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Belch: Advertising and
Promotion, Sixth Edition
V. Developing the
Integrated Marketing
Communications Program
Meals/Super Moms,” which included prizes such as
maid service, flowers, and spa visits. The contest itself
garnered a 77 percent participation rate from wholesalers.
Finally, 100 college scholarship offers valued at
$10,000 provided a nice public relations touch. How
did it work? First-year sales totaled $125 million, the
product had the highest repeat purchase rate of any
supermarket product introduced in the previous five
years, and the introduction was touted as one of the
hottest new product introductions of the year by
Information Resources Inc.’s “New Product
Pacesetters” report.
18. Personal Selling © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2003
Like all other elements of the promotional mix, personal selling
must be evaluated on the basis of its contribution to the overall
promotional effort. The costs of personal selling are often high,
but the returns may be just as high.
Because the sales force is under the supervision of the sales
manager, evaluations are typically based on sales criteria. Sales may be analyzed by
total sales volume, territories, product line, customer type, or sales rep. 20 Other salesrelated
criteria such as new account openings and personal traits are also sometimes
considered and may be increasing in importance (Figure 18-8).
From a promotional perspective, sales performance is important, as are the contributions
of individuals in generating these sales. On the other hand, the promotions
manager must evaluate the performance of personal selling as one program element
contributing to the overall promotional program. So he or she needs to use different
criteria in determining its effectiveness.
Criteria for Evaluating Personal Selling
A number of criteria may be used to evaluate the contribution of the personal selling
effort to the promotional program. They include the following.
• Provision of marketing intelligence—the ability of the sales force to feed back
information regarding competitive programs, customer reactions, market trends,
and other factors that may be important in the development of the promotional
program.
• Follow-up activities—the use and dissemination of promotional brochures and
correspondences with new and existing customers, providing feedback on the
effectiveness of various promotional programs.
• Program implementations—the number of promotional programs implemented;
the number of shelf and/or counter displays used, and so forth; the implementation
and assessment of cooperative advertising programs.
• Attainment of communications objectives—the number of accounts to whom
presentations were made (awareness, evaluation), the number of trial offers
accepted, and the like. (Specific criteria are often hard to agree on, as evidenced
by IMC Perspective 18-2.).
Combining these criteria with those used by the sales department, the promotions
manager should be able to accurately assess the effectiveness of the personal selling
program. Making these evaluations requires a great deal of cooperation between the
departments.
The above examples are just a few of the many companies
that have effectively integrated personal selling
into their IMC programs. Each shows how the sales
team and marketing can work together to achieve
success—what an idea!
Sources: Sonia Reyes, “This One’s a Stove Topper,” Brandweek,
Oct. 14, 2002, pp. M30–M33; “Xerox Tests Three Online Sales
Lead Generation Tactics—Sweeps vs. Game vs. Product Info,”
marketingsherpa.com, Sept. 12, 2002, pp. 1–6; Sheree Curry, “E-Marketing
Evolution,” Sales & Marketing Management, June 2002,
pp. 32–37.
Evaluating the Personal
Selling Effort
613
Chapter Eighteen Personal Selling