A talk at the Direct Direct Association of Singapore that I found memorable was one by a managing director of an electrical equipment company. He presented and insightful comparison between the technique of direct selling (use mainly by his company) and that of direct mail marketing.

Exciting parallels between sales in any medium... the AIDA principles of driving Attention, Interest, Desire and Action is relevant for all media.

1. The sales person at the gate of a house, seeking entry is like the outer envelope of a mail package. At one glance people would decide whether to discard the mail in the same way they decide whether to let the sales person make his presentation. Being properly dressed and having a winning appearance is important for both the sales person and outer envelope. The techniques for dressing up and envelope and making it smile of course differs from those for a sales person, but the principles and objectives are the same irrespective of the sales medium.

2. Once into the house, the salesperson has to get quickly in step with the customer, so has the solicitation letter in the mail pack. The sales person has the advantage of being able sense the real situation...the feelings and attitudes of the prospect and then flexibly choose his style of presentation. The well researched direct mail pack is one that makes a fairly accurate assumption of the context. Sales effectiveness drops significantly when the sales person or the direct mail research fails to assess the environment. An inexperienced sales persons may often fail in this respect in as much as a direct mail pack.

3. It is essential to involve the prospect completely during a sales presentation. Direct mailers swear by the 5 piece or more kit....as the number and variety of components catches the prospects attention and involves him. Sales persons do the same, they invariably have many items and booklets to show. Being simple and neat don't always bring back the bacon.

I can vividly remember a sales presentation where after establishing the initial rapport, the salesman unloaded his entire 2 bags of material all over my sitting room. It was a little disconcerting but he certainly got my attention and involvement!

Such clutter technique are also used effectively on sales websites which often display series of pop-ups featuring a variety interesting components and items to interest and involve the prospect.

4. Q&As and Sales closings. Direct mail packages often attempt to simulate face to face selling situations by including Q&As which anticipates the prospects questions and objections. Sales through the internet provides more effectively means of handling queries with the drill out capabilities of webpages. This capabilities may best be seen at the many help desk facilities on the internet. Intensive research and work is currently being done in artificial intelligence (AI) to enable computer to interact better with customers by assessing their emotional state...ie detecting the tone, manner and mood of the customers and reacting appropriately just as a sales person can.

Why We fail to close Sales?

Direct marketers often complain about low or no response. A review of these poor performing campaigns would commonly reveal that the sales material lack the "selling approach". Face to face selling is certainly the most powerful of the sales medium. The cost per contact is also the highest. The cost per contact for Direct mail and Internet marketing is generally lower than those for direct sales, but the challenge is in being able to incorporate the sales approach used by successful sales persons.