Direct Marketing

It is the use of custumer-direct (CD) channels to reach

and deliver goods. And services to customers without
using marketing middle man. These channels include
directmail, catalogs , telemarketing interactive tv,kisko,
web sites.

Direct marketing is one of the fastest-growing avenues for

serving customers.
 Benefits of Direct Marketing
Customers benefits
• It is very convenient and hassle free.
• It saves time.
• It introduce customers to a large selection of
merchandise.
• They can do comparative shopping by browsing through
mail catalougs and online shopping services.
Sellers benefits
• Direct marketers can buy a mailing list .
• Direct marketing can be timed to reach prospects at the
right moment and receives higher readership
 Channels of Direct Marketing
Direct marketing can use a number of channels to reach
individual prospectus and customers like,

• DIRECT MAIL
• CATALOG MARKETING
• TELEMARKETING
• TV
• KIOSK MARKETING
• E-MARKETING
 Direct Mail
Direct mail involves sending an offer ,announcement,reinder or
other
item to a personusing highly selective mailing list,marketers send
out millions of mail pieces each year letters ,foldouts , Some others
are uses mail audiotapes ,videotapes,cd’s and Computers diskettes
to customers.

Direct mail is a popular medium because it permits target market

selectivity, can be personalized ,is flexible and allows early testing
And response measurement. Although the cost per thousand people
reached is higher than with mass media , the people reached are
Much better prospectus.
 Target Markets and Prospects

Direct marketers need to identify the characteristics of

prospects and
customers who are most able ,willing and ready to buy.
Most direct markrting apply the R-F-M formula for rating
and select
customers
Customers can also be identified on the basis of age
sex ,income,education,and previous mail order purchases.
 CATALOG MARKETING
• Direct selling method in which merchandise from several
companies ,or several items from same companies are
presented to prospective buyers.
• Usually in printed form, but now a days catalogs are as
CDs, videos, or online.
• Examples: Avon, Oriflame
 TELEMARKETING
• Major direct marketing tool. Increasing in business to
business marketing.
• Use of telephone and call centers to attract prospects,
sell to existing customers.
• Provide services by taking orders and answering
questions.
• Helps in increasing revenue, reduces cost and also
improves customer satisfaction.
 PUBLIC AND EHICAL ISSUES
IN DIRECT MARKETING
Marketers and customers mutually enjoy rewarding
relationships but there is the darker aspect also.
• Irritation: Late-night phone calls, poorly trained callers,
recorded message player etc.
• Unfairness: some marketers take undue advantage of
impulsive or less sophisticated buyers.
 Continue….
• Deception and fraud:
fraud marketers intened to mislead .
They exaggerate product size, performance claim, retail
price etc,
• Invasion of privacy: consumers order by mail or
telephone, apply for credit card , enter a sweepstakes
etc. their names , addresses and purchasing behavior
may be added to several company database. It is
worried that this knowledge may not be used to take an
unfair advantage.
 INTERACTIVE MARKETING
• The newest channels for communicating and selling
directly to consumers are electronics.
• Internet provides marketers and consumers with
opportunities of interaction and individualization.
 ADVANTAGE AND DISADVANTAGE OF
INTERACTIVE MARKETING

• Offers unique benefits,

• Companies send tailored messages that engage
consumers by reflecting special interest and behavior.
• Highly accountable and its effects are easily traced.
• Marketers can place advertising based on key words
from search engines to reach people.
 DISADVANTAGE
• Consumers can effectively screen out most messages.
• Advertisers lose some control over what consumers will
do with their onlione messages and activity.
• Marketers may think their ads are more effective than
they are if bogus clicks are generated by software-
powered web sites.
PLACING ADS & PROMOTIONS ONLINE
A company chooses which forms of interactive marketing
will be most cost-effective in achieving communications &
sales objectives.

1. WEB SITES.
2. MICROSITES.
3. SEARCH ADS.
4. DISPLAY ADS OR BANNER ADS.
5. INTERSTITIALS.
6. INTER SPECIFIC ADS AND VIDEOS.
7. SPONSERSHIPS.
8. ALLIANCES.
9. ONLINE COMMUNITIES.
10.E-MAIL.
11.MOBILE MARKRTING.
 WORD OF MOUTH
In B to C & B to B marketing, social networks, such as
MySpace & FACEBOOK , have become an important
forces. A social networks is word of mouth means
conversation & communication between two parties.
Word of mouth is effective for small business for whom
customer feel personal relationship.

