978-0134292663 Chapter 14 Lecture Notes Part 2

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Chapter 14: Promotion II: Social Media, Direct/Database Marketing, and Personal Selling

p. 473

Then there is the missionary salesperson whose job is to stimulate clients

to buy. Like technical specialists, missionary salespeople promote

the firm and encourage demand for its goods and services but do

not actually take orders.

The new-business salesperson is responsible for finding new customers

and calls on them to present the company’s products. As you

might imagine, gaining the business of a new customer usually

means that the customer stops doing business with one of the

firm’s competitors (and they won’t give up without a fight).

New-business selling requires a high degree of creativity and

professionalism, so this type of salesperson is usually very well

paid. Once a new-business salesperson establishes a relationship

with a client, she often continues to service that client as the

primary contact as long as the client continues to buy from the

company. In that long-term-relationship-building role, this type of

salesperson is an order getter. Order getters are usually the people

most directly responsible for a particular client’s business; they

may also hold the title of “account manager.”

Increasingly, firms find that the selling function works best via team

selling. A selling team may consist of a salesperson, a technical

specialist, someone from engineering and design, and other

players who work together to develop products and programs that

satisfy the customer’s needs. When the company includes people

from a range of areas, it often calls this group a cross-functional

team.

3.4 Two Approaches to Personal Selling

Selling has moved from a transactional, hard-sell approach to an

approach based on relationships with customers.

3.4.1 Transactional Selling: Putting on the Hard Sell

Hard-sell tactics reflect transactional selling, an approach that focuses

on making an immediate sale with little concern for developing a

long-term relationship with the customer. As customers, the hard

sell makes us feel manipulated, resentful, and it diminishes our

satisfaction and loyalty.

3.4.2. Relationship Selling: Building Long-Term Customers

Relationship selling is the process by which a salesperson secures,

develops, and maintains long-term relationships with profitable

customers.

Securing a customer relationship means converting an interested

prospect into someone who is convinced that the good or service

Chapter 14: Promotion II: Social Media, Direct/Database Marketing, and Personal Selling

holds value for her. Developing a customer relationship means

ensuring that you and the customer work together to find more

ways to add value to the transaction. Maintaining a customer

relationship means building customer satisfaction and loyalty—

thus, you can count on the customer to provide future business and

stick with you for the long haul.

Activity: What are some different ways you might approach a

customer? Would some work better in one situation or another?

3.5 The Creative Selling Process

Successful salespeople understand and engage in a series of

activities to make positive transactions happen. A salesperson’s

chances of success increase when she undergoes a systematic

series of steps we call the creative selling process.

Figure 14.4

Process: Steps in the Creative Selling Process

►Marketing Moment In-Class Activity

Ask students to identify examples of transactional selling. This is difficult to do—even

traditionally transactional encounters (convenience stores, gas stations, funeral homes, etc.) have

become relationship oriented

p. 474 3.5.1 Step 1: Prospect and Qualify

Prospecting is the process by which a salesperson identifies and

develops a list of prospects or sales leads (potential customers).

Leads come from existing customer lists, telephone directories,

commercially available databases, and of course through diligent

use of web search engines like Google.

Another way to generate leads is through cold calling, in which

the salesperson simply contacts prospects “cold,” without prior

introduction or arrangement. It always helps to know the prospect,

so salespeople might rely instead on referrals. Current clients who

are satisfied with their purchase often recommend a salesperson to

others—yet another reason to maintain good customer

relationships.

After they identify potential customers, salespeople need to

qualify these prospects to determine how likely they are to become

customers.

p. 474 3.5.2 Step 2: Preapproach

In the preapproach stage, you compile background information about

prospective customers and plan the sales interview. Salespeople

can draw information about a prospect from a variety of sources.

Chapter 14: Promotion II: Social Media, Direct/Database Marketing, and Personal Selling

Of course, if the salesperson’s firm has a CRM system she can use

it to see whether the database includes information about the

prospect.

p. 475 3.5.3 Step 3: Approach

After the salesperson lays the groundwork with the pre-approach,

it is time to approach, or contact, the prospect. The salesperson tries

to learn even more about the prospect’s needs, create a good

impression, and build rapport. During the approach, the customer

decides whether the salesperson has something to offer that is of

potential value.

p. 475 3.5.4 Step 4: Sales Presentation

Many sales calls involve a formal sales presentation, which lays out the

benefits of the product and its advantages over the competition.

The focus of the sales presentation should always be on ways the

salesperson, her goods and services, and her company can add

value to the customer (and in a business-to-business setting, to the

customer’s company).

