Aug. 6,1»82 Pag* 7 Marketins News Direct Marketihs Memo Cover industrial buyer behavior and sales A good mailing iist must be meetings won'tbea waste of tinie, nfipney deaned and maintained right Professor of Business Admlnlstrstlon Un)»s(slty of WyonUng BY LAUREN R. JANUZ Direct Response Itarksling Consultsnt Lake Forsst. IN. , ; "^^^ thorough knowledge of comnrunication skills and an understanding of behavior are necessary for a sales rep to become effective. Experience is an excellent training mechanism, but it appears that large industrial firms really can't affoi:d the money and time sales reps waste in acquiring experience over a period of many years. ^>SALES MEETINGS provide one of the best opportunities forj] to train, motivate, supervise, and eduTH£ IMPORTANCE OF A GOOD LIST has been emphasized before cate iodustrial sales repipaoutives. in this column, and this week some pointers on selecting, cleaning, and However, sales meetings can be exmaintaining the inailing list are offered. pensive when^^igh-cost technical peo^ ^ There are nine questions a direct mac:;;^ pie are pulled out of their territories PRODUCT KNOWLEDGE also keter should pose when considering f'or two or three days. is important. Knowing the how and In addition to the expenses of runwhether to rent or buy a list: why of matching the product with a 1. Is the product that Was being sold by ning the meeting, travel, hotel, and buyer's needs, and the ability to com-v^ the list owner compatible to the product meals, the implicit costs incurred by municate this match, can increase a Ihe marketer wants to sell? Subscriptions not having a company s#sp Q^ in the sales rep's effectiveness immfeasurHeld to answer questions. atrToircusto an engineering magazine would not be tomers, and negotiale orders can be ably. -Sales meetings are necessary to discompatible with colonial furniture offers, substantial. seminate this knowledge, improve but a self-improvement seminar would be Some industrial firms are reluctant trainit^, and remind the rep that he very compatible to a time management to schedule numerous sales meetings works for the company, not the cusnewsletter. because of these high costs. Also, tomer. The only problems with meet2. How old is the customer list? When companies always seem to question ' ings, as mentioned earlier, is that their were the names acquired? Newer names whether they are getting their money's cost and value are qutf^onable. Lauren R. Januz frequently outpull older ones, although . worth out of such meetings. Therefore, in addition t o product Therefore, a major dilemma faced knowledge, customer relations comthere are exceptions. 3. Who else has rented the, list in the previotis 12 months? Were the by industrial sales managers is, "how pany communications, and salesmancan the time spent in sales meetings be ship techniques, industrial firms offers made by those renters conipatible with one's own? used effectively to maximize the sales 4. How were the names origiiially obtained*^ By Hirert maiP If they promotion efforts and justify the^high * should become aware of the complex ^liuman and orgaiuzationaT^eliavior'" were gathered through a television direct response ad or some other investment cost of those meetings?" that sales reps face each day. method, close scrutiny is in order and caution is advised. A buyer is a human being whose 5. What is the price of the merchandise being sold by the list owne^ A RECENT SJUDY I conducted needs, wants, and desires ate interreamong 100 large industrial firms Preferably, it should be compatible with the prospective renter's offer. lated to his decision to buy or not to 6. How often has the list been rented in the past yeai? A heavily asked about the types of topics in- buy. His buying decisions may be inworked list usually performs better, but at some point it becomes cluded in sales meetings, the topics fluenced by many factors other than overworked. Judgment is needed to determine if the list has. been that took the most time, the number economics. of sales meetings held, and the length polluted with wrong offers being mailed to it. of the meetings. t . When was the list last cleaned? How does the list owner Reep Kis list The five topics considered the most current by removing nixies and other undeliverable mail? important were: product knowledge, 8. Is the age and sex of the buyer compatible with the prospective salesmanship techniques, human relaoffer? Obviously a list dominated by women won't do well if woodwork- tions, promotion, and administrative duties. ing shop tools are to- be <^red. But a different ranking was report9. What is one's "gut" feeling about the list and the renting marketei? ed when the respondents were asked Is the marketer basically honest and make straightforward, clearcut to identify the five topics that conoffers, or does he run a schlock-house operation that has fostered ill sumed the most time in meetings. feelings about mail order purchasing? They were product knowledge, sales: v, Robert W. Ecides Psychology, culture, and sociopolitical factors in the business organization may strongly influence many industrial s&ltn. A sales rep should understalid these factors as well as the topics already adequately covered insales meetings. Some industrial firms now insist on covering consumer behavior or numan relations in thefr »Ieis meetings. They realize, and recent research seems to support their belief, that