Do you plan to hire a sales force? Or use sales representatives? Or telemarketing? Or direct mail? Or retail outlets?
The answers may seem self-evident, based on your past experience or your knowledge of your industry. Celestial Seasonings sells its tea through supermarkets and other food retailers. Pizza Hut sells its pizza through freestanding fast-food restaurants. And People Express (now part of Continental Airlines) sells its tickets primarily via travel agencies, airport ticket counter locations, and over the phone.
Increasingly, though, creative entrepreneurs are looking for alternative sales approaches. Thus, a Boston-area maker of stereo products decided to avoid the traditional retail outlets and sell a new compact stereo system door to door with its own sales force. The firm avoided the crowded retail shelves and kept margins higher than discount-minded retailers will allow. A number of distributors of women’s clothing have been extremely successful selling via direct-mail catalogs rather than through traditional retail boutiques. And Home Shopping Network became very successful selling traditional department store goods through a nonstop television show. Continue Reading »
