D) Marketers are still learning how to best tap into social networks and their huge,
well-defined audiences.
E) Given networks’ non-commercial nature—users are generally there looking to
connect with others—attracting attention and persuading are more challenging.
Using Social Media
A) Social media allows consumers to become engaged with a brand at perhaps a
deeper and broader level than ever before.
B) Marketers should do everything they can to encourage willing consumers to
engage productively.
Buzz and Viral Marketing
A) Buzz marketing generates excitement, creates publicity, and conveys new relevant
brand-related information through unexpected or even outrageous means.
Opinion Leaders
Communication researchers propose a social-structure view of interpersonal communication.
They see society as consisting of cliques, small groups whose members interact frequently.
A) Bridges: people who belong to one clique and are linked to a person in another.
Marketing Memo: “How to start a buzz fire”
Certain steps increase the likelihood of a positive buzz: identify influential individuals and
companies; supply key people with product samples; work through community influentials;
develop a word of mouth referral channel; provide compelling information that customers
want to pass along.
Measuring the Effects of Word of Mouth
DESIGNING THE SALES FORCE
The original and oldest form of direct marketing is the field sales call.
A) Today, most industrial companies rely heavily on a professional sales force to:
1) Locate prospects
C) Nearly 12 percent of the total workforce work full-time in sales occupations.
D) No one debates the importance of the sales force in marketing programs.
E) The term sales representative covers a broad range of positions.
F) Six can be distinguished, ranging from the least to the most creative types of selling:
1) Deliverer
G) Sales personnel serve as the company’s personal link to the customers.
1) The sales representative is the company to many of its customers
2) The sales representative brings back much needed information about the customer
Sales Force Objectives and Strategies
The days when all the sales force would do was “sell, sell, sell” are long gone. Today,
sales reps need to know how to diagnose a customer’s problem and propose a solution.
Salespeople show a customer-prospect how their company can help a customer improve
profitability.
B) The specific allocation scheme depends on the kind of products and customers, but
regardless, salespeople will have one or more of the following specific tasks to
perform:
1) Prospecting
2) Targeting
C) To manage costs, most companies are moving toward the concept of a leveraged sales
force.
1) A leveraged sales force is where the sales force focuses on selling the company’s
more complex and customized products to large accounts.
a. Low-end selling is done by inside salespeople and Web ordering.
D) Companies must deploy sales forces strategically so they call on the right customers at
the right time in the right way.
Today’s sales representatives act as “account managers” who arrange fruitful contacts
between various people in the buying and selling organizations.
E) Selling increasingly calls for teamwork requiring the support of other personnel such
as:
1) Top management
F) To maintain a market focus, salespeople should know how to:
1) Analyze sales data
G) Once the company decides on an approach, it can use a direct or a contractual sales
force.
H) A direct (company) sales force consists of full- or part–time paid employees who work
exclusively for the company.
Sales-Force Structure
The sales-force strategy has implications for the sales-force structure. Established
companies need to revise their sales-force structure as market and economic conditions
change.
Marketing Insight: Major account management
Marketers typically single out major accounts because many major accounts appreciate
having a single point of dedicated contact.
Sales-Force Size
Sales representatives are one of the company’s most productive and expensive assets.
Increasing their number will increase both sales and costs.
A) Once the company establishes the number of customers it wants to reach, it can use a
workload approach to establish sales-force size. This method consists of the following
five steps:
1) Customers are grouped into size classes
Sales-Force Compensation
To attract top-quality sales reps, the company has to develop an attractive compensation
package.
A) The company must determine the four components of sales-force compensation:
1) The fixed amount
B) Fixed compensation receives more emphasis in jobs with a high ratio of non-selling to
selling duties and in jobs where the selling task is technically complex and involves
teamwork.
C) Variable compensation receives more emphasis in jobs where sales are cyclical or
depend on individual initiative.
MANAGING THE SALES FORCE
Various policies and procedures guide the firm in recruiting, selecting, training,
supervising, motivating, and evaluating sales representatives.
Recruiting and Selecting Representatives
At the heart of any successful sales force is a means of selecting effective representatives.
One survey revealed that the top 25 percent of the sales force brought in over 52 percent
of the sales.
A) After management develops its selection criteria, it must recruit. The human
resources department solicits names from current sales representatives, uses
employment agencies, places job ads, and contacts college students.