As customer talk about no. of

brands each day many are media and entertainment
products such as movies, TV shows, and publications,
food products, travels services etc.
 BUZZ AND VIRAL MARKETING.

• Buzz marketing means creating a publicity,

excitement of new brand-related information through
unexpected or outrageous means.
• Viral marketing is another form of word of mouth, that
encourages consumers to pass along company-
developed products and services or audio, video, or
written information to other online.
 OPINION LEADER
Individual whose ideas and behavior serve as a model to
others. Opinion leaders communicate messages to a
primary group, influencing the attitudes and behavior
change of their followers. Therefore, in certain marketing
instances, it may be advantageous to direct the
communications to the opinion leader alone to speed the
acceptance of an advertising message.
 BLOGS
 Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with
regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or
other material such as graphics or video.
 Most blogs are interactive, allowing visitors to leave
comments and even message each other via widgets on
the blogs and it is this interactivity that distinguishes
them from other static websites.
 Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular
subject; others function as more personal online diaries.
A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other
blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic.
 MEASURING THE EFFECTS OF
WORD OF MOUTH
 This is a marketing ploy utilized by most business
owners in order to provide a valid proof with regards to
the benefits and claims made by the company, which is
in the form of actual users of the product.
 this method to communicate the potentials of a given
brand creates a personal connection between the
consumers and the product in question.
 Research reveals that word of mouth marketing
essentially has a bigger impact on the buying decisions
of people aged between 18 to 34 and 35-54
 DESIGNING THE SALES FORCE
• Designing a sales force that is effective and appropriate
requires some planning and understanding of the
product, the market and the intent of the sales force first.
Secondly, consider methods of sales, technical training
requirements and desired results before designing a
sales force. Once you consider these aspects, think
about the life cycle of the business and where you are
today versus where you need to go in the future. Re-
evaluate periodically
 OBJECTIVES OF SALES FORCE
1. To consider the role of selling in modern organizations,
whether it is
selling to consumers, to resellers, or to businesses.
2. To identify the tasks that sales people must fulfil.
3. To consider how a firm can identify the best salespeople.
4. To recommend ways of managing and motivating a sales
force.
5. To consider appropriate compensation plans and the
setting of quotas
for salespeople.
6. To discuss how to set up a sales organization and the
best way to
design sales territories.
 SALES FORCE STRATEGY
• Sales force strategy is a popular and recurring theme on
the management’s agenda, either because it is budget
time, or the company portfolio and/or market place are
undergoing changes (product launches, new indications,
product recall, patent expirations, M&A consolidation, non-
renewal of partnership agreements, etc.) that are
invalidating the very premises of the current strategy and
probably making it obsolete.
 
• The sales force strategy management devises has to have
three attributes. First, it must fully leverage the sales force.
Second, it must be financially sound. And third, it should
make sense from a big picture standpoint. Let’s address
each attribute in turn.
 
 SALES – FORCE STRUCTURE
The Sales – force strategy has implications for its structure:

• One product line, one end using industry with customers in

many locations would use a territorial structure.

• Many product, many types of customers might need a

product or market structure.

• Some companies need a more complex structure.

E.g. Motorola
1.Strategic market Sales – force
2.Geographic sales – force
3.Distributor sales – force
4.Inside sales – force
SALES – FORCE COMPENSATION
To attract top quality sales reps, the company must develop an
attractive compensation package.

• Sales reps. want income regularity, extra reward for above

average performance, and fair payment for experience and
longevity.

• Management wants control, economy and simplicity.

The company must quantify four components of sales – force

compensation:
• Fixed amount
• Variable amount
• Expense allowance
• Benefits
MANAGING THE SALES FORCE

Recruiting & Selecting Representatives:

• At the heart of any successful sales force is a means of selecting effective

representatives.

• One survey revealed that the top 27% of the sales force brought over 52% of the
sales.

• Average annual turnover rate for all industries is almost 20%.

• It leads to lost sales, cost of finding and training replacements and often strain
on existing sales people to pick up the slack.

• Once a selection criteria is developed, it must recruit.

• HRM deptt. Seeks applicants by soliciting names from current sales

representatives, using employment agencies, placing job ads and contacting
college students.
 TRAINING & SUPERVISING SALES
REPRESENTATIVES
Today’s customers expect sales people to have deep product knowledge,
to add ideas to improve the customer’s operations and to be efficient and
reliable.

