Personal Selling,
Sales Management, &
Direct Marketing
Chapter Objectives
• role of personal selling
within the promotion mix
• steps in personal selling process
• role of the sales manager
• direct marketing
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SELLING
Personal Selling
•
•
•
•
•
when a company representative
interacts directly
with a (prospective) customer
to communicate
about a good or service
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Personal Selling
• Personal touch” is more effective
 than mass-media appeal.
• Selling/sales management
• jobs provide high mobility,
 especially for college grads
 with marketing background.
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The Role of Personal Selling
• Personal selling is more important:
 --when firm uses push strategy.
--in B2B contexts.
--with inexperienced consumers
• who need hands-on assistance.
--for products bought infrequently
• (houses, cars, computers).
• Cost per contact is very high.
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Technology and Personal Selling
• Customer relationship management
 (CRM) software
• partner relationship management
 (PRM)
•
•
•
•
•
Teleconferencing,
Video-conferencing,
Improved corporate Web sites
Voice-over Internet protocol
Assorted wireless technologies
SALESFORCE.COM
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Types of Sales Jobs
• Order taker
• Technical specialist
• Missionary salesperson
 (stimulate clients to buy)
• New-business salesperson
 Cold calls, breaking in new territory
• order getter
• Team selling & cross-functional team
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Approaches to Personal Selling
• Transactional selling:
Putting on the hard sell
High-pressure process
focuses on immediate sales
no concern for developing
long-term customer
relationship
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Approaches to Personal Selling (cont’d)
• Relationship selling
Process of building long-term customers
by developing mutually satisfying, winwin relationships with customers
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Creative selling Process
• Makes positive transactions happen
• Series of activities
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Figure 14.1: Steps in Creative Selling Process
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The Creative Selling Process
• Step 1: Prospecting and qualifying
--Prospecting:
• developing a list of potential customers
--Qualifying:
• determining how likely potential customers are to
become customers
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The Creative Selling Process (cont’d)
• Step 2: Pre-approach
Compiling prospective customers’
• background information
planning the sales interview
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The Creative Selling Process (cont’d)
• Step 2: Pre-approach
Purchase history,
current needs,
customer’s interests
From
• informal sources,
• CRM system,
• customers’ Web sites,
• and/or business publications
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The Creative Selling Process (cont’d)
• Step 3: Approach
Contacting the prospect
Learning prospect’s needs,
create a good impression,
build rapport
• “You never get a second chance to make
a good first impression.”
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The Creative Selling Process (cont’d)
• Step 4: Sales presentation
benefits & added value
• of product/firm
advantages over competition
Inviting customer involvement
• in conversation
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Step 5: Handling Objections
• Anticipating why
prospect is reluctant to make a commitment
• Welcoming objections
• Handling objections
successfully
to move prospect to decision stage
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Step 6: Closing the Sale
• Gaining the customer’s commitment
• in the decision stage
--Last-objection close
--Assumptive close
--minor-points close
--Standing-room-only close
--buy-now close
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Step 7: Follow-Up
• Arranging for delivery,
Ensuring sure customer received delivery
and is satisfied
• Payment
Credit, factors, etc.
• purchase terms
• Bridging to next purchase
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Figure 14.2: The Sales Force
Management Process
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Sales Management:
Sales force objectives
• What sales force is expected to
accomplish and when
Customer Satisfaction
New product suggestions
Loyalty
Training
Retention / turnover
Reporting on competition
New customer
development
Community involvement
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Creating a Sales Force Strategy
• Establishing structure and size
 of a firm’s sales force
• Sales territory: a set group of customers
Geographic sales force structure
Product-class sales territories
Industry specialization
key/major accounts
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Recruiting, Training, & Rewarding
• Recruiting the right people
Good listening and follow-up skills
adaptive style
• from situation to situation
Tenacity
High level of personal organization
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Recruiting, Training, & Rewarding
• Sales training:
•
•
•
•
•
teaches salespeople about firm,
its products,
how to develop skills,
knowledge, and
attitudes to succeed
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Recruiting, Training, and Rewarding
• Paying salespeople well to
motivate them
Straight commission plan
Commission-with-draw plan
Straight salary plan
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Recruiting, Training, and Rewarding
• Running sales contests
for short-term sales boost
• Call reports:
which customers were called on and
how call went
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Evaluating the Sales Force
• Is sales force meeting its objectives?
• What are possible causes of failure?
