THE ROLE OF SOCIAL COMPETENCE IN THE PROFESSIONAL FUNCTIONING OF SALES REPRESENTATIVES

BERA Adrian – Postgraduate student of the Institute of Pedagogy, Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin, Narutowicza Str., 12, Lublin, 20-004, Poland E-mail address: adrian_bera@o2.pl ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5570-3024 To cite this article: Bera, A. (2019). Rola kompetencji spolecznych w funkcjonowaniu zawodowym przedstawicieli handlowych [The role of social competences in the professional functioning of sales representatives]. Liudynoznavchi studii. Seriia «Pedahohika» – Human Studies. Series of «Pedagogy», 8/40, 217–228. doi: 10.24919/2413-2039.8/40.164461 [in Polish]. Article history Received: January 14, 2019 Received in revised form: February 16, 2019 Accepted: February 18, 2019 Available online: April 22, 2019 Journal homepage: http://lssp.dspu.edu.ua/ p-ISSN 2313-2094 e-ISSN 2413-2039 © 2019 The Author. Human studies. Series of «Pedagogy» published by Drohobych Ivan Franko State Pedagogical University & Open Journal Systems. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ ). Abstract. The sales representative is one of the oldest professions in the world. Trade and craft are the most important occupations of the urban population since ancient times. The role of the representative is to use all the efforts and the best skills and experience that will help to achieve the goal. In a rapidly changing world we can see an evolution of consumer sentiment and behaviour. The role of the sales representative in each case is the same – to support the customers’ decision to sell as many goods represented by an economic entity as possible. Also we are talking about the constant increase in sales. As for the tasks, they are very diverse. The sale process can be very simple – the customer comes in – gets a purchase offer and makes a positive or negative decision for the seller. However, in many cases the process is certainly more complicated. The person, who offers this product using social skills and competencies, can have a significant impact on the final purchase decision. Competences related to the speed of learning and owning a natural tendency to be a seller, for example, developed emotional intelligence, are important. Analyzing the methods of influence on the consumer, we notice the division into passive technologies (without the direct participation of the sales representative) and active (with the participation of the sales representative). According to Kotler and Keller (2011) psychological and logical resistance often arise during the purchasing process. Quoting: «psychological resistance includes resistance to a changing world, preference for a recognized source of supply or brands, apathy, reluctance to give up something, unpleasant associations left by a sales representative, ingrained ideas, reluctance to make decisions or a neurotic attitude to money. Logical impedance may be applied to price, delivery time, and product or company characteristics». To deal with them, the sales representative must also demonstrate social skills in addition to product expertise. Experience of working with other people, developed methods of social influen ce, flexibility, emotional intelligence which are considered as the ability to assess this situation, ways to deal with stressful situations, personality traits, the ability to manage the trading process and customer decisions are the elements that give high sales results for sales representatives. Acknowledgements. Sincere thanks to the pedagogical staff of UMCS in Lublin, in the person of Prof. Anna Kanios. Funding. The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.