What's the cost for the average sales meeting, not including airfare,
meals, hotel? I've seen this statistic in the 80s and it was $250. I'm
not sure how it's calculated, but I think it's related to the cost for
making the appointment, driving there, meeting with someone, driving
back.

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Request for Question Clarification by seedy-ga on 03 Jul 2002 00:47 PDT

Are you seeking information about "sales meetings" (gatherings of a
companies sales personnel with administrative staff to discuss sales
plans and techniques" or the average cost of making a "sales call"
(calling on a customer to make a presentation regarding your product
or service)??

seedy

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Clarification of Question by randysch-ga on 08 Jul 2002 10:19 PDT

Hi Seedy,

The cost I'm seeking is for a sales call. I've seen stats for the cost
for a business letter ($100), a business phone call ($25), and a sales
call/meeting ($250). These are old prices, and I saw them in a
presentation made by Pacific Bell when they were selling
telemarketing. The point they were making: It's cheaper to call then
go to the meeting. I hope this helps and Thank you!!!

Randy

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Clarification of Question by randysch-ga on 09 Jul 2002 08:14 PDT

Hi Seedy,

You're right....I'm looking for "the average cost of making a "sales call"
(calling on a customer to make a presentation regarding your product
or service)"

Thanks,
R.

One of the main sources to publish the changing cost of a sales call,
is Sales & Marketing Management Magazine.  This magazine is available
for an annual subscription of $48 per year. If you are interesting in
following the estimated cost of a sales call historically, you will
need to subscribe to a magazine such as SMM or subscribe to a rating
service such as the Hay Group.

   http://www.salesandmarketing.com/salesandmarketing/index.jsp

   http://www.haygroup.com/

   http://www.targetonline.com/

Frequently, data that is one year old or more is published for the
general public while the most current year's data is protected for
subscription service. Of course, the value of the sales call cost
infomation is questionable since the cost estimate does vary depending
on the method of selling from quantity calls to quality calls. 
Service businesses which depend on consultative selling will have a
higher sales call cost as will capital project sales.  Commodity
products where the product is quite specific and the benefits and
comparisons with competition are easily made, will have a lower cost
of sales call.

The sales call cost generally includes, salespeople's compensation,
benefits, and travel-and-entertainment expenses.  For commodity sales,
the average cost of the sales call is described by SMM as $169 per
call in the year 2000 while the cost of a consultative sales call is
reported to be $212 per sales call.  This data was picked from several
printed sources of industry magazines including Modern Plastics,
Injection Molding, Printing Industry, and Converting Magazine.

I hope this information is satisfactory to you.  Without the paid
reports, the historical data and future projections are difficult to
follow.  My experience is that the numbers shown have not changed that
dramatically in the past 5 years and will be projected flat for the
next five years since general inflation affects this cost factor and
general inflation has been quite low in the recent past and seems to
be projected low for the immediate future.

search strategy:   Google search  "sales & marketing magazine" (I knew
of its existence from my business experience)  The correct name is
Sales & Marketing Management Magazine.  It lead to the other sources.

Google Search:  ://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22marketing+magazine%22

I will be happy to clarify information contained in this answer if
necessary.

Thank you for asking this question and for having the patience to
clarify it and to wait for the answer to develop.

seedy

BULLS EYE!!!! THANKS, Seedy

Hello randysh-ga
.
Best prospect I found was 1997, based on Panamanian business
travellers in the U.S. including hotel costs :(
.


According to industry sources, Panamanians travel primarily to
Miami, Disney World/Orlando area, Washington, D.C., New York and
Los Angeles.
.

Business travelers, which comprise 65% of the total outbound
Panamanian passengers, stay an average of 3 to 5 days in the
United States.  They favor first class hotels, rent cars and
spend an estimated U.S. $250.00 to $300.00 daily.
.

The average business traveler is male, 35 to 50 years old and an
executive.
.


The average leisure traveler spends from U.S. $150.00 to U.S.
$200.00 a day.
.
source: http://www.tradeport.org/ts/countries/panama/isa/isar0011.html
.
if you really, really want to pay $199 for the "Survey & Analysis of
Business Travel Policies & Costs" book you will get a figure of some
sort but not for 1980.
.
http://www.runzheimer.com/tmc/scripts/satravel.asp
.
and if you did include the airfare for 2001:
"The average cost of a three-day business trip will rise 6.4 percent,
twice the rate of inflation, the study shows. A calculation, using the
estimates provided by the association, indicates that a trip for one
person that would have cost $1,913.70 this year likely will cost
$2,035.74 next year."
.
source: http://www.ltbn.com/aboutLTBN/press_releases/Onvia.htm
.
and if you wanted to include meals
http://www.un.org/Pubs/whatsnew/dsar.htm
.
but alias... this give the wrong answer :(
.
regards
lot-ga

You may wish to check the following websites for additional information:

     www.haleymarketing.com/articles/costsale.pdf 

     http://www.americanbusinessmedia.com/sourcebook/p77s3.htm

     http://www.mountaineagleweb.com/Design/Design.htm

     http://www.saleshelp.com/guestservices/destinations/newsletter/news06.html

Search Strategy:  Google search "sales call cost"

   ://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22sales+call+cost%22

seedy