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Part I Selling as a Profession
Chapter 1 The Life, Times and Career of the Professional Salesperson
Chapter 2 Ethics First… Then Customer Relationships
Part II Preparation for Relationship Selling
Chapter 3 The Psychology of Selling: Why People Buy
Chapter 4 Communication for Relationship Building: It's Not All Talk
Chapter 5 Sales Knowledge: Customers, Products, Technologies
Part III The Relationship Selling Process
Chapter 6 Prospecting -- The Lifeblood of Selling
Chapter 7 Planning the Sales Call Is a Must!
Chapter 8 Carefully Select Which Sales Presentation Method to Use
Chapter 9 Begin Your Presentation Strategy
Chapter 10 Elements of a Great Sales Presentation
Chapter 11 Welcome Your Prospect's Objections
Chapter 12 Closing Begins the Relationship
Chapter 13 Service and Follow-up for Customer Retention
Part IV Time and Territory Management: Keys to Success
Chapter 14 Time and Territory Management: Keys to Success
Appendix A
Sales Call Role-Plays
Appendix B
Personal Selling Experiential Excuses
Appendix C
Sales Technology Directory and www Exercises
Glossary of Selling Terms
Notes
Photo Credits and Acknowledgements
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CHAPTER 1
The Life, Times and Career of the Professional Salesperson
LECTURE OUTLINE
I. WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF BUSINESS?
A. The purpose of business is to increase the general well being of humankind through the sale of goods and services.
1. This requires making a profit in order to operate the business and provide beneficial products to the marketplace.
2. Profit is a means to an end.
3. Two major functions of business are the:
a. Production of goods or creation of services
b. Marketing of goods and services
B. Marketing’s Definition
1. The American Marketing Association defines marketing as the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of goods, services, and ideas to create exchanges to satisfy the individual and organizational objectives.
2. The marketing concept is a business philosophy that says the customers’ want-satisfaction is the economic and social justification of the firm’s existence.
II. ESSENTIALS OF A FIRM’S MARKETING EFFORT
A. The essentials of a firm’s marketing effort include their abilities to determine the needs of their customers and to create and maintain as effective marketing mix that satisfies customer needs.
B. The marketing mix contains four elements that a marketing manager will use to market goods and services:
1. Product
2. Price
3. Distribution
4. Place
5. The marketing manager has to determine how best to use each element in the firm’s marketing effort.
C. Product: It’s More than you think
1. A good is a physical object that can be purchased while a service is an action or activity done for others for a fee.
2. A product is a bundle of tangible and intangible attributes, including packaging, color, and brand, plus the services and even the reputation of the seller.
3. Customers buy want-satisfaction such as the what the product will do, its quality, and the image of owning the product.
D. Price: It’s Important to Success
1. Price refers to the value or worth of a product that attracts the buyer to exchange money or something of value for the product.
2. The corporate marketing department determines the product’s initial price.
a. This involves establishing each product’s normal price and possible special discount prices.
b. Since price is often critical to customers, it is an important part of the marketing mix.
E. Distribution: It Has to Be Available
1. Distribution refers to the channel structure used to transfer products from an organization to its customers.
2. The marketing manager decides the best method of distributing the product in order to have the product available to customers in a convenient and accessible location when they want it.
F. Promotion: You Have to Tell People about it
1. Promotion increases sales by communicating product information to potential customers. This includes:
2. Personal Selling
a. The company’s sales force is one segment of the firm’s promotional efforts.
b. Salespeople are part of the organization’s sales force.
3. Advertising
4. Publicity
5. Sales Promotion
III. WHAT IS SELLING?
A. Traditional definition of personal selling refers to the personal communication of information to persuade a prospective customer to buy something a good, a service, an idea or something else—which satisfies that individual’s needs.
1. One person helping another person by examining his/her needs, suggesting a product to meet those needs and, providing after-the-sale service to ensure long-term satisfaction.
2. Also involves communications between the seller and the buyer through discussing the customers needs and talking about the product relative to how it will satisfy his/her needs.
IV. PERSONAL SELLING TODAY
A. Personal selling today: In early 2000’s corporate corruption contributed to the negative image of all business professions.
B. How Some Salespeople are Viewed
1. Insurance salespeople, advertising practitioners and used car salespeople are the lowest rated job categories in perceived honesty and ethical standards.
2. The Main reasons for low marks on honesty and ethics may be lack of trustworthiness and a perception that salespeople are greedy.
