Chapter 17: Personal Selling and Sales Management

Since personal selling is a direct interaction between a sales person and a prospective customer it offers many advantages because many question that can not be answered by an advert or promotion, but can be answered in person. The prospective customer can be specific about what exactly they want and then a sales person can recommend and advise products that would fit the customer’s requests.

Disney has been so successful over the years because they have been aware of their customers needs through relationship selling also known as consultative selling. Which makes sense since research has shown that positive customers-salesperson relationship contributes to trust increased customer loyalty. Speaking from experience I have never had a bad experience in any of the Disney store I have ever entered (in the U.S or U.K) this has lead me to believe that Disney makes it’s a must to train all employees how to be patient and very nice to all customers. This is an important step to help build strong customer loyalty because Disney employees are so nice customers feel comfortable and welcome to just walk in and look around, then when they have a question they can easily ask any of the approachable sales persons in the store who can recommend whatever the customers is looking for.

Selling in the technology age
Disney has been around for so long because their ability to modify and fit the market of their time. A perfect example of this would be of a previous article written in October 2009 that I’m able to talk about because of resent visits to the Disney store and speak of the changes that took place.

**In 2009 the Walt Disney Company decided to team up with Steve Jobs and his retailing team at apple to drastically change the Disney stores and customer experience. Disney’s traditional approach of displaying row after row of toys and apparel geared to Disney franchises has been given a high-tech makeover and incorporated into a new array of recreational activities (reading time/events that take place in the store). The goal, which has been achieved, was to make children clamor to visit the stores and stay longer, bolstering sales as a result.

In the near future Disney will adopt Apple touches like mobile checkout (employees will carry miniature receipt printers in their aprons) and the emphasis on community
(Disney’s theater idea is an extension of Apple’s lecture spaces). The focus on interactivity — parents will be able to book a Disney Cruise on touch-screen kiosks while their children play — reflects an Apple hallmark. Employees can use iPhones to control those high-tech trees.
 ** Brooks, Barnes. “Disney’s Retail Plan Is a Theme Park in Its Stores” The New York Times Oct. 13, 2009, A1 Web. Nov. 2, 2013.

This news article relates because we see how Disney has made changes to benefit its customers needs and wants making a more interactive store therefore more convenient for the customers by making it much quicker and easier to make a purchase instead of waiting in lines they can just make their purchase from an employee through a mobile checkout. Also incorporating recreational activity makes going to the Disney store a day out and people trend to spend money when taking their children out for the day.

Disney store E-commerce site is also very convenient and easy to use which clearly shows Disney does use a CRM system where customers take center stage and by providing many categories to choose from Disney  also has a personalize section on their website, where customers are able to customize their very own Disney products. Even if they don’t have a sales person with them to recommend or advise a product they can make their own decisions by reviewing previous customer comment about the products. Also because Disney identify customer relationships and make it a point to understand their customer base and capture customer data, not only do they develop deeper relationships but, also close more sales with loyal customers and receive positive feed back which attracts new customers to shop online or in store and this is a result because of Disney’s customer centric focus.

Everyday the world is changing therefore so is Disney and that is why Disney is so magical.

“Around here, however, we don't look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”- Walt Disney