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The Evolution of Selling: a Study of Historic and Contemporary Sales Methods and Attitudes

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The evolution of selling: a study of historic and contemporary sales methods and attitudes Selling as an offer of exchange of goods for other items or money exists and accompanies the world’s economy since the very beginning of a human existence. As long as there has been something to sell there have been salespeople taking care of those who might be willing to buy. This occupation requires selling skills as well as specific abilities and characteristics to uncover the needs of potential buyers and cater to those needs (D.Jobber, G.Lancaster, 2009, p.5). This is why selling is rather a complex process using a wide range of techniques and methods (D.Jobber, G.Lancaster, 2009, p.5), which has changed over the …show more content…

The main reasons of the evolution of selling are the expansion in other fields of studies such as psychology and process methodology. Thanks to those forces the selling industry has changed (T. Hughes, 2012), and the organisations adapted new philosophy of a marketing concept that was based on customer satisfaction, which was of primary importance (Manning, Reece, Ahearne, 2011. Chapter2). Very significant difference is that the companies began to recognise the needs and wants of potential buyers of a target market and were willing to meet a challenge in order to get customers’ satisfaction. The position of salespeople in the organisation was recognised as an important link to collect information relating to the consumers’ needs. There general change of the organisation approach has been noticed as the product orientation was replaced with customer orientation (Manning, Reece, Ahearne, 2011. Chapter2). Since then, personal selling was evolving so that few years later, in 1960s and 1970s salespeople adopted more consultative approach and became more like problem-solvers. Sellers’s main aim was not only to sell the product but provide the buyer with information and recommendations. Thanks to the two-way communication, manipulation tactics used before were replaced with negotiations. However, buyers became more value-conscious and aware of their own needs so they were interested mainly in price and

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