Syllabus map
Everything on the class test, and where it is answered
Three topics, taught to the same template the professor used for advertising. Open a topic to see what sits under it; every line is a link to the section that covers it.
1Sales Promotion14
2Personal Selling22
3Public Relations and Publicity14
Sales Promotion
Where the syllabus restarts after the midterm
The midterm stopped at advertising. The class test picks up the three tools that come after it in the promotional mix. All three are taught to the same template the professor used for advertising, so if you know the shape you already know what the questions will be: what the tool is, what makes it unique, what it is for, what its tools are, what decisions you take, and how you evaluate it.
What sales promotion is
Sales promotionA short-term incentive to encourage immediate purchase or sales of a product or service.A direct inducement offering extra value, to the sales force, the distributors or the consumer, aimed at an immediate sale. is a short-term incentive to encourage immediate purchase or sales of a product or service. Two words in that sentence carry the whole idea. Incentive means something extra is being handed over on top of the product itself, so the offer appeals to the pocketbook rather than to the mind the way advertising does. Short-term means the offer has an end date, and the end date is what makes people move now instead of later.
The book puts it the same way at more length: a direct inducement offering extra value or incentive for the product, to the sales force, the distributors or the ultimate consumer, with the primary objective of creating an immediate sale. It is best thought of as an acceleration toolA tool that speeds up the selling process rather than creating new demand.Sales promotion mostly makes a purchase happen sooner and larger, not out of nothing.. It does not usually create a customer who was never going to buy; it speeds up and enlarges a purchase that was already possible.
Four things sales promotion does that no other tool does as well.
| Immediate purchase invitation | It asks for the sale now, not eventually. The deadline is the message. |
| Attention | An extra on offer cuts through clutterThe sheer volume of competing commercial messages an audience is exposed to.It weakens advertising, which is part of why budgets moved to promotion. that a plain claim cannot. |
| Measurable | Coupons come back, codes are redeemed, stock moves. You can count the response, which advertising struggles to do. |
| Incentive and reward | Something of real value is given, a free tiffin box with the tea for instance, but it has to integrate with the product. An unrelated gift buys a transaction, not a customer. |
What it is for
Every sales promotion question starts with the objective, because the objective is what decides which tool you pick and what counts as success afterwards. Seven are taught.
| 1 | Clear the stock | Vacate stock that is ageing, seasonal or about to be replaced. |
| 2 | Trial | Get a non-user to try the brand once, usually with a sample or an introductory price. |
| 3 | Repeat purchase | Bring the same buyer back, usually through membership or a frequency programmeA scheme that rewards the customer for repeated purchase over time.The loyalty tool of the set. Airline miles are the model.. |
| 4 | Increase sales or consumption | Make the existing user buy more, or use more per occasion. |
| 5 | Increase market share | Take volume from a competitor rather than grow the category. |
| 6 | Enhance the IMC process | Give the advertising something concrete to announce, so the two tools carry each other. |
| 7 | Stock or carry a new product | Aimed at the trade: get the retailer to take the new line onto the shelf at all. |
Why sales promotion grew
Advertising used to take nearly half of the promotional budget. Sales promotion now takes most of it. Nine reasons are given, and they divide naturally into pressure from the trade, pressure from the consumer, and pressure on the marketer.
