“Direct Marketing” vs. “Indirect Marketing”

I was sitting down for an interview at a “marketing” company. The gentleman on the other side of the table adjusted his posture as he began to answer his own question. “There are two types of marketing,” he began, “direct marketing and indirect marketing. Can you guess which one this business is?” I had found this company in a search for an internship this summer and, to be honest, I was unsure of what exactly this company did. “Direct?” I responded.

“Yes, we are a direct marketing company. That means that we go door to door representing our clients to potential customers (such as an unnamed cell phone provider).” It began to dawn on me that this was not a marketing job, at least, not in the way that I thought a marketing job would look like. The more I listened, the more I realized that this was a sales job. It confused me that they had gone so far out of their way to avoid telling me that what my job would be was selling cell phone plans door to door. Later in the process, I would be tasked with training other people to do likewise.

While there is nothing bad about door to door selling (though it is somewhat physically demanding and dying out as a tactic), they must have known that selling has a bad connotation that comes along with it. Funny enough, as I had finished up with the interview, a man in a full cherry red suit, complete with matching tie and shoes, entered the room with a person who was also trying to apply for the job (stereotypical attire of a salesman). They had gone through a ton of work trying to capture the attention of college students with flashy words like “marketing” because “sales” just does not sound that attractive.

Marketing and sales do in a sense go hand in hand. They also share the same downfall. If trust is not properly built, or the presentation of whatever service or good is trying to be provided to a prospect, then they will not stand a chance in the marketplace. Good marketing and good sales on the other hand, properly communicate the benefits of the service to a client only after it is established that the person they are talking to really needs (or discover that they need) the product.

Out of respect for the company, I have decided to leave them nameless, but the amount of my time that they wasted trying to sell me on the idea that this was a marketing company was uncalled for. Lesson learned!