Chapter 2 – The Process of Selling and Buying
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Chapter 2
The Process of Selling and Buying
Learning Objectives for Chapter 2
• Recognize the key drivers of change in selling and sales management.
• Understand the best practices in selling that lead to exceeding customer expectations.
• Explain the historical basis for stereotypical views of selling in society.
• Point out a variety of reasons why sales jobs can be highly satisfying.
• Identify and explain key success factors for salesperson performance.
• Discuss and give examples of different types of selling jobs.
• List and explain the role of various participants in an organizational buying center.
• Describe the relationship between buying centers and selling centers, and the nature of team
selling.
• Outline the stages in organizational buyer decision making.
• Point out the nature of different organizational buying situations.
Definition of Key Terms in Chapter 2
• Drivers of change
o Six have been identified in reinventing sales organizations so they can compete
successfully.
▪ Building long-term relationships with customers.
▪ Creating sales organizational structures that are more nimble and adaptable to the needs
of different customer groups.
▪ Gaining greater job ownership and commitment from salespeople.
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▪ Shifting sales management style from commanding to coaching.
▪ Leveraging available technology for sales success.
▪ Better integrating salesperson performance evaluation.
• Autonomy
o The freedom of action and opportunities for personal initiative.
o The degree of independence the salesperson can exercise in making his or her own
decisions in the day-to-day operation of the job.
• Sales activities
o Multifaceted and challenging activities that are part of the job of a salesperson, such as
searching out leads, writing up orders, and learning about the product.
• Job variety
o Sales jobs are seldom boring because of the different customer needs and problems for
which the salesperson can work to develop unique solutions.
• Intrinsic rewards
o Rewards inherent to satisfaction derived from elements of the job or role itself.
• Extrinsic rewards
o Rewards bestowed on the salesperson by the company.
• Work-family conflict
o A lack of balance between one’s work life and family life such that work is encroaching on
the family.
• Telecommute
o Working from a remote or virtual office, often at home, and seldom traveling to company
offices.
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• Virtual office
o A location outside the company’s offices where a salesperson works (often his or her
home).
• Adaptive selling
o The altering of sales behaviors during a customer interaction or from one situation to
another based on information the sales rep gathers about the nature of the selling situation.
• Job enlargement
o The fact that the sales role today is broader and contains substantially more activities than
it once did.
• Cost of a sales call
o Summation of nonselling activities and selling activities.
• Retail selling
o Involves selling goods and services to end-user consumers for their own personal use.
• End-user consumer
o The ultimate user of the goods and services for personal use.
• Business-to-consumer (B2C) market
o The sale of goods and services to end-user consumers (retail selling).
• Business-to-business (B2B) market
o Previously called industrial selling.
o The sale of goods and services to buyers who are not the end-users.
o Relationship selling is much more predominant in the B2B market than in the B2C market.
• Industrial selling
o An old term for business-to-business (B2B) selling.
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• Trade servicer
o A type of B2B sales job in which the sales force’s primary responsibility is to increase
business from current and potential customers by providing them with merchandising and
promotional assistance.
• Missionary seller
o Salespeople increase business from current and potential customers by providing them
with product information and other personal selling assistance.
• Detailer
o Missionary salespeople often do not take orders from customers directly but use “detailers”
to persuade customers to buy their firm’s product from distributors or other wholesale
suppliers.
• Technical seller
o Salespeople increase business from presently identified customers and potential customers
by providing them with technical and engineering information and assistance.
• New business seller
o Salespeople identify and obtain business from new customers.
• Buying center
o All the people who participate in buying a particular product or service.
o Initiators
▪ The people who perceive a problem or opportunity that may require the purchase of a
new product or service and thereby start the buying process.
o Users
▪ The people in the organization who must use or work with the product or service.
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o Influencers
▪ The people who provide information for evaluating alternative products and suppliers.
o Gatekeepers
▪ The people who control the flow of information to other people involved in the
purchasing process.
o Buyers
▪ The people who actually contact the selling organization and place the order.
o Deciders
▪ The people with the final authority to make a purchase decision.
o Controllers
▪ The people who determine the budget for the purchase.
• Perceived risk
o For a firm, when buying a particular product affects the makeup and size of the buying
center.
o It is based on the complexity of the product and situation, the relative importance of the
purchase, time pressure to make a decision, and the degree of uncertainty about the
product’s efficiency.
• Selling center
o Brings together individuals from around the organization (marketing, customer service,
sales, engineering, and others) to help salespeople do their jobs more effectively.
• Team selling
o These structures commonly make the salesperson responsible for working with the
entire selling team in order to manage the customer relationship.