| Growing power of retailers | Scanners and in-store systems gave retailers better sales data than the manufacturer had, so the power to demand promotions moved to them. |
| Declining brand loyalty | Buyers switch more readily, so a deal can move them and the absence of one can lose them. |
| Increased promotional sensitivityThe tendency of consumers to respond to, and then wait for, promotional offers.Once buyers learn to expect a deal, the deal stops being optional. | Consumers have learned to wait for the offer, which makes the offer necessary. |
| Brand proliferationThe multiplication of similar brands in a category.One of the nine reasons sales promotion grew: with too many near-identical choices, the incentive becomes the tiebreaker. | Too many near-identical brands on the shelf, so an incentive becomes the tiebreaker. |
| Fragmentation of consumer markets | The mass audience broke into small segments, so mass advertising became less efficient than a targeted offer. |
| Short-term focus of marketers | Managers are judged quarterly, and sales promotion is the one tool that moves a quarterly number. |
| Increased accountability | Budgets must be justified, and a redemption count is easier to show than a shift in attitude. |
| Competition | When a rival promotes, matching the offer is usually the only defence available quickly. |
| Clutter | So many messages compete that an extra value offer is one of the few things that still gets noticed. |
Advantages and disadvantages
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
| Increases sales, quickly and visibly | Destruction of image: constant discounting teaches the market that the brand is a cheap brand |
| Affects consumer behaviour: it can buy a trial, a switch or a repeat that advertising alone would not produce | Price: the incentive is paid out of margin, so volume can rise while profit falls |
| Allows price discrimination: the coupon user pays less and the indifferent buyer pays full price, from the same shelf | Short-term orientation: it buys this quarter at the expense of brand building |
| Conflict of interest: what suits the sales target this month can damage the brand and annoy the trade |
Sales promotion and advertising are not rivals in an exam answer. Advertising builds the reason to buy over time, sales promotion converts that reason into a purchase now. An answer that praises one by attacking the other has missed the point of integration.
The tools
The tools are divided by who the incentive is aimed at. Consumer-oriented tools go to the end buyer and form part of a pull strategyPromotion aimed at the end consumer, so that demand pulls the product through the channel.Consumer-oriented sales promotion is part of a pull strategy.: they create demand so the customer asks the retailer for the brand. Trade-oriented tools go to wholesalers and retailers and form part of a push strategyPromotion aimed at the channel, so that wholesalers and retailers push the product to the customer.Trade-oriented sales promotion is part of a push strategy.: they persuade the channel to stock the brand and to work at selling it. Most real programmes run both at once, because getting the product onto the shelf and getting the customer to the shelf are two different problems.
| Sample | A free quantity of the product, used to buy a first trial. |
| Coupon | A certificate giving a stated saving at purchase. The oldest and most widely used tool. |
| PremiumAn article offered free or at low cost as an incentive to buy the product.The tiffin box with the tea. It only works if it fits the product. | An extra article given free or cheaply with the purchase. |
| Contests and sweepstakesA promotion whose winner is decided purely by chance.A contest needs skill from the entrant; a sweepstake does not. | A contest needs skill; a sweepstake is pure chance. Both buy involvement, not just a sale. |
| Refunds and rebates | Money back after the purchase, on proof of buying. |
| Bonus packExtra quantity of the product offered at the regular price.The saving sits in the pack rather than on the price tag, so the price image is protected. | Extra quantity at the same price, so the saving is in the pack rather than on the price tag. |
| Price-off dealA temporary reduction in the price, marked on the package.The bluntest consumer tool, and the quickest to damage the price image. | A straight temporary reduction marked on the pack. |
| Frequency program | Rewards that accumulate with repeated purchase, which is why it is the loyalty tool. |
| Event marketingBuilding or sponsoring an occasion at which the brand meets the customer directly.Sits between sales promotion and public relations. | The brand builds or sponsors an occasion where the customer meets it directly. |
| Contests and dealer incentives | Targets and prizes for the retailer or the retail staff. |
| Trade allowanceA discount or financial incentive given to the retailer for stocking and promoting the product.The main trade-oriented tool, and the main cost in a push strategy. | A financial discount to the retailer for stocking and promoting the product. |
| Point-of-purchase displaysMaterial supplied to the shop to win space and attention where the choice is actually made.Often abbreviated to POP. | Material supplied to win space and attention inside the shop. |
| Training program | The manufacturer teaches the retailer's staff to sell the product properly. |
| Trade shows | An industry gathering where the channel is sold to directly. |
Major decisions, and developing the programme
Four decisions run the whole activity. The third one opens out into five programme decisions of its own, which is where most of the marks sit.
