We never face the severe competitive environment like this moment. The salespersons encounter the tremendous competitor and diversified customers¡¦ requirement. It is inevitably crucial for salespeople to meet and clearly identify the clients¡¦ need. In this situation, salespeople need to instantly build the enjoyable interactions and personal connection, rapport, with customers in order to get the prospect. Brook (1989) presented in his research that salespersons attempt to sell without first establishing rapport, customers will avoid purchase the product or service. The first purpose of this study integrates relevant literature and develops a comprehensive research model for rapport building. The model discusses two phases: the personal factors which include ¡§characteristics¡¨, ¡§experience and knowledge¡¨ and the organizational factors that include ¡§training¡¨, ¡§company culture and reputation¡¨. The second purpose of this study is to test the research model through conducting survey of helping rapport factors. 98 questionnaires were sent out to 3M Taiwan sales representatives and got 54 valid responses. The valid responded rate is 55%. The study uses Internal Consistency Analysis and Paired Sample T-Test to evaluate weather the factors are significant and reliable to rapport. Meanwhile, the study observes the important elements of the four factors, ¡§Characteristics¡¨, ¡§Experience and Knowledge¡¨, ¡§Company culture and reputation¡¨, ¡§Training¡¨ that indicate strongly reliable and significant to the rapport building. Key word: Personal Selling, Rapport, Salespeople, Selling

No description available.

Magistro baigiamajame darbe nagrinėjama individualizuoto asmeninio pardavimo telemarketingo įmonėje, tema. Tiriamą problemą apibūdina klausimas: Ar individualizuotas asmeninis pardavimas turi įtakos pardavimo rezultatams? Šis darbas susideda iš įvado, dviejų pagrindinių dalių, išvadų, asmeninio pardavimo gerinimo rekomendacijų, literatūros sąrašo ir priedų. / Master's thesis analyzes the theme of individualized marketing in Telemarketing Company. The relevant issue describes the question: Can an individualized personal sales influence sales results? This work consists of an introduction, two major parts, conclusions, recommendations for a personal marketing improvement, references and appendices.

This exploratory study builds on previous sales leadership research by examining, comparing, and contrasting sales leaders’ and sales representatives’ perceptions of what leadership behaviours enable salesperson performance. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with sales teams in a global enterprise software company. Semi-structured interviews were transcribed and statements coded into categories of leadership behaviours. Overall the sales professionals perceived the leadership behaviours of coaching, collaborating, championing, customer engaging, challenging, and creating vision enable salesperson performance. References were also made to candidate recruiting, inspiring and rewarding, however these were less frequent. Sales leaders and sales representatives agreed that coaching, collaborating, championing and customer engaging enable salesperson performance, however sales leaders spoke more about coaching, creating vision and candidate recruiting, while sales representatives spoke more about collaborating, championing, customer engaging and challenging. High performing sales representatives referred to coaching and customer engaging behaviours more frequently than average and low performing sales representatives, indicating the importance of these behaviours. Respondents also revealed that the intense pressure to deliver quarterly results made leadership challenging in this environment. This may account for the difference between sales leadership behaviours and leadership behaviours identified in the literature. This study suggests that a high pressure complex sales context might influence the type of leadership behaviours that may be best suited to enable salesperson performance. This study contributes to the field by providing a framework of the sales leadership behaviours perceived to enable salesperson performance, providing confirmation that sales leaders adopt previously identified leadership behaviours in the sales context, and the identification of new leadership behaviours specific to the sales context. It also presents evidence that trust, confidence, optimism and resilience are potential mediators between sales leadership and salesperson performance, and it provides a set of implications for practice.

The theoretical part of this thesis contains the general characteristics of the Kofola company, aspects of personal selling and the most important atributes of a successfull sales representative. The fourth chapter is focused on the review of the personal selling by the Kofola company and the fifth chapter summarizes concrete activities and specifics of the workweek of the sales representative of this sompany. The sixth chapter decsribes instruments of sales promotion often used by the Kofola company: special offers for customers and consumers. The last part of this thesis is focused on the performance measurement of the sales representatives, which is a part of a motivation system of the Kofola company.

