Management may set up sales territories or revise existing territorial arrangements to improve the coordination of personal selling or advertising efforts. In most situations, personal selling or advertising alone cannot accomplish the entire selling task efficiently or economically. By blending personal selling and advertising, management takes advantage of a synergistic effect (the “2 + 2 = 5” effect) and obtains a performance greater than the sum of its parts.
Sales personnel play key roles in capitalizing upon synergistic opportunities. Prior to launching an advertising campaign for a new consumer product, for example, sales personnel call upon dealers to outline the marketing plan’s objectives, provide them with tie-in displays and other promotional materials, and make certain that adequate supplies of the product are on hand in the retail outlets. Territorial assignments make every dealer the responsibility of some salesperson, and proper routing ensures that sales personnel contact all dealers at appropriate times relative to the breaking of the consumer advertising campaign. In some cases, the manufacturer’s marketing plan calls for dealers to share in the costs of advertising the product; here, again, sales personnel “sell” such cooperative programs to dealers. In situations where sales personnel do work related to the advertising effort, the results are more satisfactory if the work is delegated on a territory-by-territory basis rather than for the entire market.