| 1 | Size of the incentive | There is a minimum below which nothing happens and a point above which you are simply giving away margin. |
| 2 | Conditions for participation | Who may take the offer, with what proof, and with what limits. This is what stops one buyer stripping the promotion. |
| 3 | How to promote and distribute it | The offer has to reach people: on the pack, in the press, in store, by app. An offer nobody hears about is only a cost. |
| 4 | Length of the programme | Too short and the regular buyer misses it; too long and it stops being an event and becomes the normal price. |
| 5 | Evaluation | Read against sales effectThe change in sales attributable to a campaign.The hardest effect to prove, because everything else is running at the same time., repeat purchase, loyalty and market share, not against redemption count alone. |
- Define sales promotion in one sentence, with the words short-term and incentive in it
- Four points of uniqueness
- Seven objectives
- Nine reasons for growth
- Three advantages and four disadvantages
- Nine consumer tools and five trade tools, and which is pull and which is push
- Four major decisions, then the five programme decisions
Personal Selling
The only tool where the customer can answer back
What personal selling is
Personal sellingTwo-way personal communication between a salesperson and an individual customer.The only tool in the mix where the audience answers back during the message. is the part of the promotional mix in which the organisation contacts the customer directly. Stated properly, it is two-way personal communication between a salesperson and an individual customer. Every other tool in the mix talks at an audience. This one talks to a person, and that person talks back in the same conversation, which is the source of all its advantages and all its cost.
Four qualities, and they follow from each other.
| Two-way communication | The message is not fixed in advance. The salesperson hears the answer and changes the next sentence, so the pitch is adjusted to the one customer in front of them. |
| Personal confrontationTwo people meeting face to face, each having to read and answer the other immediately.One of the four unique qualities of personal selling. | Two people are face to face. Each has to read the other and respond immediately, which no advertisement ever has to do. |
| CultivationThe growth of a relationship over repeated contact, from a single sale to a long-lasting partnership.It is why personal selling is expensive per contact but cheap per relationship. | Because the contact repeats, the relationship can be grown over years. Selling ranges from a single transaction all the way to a long-lasting relationship. |
| Response and personal obligation | Having been listened to, the customer feels some obligation to respond, even if only to listen politely. That obligation is what gets the appointment and sometimes the order. |
Attitudes towards personal selling
A standard question asks what people think of selling as a career, and why those views are wrong. Learn both columns, because the marks are in the contrast.
What the job is accused of being.
| Travel away from family | The territory has to be covered, so the salesperson is on the road. |
| Irregularity | No fixed hours; the customer's convenience sets the day. |
| Loses glamour | Seen as a lesser job than marketing or brand management. |
| Waste of education | The belief that a graduate should not be knocking on doors. |
| Respect | Thought of as a low-status job in social terms. |
| Always under pressure | The target is monthly and visible, and nothing hides a miss. |
| Need to false promise and trickery | The suspicion that you cannot sell honestly. |
What the trade answers.
| Selling is essential | Nothing a company makes becomes revenue until someone sells it. |
| Selling is productive | It creates the demand and the cash the rest of the firm runs on. |
| Selling is a proud profession | It is a skilled job done well by people who chose it, not a fallback. |
How selling offers attractive career opportunities
Eight reasons, and they are the direct answer to the negative column above.
| 1 | Opportunity for advancement | Sales results are visible and countable, so promotion comes faster than in roles where contribution is hard to prove. |
| 2 | Personal satisfaction | You see the result of your own work in a signed order, the same week. |
| 3 | Job security | A person who can sell is the last person a firm lets go, in any economy. |
| 4 | Earnings | Commission means the ceiling is set by performance rather than by a grade. |
| 5 | Respect | Earned from customers who depend on the salesperson's advice, whatever the social stereotype says. |
| 6 | Independence | The salesperson largely runs their own day and their own territory. |
| 7 | Variety | Different customers, problems and places, instead of one desk. |
| 8 | Interesting work | The work is solving a different person's problem each time. |
The personal selling process
Seven steps, in order, from not knowing who the customer is to keeping them. The order matters: each step is wasted if the one before it was skipped.
| 1 | Formulating the prospect definition | Decide what a good prospect looks like before you start looking, otherwise you chase everybody. |
| 2 | Searching out potential accounts | Work the sources: directories, referrals, enquiries, existing customers, trade shows. |
| 3 | Qualifying the prospect and determining probable requirements | Confirm they can buy, and work out roughly what they would need. |
| 4 | Relating company products to the prospect's requirements | Match what you sell to what they need, and drop the prospect if nothing matches. |
Sales force management
Six steps. The first two build the sales force, the next two equip and pay it, and the last two keep it working.
