Sales channel options
Following are the three types of sales channels generally used by associations. Often associations will use a combination of these in a single campaign.
Telemarketing - This can take many forms – inbound or outbound, continuous or occasional. It is cheaper than personal sales, generally gets a better response rate than direct mail and is really easy to track. Outbound calls can be challenging but with a good list, a good salesperson and a good script you shouldn’t go wrong. This is generally successful so if you do get weak results you should investigate carefully. It could be something as simple as badly timed calls.
Personal sales - This is when sales representatives are on the road promoting membership. This is only viable where there are high membership fees, prospects concentrated in a geographic area, volunteers who are able to make the visits or a visit is required for the prospect to join. You will also find this type of sales at events or in locations where prospective members congregate (eg: in a shopping mall for consumer members).
Direct mail (of E-Mail) - Sending direct mail by either post or email is a low cost, highly targeted way to sell into your target markets. As sometimes just a 1% return can cover costs for a hard copy direct mail campaign, this can be fantastic tool for membership recruitment.