Would you like to know what is the difference between sales promotion and personal selling, in this blog post, we will give you information about that.
Sales Promotion and Personal Selling, both of these concepts are utterly crucial for companies who are seeking to get a huge number of product sales in the quickest time possible.
Do you know what is Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC)?
Let us tell you about that.
Integrated Marketing Communications is the process used to combine marketing communication elements like digital advertising, public relations, social media marketing, etc into a unique brand identity that remains constant across all marketing platforms and channels.
Sales Promotion and Personal Selling, both of them are components of Integrated Marketing Communications.
Both of them being part of integrated marketing communications, they both have got similarities and also dissimilarities.
Both of them are actually there in place to communicate and transfer the message crafted by an organization to that organization’s potential customers.
As they have many differences, the major and the primary difference between both of them is the different sort of process that they both adopt.
In this blog post, we are going to explain to you the difference between sales promotion and personal selling.
Not only that but also we are going to give you clarity on the definitions of both sales promotion and personal selling and many other things related to the subject.
Fundamental Difference between Sales Promotion and Personal Selling
Before we dive into the key difference between sales promotion and personal selling, let’s talk about the meaning of both of them, the meaning in itself is the fundamental difference between sales promotion and personal selling.
About Sales Promotion
Our first factor when it comes to the difference between sales promotion and personal selling is Sales Promotion, which we are going to comprehensively talk about here.
Sales promotion refers to the activity that is carried out by companies to increase sales and conversions on an instant basis.
The activity of sales promotion is one that is executed by companies of all sizes (small, mid, and large).
Sales promotion activity usually gets executed when a company’s stock of products is not getting sold and the company wants to sell them out in order to bring in a new stock of products.
In sales promotion, the objective is to persuade prospective customers to buy the products from the company and this persuasion gets done via a lot of activities.
These activities include promoting the products rigorously in front of prospective customers, running various advertisement campaigns both online and offline with the aim to sell the product successfully, providing prospects with huge discount offers on the product, and giving incentives to the prospects if they choose to purchase the product.
When it comes to giving incentives to prospective customers, incentives could be of various types including loyalty points, special offers, gifts, etc. which customers could make use of in the long term.
The thing to note here is that these incentives – loyalty points, special offers, gifts, etc are valid for a specific period of time and not for a lifetime.
This is because if these incentives would be valid for a lifetime then people would not feel the urgency to buy them instantly and the company’s objective to get the products sold on an instant basis would not be fulfilled.
The major times, when sales promotion activities get conducted are during the festive times because it is during these times, that people are more inclined than ever to purchase products at a discounted offer.
We hope now you are knowledgeable about the first factor when it comes to the difference between sales promotion and personal selling.
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About Personal Selling
Our second factor when it comes to the difference between sales promotion and personal selling is Personal Selling, which we are going to comprehensively talk about here.
Personal selling involves both potential buyers and sellers interacting fully with each other.
The activity of personal selling is carried out by companies of all sizes (small, mid, and large) in which they send their sales representatives to the prospect’s place to deliver an exciting product presentation.
This is done with the aim to close the prospects and turn them into paying customers.
Not just product-based companies carry out personal selling activities but also service-based companies.
They send their sales representatives to give a demo of the service to the potential buyers so that they could get interested in buying a subscription to the service.
When it comes to service-based businesses, housekeeping companies, and coaching-related service businesses, makeup, and boutique-related business carry out personal selling activities.
Personal selling is done by skilled salespeople who have mastered the art and science of selling to get the maximum out of the personal selling process.
Behind Personal Selling, the seller’s objective is to make a deep formal connection with the buyer so that the chances will increase that he will decide to purchase the product or service.
In Personal Selling, the sales representative who conducts the activity showcases the complete ins and outs of a product to the potential customer, the salesperson provides information to the prospect on the actual price of the product and the discounted price of the product, the salesperson informs the prospect of all the advantages of using the product (even disadvantages in some cases) and not only that, but the sales representative also answers every concern and solves every query that the prospect has so that he could be in peace before making the decision to give the product a try.
In personal selling, the buyer gets the opportunity to physically verify the product and consider whether it is of use to him or not.
This happens many times, companies send their sales representatives even to buyers’ houses to showcase the product.
In many cases, this only happens either when the product is high-end, the buyer is sort of a VIP, or the buyer is aiming to purchase the product in bulk if he likes it.
Two of the most advantageous things about personal selling are: 1) In personal selling, the seller gets to make a personal connection with the buyer and address his individual concerns.
2) The seller can get feedback from the prospect whether he likes to purchase the product or not immediately right after he has made the presentation.
When it comes to product-based businesses, you will see personal selling activities carried out by cloth and accessory shops, machinery shops, and car showrooms.
We hope now you are knowledgeable about the second factor when it comes to the difference between sales promotion and personal selling.
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What is the Key Difference between Sales Promotion and Personal Selling?
There is not just a single key difference between sales promotion and personal selling. As a matter of fact, there are a variety of key differences. In this section, we are going to discuss the key differences between sales promotion and personal selling.
Key Difference Between Sales Promotion and Personal Selling:
1) Differences in getting carried out | 1st key difference between sales promotion and personal selling
Let’s start with the most fundamental difference, this difference between sales promotion and personal selling is about how both these activities get carried out.