1 Designing sales force strategy and structure
The decision is how to divide the selling work: by territory, by product, by customer, or by some combination. The right answer depends on the organisation, its product line and its customers, and the note in the lecture is explicit about that: select an appropriate structure depending on the organisation. The same choice shows up under other names, such as a territory sales force, a customer manager or a brand manager.
| TerritorialA sales force in which each person has one exclusive area and sells the full product line in it.Simplest and cheapest, and it fixes responsibility on one person. | Each salesperson gets an exclusive territory and sells the company's full product line in it. Simplest, cheapest, and it fixes responsibility on one person, but it needs the salesperson to know every product. |
| Product | The sales force sells only a portion of the company's products or lines. Used when the line is wide or technical enough that nobody can know all of it. |
| Customer | The sales force sells only to certain customers or industries. Used when different customer types buy in genuinely different ways. |
| Complex | A combination of any of the other types, for example territory by product. Used by large companies selling many products to many kinds of customer in many places. |
2 Recruiting and selecting salespeople
Two sets of characteristics are taught, and they answer different questions. The professional characteristics are about attitude to the job, which is what you screen for at interview. The successful characteristics are about the person, which is what you assess and then develop.
- Consciously chose the selling profession, rather than falling into it
- Feels proud of being a salesperson
- Maintains self-respect and independence
- Knows there is no substitute for hard work
- Believes that to sell is to serve
- Is loyal to high earning, so performance is the measure
- Possesses the basic ability to sell
| Sound health | The job is physically demanding, with travel and long days. |
| Visual factors | Hair, grooming and clothing. The customer judges the company by them before a word is spoken. |
| Non-visual factors | Voice quality, mannerisms, and habits such as coughing and sneezing, which distract from the message. |
3 to 6: training, compensating, supervising, evaluating
Two forms, usually combined.
| On the job trainingLearning to sell while selling, usually alongside an experienced salesperson.Realistic and cheap, but the mistakes are made on real customers. | Learning while selling, usually alongside an experienced salesperson in a real territory. Cheap and realistic, but mistakes are made on real customers. |
| Off the job trainingClassroom and course training away from the territory.Safe and systematic, but it has to be transferred to the real call. | Classroom and course work away from the territory: product knowledge, selling technique, company procedure. Safe and systematic, but it has to be transferred to the real call. |
Evaluating the personal selling effort
Evaluating a salesperson is not the same as evaluating personal selling as part of the IMC programme. The second one is judged on what it contributed to the communication effort, and the book gives four criteria.
| Provision of marketing intelligence | What the sales force fed back about competitor programmes, customer reactions and market trends. Nobody else in the company is in the market every day. |
| Follow-upContact after the sale to check delivery and satisfaction.The step most often skipped, and the one repeat business comes from. activities | Use of brochures and correspondence with new and existing customers, and feedback on how well other promotional programmes landed. |
| Program implementations | How many promotional programmes were actually put in place: displays used, cooperative advertising run and assessed. |
| Attainment of communications objectives | Accounts presented to, trial offers accepted, awareness and evaluation achieved. |
- Definition of personal selling, with two-way in it
- Four points of uniqueness
- Seven negatives and three positives about selling as a career
- Eight career opportunities
- Seven steps of the selling process, plus the four steps inside prospecting
- Six steps of sales force management
- Four sales force structures
- Seven professional characteristics; physical, psychological and social sets
- Four criteria for evaluating the personal selling effort
Public Relations and Publicity
Managing what everyone else says about you
What public relations is
Two definitions were given, and they answer two different questions. The first defines the public: any group who are directly or indirectly related to achieving the organisation's objectives. The second defines the function: building relationships with the company's various publicsAny group directly or indirectly related to achieving the organisation's objectives.Investors, media, regulators, neighbours and employees are all publics. by obtaining favourable publicityNews about a person, product or service appearing in the media, not directly paid for and with no identified sponsor.A subset of public relations, and the part the company controls least., building a good corporate image, and handling the rumours, stories and events that go against the company.
