Chapter 19: Managing Personal Communications: Direct and Interactive Marketing, Word of Mouth, and Personal Selling

Chapter 19: Managing Personal Communications: Direct and
Interactive Marketing, Word of Mouth, and Personal Selling
1. How can companies integrate direct marketing for competitive

advantage?
Direct marketing is the use of consumer-direct channels to reach and deliver goods and services to
customers without using market middlemen.
Direct Marketing Channels:
• Direct mail (Outside envelope, Sales letter, Circular, Reply form, Reply envelope),
• Catalogs,
• Telemarketing (Telesales, Telecoverage, Teleprospecting, Customer service and technical
support),
• Other direct response (Television: Direct Response Advertising, At-home shopping channels,
Videotext, Kiosks)
Constructing a Direct-Mail Campaign:
• Establish objectives
• Select target prospects (Recency – how much time has passed since their last purchase,
frequency, monetary value – how much money he/she has spent since becoming a customer
of the product)
• Develop offer elements (Product, Offer, Medium, Distribution method, Creative strategy)
• Test elements
• Execute
• Measure success
Public Issues in Direct Marketing: Irritation, unfairness (marketers taking advantage of

unsophisticated or elderly customers), deception and fraud (false claims), invasion of privacy
(customer details sold)
2. How can companies do effective interactive marketing (Internet)?

Advantages & Disadvantages
• Tailored messages possible (eg: emails)

• Easy to track responsiveness (through clicks on Internet etc)
• Contextual ad placement possible (ads on related sites)
• Search engine advertising possible
• Subject to click fraud
• Consumers can screen out most messages (disable pop ups, spam filter)
• Consumers develop selective attention
Online Promotional Opportunities: Websites, Microsites, Search ads, Display ads (ads on other
websites), Interstitials (pop ups), Internet-specific ads and videos, Sponsorships (sponsoring info on
sites), Alliances and affiliate programs, Online communities, Email, Mobile marketing
e-Marketing Guidelines:
• Give the customer a reason to respond

• Personalize the content of your emails
• Offer something the customer could not get via direct mail
• Make it easy for customers to unsubscribe
3. How can marketers best take advantage of the power of word of

mouth?
How to Start Buzz
• Identify influential individuals and companies and devote extra effort to them
• Supply key people with product samples
• Work through community influentials
• Develop word-of-mouth referral channels to build business
• Provide compelling information that customers want to pass along
Buzz and viral marketing, opinion leaders, blogs
4. What decisions do companies face in designing and managing a sales

force?
Designing a Sales Force:
• Sales force objectives,

• Sales force strategy,
• Sales force structure – territorial, product or market wise,
• Sales force size,
Workload Approach to Determining Sales Force Size

• Customers are grouped into size classes
• Desirable call frequencies are established
• Number of accounts in each size class multiplied by call frequency
• Average number of calls possible per year established
• Number of reps equal to total annual calls required divided by number possible
• Compensation - Fixed amount, variable amount, expense account, benefits

Types of Sales Representatives
• Deliverer
• Order taker
• Missionary : salesperson who builds goodwill or educates potential users
• Technician : salesperson with high level of technical knowledge
• Demand creator : salesperson who uses creative methods to sell tangibles or intangibles
• Solution vendor : salesperson who solves customer’s problem
Sales Tasks:
• Prospecting (searching for prospects),

• Targeting (deciding how to allocate time between prospects and customers),
• Communicating,
• Selling,
• Servicing,
• Information gathering,
• Allocating (deciding which customers will get scarce products during product shortages)
Managing the Sales Force
Recruiting and selecting, Training, supervising (sales rep productivity), motivating (setting sales
quotas), evaluating (sales reports)
5. How can salespeople improve selling, negotiating, and relationship

marketing skills?
Principles of Personal Selling
• Situation questions: explore the buyer’s present situation

• Problem questions: problems buyer is facing with the current situation
• Implication questions: consequences of these problems
• Need-payoff questions: value or usefulness of a proposed solution (company product)
Steps in Effective Selling
• Prospecting/Qualifying: Qualify leads by contacting them to assess level of interest and

financial capacity.
• Preapproach and approach: Learn about the company before approaching
• Presentation and demonstration: Tell product story to customer, using features, advantage,
benefits and value (FABV) approach
• Overcoming objections: Overcome psychological and logical resistances
• Closing
• Follow-up and maintenance
Relationship Marketing: Salespersons working with key customers must do more than call only
when they think customers might be ready to place orders. They should call or visit at other times,
take customers to dinner and make useful suggestions about the business.

Chapter 19: Managing Personal Communications: Direct and Interactive Marketing, Word of Mouth, and Personal Selling

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Chapter 19: Managing Personal Communications: Direct and Interactive Marketing, Word of Mouth, and Personal Selling

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Chapter 19: Managing Personal Communications: Direct and

Interactive Marketing, Word of Mouth, and Personal Selling

1. How can companies integrate direct marketing for competitive

Direct Marketing Channels:

Constructing a Direct-Mail Campaign:

Public Issues in Direct Marketing: Irritation, unfairness (marketers taking advantage of

2. How can companies do effective interactive marketing (Internet)?

• Tailored messages possible (eg: emails)

• Give the customer a reason to respond

3. How can marketers best take advantage of the power of word of

Buzz and viral marketing, opinion leaders, blogs

4. What decisions do companies face in designing and managing a sales

• Sales force objectives,

Workload Approach to Determining Sales Force Size

• Compensation - Fixed amount, variable amount, expense account, benefits

• Prospecting (searching for prospects),

Managing the Sales Force

5. How can salespeople improve selling, negotiating, and relationship

• Situation questions: explore the buyer’s present situation

Steps in Effective Selling

• Prospecting/Qualifying: Qualify leads by contacting them to assess level of interest and

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