Exhibit: Professional Woman

p. 476 3.5.5 Step 5: Handle Objections

The effective salesperson anticipates objections—reasons why the

prospect is reluctant to make a commitment—and she has

prepared to respond with additional information or persuasive

arguments. Actually, the salesperson should welcome objections

because they show that the prospect is at least interested enough to

consider the offer and seriously weigh its pros and cons.

p. 476 3.5.6 Step 6: Close the Sale

But there still comes a point in the sales call at which one or the

other party has to move toward gaining commitment to the

objectives of the call—presumably a purchase. This is the decision

stage, or close.

A last objection close asks customers if they are ready to

purchase and then addresses any concerns they have about the

product.

An assumptive or minor points close means a salesperson acts

as if the purchase is inevitable with only a small detail or two to be

settled.

A standing-room-only or buy-now close suggests the

opportunity might be missed if the customer hesitates.

p. 476 3.5.7 Step 7: Follow-Up

The follow-up after the sale includes arranging for delivery, payment,

and purchase terms. It also means the salesperson makes sure the

customer received delivery and is satisfied. Follow-up also allows

the salesperson to bridge to the next purchase. Once a relationship

develops, the selling process is only beginning. Even as one cycle

of purchasing ends, a good salesperson already lays the foundation

Chapter 14: Promotion II: Social Media, Direct/Database Marketing, and Personal Selling

p. 477

for the next one.

► METRICS MOMENT

How does a firm know whether a salesperson is effective?

Some firms use input and output measures. Input measures are

“effort” measures—things that go into selling, such as the number

and type of sales calls, expense account management, and a

variety of nonselling activities, such as customer follow-up work

and client service. Output measures, or the results of the

salesperson’s efforts, include sales volume but also include things

like the number of orders, size of orders, number of new accounts,

level of repeat business, customer satisfaction, and quantity of

particular key products sold. Profitability of the sale to the

company is also an output measure, The best approach to measure

salesperson success is to use a variety of metrics that are

consistent with the goals of the particular firm,

Applying the Metrics

Assume that you are a professional salesperson and

consider the various input and output metrics of

salesperson effectiveness described above.

Which of the metrics would you prefer to be

evaluated

against? Why do you prefer these?

Which of the metrics would you least like being

evaluated

against? Why?

4. PUBLIC RELATIONS

Public relations (PR) is the communication function that seeks to build

good relationships with an organization’s publics; these include

consumers, stockholders, legislators, and other stakeholders in the

organization.

The basic rule of good PR is, Do something good, and then talk

about it. The big advantage of this kind of communication is that

when PR messages are placed successfully they are more credible

than if the same information appeared in a paid advertisement.

Exhibit: Isaiah Austin

Public relations strategies are crucial to an organization’s ability to

establish and maintain a favorable image. Proactive PR activities

stem from the company’s marketing objectives. For example,

marketers create and manage publicity, which is unpaid

communication about an organization that gets media exposure.

Chapter 14: Promotion II: Social Media, Direct/Database Marketing, and Personal Selling

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p. 479

p. 480

As many of the other function of public relations blend into buzz

marketing activities, perhaps the most important function it still

“owns” is crisis management. This refers to the process of

managing a company’s reputation when some negative and often

unplanned event threatens the organization’s image. Even a single

negative event can cause permanent damage to a company, the

success of its products, and its stockholder equity.

4.1 Plan a Public Relations Campaign

A public relations campaign is a coordinated effort to communicate with

one or more of the firm’s publics. This is a three-step process that

develops, executes, and evaluates objectives.

Marketing communication experts know that PR strategies are

best used in conjunction with advertising, sales promotion, and

personal selling to send a consistent message to customers and

other stakeholders. As part of the total marketing communication

plan, they often rely on PR to accomplish the following

objectives:

Introduce new products to retailers and consumers.

Influence government legislation.

Enhance the image of an organization.

Provide advice and counsel for top management.

Enhance the image of a city, region, or country.

Manage a crisis.

Call attention to a firm’s involvement with the

community.

► ETHICS CHECK

Find out what other students taking this course would do and why

at www.mymkylab.com

Is it ethical for marketers to secretly fund PR campaigns to

defend their products?

Figure 14.5

Snapshot:

Objectives and

Tactics of Public

Relations

Ripped from the

Headlines

Ethical/Sustainable

Decisions in the

Real World

p. 480

p. 481

4.2 PR Tactics

All PR activities strive for the same goal—to create and maintain

the positive image the organization needs.

4.2.1 Press Release

The most common way for PR specialists to communicate is by a

press release. This is a report of some event or activity that an

organization writes and sends to the media in the hope that it will

be published free. A newer version of this idea is a video news

Chapter 14: Promotion II: Social Media, Direct/Database Marketing, and Personal Selling

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release (VNR) that tells the story in a film format instead. Some of

the most common types of press releases include the following:

Timely topics deal with topics in the news. Universities publish

research project stories to highlight breakthroughs by faculty

researchers. Consumer information releases provide information

to help consumers make product decisions.

