Download Ch 8 Marketing communication and personal selling

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MKT 322
Ch 8: Promotion/marketing communication mix strategies and Personal Selling
1. Objectives
§ To understand what marketing communication can do for the company
§ To understand personal selling and the selling process
§ To know how to manage a sales team
2. The role and function of marketing communication
• To inform, persuade, and remind consumers directly or indirectly about the
product and brands that they sell.
• Marketing communication can perform many function for consumers;
1. consumers can be told or shown how and why a product is used, by what
kind of person, and where and when
2. who makes the product and what the company and brand stands for
3. consumers can be given an incentive or reward for trial or usage
4. contribute to brand equity by establishing the brand in memory and
crafting a brand image
• Six major modes of communications
1. advertising
2. sales promotion
3. public relation
4. direct marketing
5. personal selling
3. Integrated Marketing Communication
§ Integrated marketing communication is defined as a concept of marketing
communication planning that recognizes the added value of a comprehensive plan
that evaluates the strategic roles of a variety of communications disciplines – for
example general advertising, direct response, sales promotion, etc, and combines
these disciplines to provide clarity, consistency, and maximum communications’
impact through seamless integration of discrete messages.
§ For example, to promote its health product to the target market, XY company can
use advertising and public relations to increase brand awareness, and to include
toll free telephone (i.e. direct marketing) for the audience to make enquiry.
Whoever calls the phone number will be rewarded with a free gift (i.e. sales
promotion), and catalog that described product’s benefits. These prospects will
also received an ongoing newsletter that include advice on how to live a healthy
life.
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4. Factors to consider in choosing the marketing communication mix
(a) Type of product market
I. Consumer goods: sales promotion, advertising, personal selling, public
relation
II. Industrial goods – personal selling, sales promotion, advertising, public
relations
(b)
Push or pull strategy
• Push strategy is appropriate where there is low brand loyalty, brand choice
is made in the store, impulse product, and product benefit is well inderstood.
• Pull strategy is appropriate when there is high brand loyalty and high
involvement, people perceive differences between brands, and people
choose the brand before they go to the store.
(c)
Buyer readiness stage
• Awareness building - advertising and publicity
• Knowledge – advertising and personal selling
• Conviction – personal selling
• Closing sale – personal selling and sales promotion
(d)
Product life cycle stage
• Introduction stage -advertising and publicity have the highest cost
effectiveness, followed by personal selling to gain distribution coverage and
sales promotion to induce trial.
• Growth stage – word of mouth
• Maturity stage – sales promotion, advertising, and personal selling all grow
important
• Decline stage – sales promotion
5. Personal selling and its role
§ Personal selling involves two way, personal communication between salespeople
and individual customers whether face to face, by telephone, through video or
web conferencing, or by other means.
§ Salespeople can probe customers to learn more about their problems, then adjust
the marketing offer to fit the special needs of each customer and negotiate terms
of sale. They can build long term personal relationships with key decision
makers.
§ In most firms, sales force plays a major role. In business goods,
salespeople
customers
In consumer goods, salespeople
wholesalers and retailers
6. Managing the sales force
(a)
Recruitment and selection
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At the heart of any successful sales force operation is the recruitment and
selection of good salespeople. Careful salesperson selection can greatly
increase overall sales force performance.
The ideal traits that make a good salesperson are; enthusiasm, persistence,
initiative, self-confidence, job commitment, independent, self-motivated,
and excellence listener.
(b)
Training
§ Training goals are helping sales representative to
Ø Know and identify with the company
Ø Know how the products are produced and how they work
Ø Know competitor’s and customer’s characteristics
Ø Learn how to make effective presentations
Ø Understand field procedures and responsibilities
(c)
Supervision
§ Through supervision, the company directs the SF to do a better job.
§ Methods used;
Ø Norms for customer calls
Ø Norms for prospect calls
Ø Using sales time efficently
(d)
Motivation
§ Motivating salespeople is one of sales management’s most important tasks.
§ The company can use several positive incentives to increase the sales force
effort:
Ø Sales quota – prescribing what reps should sell during the year.
Compensation is often tied to degree of quota fulfillment.
Ø Sales meetings – provide social occasions, breaks from routine,
chances to meet and talk with company managers, and opportunities
to air feelings and to identify with a larger group.
Ø Sales contests – can be used to spur the selling effort above what
would normally be expected. Incentives could be: honors, awards,
merchandise and cash awards, trips and profit sharing plans.
