and sometimes people are not honest (-.-‘).

SENDING VERBAL MESSAGES EFFECTIVELY

a) Choice of words: short words and phrases to demonstrate strength and force, charm and grace, avoid banal words (da che pulpito) and sentences that makes you sound overager, off-color language, slang, etc. Different meanings in different cultures and subcultures.

b) Voice characteristics: rate of speech (loudness should be varied to emphasize parts, avoid monotony); inflection (tone of speech should drop at the end of a sentence, or the sp will seem unconfident); articulation (production of recognizable sounds).

c) Stories: entertaining, make points most effectively; better if they includes difficultie that help the listener take choices. Word picture: graphic or vivid story designed to help the buyer to easily visualize the point. Most effective stories include analogy (parallels between different things).

d) Keep open lines of communication: contact buyers often, keep them informed and be available.

ACTIVE LISTENING

Don’t monopolize conversations: 80-20 listening rule (listen 80%, talk 20%). Speaking-listening differential: people can hear much more words that one can say in a minute, so sp become lazy-listeners, not paying attention and not remembering. Sp should practice active listening:

 project into the mind of the speaker to feel the way he feels;

 while listening, think about conclusions of the speaker, evaluate the situation considering just

important facts;

 get as much information as possible;

 motivate the buyer to continue talking with gestures.

Suggestions:

a) Repeating information: to minimize misunderstandings

b) Restating or rephrasing information: to