Sales Promotion Training or Education

Have you undertaken professional training or serious study of Sales Promotion? -Houston

Houston, excuse my ignorance, but what do you mean by "sales promotion?" -Skip Anderson

Taken from the category description, "Marketing efforts designed to generate immediate interest in purchasing a product or service. Consumer sales promotions include coupons, discounts, premiums, incentives, sweepstakes, demonstrations, etc. Trade sales promotion topics include trade allowances, point-of-purchase displays, trade contests, etc." -Houston

How much does the average salesperson need to know about sales promotion? :dun -Mikey

Happy Friday!!!

In the grand scheme of the average size company with an outside sales force probably not that much.

However........

If you take the viewpoint that your territory is your own business then you may take another view.

I have the authority to sell and promote products and negotiate pricing to a point in my territory. I may have a customer that uses product "x" and I want to sell them product "y" in addition to product "x". I can then generate my own sales promotion flyer, e-mail, coupon, etc etc to promote product "y" at a discounted price to get a product into an account. I sell a disposable product so if I get it in at a discounted price and they realize the benefits of the product then they will reorder at the regular price in the future.

As a business person who runs my own sales business I can opt to use promotional strategies on my own.

One note....this is not so easy for an insurance agent whose price is based on risk tables and are not negotiable or for other industries.

My two cents for free. (Which may be all it is worth)

Good Selling!

Sell4alivn -Sell4alivn

Nope! That's what the marketing department is for.

That said, do you think it is necessary to take a "serious" study of sales promotions? Are there any courses or programs you recommend? -Andrea

Yes. Specifically in the area of trade show and event marketing. -Ace Coldiron

I would venture to say very little. Most of the average salespeople I have known have not undertaken professional training or serious study in much of anything related to their job. I think a lot of above average people would attribute much of their success to having done so.

Those are just my observations though. -Ace Coldiron

If you are selling hambergers and fries at McDonalds, I am guessing that you will get more training than a lot of sales people. There are a great deal of skills that are needed to sell. Marketing is a different animal. However, I believe that the more you know about marketing, advertising and sales the better you will be. With regards to sales skills, the advantage of having them is that you don't do things that stop the sale. If your prospect has a true need and you help them identify the need and your product satisfies the need then you would think they should buy. As a sales manager, I have witnessed many a sales person loose a sale because they did something they should not have done. For example, The first sale I remember loosing was because I had eaten tuna in my car on the way to meet the prospect. She told me to get out of her house because I smelled. I guess she didn't like tuna. Do you get the point? -ESISS.com

Andrea

Promotions and Marketing are two different things. Marketing is a plan and has to be implemented. Promotions is keeping the product alive in the minds of the public. -MPrince

Martha, I want to add that in some contexts and only some, "promotion" is interchangeable with "campaign". Usually it refers to a closed end initiative where results can be measured. -Ace Coldiron

This is true...in my opinion the difference is, the business is running an advertising campaign versus promoting a particular service or product. A promotion usually is time, price and product sensitive where an advertising campaign is usually general and promote the business as a whole.

Thanks for the clarification. -MPrince