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Chapter 14: Promotion II: Social Media, Direct/Database Marketing, and Personal Selling
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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
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Inc.
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.
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Inc.
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
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Inc.
Chapter 14: Promotion II: Social Media, Direct/Database Marketing, and Personal Selling
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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.
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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
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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
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Inc.
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.
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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
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Inc.
Chapter 14: Promotion II: Social Media, Direct/Database Marketing, and Personal Selling
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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.
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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
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Inc.
