Basic Marketing: A Global Managerial Approach

Perreault−McCarthy: Basic
Marketing: A
Global−Managerial
Approach, 14/e

15. Personal Selling Text © The McGraw−Hill
    Companies, 2002

Personal Selling 431

To do a better job obtaining and

developing major retail accounts

in Latin America, Colgate has

increased its use of sales teams

and holds training seminars that

focus on how to help retailers

improve profits and customer

satisfaction.

of carpet for new office buildings. These reps know all the technical details, such

as how well a certain carpet fiber will wear or its effectiveness in reducing noise

from office equipment. Often no selling is involved because the architect only sug-

gests specifications and doesn’t actually buy the carpet.

Other Bigelow salespeople call on retail carpet stores. These reps encourage

the store manager to keep a variety of Bigelow carpets in stock. They also intro-

duce new products, help train the store’s salespeople, and try to solve any

problems that occur.

Very large customers often require special selling effort—and relationships with

them are treated differently. Moen, a maker of plumbing fixtures, has a regular sales

force to call on building material wholesalers and an elite major accounts sales

forcethat sells directly to large accounts—like Lowe’s or other major retail chains

that carry plumbing fixtures.

You can see why this sort of special attention is justified when you consider

Procter & Gamble’s relationship with Wal-Mart. Although P&G is an international

powerhouse, its total sales in every country except the U.S. and Germany add up

to less than its sales to Wal-Mart. That’s why the P&G sales team that calls on

Wal-Mart lives in Bentonville, Arkansas, where Wal-Mart is based.^8

Some firms have a group of salespeople who specialize in telemarketing—using

the telephone to “call” on customers or prospects. A phone call has many of the

benefits of a personal visit—including the ability to modify the message as feedback

is received. The big advantage of telemarketing is that it saves time and money.

Telemarketing is especially useful when customers are small or in hard-to-reach

places. Many firms are finding that a telemarketing sales force can build profitable

relationships with customers it might otherwise have to ignore altogether. Tele-

marketing is also important when many prospects have to be contacted to reach

one actually interested in buying. In these situations, telemarketing may be the only

economical approach. On the other hand, many people object to the growing num-

ber of uninvited solicitations.

Telemarketing is rapidly growing in popularity. Large and small firms alike find

that it allows them to provide support needed in e-commerce situations. It can also

Big accounts get

special treatment

Some salespeople

specialize in

telephone selling