Page 184 - Marketing the Basics 2nd

176 Marketing: the Basics
individuals, training the staff, developing the appropriate
compensation structure and evaluating results.
• Part of the training a salesperson receives is learning the
seven steps of the selling process.
• Direct marketing creates direct connections to the consumer,
offering them convenience and customized products.
• There are seven forms of direct marketing: personal selling, online marketing, telephone marketing, direct-mail marketing, catalogue marketing, direct response television
marketing and kiosk marketing.
CRITICAL qUESTIONS
1 What are the different types of sales force structures? What are the advantages and disadvantages?
2 How do people create an experience for the customer?
3 Pretend you’re trying to sell lemonade to a customer. Trace the steps a customer goes through using the selling process model. Could a few steps be skipped? Now pretend you’re trying to sell a piece of equipment worth millions of euros. Are there noticeable differences in how you treat your
customers? Why?
4 Discuss the various types of direct marketing. As the media
channels continue to fragment into smaller channels, what effect will it have on direct marketers? Should they be regulated?
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING
Christopher Lovelock and Jochen Wirtz, Services Marketing: People, Technology, Strategy, Upper Saddle River, NJ, Prentice Hall, 2006. One of the standard books in the area of services marketing with a real focus on people and how they deliver on your customer promise.
Derek Gatehouse, The Perfect SalesForce: The Six Best Practices of the World’s Best Sales Teams, New York, Portfolio, 2007. A first-time author who put his 20+ years of sales wisdom onto paper.
Valarie Zeithaml, Mary Jo Bitner and Dwayne Gremler, Services Marketing, 5th edition, New York, McGraw Hill, 2008. One of the best textbooks on