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Communication Link – The Representative
Philip Kotler has said of representatives: “Sales representatives have correctly
been called the company’s eyes and ears to the marketplace”. Representatives
are the front line – the communication link – in a company’s daily marketing
information flow. Without this information a company cannot market its goods
and services effectively. Kotler calls this kind of information “happening
data”.
Although representatives should form an ideal link in the information chain,
this link is all too often a tenuous one because representatives do not view
their job function as providing this type of information beyond certain snippets
of news that they are willing, without too much effort, to pass on. They become
the sole arbiters of what will be passed on and what will remain hidden. Often
they do not, in fact, have much information to communicate because they have
not bothered to ask any questions when calling on customers. And yet who better
than the rep to be the communication link between the company offering the
goods and services and its customers? Can this valuable source of information
– the representative – not be used and motivated to act in the interest of
his company? The answer is “of course” but recognising four basic needs:
- The representative needs to be motivated
- A questionnaire must be used to gather the information.
- An in-company or an external analyst needs to use the questionnaires to
identify changing market conditions.
- Visible action based on the findings needs to be taken by marketing management. Visible is
the keyword because the representative must be aware of the result of his
efforts through feed-back communication.
Questionnaire Objectives:
The questionnaire must ………..
- ensure a fast flow of market information to the company’s marketing manager.
- be fast to complete
- request a brief Action Report from the in-company
person actioning the information – a half page questionnaire is provided
for the Action Report.
- route to one or more senior persons within the company.
- identify the source of information.
- rate the credibility of the information.
- categorise the information into one of several areas of the company activity.
- allow the representative to give details of the information.
- prompt the representative to recommend action.
The Method:
The representative completes a Marketing Intelligence Report questionnaire
after each customer visit and routes it back to his controlling office. The
questionnaire must take no more than five to ten minutes to complete.
An Action Report questionnaire must be routed back to the representative to
advise him of the action which either has been or will be taken based on his
report and recommendations.
An in-company or external market analyst needs to collate all Reports and
present findings to weekly or monthly sales meetings.
The Benefits:
A well controlled, standardised, fast moving marketing intelligence system
designed to allow short term tactical decisions.
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