Direct Sales and Marketing Tips

Agents, whose work is direct marketing on behalf of their organization, act as its representative and hence must be professional, presentable and confident. They should be well equipped with the necessary knowledge so as to have control of the interaction with their prospective customers. This is because doubts and assumptions present a bad image of the organization.

Asking the customer for information is of little value if the salesperson does not listen. In order to get the information needed to best serve, identify and respond to needs and hence nurture a collaborative buyer-seller relationship, salespeople must be able to listen and understand what was said and what was meant. Therefore, there is a need to pay attention, monitor body language and speech patterns and ask questions to clarify; to avoid making assumptions.

A good listener actively looks for areas of interest in the customer. This way he will be able to identify any unsatisfied needs or desires in the client. He will then explain clearly to the customer the advantages of the product or service concerned. He must thus be able to listen for ideas as opposed to facts.

Good salesmanship also requires that one should take down few notes and limit the subject to the central theme and key ideas presented. A weak listener takes intensive and detailed notes, which can be time consuming. A strong listener skips irrelevant details, does not judge or evaluate until the message is complete. He should therefore be in total self-control so as to avoid entering into an argument. After all, how can he close the sale after arguing with the buyer?

The tools of advertising, sales promotion, publicity and directing selling when used together contribute towards business promotion. Each major tool includes a wide variety of activities. Many companies use all four of these marketing tools to achieve business promotion objectives but place different emphasis on each of them.

Industrial companies typically spend more on direct selling than on advertising or publicity. In contrast, consumer product companies are likely to place more prominence on advertising and sales promotion to reach the vast numbers of customers in their target markets.

In direct selling, salespeople and managers are faced with several challenges related to selling effort decisions. They ask themselves questions such as; how much sales effort should be devoted to each customer? How should time be divided among customers and prospects? Whatever, the marketing strategies that will be adopted by the departmental manager, ultimately what will determine sales is the personality of the individual salesperson.

The average salesperson must be a very strong listener so as to be able to sense customers needs, interpret signs and messages, evaluate the results and respond effectively. The strong listener works hard at listening and attending to the message relayed and exhibits active body states while the weak listener who shows no energy output, rather fakes attention. The weak listener is easily distracted but the strong one resists distractions and learns how to concentrate. He keeps an open mind and interprets information quickly so as to RESPOND appropriately.