Does the Internet herald the death of a salesman? Not according to leading retailers like the John Lewis Partnership. Charlie Mayfield, CEO of the partnership, recently said customer service in the store is likely to play a big part in the future success of the business.
Over the last 30 years, there has been a general sense of willingness on behalf of suppliers and customers to develop increasingly close ‘emotional’ relationships based on trust. Buyers reward suppliers with brand loyalty, suppliers in turn develop strategies to energise this ‘connective’ relationship.
Until the Internet became a commercial tool, relationships were developed personally through sales representatives and customer service staff. As customers and suppliers become increasingly physically connected to one another via the Internet, the big issue is whether the nature of the relationship is changing as a result of transactions taking place online.
Technology companies have eagerly taken on the challenge to create digital solutions which can replace human interaction. Recently, Skymol has launched new software to add the human touch in a virtual world where customers can expect to engage in live voice and video chat to aid their purchasing decision. In other words, businesses can do personal selling online.
However, digital sales personnel are nothing new. In 2001 LifeFX created business avatars to help make customers feel more ‘at home’ when using the Internet to purchase goods and services. The company added a human face to standard email communications but it never became a mainstream business application.
Perhaps the heart of the question lies in whether online sales are based on short term transactional relationships, like those in the 1960 and 70’s, whereby sales personnel were concerned about making the one-off sales. Or alternatively, whether they’re based on longer-term close connective relationships.
Relationship marketing was a fundamental shift in the philosophy of the organisation, which rapidly grew in the 1980. It’s based on the fundamental premise that it’s important to develop ongoing relationships with a customer by focusing on quality, marketing, and customer service.
At the turn of this century prophets of doom suggested the internet would annihilate existing business methodologies and professions. Indeed, leading retail consultants predicted the demise of the high street in late 1990 as a result of online selling via the Internet. However, as we approach the end of the 00s, personal selling is still very important to many businesses. Whilst Internet sales continue to grow, and in some sectors account for a significant proportion of sales, this is not the case for all businesses and for the time being at least the high street remains with us.
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Death of the Salesman
On the contrary, yes door to door has gone the way of the dinosaur. But now with online mobile shopping, sales have gone through the roof. If anything it has created more sales jobs than ever, its just shifted in a new direction. More people than ever can now say their in sales. (external website removed by OpenLearn Moderator 15.02.12)