Page 249 - DMGT510_SERVICES_MARKETING

Services Marketing

Notes  Balance the sales promotion amongst customers, internal customers and intermediaries.

 Decide on the sales promotion tools to be used.
Determine the amount of incentives.

Establish conditions of involvement.

Decide on the tenure of the promotions.

Select the distribution method of promotion.

Make a promotion timetable.

Decide on the promotion budget.

Pre-test the promotion for its effectiveness.

Launch the sales programme.

Evaluate the promotion programme.


Task Consider any firm in the hospitality sector and collect their 5 ads and make a list of
sales promotional activities undertaken by the firm recently.

13.3.4 Personal Selling

The high contact nature of services and the resultant interactions between service providers and
customers make personal selling very effective and important as a communication tool. It is an
effective tool of persuasion in those areas where the customer has difficulty in comprehending
the service product (concept selling) and its benefits.
Personal contacts are used to create customers and then to build long-term relationships and for
customer retention. It is possible to personalize the communication according to the customer.
This may not be possible in mass communication. After a sales call has been closed, personal
selling can be used to sell other services.

Example: Some of the service sectors that have been greatly benefited by personal selling
are insurance, financial products from banks like credit cards, tour packages, medical services,
etc.
Personal selling can be made effective in the following seven ways:

1. Orchestration of the service purchase encounter: The service encounter is managed to
create the maximum positive impression on the mind of the customer. This can be done in
the following ways:
Identify the needs and expectations of the customer: The insurance advisor should

make a customer-need analysis and then present his insurance products. Too often,
the advisor/agent insists on hard-selling certain policies for which he might get a
higher commission and for which the policy-holder might realize too late that he
has not much use. It is no surprise that insurance agents are perceived very low in
the social ladder.
Usage of appropriate technical and presentation skills: The customer should be left

with full comprehension of the offer and a lasting impression of offer benefits.

244 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY