Crux of the personal selling exercise

Communication, therefore, is the crux of the personal selling exercise. It is the process by which a verbal or non verbal effort is made by a source to send massage through a channel to establish commonness with the receiver. This is process is composed of five stages namely source, encoding massage channel, decoding and receiver. In all marketing communications, the source is naturally the seller- the company whereas the receiver is the prospective target consumer. Before the source transmits any massage, it is encoded. Encoding involves translation of the source’s ideas into a systematic set of symbols, language or some form of expression in order to express the purpose of transmission; in our cases arousing positive buying response is the purpose. The encoded message then passes through the massage channel which may be composed of personal and non personal media engaged in transmitting either verbally or non verbally or both ways the intended message. The personal medium of communication in business parlance is the salesman who verbally communicates the message, whereas non personal medium includes advertising and sales promotion and all other vehicles such as brand and package.

However, before a receiver can respond to the massage, it is decoded by him in terms of relevance. Decoding involves reversal of the encoding process. In personal selling, where inter personal communication is involved, encoding and decoding are done by the company and consumer through their major skills and sensory capacities. In more complex communication situation such as in advertising, the source is often separated from the encoder as are the decoder and receiver.