Selling Concept of Marketing

The selling concept of marketing is the notion that consumers/customers be it individuals or organizations will not buy something automatically and that the need is there for the product/service to be sold to them. This could be in the form of a persuasive advertisement or a salesperson telling the consumer/customer that this said product/service is god's gift to this earth and that it will change their life for the better. In most cases consumers/customers end up buying something they most probably don't need or want.

Organizations or Individuals who have goods/services to offer undertake selling, persuasion and promotion of their products in order to attain marketing success. These inert consumers/customers need to be goaded so that they may take action to buy the goods/services being offered.

This selling concept came to the fore in the mid 50's as supply started to out-pace demand in many diverse industries, Businesses now realized they had to focus and find ways and means of selling their goods/services. During this period many sales techniques such as closing, probing and qualifying were developed and salespeople and their departments were held in high esteem and positions in a company's organizational structure.

The questions that firms practicing the selling-concept normally would try to answer before producing a good/service are:

1. Can we sell the product?

2. Can we charge enough for it?

The aim of companies using the selling concept is to sell what they produce rather than what the market wants their primary focus is creating sales transactions rather than on building long-term profitable relationships. There is little regard for customer satisfaction.

This selling concept is the basis on which the advertizing industry stands as billions are spent on advertizing and marketing campaigns as companies sincerely believe that they need to get their message out there and convince the consumers/customers that they should buy their particular goods/services. Without this concept there would not have been such a successful advertizing industry as quality goods/services would have sold themselves.

The selling approach is frequently used in the case of unsought goods such as life insurance, fire fighting equipments including fire extinguishers, blood donations and many more. These industries need to have a strong network of salespeople and must be good at tracking down potential consumers/customers and selling them on the goods/services benefits.

As Globalization and an increase in standards of living and income has made access to goods/services easier and increased the variety of choices that consumers/customers are now faced with the consumer/customer has become more selective and buys those good/services that meet their changing needs. The selling-concept has now gone out of the window and is being replaced by the marketing concept.

The Marketing concept holds that in order for an organization to achieve its goals