(e)
Evaluation
§ Evaluation methods include:
Ø Comparing salespeople’s performance
Ø Comparing current sales with past sales
Ø Qualitative evaluation – which looks at a salesperson’s knowledge of
the company, products, customers, competitors, territory, and tasks.
Sales person’s traits (such as manner, appearance, speech, and
temperament) can also be rated.
§ Source of information for evaluation are:
Ø Sales report
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Annual territory marketing plan
Call reports
Expense reports
Personal observation
Customer’s letters and complaints
Talks with other salespeople
7. Personal Selling process
(a) Prospecting and qualifying
§ Prospecting is a method or system by which salespeople learn the names of
people who need the product and can afford it. There are two steps in
successful prospecting.
§ Identifying leads – generating potential customers.
§ Sources to generate potential customers: referrals from customers, referrals
from internal company source, referral from external referral agencies,
published directories, networking by the salesperson, and cold canvassing.
§ Qualifying leads – who is most likely to buy
§ Three conditions to satisfy:
Ø The customer has a need for the product
Ø The customer can afford to buy the product
Ø The customer is receptive to being called on by the salesperson
(b) Pre-approach
§ The preaproach step includes all the information gathering activities
salespeople plan their sales presentations, selecting the most appropriate
objective for each call.
(c) Approach
§ A good approach makes a favorable impression and established some degree
of rapport between the salesperson and the buyer.
§ In order to make a favorable impression with customers, the salesperson
should have a firm handshake, be professional attired, and make good eye
contact.
(d) Need assessment
§ Need assessment is the stage in which the salespeople must discover, clarify,
and understand the buyer’s needs.
§ The best way to uncover and understand needs is by asking questions.
(e) The presentation
§ The presentation is primarily a discussion of those product and or service
features, advantages, and benefits that the customer has indicated are
important.
§ While most presentations are oral, they often include written proposals and
supporting material as well as visual aids.
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A good sales presentation is built around a forceful product demonstration.
Reps should demonstrate everything possible during the presentation.
Effective presentation should;
Ø Keep the presentation simple
Ø Talk prospect’s language
Ø Stress the application of the product or service to the prospect’s
situation
Ø Above all, seek credibility at every turn
(f) Meeting objections
§ Objections are encountered in practically every presentation. They should be
welcomed because they indicate that the prospect has some interest in the
proposition.
§ There are several important techniques that should be used in responding to a
buyer objection:
Ø Listen to the buyer
Ø Clarify the objection
Ø Respect the buyer’s concern
Ø Respond to the objection
§ Types of objections and specific strategies for handling them.
Ø Price and value objections
v For example, “I don’t need it” or “it costs too much” are indicating
that they don’t think the value of solving the problem or meeting the
need is worth the cost.
v Salespeople will need to increase the buyer’s perception of the
seriousness of the problem and the importance of a solution.
Ø Product/service objections
v Sometimes the buyer acknowledges the importance of a problem but
doubts whether the product or service can solve his problem or
improve his operations.
v Salespeople needs to convince the buyer that her product will do what
she says. She must demonstrate or prove that the product has the
capability to fulfill the need. Some proof providing tactics are;
q Case histories
q A demonstration
q Testimonials
q Trial use
q Independent tests
q Expert opinion
Ø Procrastinating objections
v Procrastinating prospects use excuses to avoid acting on a proposition
immediately or to avoid admitting that they don’t have the authority to
make the decision.
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v Some objections are, “ let me think about it a while” or “I have to
discuss it with my spouse”
v The best strategy is to ask for a commitment for some future action
that will move the sale forward. For example, salespeople might ask
for a meeting with the buyer and his spouse or whoever seems to have
substantial influence over the decision.
Ø Hidden objections
v Prospects often hide their reasons for not buying. For example, a
prospect may say she does not like the looks of a product, when she
really thinks the price is too high.
v The best technique for discovering hidden objection is to ask questions
that keep the prospect talking.
(g) Gaining commitment
§ At some point after the salesperson has convinced the buyer that his or her
products at least warrant further attention, the salesperson must ask the buyer
to commit to some action that moves the sale forward.
§ In a relatively simple sale, it is important for the salesperson to get a
commitment from the buyer to purchase the product on the first call.
§ Some of the techniques used are assumptive close – assume prospects are
going to buy and begin to take order. Special offer close and summary close.
(h) Follow up
§ Reps must learn that the sale is not over when they get the order. Good sales
reps follow up in various way.
§ They make certain that they have answered all the buyer’s questions and that
they buyer understands the details of the contract.
§ Instead of focusing on one time, transactional sales, today’s sales people work
to build and maintain long term, mutually beneficial partnerships with their
customers.
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