the gost of lost sales, lost customers, and a floundering company image justify the costs of tiftining industrial salespeople in buyer behavior. M How to make Seminar Selling the biggest ASSUMING THE LIST PASSES THIS LITMUS TEST, it's time to make a test mailing of 5,000 names. Some experienced marketers with big budgets will test 10,000 names, but extreme caution is advised. Some coding should be worked into the mailing list layout to tell when the customers made a purchase. A four-digit code (year, year, month, month) can record everytime a customer buys. EifMaaHy, spoaal promotions caiTbe mailed to only the most recent buyers. Keeping the mailing list up-to-date is one of the hardest and most important jobs the marketer is faced with. Unless the list is clean and up-to-date, it will be as much as 20% undeliverabte within a year. To keep the list current, an address-correction^requested mailing should be made at least twice a year. ; . r^ i^ L Salespeople's call reports should be cotnpared to present Ust information as well, and addresses should be c^eciced against new directors of the industry. Periodic '*help us update our mailing list" mailings are appropriate, and names should be dropped after a predetermined length f^ on the list. Continuous keypunching of new names into the list ith date of acquisition of the name is advised so that it can be cleaned from the list at periodic intervals. BUILDING ONE'S OWN MAILING LIST is a long and difficult job, but over the long haul it can be extremely profitable, both from one's own use of it and the rental income it will generate. The best lists are culled from the caU reports turned in by sales personnel. Each time a sales person calls^m a prospect, a ^^luable contact has been established with a person who buys the product in question. For each call, the sales person should file a report detailing, at an absolute minimum, the name of the individual called on and his job title, company name, address, the type of business, a few remarks about the call, and when the next call should be made. -^, It's also a good idea to code the date the name originally went into the fUe, the date of the most recent order, and the dollar value of both the most recent order and the past year's cumulative amount. Sales people are notorious for nfiixing up addresses and zip codes, so a clerical check of that information is a good idea. Bqilding the customer list is hard work, but the returns justify the effort. A 10% increase should represent a similar or greater increase in cqoipany sales if the list is worked properly and consistently. One's own list deserves the best treatment possible. It must be continuously and^ frequently maintained, updated, and Cleaned by sending "address correction mailings" to keep it in the cleanest possible condition. Finally, once a list tliat works has been built or found, it should be milked to the fullest extent. A list that works will pay for a lot of lists that don't. Few direct marketers ever mail tfieif bvinn list often enough. To determine the best mailing frequency, mailings should be made at increased frequency until they stop paying out. At that point, a sligltt cutback to where it again pays out will be the right frequency. * ' Bookshelf AdVMiitIng Management; Crft«ria, Analysis and Decision Mailing By John D. Lsckanby and Nugent Wedding. Basic tAxttXMk emphasizes management science approach, but also presents the consumer behavior methods. Qives the trartltlnnul fh aqusntitativepointofview.AlsodiscUsaeaa nine-Step planning and decision-making process. Approaches are illustrated with 43 case studies of varying lengths and complexity. Grid Publishing Co., 2950 N. High St.. PO. Box 14466. Columbue, OH 432t4, 672 pp. Seiiing: . • - . PrinciplM and PracNcM •. > .. Eievwith Edition By Frederic A. Russetl, Frank H. Beach, and Richard H. Buskirk. Formerly titled Ttxtdent or profesaional serious about selea. duties, promotion, and human relations. As pointed out in an article by Robert Evans, president of ETP Corp. a sales training firm, in the Nov. 13, 1981 issue of Msrfcctins Ncwi, sales reps need better education and training during meetings about the ftidstvdifTicult roadblock in their path—the buyer. The perfunctory and traditional method of salesmanship techniques now covered by the majority of firms treats symptoms of the roadblock problem, not the problem itself. A Data offered on sales potential of sports equipment U.S. MAKERS OF sporting goods and recreational equipment who«re eyeing the export market can get frte market data on 10 countries and territories from the Recreational Industries Council on Exporting (RICE). RICE has completed seVen of 10 surveys on Japan, Australia, West Germany, France, Venezuela, Mexico, Hong Kong, Singapore, Peru, and Argentina. The surveys, conducted under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Commerce, are designed to help manufacturers gain entry to those markets and thereby reduce America's foreign trade deficit. The studies provide an overview of the markets and their potential over the next five years, identify goods which have the most pFonusing sales potential, and detail conditions such as trade barriers that favor or impede importation of U.S. products. Survey results can be obtained by contacting the Department of Commerce, Internationa] Trade Administration, Washington, D.C. 2(^30. 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