Importance and Scope of Salesmanship

Salesmanship is not just useful to the salesman who earns his living by it; it benefits the manufacturer, the customer and society as a whole. Its importance can be seen from several points of view.

Importance to the producer / manufacturer.

• Creates and increases demand. By explaining a product's uses and advantages, the salesman turns latent needs into actual purchases and expands the market.
• Introduces new products. New goods are unfamiliar and often resisted. Personal selling is the most effective way of introducing them, demonstrating them and overcoming buyer hesitation.
• Ensures continuous sales and steady production. Regular selling keeps goods moving, which lets the factory produce steadily, use its capacity fully and enjoy lower costs per unit.
• Provides market feedback. The salesman is the firm's eyes and ears in the market — he reports customer likes, dislikes, complaints and competitors' moves, guiding the firm's product and pricing decisions.
• Meets competition. In a crowded market, skilled personal selling helps a firm hold and win customers against rivals.

Importance to the customer / consumer.

• Guides buying decisions. The salesman gives information and honest advice, helping the customer choose the product best suited to his need and avoid wrong purchases.
• Educates the consumer. He explains new products, their features and correct use, raising the buyer's knowledge and standard of living.
• Saves the buyer's time and effort. A good salesman brings the right choices to the customer, sparing him a long, confusing search.

Importance to society and the economy.

• Generates employment. Selling absorbs a very large number of people and offers a career with good earnings.
• Raises the standard of living. By spreading useful goods widely, salesmanship helps people enjoy more and better products.
• Promotes economic growth. More sales mean more production, more investment, more incomes and a faster-growing economy — sales are the wheels that keep the whole industrial machine turning.

Scope of salesmanship. The scope tells us where salesmanship is practised, and it is very wide:

• Selling tangible goods — consumer goods (soap, food, clothing) and industrial goods (machines, raw materials).
• Selling intangible services — insurance, banking, transport, tourism and other services, where personal persuasion matters even more because the buyer cannot see or touch the product. …