Training and Supervising Sales Representatives
Today’s customers expect salespeople to have deep product knowledge, to add ideas to
improve the customer’s operations, and to be efficient and reliable. Companies use sales–
promotion tools to draw a stronger and quicker buyer response.
A) These demands have required companies to make a much higher investment in sales
training.
Sales Rep Productivity
Some research has suggested that today’s sales reps are spending too much time selling to
smaller, less profitable accounts when they should be focusing more of their efforts on selling
to larger, more profitable accounts.
Norms for Prospect Calls
Companies often specify how much time reps should spend prospecting for new accounts.
A) Companies set up prospecting standards for a number of reasons:
Using Sales Time Efficiently
Studies have shown that the best sales reps are those who manage their time effectively.
A) One planning tool is time-and-duty analysis.
D) There are three types of inside salespeople:
1) Technical support people
E) The inside sales force frees the outside reps to spend more time:
1) Selling to major accounts
Sales Technology
The salesperson today has truly gone electronic. Not only is sales and inventory information
transferred much faster, but specific computer-based decision support systems have been
created for sales managers and sales representatives.
A) One of the most valuable electronic tools for the sales rep is the company Web site:
1) As a prospecting tool
4) Provides an introduction to self–identified potential customers
B) Selling over the Internet supports relationship marketing by solving problems that do
not require live intervention and thus allows more time to be spent on issues that are
best addressed face–to–face.
Motivating Sales Representatives
The majority of sales representatives require encouragement and special incentives. Most
Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Rewards
Marketers reinforce intrinsic and extrinsic rewards of all types.
A) One research study found the reward with the highest value was pay, followed by
promotion, personal growth, and sense of accomplishment.
Sales Quotas
Many companies set annual sales quotas, developed from the annual marketing plan, on
dollar sales, unit volume, margin, selling effort or activity, or product type.
A) Compensation is often tied to degree of quota fulfillment.
B) The company first prepares a sales forecast that becomes the basis for planning
production, workforce size, and financial requirements.
to last year’s sales, plus some fraction of the difference between territory sales
potential and last year’s sales. The more favorably the salesperson reacts to
pressure, the higher the fraction should be.
E) Conventional wisdom is that profits are maximized by sales reps focusing on the
more important products and more profitable products. Reps are unlikely to
Evaluating Sales Representatives
We have been describing the feed-forward aspects of sales supervision—how management
communicates what the sales rep should be doing and motivates them to do it. But good feed-
forward requires good feedback, which means getting regular information from reps to
evaluate performance.
Sources of Information
The most important source of information about reps is the sales report.
A) Additional information comes through:
1) Personal observation
B) Sales reports are divided between:
1) Activity plans
2) Write–ups or activity results
1) Average number of sales calls per salesperson per day
2) Average sales call time per account
Formal Evaluation
The sales force’s reports along with other observations supply the raw materials for
evaluation. There are several approaches to conducting evaluations.
A) Evaluations can also assess the salesperson’s knowledge of:
1) Company
2) Products
B) Personal characteristics can be rated, such as:
1) General manner
C) The sales manager can review any problems in motivation or compliance.
PRINCIPLES OF PERSONAL SELLING
Effective salespersons have more than instinct; they are trained in methods of analysis and
customer management.
A) Today’s companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year to train
salespeople in the art of selling.
4) Need-payoff questions
The Six Steps
A) Prospecting and Qualifying
1) The first step in selling is to identify and qualify prospects
B) Preapproach
1) The salesperson needs to learn as much as possible about the prospect company
C) Presentation and Demonstration
1) The salesperson now tells the product “story” to the buyer, following the AIDA
formula:
a. Gaining attention
2) The salesperson uses FABV:
a. Features
D) Overcoming Objections
1) Customers typically pose objections during the presentation or when asked for the
order:
a. Psychological resistance
b. Logical resistance
2) To handle these objections, the salesperson:
3) One potential problem is for salespeople to give in too often when customers
demand a discount.
a. “Sell the price” versus “sell through price”
E) Closing
1) Salespeople need to know how to recognize closing signs from the buyer:
a. Physical actions
2) There are several closing techniques:
a. Ask for the order
b. Recapitulate the points of agreement
F) Follow-Up and Maintenance
1) Follow-up and maintenance are necessary if the salesperson wants to ensure
customer satisfaction and repeat business.
2) Immediately after the closing, the salesperson should:
Relationship Marketing
Today’s customers prefer suppliers:
A) Who can sell and deliver a coordinated set of products and services to many
locations
