Personal Marketing - Term Paper Example

Marketing yourself Table of Contents Introduction: Marketing 3 A Personal Marketing Plan 3 Target Marketing 4 Personal marketing mix 4 Personal communication plans 5 Control, Monitoring and Evaluation 6 Conclusion 7 References 8 Introduction: Marketing One of the primary requirements before being able to sell a product is to be able to market oneself. This is because, unless the customer develops a belief towards the salesperson and considers him responsible enough to perform his duty, the former will not be able to convince the latter to buy his product. Thus, before venturing to sale any commodity or service, it is necessary to be able to present oneself in a proper way, so as to impress the consumer. However, a principal requirement to make one presentable is to grow a sense of self-awareness – to become aware of one’s strong and weak points so as to work on them and learn to utilise or to overcome them to serve the purpose. An additional requirement is to develop some features in a person according to the requirements of the consumers and the types of products that one is supposed to sell, i.e., an efficient target marketing (Snow Vaile, 1952). The present paper deals with the importance of personal marketing for a salesperson to effectively market the products, his employer wants him to. There are some features in addition which needs to be taken care of, before one can launch oneself into the job. These additional features have been discussed in details in the subsequent sections. A Personal Marketing Plan To structure a personal marketing plan, it is essential to recognise some facts and characteristics of the market as well as to understand the demands of the market at the present moment. Some features that are associated with formulating a personal marketing plan are – Target Marketing Before I initialize my job of marketing myself, it is necessary for me to recognise my target market, since this feature helps a salesperson to figure out exactly what the potential consumers want from the producer or the supplier. It is important to present myself in a way that the consumers are compatible with so that the latter group develops a natural instinct to transact with the particular person rather than with another one employed in the same store or at some other one dealing with the same product or a substitute one. For example, the market for air-conditioners, even a few years ago belonged o the relatively upper strata of the society, but now even has middle-class consumers. In case of such markets, if the behaviour of the salesperson depends upon the social status of the customer, then the latter group of people will be emotionally hurt and perhaps will never opt to transact from the particular salesperson. Personal marketing mix The concept of marketing mix was introduced by Neil H. Borden in 1964. According to him, there are four components that one needs to be aware of before considering a marketing mix. These factors, applicable in case of personal product mix as well, are – 1. Type of the product, i.e., the characteristics of the person entrusted with marketing operations. While my employer decides to entrust me with the particular job, it is my duty to respect his decision and the trust that he has bestowed upon me, through an efficient and effective work that might enhance the firm’s further growth prospects. 2. The price that the employer is ready to pay for the product or the skills that the salesperson have and is effectively employing in his work. In addition to assessing a person completely before entrusting him with a job as responsible as marketing for his products, it is important to pay a good price for his labour and work as well in the form of salaries and proper remunerations. Further, the opportunity costs of being employed (for instance, the cost of travelling, further training and study) must also be accounted for by offering the person with non-remunerative benefits. 3. The place where the labour services need to be delivered and the way that it is supposed to be dispensed. The type of work that I am supposed to execute should act as a decisive factor behind my place of operation. It is very important for a salesperson to structure his marketing schemes keeping in mind his working environment, which might be the person’s home or a formal office, depending upon the type of work he is responsible for. 4. Promotion of the product or the efficiency with which the salesperson is able to communicate with the consumers and effectively convince them to purchase the product or the service. I must channel my efforts in an efficient and dedicated way so as to focus my intensity in regulating myself and ability to correct my weaknesses, thereby impressing my customers (Sandhusen, 2000). Personal communication plans While promoting for the commodity or the service that I will be entrusted with, it is important to analyse the effective ways of personal communication and formulate the strategies accordingly. The points that need to be noted for being an ideal salesperson, while framing personal communication plans are – 1. An exact knowledge about who the target audience are. Based on this knowledge, I should frame the exact ways of impressing the people and convince them in believing in me and so towards the product that I am trying to promote. 2. It is also important for an ideal salesperson to be able to present himself the way that the target audience wants their ideal salesperson to be like. In most cases, since consumers are mostly unaware of the products that they decide to purchase, they generally choose to deal with someone who seems to be trustworthy to them. In other words, I must take measures to appear as a dependable person in front of the consumers so that they find it easier to have faith upon me as well as the products I am trying to market. 3. The way in which I should choose to conduct my task depends upon the kind of product that I am dealing with as well as who my target audience are. For instance, if the product is meant for the convenience of home-makers, the ideal way to communicate with them about the benefits of possessing it is through door-to-door promotional operations. Again, for businessmen, who do not have much time to attend to mails or phone calls and usually have secretaries to attend to such tasks, the ideal way to communicate is through internet, since it is one platform that the industrialists often have to frequent. Control, Monitoring and Evaluation As an ideal salesperson I must learn to evaluate my performance from time to time, so that I come to a position to improve myself through my day-to-day activities. This evaluation would be fruitful only if I am able to pin-point upon my deficiencies and sort out ways to eradicate them from my nature gradually. The entire process of monitoring and assessing a person’s abilities could be done through following the steps given below – 1. Maintaining a regular diary that will help me to evaluate my daily performance through which I could find out the exact points where I might be going wrong. 2. There must be a benchmark of performance or standard of work maintenance through the diary. The diary must hold records of what I had gone through in the past so that I am in a position to compare my present situation to those that I had already undergone previously. For instance, there must by methods to continuously keep on assessing how I had fared in the past compared to the responses I am getting at present when exposed to similar situations, etc. 3. I have to be sporting enough about the feedbacks that are forwarded to me by my employers as well as my customers. I have to be liberal enough to accept them open-mindedly rather than considering them as accusations towards him. I must find out ways to convince my employer, on the other hand, to provide me with a regular qualitative feedback on my performance in the interviews and presentations I had made to attract the potential consumers. I must vent out for possibilities of regular psychometric tests meant to evaluate and upgrade my common sense and skill tests so that I can maintain a good calibre and efficiency, etc (Piercy & Evans, 1983). Conclusion The task of being able to market oneself is very important not only to sell a commodity or a service, rather it is vital for ensuring that the consumers are convinced about the capabilities of the salesperson so that they prefer to frequent that shop instead of others dealing with similar products or substitutes, but employing less presentable employees. But the task of evaluation does not end only with the employer’s decision but it is also important to upgrade oneself continuously so as to maintain a similar level of efficiency in the work, throughout. References Piercy, N. & Evans, M. J. (1983) Managing Marketing Information. Australia: Taylor & Francis. Sandhusen, R. (2000) Marketing (3rd Edition). USA: Barron’s. Snow Vaile, R. (1952) Marketing in the American economy. California: Ronald Press Co. Read More