CHAPTER 19 MANAGING PERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS: DIRECT MARKETING AND PERSONAL SELLING. Today, marketing communications are increasingly seen as an interactive dialogue between the company and its customers. To make the sale to customers, marketers must work hard and work smart. Companies must ask not only "How can w e reach our customers?" | IN THIS CHAPTER WE WILL ADDRESS THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS id 1i 1. How can companies Lise integrated direct marketing for competitive advantage 2. How can companies do effective e-marketing 3. What decisions do companies face in designing a sales force 4. H ow do com pa nies m a nage a sales force efficiently 5. H tiw ca n sale s peop I e imp rove selling negotiating and relationship marketing skills L CHAPTER 19 MANAGING PERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS DIRECT MARKETING AND PERSONAL SELLING Today marketing co mm uni cations are increasingly seen as an interactive dialogue between the company and its customers. To make the sale to customers marketers must work hard and work smart. Companies must ask not only How can we reach our customers but also How can our customers reach us Thanks to technological breakthroughs people can now communicate through traditional media newspapers magazines radio telephone television billboards as well as through computers fa machines cellular phones pagers and wireless appliances. By decreasing communications costs the new technologies have encouraged more companies to move from mass communication to more targeted communications and one-to-one dialogue. But companies are also using their sales force to provide a human touch to their marketing. Newell Rubbermaid s Phoenix program takes college graduates and assigns them to Wal-Mart The Home Depot Lowe s and other retailers where they do everything from stocking shelves to i demonstrating new stain-resistant plastic food containers to organizing instore scavenger hunts. The 500 college graduates selected for the program are chosen based on their accomplishments outside the classroom. Personable jocks or sorority presidents are favored on the basis of evidence of ambition leadership and teamwork. They then receive intensive training S- A Me rö Hubtecmaid Irenes tilling a product dispenser aS part of His participalion in the company Phoenix pnxjram. 603 6Q4 PARI 7 COMMUNICATING VALUE on .