Marketing and Sales Management
Core concepts
Marketing is the process of identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer needs profitably. Master the marketing mix (product, price, place, promotion) and its extended services version (people, process, physical evidence). Understand segmentation, targeting and positioning: segment on measurable, accessible, substantial and actionable bases; target after evaluating attractiveness and fit; position on a distinctive value proposition.
Product concepts include the levels of a product (core benefit, actual, augmented), the product life cycle (introduction, growth, maturity, decline) with the strategies appropriate to each stage, and the product mix dimensions of width, length and depth. Pricing methods include cost-plus, penetration, skimming, value-based and competitive pricing. Channel concepts include intermediaries, channel levels and intensity of distribution. Promotion covers advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, public relations and direct marketing.
Sales management adds the selling process (prospecting, qualifying, approach, presentation, handling objections, closing, follow-up), sales-force sizing and territory design, and the distinction between marketing (broad, need-focused) and selling (narrow, product-push).
Traps in questions
- Penetration pricing (low launch price to win share) versus skimming (high launch price to recover investment).
- Confusing market segmentation with product differentiation.
- Assuming maturity is the best stage for heavy launch spending; it is the cash-harvest stage.
- Treating selling as identical to marketing.
Rule of thumb
Segment, then target, then position, then build the mix. Never position before you know whom you serve.
Worked example
A firm launches a new smartphone with a high price and lowers it over time. That is skimming, justified when demand is inelastic and the product is innovative. A low launch price to build volume quickly is penetration.