These demands have required companies to make a much higher

investment in sales training.

New reps may spend few weeks to several months in training.

The median training period is 28 weeks in industrial – products companies,

12 in service companies and 4 in consumer – products companies.

Companies vary in how closely they supervise sales reps.

Reps paid mostly on commission generally receive less supervision.

Salary are likely to receive substantial supervision.

 SALES REPRESENTATIVE
PRODUCTIVITY
How many calls should a company make on a particular account each
year?

Norms for prospect calls:

• Companies often specify how much time reps should spend prospecting
for new accounts.

• Spector Freight wants its sales representatives to spend 25% of their

time prospecting and to stop calling on a prospect after three unsuccessful
calls.

Using sales time efficiently:

• The best sales reps manage their time efficiently.

• Time and duty analysis helps to increase productivity.

• Companies constantly try to improve sales force productivity.

• Inside sales people are of three types:

1.Technical support people
2.Sales assistants
3.Telemarketers

•Inside sales force frees the outside reps to spend more time selling to
major accounts.

•The sales person today has truly gone electronic.

E.g. CDs, Laptops, Company website.
 MOTIVATING SALES
REPRESENTATIVES

Some ambitious sales representatives are self-starters

Most people ,moreover, require incentives, such as
financial gain or social recognition, to operate at full
capacity.


High level of motivation will lead to greater effort

Greater effort will lead to greater performance

Greater performance will lead to greater rewards

Greater rewards will lead to greater satisfaction

Greater satisfaction will reinforce motivation
 ENERGISING THE SALES
TEAM
TIPS TO MOTIVATE SALES TEAM
• Contests: Most true salespeople are competitive by nature. 
Contests are great ways to motivate salespeople to strive harder
to achieve success.

• Daily/Weekly Cash Incentives: The sales representatives who

makes the max number of contacts or undertakes maximum
amount of sales should be given cash incentives.

• Recognize success: Schedule specific times throughout the

year to recognize successes of the key sales individuals. 

• Training: Continue to teach your salespeople how to be better. 

The more time you spend teaching and coaching your
salespeople, the better equipped they will be to be successful. 
 EVALUATING SALES
REPRESENTATIVES
• Evaluation involves FEED-FORWARD aspects of
sales supervision.
• FEED-FORWARD ASPECTS includes:

How management communicates what the sales rep
should be doing.

How management motivates the sales rep in doing
the assigned tasks

Good feed-forward requires good feed back

Feedback-

Getting regular information from reps to evaluate
performance.
 EVALUATION (CONT)


The methods of feedback are:

Source of Information

Formal evaluation

Sources of information
• Sales reports
• Personal observation
• Customer letters and complaints
• Customer surveys
• Conversations with other sales representatives
• Many Companies require their representatives to
develop an annual territory marketing plan.
 EVALUATION (CONT)
Sales reps write up completed activities :
• Call reports
• Expense reports
• New-business reports
• Lost-business reports

Formal evaluation
• Performance comparisons

Knowledge assessments
 PRINCIPLES OF PERSONAL
SELLING

• Personal selling involves oral conversations, either by

telephone or face-to-face, between salespersons and
prospective customers.

• Personal selling occurs where an individual

salesperson sells a product, service or solution to a
client. Salespeople match the benefits of their offering
to the specific needs of a client.
 SELLING PROCESS
1)Prospecting and qualifying prospective customers:
-Blind prospecting
-Cold calling or canvassing
-Sales blitz
-Lead prospecting

2)Preplanning prior to sales calls:

-Pre-approach
-The approach
 SELLING PROCESS (CONT)
3)Presenting and demonstrating services:
-Sales presentation
-Demonstration

4)Handling objections and questions:

-Restate the objection
-“Agree and neutralize” tactic
 SELLING PROCESS (CONT)
5)Closing the sale.
-Verbal closing clues
-Non-verbal closing clues

6)Following up after closing the sale.

 RELATIONSHIP MARKETING
• Relationship Marketing was first defined as a form of
marketing developed from direct response marketing
campaigns which emphasizes customer retention and
satisfaction, rather than a dominant focus on sales
transactions.
• Promotional and selling activities aimed at developing
and managing trusting and long-term relationships with
larger customers.