teachthe4ps.com - For instructors of marketing.

I just listened to an interview on NPR (Weekend Edition Saturday, April 28, 2012) with Philip Delves Broughton, author of the “The Art of the Sale:  Learning From the Masters About the Business of Life.”  As the author notes, and I try to tell all my students, everyone has to sell something.  Broughton decided to travel the globe and learn from the masters what makes great selling.  From a rug seller in Morocco, to an insurance saleswoman in Japan, to a contractor in Baltimore, Broughton learns what makes for great salespeople and shares what he learns.  I just placed my order for the book and added it to my summer reading list.  I think if you listen to the interview with the author or watch the video below, you might do the same.

The ideas in the book and interview have relevance for our students, so we also posted this at Learn the 4 Ps.

I somehow missed this article from Adweek last spring “This is the future of online customer service” (April 6, 2011).  Recently Adweek named B-Reel (the creator of this system) its Producer of the Year, so I checked it out.  I am glad I did.  The ultimate combination of high tech and high touch.  This appears to have the ability to dramatically alter online personal selling and customer service.  I wish the video demonstrated the salesperson-customer interaction a bit better, but you get the idea.

“3 Live Shop” from B-Reel & B-Reel Films on Vimeo.

In “A Dinner with Drug Reps” (November 1, 2011) Dan Ariely describes a dinner with some former pharmaceutical and medical device salespeople.  After plying them with a few drinks, he and a colleague elicited some pretty interesting stories of personal selling to medical doctors. To be successful in the industry do you need to:

• Go to a dance class with a physician?
• Bring elaborate meals to doctor’s offices?
• Sell medical devices in the operating room?
• Hire doctors to speak about the pharmaceutical firm’s drugs at medical conferences?
• Switch on and off various accents, personalities, etc.?

It might be fun to describe each of these actions — and ask if students thought each was an ethical practice — and why.  It is easy to say they are not ethical, but then how would sales reps get their information to doctors?  And how do they compete with other drug makers that may be utilizing these practices?  Users of our text books might find it useful to contrast this description with the video we have that shows a sales call for a Johnson & Johnson sales rep and a doctor.  Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.

I am always looking for good B2B or even better a great B2G (business to government) example.  This article, “Flogging Flak Jackets in War Zones” (Bloomberg BusinessWeek, August 4, 2011) describes how salespeople for some defense contractors will get out into the field — literally into a tank in Afghanistan in one case here — to better understand their customers needs.  While there are dangers, there can be big benefits for defense contractors as identifying urgent opportunities can help avoid the Pentagon’s bureaucratic purchasing process.

The article provides a very interesting example to use in the organizational buying chapter — or when you are teaching personal selling and sales management.

Increased competition results in the need for more sophisticated marketing tools.  This article describes the pressure on many college athletic teams (particularly the big revenue sport of football) to sell more tickets.  A growing number of college athletic departments have turned to telemarketing — many outsourcing the task to a specialist firm with commissioned salespeople.  Many of our students will be interested in the context, but it might also be interesting to talk about the fine line that many colleges have to walk with respect to their marketing efforts.  Read “Marketers reshape how college teams sell tickets” (USA Today, Auguts 5, 2011).

This article and example could be used as a first day of class marketing example as students could relate to the context, or use it when you discuss competition or personal selling.

Not the best of news for our marketing graduates, as many  pharmaceutical drug makers are using iPad apps and other digital tools to replace the activities of at least some of their salespeople.  See “Drug Makers Replace Reps with Digital Tools” (Wall Street Journal, May 10, 2011, non-subscribers click here).

When do firms need salespeople, when does technology replace or complement the sales force?  Our books have a great 2 x 2 exhibit in the “Personal Selling and Customer Service” chapter that discusses this very issue.  For many doctors there is no need for relationship building.  This situation creates an opportunity for low-cost e-commerce solutions.  When information needs are standardized, digital solutions may be sufficient — but when information needs are complex and higher, digital solutions may complement personal selling activities.

This article can be a great segue to a discussion of other industries that may see the decline of the traditional sales force — and which industries might be technology-proof.

A recent Seth Godin blog post “Selling vs. inviting” (May 9, 2011) offers a succinct comparison of personal selling and marketing.  Many of our students will begin (and maybe spend a long time) in sales.  Godin’s outside (not a professor) perspective is refreshing and should make selling less intimidating for our students.  Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.

It can be difficult to break into new markets — especially in the medical devices field where doctors usually like to stick with products they know.  A company called Biotronik found a way to generate significant market share in one particular hospital in southern Nevada.  In fact, while the company’s market share nationwide is about 5%, in this hospital it exceeds 95%.  Perhaps a great salesperson found a way to make Biotronik the preferred supplier and/or they have a superior device and this hospital is one of the few to recognize it.  Or maybe it has something to do with the fact that a few years ago Biotronik hired several of the hospital’s cardiologists as consultants — paying them as much as $5000 a month.

That, in a nutshell, is the background for a story in the New York Times, “Tipping the Odds for a Maker of Heart Implants” (April 2, 2011).  There is currently a federal investigation underway looking into Biotronik’s marketing and sales practices.

The article is quite long and will give you more background.  It might be an interesting example to discuss in class because you can probably imagine some gray areas.  It is probably important to have doctors testing products and offering insights.  At what point does this cross a line?

Somehow this article slipped by me – and it is now more than a month old, see “The Future of Selling:  It’s Social” (Forbes, December 3, 2011)   But it is chock full of great information and ideas from Brian Fetherstonhaugh, Chairman and CEO of OglivyOne Worldwide, one of the world’s largest advertising agencies.  He provides some brief highlights of research OglivyOne conducted on sales professionals in the U.S., U.K., Brazil, and China.  The results show quite a variance in the role of social media in personal selling across different countries.  The article also suggests some strategies for companies and salespeople.  While there has been a lot of talk about social media in consumer markets, this suggests opportunity in B2B as well.  File under international, social media and personal selling.  Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.

Hiring people who know horses and/or farming gives them a leg up when serving Tractor Supply’s customers.  This article,  “Tractor Supply Makes Hiring The Right Staff Pay Off” (Investors Business Daily, January 7, 2011), provides a nice example of customer service and personal selling.  The article also highlights something we talk about in the cross-functional chapter in Basic Marketing — the importance of marketing working closely with HR.  For your students, this also shows them they have a competitive advantage working for a company they are passionate about – so this is also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.