Principles of Marketing, 17/e

Personal Selling

Author Comment

Personal selling is the interpersonal arm of the promotion mix. A company’s sales force creates and communicates customer value by personally engaging customers and building customer relationships.

Robert Louis Stevenson once noted, “Everyone lives by selling something.” Companies around the world use sales forces to sell products and services to business customers and final consumers. But sales forces are also found in many other kinds of organizations. For example, colleges use recruiters to attract new students. Museums and fine arts organizations use fundraisers to contact donors and raise money. Even governments use sales forces. The U.S. Postal Service, for instance, uses a sales force to sell Express Mail ...