- A.The seven-step sales process — prospecting, pre-approach, approach, presentation, handling objections, close, follow-up — used by professional sales teams.
- B.Communications that solicit a direct response from individual customers — direct mail, telemarketing, email, SMS, mobile push — measured by response rate. ✓
- C.Short-term incentives — coupons, rebates, samples, contests, premiums, BOGO — designed to accelerate purchase or shift behavior. Powerful but often margin-destroying.
- D.Communications that solicit a direct response from individual customers — direct mail, telemarketing, email, SMS, mobile push — measured by response rate.
Direct Marketing is communications that solicit a direct response from individual customers — direct mail, telemarketing, email, SMS, mobile push — measured by response rate. The other options describe related but distinct concepts in Promotion & IMC — see the deep-dive guide for the full distinction.
How to think about questions like this
Trackable, targetable, and measurable on response rate and ROI. Questions like this test whether you can distinguish Direct Marketing from neighboring concepts. The most common trap is choosing a closely-related concept that sounds similar but applies in a different context.
When you see a definition question on an exam, do two things: (1) translate the question into your own words, then (2) generate the answer in your own words before reading the options. This avoids the cognitive bias of recognizing a familiar phrase as correct just because it is familiar.