product quality."3
The product concept is important and many of the things implied in its definition must be addressed by marketing organ izations (improving product quality, as an example). The pro duct concept is faulty, however, in that it implies that consu mers purchase products, as opposed to purchasing solutions to their needs. The role of the sales person is especially impor tant in the selling of solutions to problems. It is much less important, however, where an organization is simply attempting to peddle products.
1C. Futrell, Fundamentals of Selling (Homewood, Illinois: Richard D. Irwin, Inc., 1984), 6.
2P. Kotler, Marketing Management, 6th ed. (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1987), 4.
Another concept of marketing is the selling concept, which "assumes that consumers will either buy or not buy . . . the organization's products," as a result of the organization's "effort to stimulate their interest in its products."4 The selling concept of marketing implies that consumers "have a normal tendency to resist buying . . . things that are not essential," but that they "can be induced to buy . . . through various sales stimulating devices."5 Obviously, the role of the sales person is absolutely critical when an organization adopts the selling concept. Over the long term, however, the concept will not likely produce satisfactory results.
A third concept of marketing, and the concept most widely accepted in contemporary western economies is the marketing concept, which "holds that the key task of the (marketing) organization is to determine the needs and wants of target mar kets and to adapt the organization to delivering the desired satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than its compe titors."6 For an organization basing its marketing function on this concept, the role of the sales person is critical.
On its face, the marketing concept appears to be accept abl...