Assam ASSEB HS Sales Management & Advertising flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Personal selling

Oral, interactive persuasion in which a salesperson identifies a buyer's needs and matches a product or service to them, allowing immediate feedback and closing of the sale.

Sales management

The planning, direction and control of personal selling activities, including recruiting, selecting, training, motivating, supervising and evaluating the sales force to achieve sales objectives.

Unique selling proposition

The single distinctive benefit that a brand claims and competitors cannot easily copy. It must be meaningful to buyers and substantiated by the product's actual performance.

Relationship selling

An approach that builds long-term customer partnerships rather than single transactions, emphasising trust, service after sale and repeat purchase, which lowers the long-run cost of retaining customers.

Needs-satisfaction approach

A selling approach in which the salesperson first diagnoses the buyer's problems through questions, then presents a solution. It suits complex products and sophisticated buyers better than a fixed formula.

Prospecting and qualifying

The first selling step: identifying potential buyers from referrals, directories, canvassing or enquiries, then screening them for need, authority, ability to pay and readiness.

Feature, advantage, benefit

A feature is what the product has; an advantage is what it does; a benefit is what the buyer gains. Benefit-based presentation persuades because buyers purchase outcomes, not specifications.

Trial close

An early testing question, such as asking for a small decision, used during the presentation to gauge buyer readiness before attempting the final close.

Line and staff organization

A sales structure where line managers hold command authority over salespeople while staff specialists in training, research or analysis advise them without issuing orders.

Geographic sales organization

Territories assigned by area, giving each salesperson exclusive responsibility for a region. Travel costs are low and accountability clear when product lines are similar.

Span of control

The number of subordinates one sales manager can supervise effectively. Wider spans require experienced salespeople, standard reporting and less field coaching per person.

Territory design criteria

Territories should be contiguous, compact to limit travel, and roughly equal in sales potential or workload, while large enough to let a salesperson earn a fair income.

Test validity and reliability

Validity means a selection test predicts job performance; reliability means it yields consistent scores on repetition. A test can be reliable yet still invalid for selection.

Structured interview

A selection interview using preset questions and rating scales for all candidates, which improves comparability and reduces interviewer bias compared with free conversation.

Herzberg two-factor theory

Hygiene factors such as salary and working conditions prevent dissatisfaction but do not motivate; motivators such as recognition, achievement and responsibility generate genuine effort.

Straight commission compensation

Pay entirely tied to sales achieved. It maximises selling incentive and cuts fixed cost, but weakens loyalty, servicing and teamwork, and makes salespeople's income unstable.

Sales forecast

An estimate of expected sales for a future period under a stated marketing plan. It differs from sales potential, which is the maximum achievable with full resources.

Delphi method

A qualitative forecasting technique using repeated anonymous questionnaires with summarised feedback, so experts converge on an estimate without being dominated by senior or vocal members.

Sales force composite

A forecast built by aggregating each salesperson's estimate for their territory. It uses local knowledge but is prone to deliberate understatement when estimates feed quotas.

Variance analysis in sales control

Comparing actual results with budgeted standards, calculating the size of the gap, identifying its cause and taking corrective action, whether on price, volume or selling expense.

Advertising definition

Paid, non-personal, sponsored communication about a product, service or idea, delivered through mass media to a defined audience, with the sponsor identified.

Institutional advertising

Advertising that promotes an organisation's image or viewpoint rather than a specific product, building goodwill and credibility that supports the firm's brands over time.

Primary demand advertising

Advertising that promotes an entire product category rather than one brand, typically used when a category is new and needs generic awareness before brand competition begins.

Reach and frequency

Reach is the number of distinct people exposed to a media schedule in a period; frequency is the average number of exposures each reached person receives.

Cost per thousand (CPM)

Media cost divided by audience size in thousands. It compares the efficiency of vehicles in reaching an audience but says nothing about message quality or impact.

Media planning sequence

Set media objectives, select media classes, choose specific vehicles, decide timing pattern such as continuous, flighting or pulsing, then buy the schedule and evaluate results.

Headline in advertising copy

The most prominent words of an advertisement, whose tasks are to attract attention, select the right audience and lead the reader into the body copy.

Layout principles

Design rules for arranging advertisement elements: balance, contrast, proportion, movement, unity and emphasis, guiding the eye from the visual to the headline and body copy.

Advertising creativity

The combination of originality with relevance, producing a fresh idea that still communicates the brand's proposition clearly to the intended audience.

Objective-and-task budgeting

Setting the advertising budget by defining communication objectives, deciding the tasks required to meet them, and costing those tasks. It links spending directly to purpose.

Recall versus recognition tests

Recall measures what respondents remember without prompting; recognition measures what they identify when shown the advertisement. Recognition scores are usually much higher.

Puffery in advertising

Vague, subjective praise such as 'the finest in town' that no reasonable consumer takes literally. It is generally tolerated, unlike a false factual claim.