Ch. 17 - Personal Selling and Sales Management

Nike is an internationally known company that focuses on relationship selling. They work hard on developing their long term relationships with individual consumers. Through their innovative products and technology they’ve been able to instill that relationship into one’s daily life. Whether that be through the Nike running app, the Nike Fuel Band, or the apparel made by Nike. Nike has done a very good job keeping their customers satisfied and coming back for more. If it’s not the name that customers are coming for then it’s the quality. Nike has many competitors in the sportswear industry so too keep its customers satisfied they listen to what the community has to say. They do a phenomenal job of following the five service quality dimensions which entails of reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangibles. IN terms of reliability their products are effective and often supersede expectations. Nike also values their customer service. I recently ordered a pair of sneakers from Nike.com and they didn’t suit my liking. So I called Nike’s customer service and not only were they able direct with different ways to return the product, I was also given $10 off my next purchase as an incentive. With all of this the Nike team either develops new ways of helping the customer with what they want as well as develop new product to better fit what the majority is demanding. 

Through Personal Selling, Nike is able to go the less expensive route (in comparison to advertisement) and the more direct and convincing route when dealing with customers and trying to sell their brand products to consumers. Nike generally makes most of its money from selling its products to many retailers to go and sell in their stores, such as Foot Locker, Modells, Champs, Finish Line and other large athletic sneaker and apparel stores. Besides the in person, in store impact, the websites of Nike and their retailers offer a very well presented and put together place for the consumer to research and look at what they may want to purchase before actually entering a store in person and being taught about the product. This is very important in today's world since most people go online and shop around and look at different retailers and websites for information on a specific product rather than go to numerous stores in person to conduct research. Online options offer these customers more of a variety and size of stock to look at and consider purchasing. Nike's brand and its "Swoosh" logo is the way how personal sales emphasize to the customer of Nike products. Nike does this through its own website as mentioned above, but most importantly through its employees in their stores and the other employees at various retailers of theirs. Whether in the Nike store or in Nike retailers, these employees are always available and are always able to offer the best and quickest information of a product.