THE APPLICATION OF PERSONAL SELLING

The Definitions Committee of the American Marketing Association defines selling as “the personal or impersonal process of assisting and/or persuading a prospective customer to buy a commodity or service or to act favorably upon an idea that has commercial significance to the seller.” However, in actual practice, the applications of salesmanship are much broader in scope, for it is an activity which permeates almost every avenue of human endeavor. The ability to convince people is a necessary skill for lawyers, teachers, ministers, politicians, and many others. It is a skill used by the doctor when she attempts to convince her patient that she should stop smoking; or a skill used by a mother when she explains to her young son that stealing is wrong. Actually, then, personal selling is the ability to influence and convince others, and we practice it almost every day.