Background: Given the situation that todays’ companies establish deeper relationships with their clients, focusing on long- term collaboration and emphasis on mutual cooperation, the communication with the clients is increasingly based on one-to- one communication. Personal selling is described in literature as one tool of the communication mix. This tool of one-to one communication has become very important. Several companies spend 8-15% of their net sales on personal selling to communicate directly with their clients, supporting them in evaluating specific needs and thus be able to offer the right product. The B2B environment is highly complex in its various characteristics. In regards to personal selling, the characteristics of intercultural aspects, B2B Relationships and Relationship Marketing has been chosen. The usage of personal selling could improve B2B Relationships. Research Question: How companies use and manage personal selling to strengthen B2B relationships? What are the cultural differencesregarding to the country of operation? Purpose: The purpose of this master thesis is to identify how personal selling can influence and strengthen B2B relationships. In this evaluation, the authors like to examine the differences in personal selling management according to the country of operation. The objective is to arrive on implications for B2B companies, especially in the IT sector. Method: The study uses an inductive research approach. The target is to arrive on new insights whether personal selling improves business- to business relations. Within the qualitative research method four case- studies of B2B IT companies from Brazil and Sweden will be evaluated. Through semi- structured personal interviews primary data will be obtained from each company. Through the conduction of the interviews in two countries, the impact of cultural aspects will be evaluated simultaneously. Theoretical Framework: The study evaluates literature about Cultural Aspects, Relationship Marketing, B2B Marketing and Sales Management in order to gain knowledge in accordance to the thesis’ research topics. B2B Markets are characterized by its complexity. The study uses those B2B characteristics which are influences by personal selling. Findings & Conclusion: Through the evaluation of the case studies in two countries, it can be outlined that personal selling has a positive impact on the establishment of long-term business relation, increase market recognition and leads to mutual business cooperation with the customer, that is necessary for future business development and product development according to customer and market demands. Understanding hereby the cultural background of the client is evaluated as an advantage on the direct communication and establishment of business relation.It is thus suggested to focus on personal selling, while providing technical advance solutions that require a high demand on communication.

A study of Elite Salespeople (ES), those salespeople who maintain and sustain consistent high performance in the sales task was completed to discover and understand elite salesperson behavior. Analysis of participants' responses to structured depth interview questions led to the emergence of a construct called a Selling Orientation (SO). SO is made up of behaviors that guide salespeople to build, maintain, and monitor their personal credibility both with customers and industry members, as well as within the company. A number of field pre-tests were performed to derive a measurement scale for SO. This process was followed by a field survey that measured SO in a sales force. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed to assess the validity of the measurement scale and results support internal consistency and construct validity of a short 9 item scale for SO. This study advances the understanding of sales performance related theory by illuminating attributes of ES's. Additionally, this study introduces the concept of a Selling Orientation that is associated with high sales performance and key account management. Finally, the study introduces a measurement scale useful in the study of salespeople's selling orientation.

Background: Rhetoric can be traced back to antiquity and is today a well used tool within marketing and persuasion. Although rhetoric is said to be the art of persuasion there is a lack of research concerning rhetoric used in personal selling, even though persuasion is one of the most important aspects of personal selling. Personal selling is said to be an underlying factor for companies marketing success, therefore the authors see the importance of researching the relationship between rhetoric and personal selling. To be able to investigate how rhetoric effects personal selling, this thesis was conducted in cooperation with IKEA Jönköping. Through the cooperation with IKEA Jönköping, the authors will gain a unique real-life insight into the phenomenon. Purpose: This thesis aims to understand how rhetoric is used, and what effects the phenomenon has on the interaction between a customer and a sales person. Method: Since very little was previously researched within the use of rhetoric in personal selling, the foundation for the primary data collection was based on the theoretical framework that was developed. 112 observations and 30 semi-structured interviews were conducted during 9 days, in order to observe the phenomenon in its natural environment. Conclusion: When used correctly, arguments (Logos) were used in order to persuade the customer, character (Ethos) created a higher credibility of the sales person and emotional and personal associations (Pathos) lead customers being more trusting towards the sellers. If expertise and a strong character were absent in the interactions the sales persons were generally not successful in increasing customer’s attitudes and purchase intentions. When using the rhetorical methods correctly trust, credibility, loyalty and a positive customer attitude could be achieved by the sales person.

