Integrated Marketing Communication -- pt/3 summary

marketing fundamentals -- part 13 -- summary

Personal Selling and Direct Marketing

Personal selling and direct marketing are both direct tools for communicating with and persuading current and prospective customers. Selling is the interpersonal arm of the communications mix. To be successful in personal selling, a company must first build and then manage an effective sales force. Firms must also be good at direct marketing, the process of forming one-to-one connections with customers. Today, many companies are turning to direct marketing in an effort to reach carefully targeted customers more efficiently and to build stronger, more personal, one-to-one relationships with them.

Most companies use salespeople, and many companies assign them an important role in the marketing mix. For companies selling business products, the firm salespeople work directly with customers. Often, the sales force is the customers only direct contact with the company and therefore may be viewed by customers as representing the company itself. In contrast, for consumer product companies that sell through intermediaries, consumers usually do not meet salespeople or even know about them. The sales force works behind the scenes, dealing with wholesalers and retailers to obtain their support and helping them become effective in selling the firm's products.

As an element of the promotion mix, the sales force is very effective in achieving certain marketing objectives in carrying out activities such as prospecting, communicating, selling and servicing, and information gathering. But with companies becoming more market-oriented, a market focused sales force also works to produce both customer satisfaction and company profit. To accomplish these goals, the sales force needs skills in marketing analysis and planning in addition to the traditional selling skills.

Sales force management

High sales force costs necessitate an effective sales management process consisting of six steps:
designing sales force strategy and structure
recruiting and selecting
training
compensating
supervising
and evaluating salespeople

In designing a sales force, sales management must address issues such as what type of sales force structure work best (territorial, product, customer, or complex structure); how large the sales force should be; who will be involved in the selling effort; and how its various sales and sales support people will work together (inside or outside sales forces and team selling).

To hold down the high cost of hiring the wrong people, salespeople must be recruited and selected carefully. In recruiting salespeople, a company may look to job duties in the characteristics of its most successful salespeople to suggest the traits it wants in its salespeople and then look for applicants through recommendations of current salespeople, employment agencies, classified ads, the Internet and by contacting college students. In the selection process, the procedure can vary from a single informal interview to lengthy testing and interviewing. After the selection process is complete, training programs familiarize the new salespeople not only with the art of selling but also with the company's history, its products and policies, and the characteristics of its market and competitors.

The sales force compensation system helps to reward, motivate, and direct salespeople. In compensating salespeople, companies tried to have an appealing plan, usually close to the going rate for the type of sales job and needed skills. In addition to compensation, all salespeople need supervision, and many need continuous encouragement because they must make many decisions and face many frustrations. Periodically, the company must evaluate their performance to help them do a better job. In evaluating salespeople, the company relies on getting regular information gathered through sales reports, personal observations, customers letters and complaints, customer surveys, and conversations with other salespeople.

The art of selling involves a seven steps selling process:
prospecting and qualifying
preapproach
approach
presentation and demonstration
handling objections
closing
and follow-up

The steps help marketers close a specific sale and as such are transaction oriented. However, a sellers dealings with customers should be guided by the larger concept of relationship marketing. The company's sales force should help to orchestrate a whole company effort to develop profitable long-term relationships with key customers based on superior customer value and satisfaction.

Direct marketing consists of direct connections with carefully targeted individual consumers to both obtain an immediate response and cultivate lasting customer relationships. Using detailed databases, direct marketers tailor their efforts and communications to the needs of narrowly defined segments or even individual buyers.

For buyers, direct marketing is convenient, easy-to-use, and private. It gives them ready access to a wealth of products and information, at home or around the globe. Direct marketing is also immediate and interactive, allowing buyers to create exactly the configuration of information, products, or services they desire, then order them on the spot. For sellers, direct marketing is a powerful tool for building customer relationships. Using database marketing, today's marketers can target small groups or individual consumers, tailor offers to individual needs, and promote these offers to personalize communications. It also offers them at low-cost, efficient alternative for reaching their markets. As a result of these advantages to both buyers and sellers, direct marketing has become the fastest-growing form of marketing.

The main forms of direct marketing include:
personal selling
telephone marketing
direct-mail marketing
catalog marketing
direct response television marketing
kiosk marketing
and online marketing

Recently, three new forms of mail delivery have become popular -- fax mail, e-mail, and voicemail.