In a previous postings I talked about Five Myths for both the direct sales force model and indirect selling model. This posting will discuss five major misconceptions about the direct marketing selling model. (Off and on line marketing, web site, social media and etc.).
 Five major direct marketing misconceptions:
 1-      Given today’s technologies, direct marketing is the [...]

This is the eight in a series regarding Sales Channels
Last time we discussed the scenario of a direct sales channel and switching or adding an indirect channel. The key issues were: a complete strategy, reseller selection and a reseller program(s). This posting is about adding a Direct Marketing function. Again, like the last [...]

 
A number of you have asked, “Who does sales channels well?” after reading my series about different sales distribution models.  (www.firealarmmarketing.com/blog).
 
The Direct Model:
 
            Some of the major insurance companies demonstrate outstanding customer segmentation by their marketing campaigns.  They are focused, know their key messages and develop “packages” that address customer attributes along with time sensitive [...]

In my series about different sales distribution models, I talked about the direct model (ones own sales force), indirect (reseller/distributors) and direct marketing (emails, bloging, etc) along with their pros and cons (see our blog for more detail, www.firealarmmarketing.com/blog).
 
Noting that generalization is always dangerous, I will ignore it and state that if one had to [...]

My last three posts talked about channel “surfing”, the direct model (one’s own sales force) and the indirect model (utilizing resellers/distributors/ISV) for sales distribution. Both models have their advantages and disadvantages but in either case it is critical that your selection align with your overall strategy. Let’s look at the third model, direct marketing (basically [...]