Personal selling can be a powerful force for firms trying to sell their products.  According to the textbook, personal selling is a paid personal communication that is used to inform customers and persuade them to buy the firms product or products.  Personal selling allows marketers to focus specifically on the most promising sales prospects.  Personal selling is rising, as it allows for freedom for the sales consultant, can offer high income, and a high level of satisfaction to the person performing such tasks.  This type of selling is handy since most consumers seek information and advice about a product such as a computer before buying.  The sales consultant may recommend a particular firm that they are personal selling for and can succeed in selling that product to the customer.  These type of people are knowledgable about the product, have had personal experience with the product, and give the customer confidence in purchasing the product.  Personal selling is broken down into steps when approaching the customer.  It all begins with prospecting for a customer, pre-approach, approach, making a presentation, overcoming objectives, closing the sale, and following up the sale.  Some examples of personal selling are found in when the John Deere guy shows up at our house in the summer.  He approaches up in a kind, friendly fashion and will help us out for the day, free of charge.  Then he'll make a presentation on how a new John Deere implement would benefit our operation and goes over the great deals that are available to us.  This is all low pressure too, he mentions all these things in a suttle way and lets us think about it for a while.  Then if we do purchase a new swather, tractor, or baler, he offers excellent service and always comes out again to help after the sale.  This type of selling works real well, since we get a chance to get to know him and develop a trust, which in the end always works out great.