The book states it more formally as the management function which evaluates public attitudes, identifies the policies and procedures of an organisation with the public interest, and executes a programme of action to earn public understanding and acceptance. The useful point in all three versions is the same: the audience of public relations is wider than the customer. A bank, a regulator, a journalist and your own employees are all publics, and none of them is going to buy anything.
Only two, but they are the whole case for the tool.
| Credibility | The message does not arrive labelled as an advertisement. Because it is not seen as paid for, the audience treats it as more objective and places more confidence in it. |
| Ability to catch buyer attention | News gets read and passed on. People who skip advertisements will read a story, and tell someone else about it. |
Types of public relations, and types of public
Two lists that are easy to confuse in an exam. The first is the set of relationships the PR function manages. The second is the set of groups those relationships are with.
- Media relations
- Investor relations
- Government relations
- Community relations
- Internal relations
- Marketing communication
| Financial public | Investors and banks. They decide whether the company can raise money. |
| Media public | Newspapers, television and online outlets, who carry the company's news or its trouble. |
| Government public | Regulators, police and the forces. They decide what the company is allowed to do. |
| Citizen action public | Consumer groups, environmentalists and bodies such as BAPA, who can block or expose an activity. |
| Local public | Neighbourhood residents and community organisations around a plant or an outlet. |
| General public | The wider population, whose overall image of the company affects everyone else's attitude to it. |
| Internal public | Employees. They are an audience and a channel at the same time, since they talk to everyone outside. |
| Religious group | Communities whose norms a campaign or a product can offend, and whose approval can carry it. |
Marketing communication appears inside the list of PR types. That is deliberate: public relationsThe management function that evaluates public attitudes and runs a programme of action to earn public understanding and acceptance.Its audience is every public, not only the customer. is not a substitute for the promotional mix, it is one of the relationships the organisation manages, and it supports the others.
Public relations tools
Twelve were listed. They are easier to hold if you group them by what the company is actually doing: giving something, telling something, or staging something.
| SponsorshipPaying to support an event, team or cause and taking the public association with it.Buys goodwill and visibility at the same time. | Paying for an event, a team or a cause and taking the association with it. |
| Scholarship | Funding education in the company's name, which buys goodwill over years rather than weeks. |
| Public facilities | Building or maintaining something the community uses, such as a park or a bus shelter. |
| Donation | Direct giving to a cause, usually at a visible moment. |
| Public service activities | Work done for the community rather than for sale, for example a clean-up or a health camp. |
| News | Finding or creating a story about the company and getting the media to run it. |
| Speeches | An executive addressing a conference, a chamber or the press. |
| Written materials | Annual reports, brochures, newsletters and articles. |
| Audiovisual materials | Films, videos and presentations used with the public and the trade. |
| Website | The company's own channel, where it controls the whole message. |
| Special events | Press conferences, launches, anniversaries and open days, created so that there is something to report. |
| Corporate identity materialsThe visible signals that make a company recognisable: logo, stationery, signage, uniforms, vehicles.A public relations tool, because consistency is itself a message. | Logos, stationery, signage, uniforms and vehicles, which make the company recognisable and consistent everywhere it appears. |
Major decisions in public relations
Three methods, read for two kinds of effect.
| Surveys | Ask the public directly whether awareness, knowledge or attitude moved. |
| Audit | Count and assess the coverage obtained: how much, where, and how favourable. |
| Observation | Watch what actually happened, in attendance, enquiries and behaviour. |
| Sales effect | Did the activity move sales. The hardest to attribute, because so much else is running. |
| Communication effectThe change a campaign produced in awareness, knowledge or attitude.The fairer measure for public relations, since it is not asking for a sale. | Did it move awareness, knowledge and attitude. The fairer measure for a tool that is not asking for a sale. |
Publicity
The notes stop at the heading, so this section is taken from the book. Publicity is the generation of news about a person, product or service that appears in broadcast or print media. It is non-personal communication about an organisation, product, service or idea that is not directly paid for and not run under an identified sponsor, usually arriving as a news story, an editorial or an announcement.