• Matrix organization
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o An organization of direct reports and supporting internal consultants who bring their
collective expertise to bear for a client.
• Key account
o One of a firm’s largest customers (especially one with a buying center) whose potential
business over time represents enough dollars and entails enough cross-functional
interaction among various areas of both firms to justify the high costs of the team
approach. Key accounts generally have a senior salesperson as the key account manager
(KAM).
• Organizational buying decision stages
o (1) Anticipation or recognition of a problem or need, (2) determination and description of
the characteristics and the quantity of the needed item, (3) search for and qualification of
potential suppliers, (4) acquisition and analysis of proposals or bids, (5) evaluation of
proposals and selection of suppliers, (6) selection of an order routine, and (7) performance
evaluation and feedback.
• Derived demand
o A firm’s demand for goods and services.
• Single-source suppliers
o Only one vendor used by a firm for a particular good or service to minimize the variation
in quality of production inputs.
• Commodity products
o Standardized, nontechnical items.
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• Slotting allowances
o Fees retailers charge sales organizations for guaranteed shelf space.
o They cover the cost of setting up a new item in their IT system, programming it into
inventory, and ultimately distributing it in stores.
• New-task purchases
o Customer is buying a relatively complex and expensive product or service for the first
time.
• Modified rebuy
o Buyer is interested in modifying the product specifications, prices, or other terms it has
been receiving from existing suppliers and is willing to consider dealing with new
suppliers.
• Straight rebuy
o Customer is reordering an item it has purchased many times.
• Repeat purchases
o Occurs when a customer buys the same product under the same circumstances again and
again.
o It tends to be much more routine than new-task purchase or modified rebuy.
• Out supplier
o Potential supplier not on a buyer’s approved list.
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Chapter Outline
I. Drivers of Change in Selling and Sales Management
II. Overview of Selling as a Career
A. Why Sales Jobs Are So Rewarding
a. High Job Autonomy
b. High Job Variety
c. Opportunities for Rewards
d. Favorable Working Conditions
e. Moving Up in the Organization
B. Key Success Factors in Selling
a. Listening Skills
b. Follow-Up Skills
c. Ability to Adapt Sales Style from Situation to Situation
d. Tenacity: Sticking with the Task
e. Well Organized
f. Verbal Communication Skills
g. Proficiency in Interacting with People at All Levels of a Customer Organization
h. Demonstrated Ability to Overcome Objections
i. Closing Skills
j. Personal Planning and Time Management Skills
III. Selling Activities
IV. Types of Selling Jobs
A. Selling in Business-to Consumer versus Business-to-Business Markets
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B. Classifying Types of B2B Sales Jobs
V. Stages in the Selling Process
A. Prospecting for Customers
B. Opening the Relationship
C. Qualifying the Prospect
D. Presenting the Sales Message
E. Closing the Sale
F. Servicing the Account
VI. Participants in the Organizational Buying Process—The Buying Center
A. Selling Centers and Buying Centers
VII. Organizational Buying Decision Stages
A. Stage One: Anticipation or Recognition of a Problem or Need
B. Stage Two: Determination and Description of the Characteristics and Quantity of the Needed
Item(s)
C. Stage Three: Search for and Qualification of Potential Suppliers
D. Stage Four: Acquisition of Proposals or Bids
E. Stage Five: Evaluation of Offerings and Selection of Suppliers
F. Stage Six: Selection of an Order Routine
G. Stage Seven: Performance Evaluation and Feedback
VIII. The Nature of Organizational Buying Situations
IX. Summary
X. Key Terms
XI. Breakout Questions
XII. Leadership Challenge: B2C versus B2B
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XIII. Role-Play: Emblem Foods
XIV. Minicase: Rising Action Bakery and Power Flour, LLC
PowerPoint Program—each chapter of the text has been captured in animated PowerPoint slides.
Chapter Outline with Suggestions
• The Case for a Focus on the Sales Management Process
Suggestion: Use PowerPoint slides 2.1 through 2.3 to introduce the chapter. Then use PowerPoint slide
2.4 to describe the changes sellers, as well as customers, face in today’s selling environment.
• Drivers of Change in Selling and Sales Management
Suggestion: Use PowerPoint slides 2.5 through 2.7 to discuss careers in sales.
• Overview of Selling as a Career
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o Servicing the Account
1. Nimble firms:
• Constantly monitor and communicate with customers.
2. Student answers will vary. Here is a sample answer:
• Pros:
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Favorable working conditions—It is often easier to work from home and
telecommute rather than go into a corporate office. Telecommuting helps to reduce
the potential for work-family conflict.
3. Creativity is the ability to be original, expressive, imaginative, and innovative. Art is creative. Music