Principles of personal selling
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| Principles of personal selling |
In submitting a new work dealing with personal selling, any writer is on the defensive. So much has been written, both in books and the periodical press, that it would seem that the field is already fully occupied. Unfortunately, few works have been undertaken from the viewpoint of attempting to reconcile sound economics with practical business procedures.
Personal selling is essentially an economic activity, directed, therefore, toward the satisfaction of economic wants. Personal selling which effectively serves those wants is socially and economically desirable. In the approach to the subject, therefore, a study of wants and their nature has been taken up, followed by discussions of both buyers and sellers in their efforts to satisfy wants through personal selling efforts.
The general principles developed in such analyses apply to intangible products such as insurance or securities as well as to materials, equipment, and consumers' goods of tangible nature. The first part of the book consists of a more detailed analysis of personal selling processes as applied to buyers in general and is adapted to practically all classes of buyers.
The second part of the book deals with the problems and relationships of the salesman and his employer in the direction of personal selling as a business activity. No pet theories or fancies are advanced. No easy or royal road to successful selling is proposed, nor could one be devised.
The effort is made to develop a somewhat broader background for an understanding of the problems of personal selling and their solution, and to present a conception of the subjects which must be considered in the study of personal selling.
The purpose of any such study should be to develop this branch of distributive activity so as to consume a considerably smaller part of the consumer's dollar than it does at present.
The high costs of distribution are due in no small measure to the high costs of personal selling. The writer is indebted to Professor Donald K. David, of the Graduate School of Business Administration of Harvard University, for assistance in preparing the chapter on selling to retailers, and to George Woodbridge for his helpful criticism. Special acknowledgement is due to Wilford L. White, instructor in sales management in the same institution, whose assistance in the preparation of the final draft of the manuscript, in the reading of the proof, and in the preparation of the index has been invaluable.
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