Publicity is really a subset of public relations, which is why the two words get used as if they were the same thing. Three differences matter.
| Public relations | Publicity | |
|---|---|---|
| Time frame | A concerted programme running over a long period | Typically a short-term, one-off piece |
| Control | Designed by the firm or its agent, and usually controlled by it | Not under the firm's control, and not paid for by it |
| Tone | Designed to be positive about the firm | Can be positive or negative, and often starts from a source outside the firm |
| Credibility | It is not perceived as sponsored by the company, so the audience trusts it more than an advertisement. |
| Media endorsement | Appearing in a respected outlet reads as that outlet vouching for the claim. |
| News value and frequency | A genuine story gets repeated across outlets and locations at no cost to the company. |
| Word of mouth | People pass on news. They do not pass on advertisements. |
| Timing | The media decide when, or whether, the story runs. It can appear too early to be useful or too late to matter. |
| Accuracy | A press releaseA written announcement sent to the media in the hope that they will run it.The main way publicity is sought, and the main place accuracy gets lost. is rewritten by someone else. Omissions and errors happen, and the published piece may not resemble what the company said. |
Public relations is the long programme the company runs to build its relationships. Publicity is the news that comes out of it, and the company controls the first far more than the second.
- Define public relations twice: the public, and the function
- Two points of uniqueness
- Six types of public relations
- Eight types of public, with an example of each
- Twelve public relations tools
- Four major decisions, and the three evaluation methods under the last one
- Define publicity, and give three differences from public relations
- Four reasons publicity is powerful, and its two problems
Last 20 minutes
The lists you must be able to write out from memory
Cover the answer, say the list out loud, then open it to check. Everything expands when printed.
Sales promotion in one sentence
- A short-term incentive
- to encourage immediate purchase or sales
- of a product or service
Sales promotion platform
- Discount
- Refund
- Commission
- Coupon
- Cashback
- Membership
Sales promotion: 4 points of uniqueness
- Immediate purchase invitation and engagement
- Attention
- Measurable
- Incentive and reward, integrated with the product
Sales promotion: 7 objectives
- Clear the stock
- Trial
- Repeat purchase
- Increase sales or consumption
- Increase market share
- Enhance the IMC process
- Stock or carry a new product
9 reasons sales promotion grew
- Growing power of retailers
- Declining brand loyalty
- Increased promotional sensitivity
- Brand proliferation
- Fragmentation of consumer markets
- Short-term focus of marketers
- Increased accountability
- Competition
- Clutter
Sales promotion: 3 advantages
- Increases sales
- Effect on consumer behaviour
- Price discriminationSelling the same product at different effective prices to different buyers.A coupon does this quietly: the price-sensitive buyer redeems it and everyone else pays full price.
