Sales promotion

Sales managers in smaller companies often have overall responsibility for marketing communications, but in larger enterprises they normally have a much more limited role in that area. Whatever the size of company,sales managers do become very involved in sales promotion activity, in part because the expenditure may be controlled through the sales force, and because its implementation and management are frequently sales force responsibilities. While marketing departments may design sales promotions, their effectiveness is considerably influenced by sales activity at the point of sale.

The need to advertise and promote will depend greatly on the type of product you produce and offer for sale, and the strength of your brand awareness. An industrial product may need a very different approach from consumer product, and a consumer durable product will need a different programmer non-durable items.

Whatever the product or service you are seeking to promote,there are ways and means of active sales promotion,and we will encourage the reader snot to discount sales promotion as inapplicable to their products or services, but to think and act creatively. One chapter cannot cover this vast subject, and we will barely touch on marketing communications (the reader can refer to specialist texts on that subject), but it may serve to provide an outline of facets to consider.

The messages that this commentary on basic product promotion should leave you with are the following.

• To maximize the chances of organizing and running successful sales promotions,keep promotions simple and set fundamental objectives that are accepted by all parties (salespersons and customers)as both achievable and measurable.
• Plan each aspect of a promotion in detail with your salespersons and customers to give a measurable sales benefit for each pound spent. Discussions of ’intangible’benefits at a post-promotion review are
  often just an excuse for having designed poor promotion or failing to seek tangible,quantifiable results.
• Measure the quantifiable benefits to your customers and your company from participating in promotions, and communicate results to everyone involved so that successful aspects can be incorporated in future promotions, and ineffective elements can be discarded.