Bakalauro baigiamajame darbe nagrinėtas asmeninio pardavimo technikos, pardavėjų savybių įtaka asmeninio pardavimo efektyvumui bei asmeninio pardavimo orientacijos. Šio darbo teorinėje dalyje atskleista asmeninio pardavimo samprata bei asmeninio pardavimo požiūrio kitimas, kuris lėmė skirtingas asmeninio pardavimo orientacijas. Tyrimo objektas: Asmeninio pardavimo technikos, procesas bei orientacija. Tyrimo tikslas: Ištirti asmeninio pardavimo technikas, procesą, bei orientacijas, taikomas padavėjų, viešojo maitinimo paslaugas teikiančiose įmonėse Šiaulių mieste. Darbo problemą apibūdina toks klausimas: Kaip reiškiasi asmeninis pardavimas viešojo maitinimo paslaugas teikiančiose įmonėse proceso bei naudojamų technikų kontekste? Tyrimui atlikti naudoti 2 kokybinių tyrimų metodai – stebėjimas bei giluminis interviu. Tyrimo metu nustatyta kaip asmeninio pardavimo technikas, proceso etapus bei asmeninio pardavimo orientaciją naudoja padavėjai viešojo maitinimo įstaigose, identifikuotos priemonės, kuriomis maitinimo įstaigos skatina asmeninio pardavimo naudojimą savo vadovaujamose įmonėse. / Bachelor's paper examined the personal selling techniques, seller’s characteristics influence made on the effectiveness of personal selling and personal marketing orientation. Theoretical part of this work revealed the concept of personal selling and personal marketing approach to evolution, which led to different orientations of personal selling. The object: the personal selling techniques, process and orientation. The study objective: to investigate the personal selling techniques, processes, and orientations, applied by the waiters in the businesses providing catering services in the city of Šiauliai. The paper describes the problem the following question: how personal selling is reflected in the businesses providing catering services in the context of process and services used? There were two qualitative research methods used - observation and depth interviews. The study showed how personal selling techniques, process and personal selling orientation is used by waiters in catering facilities, identified measures to encourage caterers' use their personal marketing in the companies that they lead.

Šio baigiamojo darbo tikslas išanalizuoti socialinių tinklų panaudojimo galimybes asmeniniuose pardavimuose ir pateikti planą, kaip integruoti socialinių tinklų suteikiamas funkcijas pardavimo cikle. Darbo teorinėje dalyje analizuojami naujųjų technologijų sąlygoti pakitimai firmų marketingo strategijose ir socialinių tinklų panaudojimo būdai kompanijų dirbančių su pardavimais veikloje. Analitinėje baigiamojo darbo dalyje pateikiami ir analizuojami rezultatai tyrimo, atlikto kokybinio giluminio interviu metodu apklausiant VIASAT darbuotojus. Taip pat šioje dalyje pateikiami kiekybinės apklausos naudojant anketavimą atlikto tyrimo rezultatai, kuriame buvo apklausti Southwestern Advantage kompanijoje dirbę pardavimo agentai. Projektinėje dalyje yra pateikiamas veiksmų plano modelis, kuriuo remiantis galima išskaidyti pardavimą į atskiras dalis ir patarimai, kaip pardavimo agentams patobulinti savo veiklą integruojant į plano atskiras dalis socialinius tinklus. / The purpose of this final paper is to analyze the opportunities of using social networks in direct selling and adduce the plan how to integrate the functions of social networks to the cycle of selling. The changes of company marketing strategies, which have been determined by new technologies, and the ways of using social networks in companies which work in selling area, were analyzed in theorical part. The results of research, which have been made by using qualitative interview for the employees of "Viasat" company, were presented and analyzed in the analytical part of the paper. The results of research, which have been made by using direct questionnaire for the selling agents of "The Southwestern Advantage" company, were presented in this part as well. The model of the plan of actions, which divides the sale to individual parts, and the strategy on how to improve the cycle of selling using social networks, were presented in the project part.