In personal selling, the sales representative gets directly in touch with the prospective buyer with the aim to compel the buyer to purchase the product.
Whereas, in sales promotion, companies just launch new offers and incentives to instantly sell the stock of products, and the buyers get informed about the offers and incentives through online and offline marketing channels.
In sales promotion, there is no need for any sales representative to interact directly with the prospective buyers.
2) One is long-term oriented while the other is short-term | 1st key difference between sales promotion and personal selling
In personal selling, the salesperson is getting in touch with the buyer directly, and if the salesperson makes a positive impression on the buyer, there is a huge chance that the buyer will recommend the product to his known ones as well.
Thus, in personal selling, the vision is big.
In personal selling, one could ripe the benefits of it in the long-term.
On the other hand, in sales promotion, the results are just short-term oriented and there are no benefits of this activity in the long run.
3) One is expensive and the other is affordable | 3rd key difference between sales promotion and personal selling
A company pays a monthly salary to every employee who works in it and the employee usually gets paid for the number of hours that he spends working for the company.
Just like that, a sales representative also gets paid majorly for the number of hours he gives to the company on an everyday basis.
In personal selling, no sales representative ever knows how much time will he need to spend with a single prospect because it totally depends on the customer how much time he takes being informed of the product.
And because of any reason, if the prospect chooses not to buy the product then the time of the sales representative will be wasted.
Thus, resulting in the company’s money being wasted.
Due to this reason, personal selling comes out as expensive for companies when compared to sales promotion.
Because in sales promotion, the promotion amount gets decided by companies only in accordance with their budget, and most of the time it is just a one-time investment.
4) Difference in methodology | 4th key difference between sales promotion and personal selling
The fourth difference is the methods. In sales promotion, methods like discount offers and incentive schemes get used. But in sales promotion, no methods like that come to use.
5) High Value vs Low Value | 5th key difference between sales promotion and personal selling
The concept of sales promotion gets adopted when the product’s value is not high enough and when it is a type of product that has the potential to get sold enormously when it is being offered at a big discount.
Of course, we know high-value products rarely get sold with a heavy discount just so as to clear the stock of products.
With personal selling, 90% of the time, the products that get offered are high-value products.
Because they are high-value products, they cost high too. And due to this high cost, buyers need to connect with someone personally in order to gain information about the product so that they can make the correct decision.
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Key Difference between Sales Promotion and Personal Selling in a Tabular Format
In this section, we are going to inform you about the key difference between sales promotion and personal selling in a tabular format.
| Sales Promotion | Personal Selling |
| There is no need for a sales representative to personally get in touch with the buyer. | Personal touch and direct interaction are required to sell the product. |
| Sales Promotion is short-term in nature. | Personal Selling is long-term in nature. |
| Sales Promotion is reasonable for companies to carry out. | Personal Selling is expensive for companies to carry out. |
| Methods like discount offers and incentive schemes get used. | No methods are used. |
| The product is not a high-value product. | The product is a high-value product. |
Besides key differences, what is the other difference between Sales Promotion and Personal Selling
In this section, you will get informed about what is the other difference between sales promotion and personal selling apart from the key differences.
1) In personal selling, the sales representative’s primary objective is to establish a long-term connection with the buyer so that the company could reap the connection’s benefits over the long term.
In sales promotion, the primary objective is selling the products on an instant basis so that to clear the stock of products in the least time possible.
2) The target audiences for personal selling are those who have got enough money and decision-making power to purchase the product.
The companies that carry out personal selling activities only send their sales representatives to those people who have got high-purchasing power.
Coming to sales promotion, in this activity, companies target a wide variety of prospects of different interest levels.
If the product is coming with a great offer, and if the product is of interest to the target audiences, then selling could give greater benefits than personal selling.
3) In personal selling, the products that get offered are often times complex and hard to use.
Due to this, buyers require support from a company person before buying the product so that prior to buying, they could get to know how the product actually works.
In sales promotion, there is nothing such as that because products are simple and easy to use.
4) When it comes to personal selling, it is not compulsory for the sales representative to provide the buyers with an incentive offer.
Even though he can provide it if the buyer is heavily negotiating over it, it is not mandatory.
But in the case of sales promotion, it is mandatory to provide the target audiences with an incentive offer because otherwise, the sales won’t get effectively generated.
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Another difference between Sales Promotion and Personal Selling in a Tabular Format
| Personal Selling | Sales Promotion |
| The primary objective here is to establish a long-term connection with the buyer. | The primary objective here is to get the stock of products sold on an instant basis. |
| Prospects are few but have high purchasing power. | Prospects are substantial but have low purchasing power. |
| Products are complex and hard to use. | Products are simple and easy to use. |
| It is not compulsory to provide buyers with an incentive offer. | It is compulsory to provide buyers with an incentive offer. |
Conclusion
We hope that after reading this complete blog post, you are clear about the difference between sales promotion and personal selling.
Does not matter how much difference between sales promotion and personal selling is there, both are very effective in driving business growth.
The most neglected thing about the difference between both sales promotion and personal selling is, with the adoption of digital marketing practices, the results of these two types of promotions can move to further heights.
If you are looking to learn digital marketing, DIDM’s digital marketing course could be of big advantage to you.
To enroll in DIDM’s digital marketing course, dial +91 8800505151 today.
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