Measuring performance
Monitoring expense accounts
for travel and entertainment
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DIRECT MARKETING
Direct Marketing
• Any direct communication
to a consumer or business recipient
• designed to generate a response
DIRECT MARKETING
ASSOCIATION
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Direct Marketing
• Response:
• in the form of an
order,
request for further information,
a visit to a store
• other place of business
• for purchase of a product
DIRECT MARKETING
ASSOCIATION
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Direct Marketing: MAIL ORDER
• Catalogs:
collection of products
• offered for sale
described in book form,
product descriptions and photos
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Direct Marketing: MAIL ORDER
• Direct mail:
brochure/pamphlet
offering a specific good/service
at one point in time
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Direct Marketing: telemarketing
• conducted over the telephone
More profitable for business
• than consumer markets
In 2003, FTC established:
• National Do Not Call registry
FEDERAL DO NOT CALL REGISTRY
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Direct Marketing (cont’d)
•
•
•
•
Direct-response advertising:
allows consumer to respond
by contacting the provider
with questions or an order
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Direct Marketing (cont’d)
• Direct-response TV (DRTV):
• short commercials,
• 30-minute+ infomercials,
• home shopping networks
–HSN
–QVC
–Jewelry television
–ShopNBC
–Gemtv
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Direct Marketing (cont’d)
• M-Commerce:
• promotional & other e-commerce activities
• transmitted over mobile phones/devices
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Direct Marketing (cont’d)
• M-Commerce:
(SMS)
• Short-messaging system marketing
Spim:
• instant-messaging version of spam
Adware:
• software that tracks Web habits/interests,
• presenting pop-up ads
• resetting home page
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THE END
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Marketing Plan Exercise
• In developing her marketing plan, Esther Ferre
at IBM must use marketing communication mix
elements (1) in an integrated way that (2) best
invests her promotional dollars.
• --Should personal selling be a high priority in
Esther’s marketing plan? Why or why not?
• --Is there a role for direct marketing in her plan?
If so, what is it?
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Marketing in Action Case:
You Make the Call
• What is the decision facing Eli Lilly?
• What factors are important in
understanding this decision situation?
• What are the alternatives?
• What decision(s) do you recommend?
• What are some ways to implement your
recommendation?
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Keeping It Real: Fast-Forward to Next
Class, Decision Time at Darden Restaurants
• Meet Jim Lawrence, Vice President,
Supply Management & Purchasing.
• Volatility in the supply chain threatened
food supplies to restaurants.
• The decision: A new model for supply
chain management?
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Real People, Real Choices
• IBM (Esther Ferre)
• IBM must prioritize investment of resources to
achieve revenue and profit targets.
 Option 1: reduce sales and support resources for a specific
customer or business segment.
 Option 2: maintain current level
 of resources.
 Option 3: evaluate lower-cost
 ways to provide sales and
 support resources.
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Real People, Real Choices
• IBM (Esther Ferre)
• Esther chose option 3: evaluate lower-cost
ways to provide sales and support
resources.
 Minimized impact to customer and improved cost
structure of sales team.
 Maintained customer satisfaction with lower cost.
 Resulted in increased revenue over time.
IBM.COM
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Discussion
• Professional selling
has evolved from
hard-sell to
relationship selling.
--Is hard-sell still used? If so, in
what types of organizations?
--Can hard-sell still succeed –is
transactional
selling still appropriate?
--If so, when?
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Group Activity
• Your group are field
salespeople for a firm that
markets university
textbooks.
• As part of your training, your
sales manager asks you to
outline what you’ll say in a
typical sales presentation.
--Write that outline.
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Individual Activity
• What are the pros and cons of personal
selling as a career choice for you?
 --List them in two columns, and be as specific as you
can in explaining each.
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Discussion
• Will sales training and development needs
vary based on how long salespeople have
been in the business? Why or why not?
• Is it possible (and feasible) to offer
different training programs for salespeople
at different career stages? Why or why
not?
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Discussion
• Based on the compensation figures in the
chapter, do you think professional
salespeople are appropriately paid? Why
or why not?
• What do salespeople do that warrants the
compensation indicated?
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Discussion
• What is a sales manager’s best approach
for determining the appropriate rewards
program?
• What issues are important in developing
the program?
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Discussion
• Some experts think consumer catalog shopping
has increased because of poor service in retail
stores.
 Evaluate the quality of most retail salespeople you meet.
 How can retailers can improve the quality of their sales
associates?
LANDSEND.COM
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Discussion
• M-commerce allows marketers to pinpoint
where consumers are and send them
messages about a local store.
 --Do you think consumers will respond positively to mcommerce?
 --What benefits do you think it offers them?
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