Sales promotion: 4 disadvantages
- Destruction of image
- Price, paid out of margin
- Short-term orientation
- Conflict of interest
9 consumer-oriented tools
- Sample
- Coupon
- Premium
- Contests and sweepstakes
- Refunds and rebates
- Bonus pack
- Price-off deal
- Frequency program
- Event marketing
5 trade-oriented tools
- Contests and dealer incentives
- Trade allowance
- Point-of-purchase displays
- Training program
- Trade shows
Sales promotion: 4 major decisions
- Select the objective
- Select the tools
- Develop and implement the programme
- Evaluate
Developing the SP programme: 5 steps
- Decide the size of the incentive
- Set the conditions for participation
- Decide how to promote and distribute it
- Decide the length of the programme
- Evaluate the programme
Evaluating a sales promotion: 4 measures
- Sales effect
- Repeat purchase
- Loyalty
- Market share
Personal selling, defined
- Two-way personal communication
- between a salesperson and an individual customer
- the organisation contacting the customer directly
Personal selling: 4 points of uniqueness
- Two-way communication
- Personal confrontation
- Cultivation, a long-lasting relationship
- Response and personal obligation
Negative attitudes to selling (7)
- Travel away from family
- Irregularity
- Loses glamour
- Waste of education
- Little respect
- Always under pressure
- Needs false promises and trickery
Positive attitudes to selling (3)
- Selling is essential
- Selling is productive
- Selling is a proud profession
8 career opportunities in selling
- Opportunity for advancement
- Personal satisfaction
- Job security
- Earnings
- Respect
- Independence
- Variety
- Interesting work
Personal selling process: 7 steps
- Prospecting and qualifying
- Pre-approachLearning as much as possible about the prospect before making the sales call.The call is planned here, not improvised at the door.
- Approach
- Presentation and demonstration
- Handling objections
- Closing
- Follow-up
Steps in prospecting (4)
- Formulate the prospect definition
- Search out potential accounts
- Qualify the prospect and determine probable requirements
- Relate company products to those requirements
Sales force management: 6 steps
- Designing sales force strategy and structure
- Recruiting and selecting salespeople
- Training salespeople
- Compensating salespeople
- Supervising salespeople
- Evaluating salespeople
4 sales force structures
- Territorial: exclusive territory, full product line
- Product: only a portion of the product lines
- Customer: only certain customers or industries
- Complex: a combination of the others
Professional salesperson: 7 characteristics
- Consciously chose the selling profession
- Feels proud being a salesperson
- Maintains self-respect and independence
- Knows there is no substitute for hard work
- Believes to sell is to serve
- Loyal to high earning
- Possesses the basic ability to sell
Successful salesperson: 3 sets
- Physical: sound health, visual factors, non-visual factors
- Psychological: confidence, determination, sincerity, optimism, enthusiasm, dependability, imagination, initiative
- Social: interpersonal communication, friendly, social grace, conversational ability
Training and compensation
- On the job training
- Off the job training
- Salary plus commission
Evaluating personal selling: 4 criteria
- Provision of marketing intelligence
- Follow-up activities
- Program implementations
- Attainment of communications objectives
Public relations, defined twice
- The public: any group directly or indirectly related to achieving the organisational objective
- The function: building relationships with the company's publics by obtaining favourable publicity, building a good corporate image, and handling rumours, stories and events
Public relations: 2 points of uniqueness
- Credibility
- Ability to catch buyer attention
6 types of public relations
- Media
- Investor
- Government
- Community
- Internal
- Marketing communication
8 types of public
- Financial public: investors, banks
- Media public
- Government public: police, forces
- Citizen action public: BAPA, environmentalists
- Local public
- General public
- Internal public: employees
- Religious group
12 public relations tools
- Sponsorship
- Scholarship
- Public facilities
- Donation
- News
- Website
- Speeches
- Special events
- Written materials
- Corporate identity materials
- Audiovisual materials
- Public service activities
Public relations: 4 major decisions
- Setting the PR objective: awareness, sales, brand
- Choosing PR messages and vehicles
- Implementing the PR plan
- Evaluating PR results
Evaluating PR
- Methods: surveys, audit, observation
- Read for: sales effect and communication effect
Publicity, defined
- News about a person, product or service appearing in broadcast or print media
- Non-personal, not directly paid for, no identified sponsor
Publicity against public relations (3)
- Time: short-term piece against a long programme
- Control: not controlled or paid for by the firm
- Tone: can be negative, and often starts outside the firm
Why publicity is powerful (4)
- Credibility
- Perceived endorsement by the medium
- News value and frequency of exposure
- Word of mouth
Publicity: 2 problems
- Timing, decided by the media not the firm
- Accuracy, because the release is rewritten
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