4.2.2 Internal PR and External Stakeholders

Internal PR activities target employees; they often include

company newsletters and closed-circuit television to keep people

informed about company objectives, successes, or even plans to

“downsize” the workforce. Often company newsletters also are

distributed outside the firm to suppliers or other important

publics. Investor relations’ activities focus on communications to

those whose financial support is critical; this is especially vital for

publicly held companies. Lobbying means talking with and

providing information to government officials to persuade them to

vote a certain way on pending legislation or even to initiate

legislation or regulations that would benefit the organization.

4.2.3 Speech Writing and Corporate Communications

An important job of a firm’s PR department is speech writing; specialists

provide speeches for company executives to deliver. While some executives

do actually write their own speeches, it is more common for a

speechwriter on the PR staff to develop an initial draft of a speech

to which the executive might add his own input. PR specialists

also provide input on corporate identity materials, such as logos,

brochures, building design, and even stationery that communicates

a positive image for the firm

One of the tasks of the PR professional is to develop close media

relations to insure the organization will receive the best media

exposure possible for positive news, such as publicizing the

achievements of an employee who has done some notable charity

work or for a product it developed that saved someone’s life.

p. 481

p. 482

4.2.4 Sponsorships and Special Events

Sponsorships are PR activities through which companies provide

financial support to help fund an event in return for publicized

recognition of the company’s contribution. A related task is to plan

and implement special events.

4.2.5 Brand Ambassadors and Evangelists

Many marketers realize that they cannot create buzz by

Chapter 14: Promotion II: Social Media, Direct/Database Marketing, and Personal Selling

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p. 483

p. 484

themselves; they recruit loyal customers as brand ambassadors

or brand evangelists to help them. These zealous consumers can

be the best salespeople a company can ever find. They often work

without pay. They are heavy users, take a product seriously, care a

great deal about it and want it to succeed. In addition, they know

the target audience better than anyone since they are a part of it.

4.2.6 Guerrilla Marketing

Organizations with tiny advertising budgets need to develop

innovative and cheap ways to capture consumers’ attention.

Guerrilla marketing activities are an increasingly popular way to

accomplish this objective. No, this term does not refer to

marketers making monkeys out of themselves (that’s “gorilla

marketing”). A guerrilla marketing strategy involves “ambushing”

consumers with promotional content in places where they do not

expect to encounter these messages. Ambient advertising is a

popular type of guerilla marketing. This term describes the

placement of messages in nontraditional media

4.3 Buzz Marketing

The many-to-many communication model relies on consumers

like you to talk to one another about goods, services and

organizations. Marketers think of buzz as everyday people helping

their marketing efforts when they share their opinions with their

friends and neighbors.

Companies today spend millions to create consumer positive buzz.

Firms like Dell have named word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing

managers, and the WOMMA (Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Association). The membership roster includes most of the top

consumer-brand companies. Techniques to encourage consumers

to spread information about companies and their products come

under a variety of names such as word-of-mouth marketing, viral

marketing, buzz marketing and evangelist marketing.

Tryvertising is advertising by sampling that is designed to create

buzz about a product. f-commerce is e-commerce that takes place

on Facebook

People like to share their experiences, good or bad, with others.

Truly happy customers will share their excitement about a brand.

Unfortunately, the unhappy ones will be even more eager to tell

their friends about their unpleasant experiences

Exhibit: Heinz

Brand polarization is the gap between good buzz and bad buzz.

Chapter 14: Promotion II: Social Media, Direct/Database Marketing, and Personal Selling

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4.3.1 Viral Marketing

One form of buzz building is viral marketing. This term refers to

marketing activities that aim to increase brand awareness or sales

by consumers passing a message along to other consumers,

hopefully in an exponential fashion–much like your roommate

passes a cold onto you and you pass it along to all your other

friends. Today, most viral marketing tactics are subtler and consist

of marketers’ use of video clips, interactive games, or other

activities that consumers will find so interesting or unique that

they want to share them with their friends using digital technology.

To see a classic viral spot in action, visit

www.subservientchicken.com.

4.3.2 Ethical Problems in Buzz Marketing

Just as firms are discovering there are a myriad of opportunities

for buzz marketing, there are equally large opportunities for

unethical or at least questionable marketing behavior. Some of

these are as follows:

Activities designed to deceive consumers.

Directing buzz marketing at children or teens.

Buzz marketing activities that damage property.

Sock puppeting (A company executive or other biased

source poses as someone else to plug a product in social

media.)

4.4 Evaluation of a PR Campaign

One of the barriers to greater reliance on PR campaigns is

evaluation; compared to many other forms of marketing

communications, it’s difficult to devise metrics to gauge their

effectiveness. Table 14.1 describes some of the most common PR

measurement techniques.

Real People, Real Choices: Here’s My Choice at Stylistics

1. Stylistics chose option #2.

Table 14.1

Measuring the

Effectiveness of

Public Relations

(PR) Tactics