Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Personal selling
In most agribusinesses, the salesperson plays an important part in the market communica-
tions process. Promoting a product through personal selling provides the most fl exible and
highest impact possible, since the salesperson can tailor the communication to meet the
individual needs of the customer or prospect. This fl exibility is especially important for
complex products where usage and benefi ts may vary dramatically from customer to cus-
tomer. For many agribusinesses, establishing a long-term relationship with priority custom-
ers is the focus of the marketing effort. And, personal selling plays a fundamentally important
role in establishing such relationships. The agribusiness salesperson has the responsibility
for not only taking the fi rm's product/service offering to the fi eld, they also have the respon-
sibility for keeping the fi rm informed about what customers and prospects want and need.
While personal selling can provide an important impact as a market communications tool,
it is also an expensive form of communications. Individual sales calls are costly, and agri-
businesses have invested considerable resources in technologies such as laptop computers,
cell phones, and email, etc. to make salespeople as productive as possible. In addition, con-
siderable effort is invested in targeting accounts that will be served via a salesperson, versus
those that might be served via a less costly approach such as telemarketing.
Given the importance of this form of market communications, even the smallest local
agribusinesses now have an individual with the title of salesperson on their staff. And, those
that don't have a “salesperson” still rely heavily on personal contact and interpersonal
communications to promote their product. Often the managers of such fi rms spend much of
their time promoting products and services through personal contact. In larger agribusi-
nesses, the personal selling process is far more formalized and highly structured. Management
of the sales force and its organization take on great signifi cance. Selecting, training, motivat-
ing, compensating, and territory allocation all become critically important decisions in the
management of personal selling activities in the larger agribusiness.
Personal sales strategies are developed at all levels of the food and agribusiness markets.
When a salesperson visits a farmer to discuss a new line of herbicides, the fi rm is using a
personal sales strategy. Likewise, when a key account team from Kellogg's meets with the
procurement group of Kroger, Kellogg's is using a personal sales strategy.
Personal selling clearly takes place throughout the many levels of the marketing channels
for food and agribusiness products, not just at the fi nal consumer or retail level. And, as
customers, whether they are farmers, processors, or food companies, get larger and more
sophisticated, the importance of personal selling increases. Likewise, as products and pro-
grams become more complex, personal selling becomes more important. Let's take a closer
look at this important area of agribusiness management.
Marketing and sales
While sales and marketing are often talked about together, they are different activities.
Refl ecting on the description of the selling activity, we can begin to see how sales and mar-
keting are related, and how these activities differ. As discussed earlier, a fi rm's marketing
activities are generally longer term in nature. Agribusiness marketers focus on assessing the
marketplace, considering what segments of the market to pursue, making decisions about all
of the elements of the marketing mix. The focus of the marketing strategy is developing and
supporting the fi rm's unique position in the market.
Selling is an important element of marketing—and a key dimension of the agribusiness
fi rm's promotion strategy. In many companies, the sales force has the primary job for
