Part One
Personal selling is one of the methods of product promotion that involves various steps for the marketer. Personal selling involves an individual sales person focusing on the specific needs of the clients to tailor make the product for the customer’s needs. The step of personal selling that I would struggle with the most is the one of handling objections. This step involves obstacles put forward by the prospective buyer, which often indicate the interest of the prospect in the product. The aim of raising objections by prospective buyers is for the sales person to provide additional information to convince the buyer in purchasing the product (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010). This step would be difficult because sometimes it becomes difficult to convince the prospect to purchase the product. Some prospects may also dislike the sales person making it difficult to convince them purchase items.
One of the things that the employer can do to help the salesperson deal with the objection-handling step is to provide training programs. Training programs can assist salespersons in anticipating the objections and have the best tactics to deal with them. The employer should also help in the sales activity by tactfully and respectfully contradicting the prospect’s objection. This way, the sales person finds it easier to deal with other objections from clients. Finally, the employer can help the sales person in handling objections from prospects by building confidence in the work of the salespeople. Confidence develops through constant interaction between the salesperson and employer on ways of dealing with prospective customers during the process of sale. With great confidence, it is easier for the sales person to tackle the intimidation from prospective buyers and handle objections wisely.
Part 2
The buyer decision process involves the various stages that an individual or institutional buyer goes through before, during and after a purchase of a product. The buyer decision process for a hospital purchasing computers for use by nurses on patient floors would involve five processes. The firs stage involves need recognition whereby the buyer recognizes a need for the product (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010). In this case, the hospital has recognized the need to have computers for use by nurses on patient floors. The next step involves the consumer searching for information on the best product that will satisfy the recognized need. The hospital should search for the right information in order to purchase the right type of computers tailor made for the needs of the hospital. The third step is where the buyer evaluates alternatives to find out the best choice of the product. The institutional buyer in this case should evaluate the pros and cons of various alternatives and select the best choice of the computers that will provide effective services. In the fourth stage, the buyer finally makes the purchase decision and actually buys the product. Post purchase behavior is the final stage in the buyer decision process. The hospital in this case, will behave in a certain way depending on the satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the computers.
The buyer decision process would influence a marketer’s strategy in various ways. The marketer will be in a position to persuade and convince the buyer to purchase the computers during the process as the buyer evaluates different alternatives. The process would also ensure that the marketer develops better marketing skills that make the buyer settle on products from specific marketer. In addition, the buyer decision process would improve marketing because the marketer will learn the tastes and preferences of specific buyers and hence tailor make products for their needs.
Part 3
Advertising is an important aspect of marketing that focuses on informing the target audience about a company’s products. In this scenario, the target market is professional imagers that are in managerial positions and in their thirties. The firm deals with teeth whitening products that the target consumers use occasionally. In reaching this target market, I would recommend three types of media. The first effective media to reach this target market would be the internet. Times have changed and most of these people as managers have computers and often access the internet. Thus, it would be effective to reach them by placing advertisements on the internet for the professional imagers. These people visit specific sites on the internet and thus it is prudent to place advertisement about the teeth whitening products on the visited sites.
Newspapers and magazines are another type of media that the firm can use to target the professional imagers to use the teeth whitening products. The target market in this case is above 30 years and hence they read newspapers and magazines often. Advertisements placed in these media have greater chances of reaching the target market hence promote the firm by purchasing the toothpaste (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010). Finally, I would recommend television as an advertising media that the firm may use to effectively catch the attention of the target market. The most appropriate time to place an advertisement in the television to target this group would be in between the news because most of this group of people watches the news. The television is also effective because it demonstrates how the consumer can use the product for their benefit unlike the newspapers, which provide passive information.
Reference
Kotler, P. & Armstrong, G. (2010). Principles of marketing. New Jersey: Pearson.
