Personal Selling is a face-to-face selling technique by which a

salesperson uses his or her interpersonal skills to persuade or

convinced a customer in buying a particular product. It is a
promotional method by which the salesperson uses his or her
skills and abilities in an attempt to make a sale.
Origins of Personal Selling
Ancient times
Barter system was invented by ancient people to get the things
they needed in exchange for the surplus goods that they produce
until gold and silver coin are introduced as a medium of
exchange. According to Herodotus, the Lydians are the one’s
who introduced the use of gold and silver coinage w/c is used as
method of payment for buying and selling goods and services.
Then the market starts to build and begins to flourish. Market or
marketplace, is a location where people regularly gather for the
purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and other goods. The
coins circulated among the people in towns and city states such
as Egypt, Greece, Persia, Rome, etc.
Medieval Period
The trade underwent further changes. People attracted and
settle in one place with market towns. The primary purpose of a
market town is the provision of goods and services to the
surrounding locality. Then, local trading based on transactional
exchange and bartering systems was slowly transformed as
transportation improved and new geographic markets were
opened. Peddlers are the first door to door salesperson. They are
travellers that buy locally procedure goods by the farmers and
sell it on town, then they buy manufactured goods from town
and sell it to subsequent rural areas.
Industrial Revolution Era
In the late 17th century, rapid industrialization first began in
Britain, starting with mechanized spinning in the 1780’s, with
high rates of growth in steam power and iron production
occurring after 1800. The transition from hand production
methods to machines, new chemical manufacturing and iron
production processes, the increasing use of steam power and
water power, the development of machine tools and the rise of
the mechanized factory system. Thus the effect of the innovation
in manufacturing is flooding surplus goods. Which mean that the
local economies where no longer self-sufficient and the need to
reach new customers to buy the mass-produced products
increased. The birth of the traveling salesperson begins.
Salespeople are the primary way for providing paid personal
communications to customers.