C. What about you? Take Dr. Futrell’s poll (//futrell-www.tamu.edu):
1. What does the general public think about salespeople?
2. What do you think about salespeople?
3. After graduation, would you accept a sales job?
V. A NEW DEFINITION OF PERSONAL SELLING
A. Refers to the personal communication of information to unselfishly persuade a prospective customer to buy something a good, a service, an idea or something else which satisfies that individual’s needs.
B. Think of your grandmother, "Would you mistreat your grandmother in a sales transaction?"
1. Salespeople should handle their customers with unselfish and ethical service.
2. Tell the truth about what the product will do, give the best price on the best product for the need, deliver on time, and provide outstanding follow-up service to make sure the customer is delighted with the purchase.
VI. THE GOLDEN RULE OF PERSONAL SELLING
A. Refers to the sales philosophy of unselfishly treating others as you would like to be treated.
B. Different view of the Golden Rule:
1. Negative form: "If you don’t like to get cheated in a purchase, don’t cheat others."
2. Positive form: "If you like to receive the best price, then offer the best price to your customers."
3. The Golden Rule is all about trying to keep somebody else warm even if it means that we get cold in the process.
C. Salesperson Differences
1. Salesperson differences can be explained by the individual’s level of self-interest.
2. Professional salespeople fall somewhere in between the traditional and the Golden Rule salesperson in terms of how they view prospects and customers.
VII. EVERYBODY SELLS
A. You develop communications techniques for getting your way in life.
B. Your ability to communicate effectively is a key to success in life.
VIII. WHAT SALESPEOPLE ARE PAID TO DO
A. Salespeople need to sell something "today" to meet performance goals for:
1. Themselves
2. Their employer
3. Their customers
B. Build positive long-term relationships with their customers.
1. 80 percent of future sales come from current customers or referrals.
2. The perfect balance comes when the salesperson closes sales and at the same time maintains a great relationship with the customer.
IX. WHY CHOOSE A SALES CAREER?
A. Six major reasons:
1. Service; opportunity to help others
2. Variety of jobs available
3. Freedom of being on your own
4. The challenge of selling
5. Opportunity for advancement
6. Rewards from a sales career
B. Service: Helping others.
1. A sales career provides the opportunity for service and an emotional purpose in life gained from helping others.
2. For many, service is the number one reason for choosing a sales career.
3. Service refers to making a contribution the welfare of others.
C. A Variety of Sales Jobs are Available
1. Types of sales jobs:
a. Selling in retail: A retail salesperson sells goods or services to consumers for their personal, non-business use.
(1) Three common types of retail sellers.
(a) in-store salesperson
(b) direct seller; sells face-to-face away from a fixed location
(c) telephone salesperson
b. Selling for a wholesaler - Wholesalers buy products from manufacturers and other wholesalers and sell to other organizations.
(1) A wholesaler salesperson sells products to parties for:
(a) Resale
(b) Use in producing other goods or services
(c) Operating an organization
(2) Firms engaged in wholesaling are called wholesaling middlemen. They vary greatly in:
(a) Products they sell
(b) Markets to which they sell
(c) Methods of operation
c. Selling for a Manufacturer can involve delivering milk and bread to selling highly technical industrial products.
(1) Account representative calls on a large number of already established customers.
(2) A detail salesperson concentrates on promotional activities and introducing new products rather than directly soliciting orders.
(3) A sales engineer sells products that call for technical know-how.
(4) An industrial products salesperson, non-technical sells tangible products to industrial buyers.
(5) A service salesperson sells intangible products such as financial, advertising or computer repair services.
d. An order-getter gets new and repeat business using creative sales strategy and a well-executed sales presentation.
(1) Has two selling challenges:
(a) Must often create discontent with what the prospect already has before beginning to sell constructively.
(b) Often has to overcome the most powerful and obstinate resistance.
(2) Much more difficult position than the order taker.
e. An order-taker asks what the customer wants or waits for the customer to order.
D. Freedom of Action: you’re on your own.
1. Very little direct supervision.
2. Salespeople are expected to carry out their job duties and achieve goals with minimal guidance.
E. Job Challenge is always there.
1. Great responsibility.
2. Much like operating your own business without the burdens of true ownership.
F. Opportunities for advancement are great.
1. Some companies promote salespeople to managerial positions very quickly. For most companies the path to a sales management begins with an entry level position.
a. A sales personnel career path.
(1) Junior or trainee level.
(a) Learn the attitudes and activities of the company’s salespeople.
(b) Become familiar with customer’s attitudes toward the company, its products and salespeople.
(c) Gain first-hand knowledge of products and their application.
(d) Become seasoned in the world of business.
(2) Regular sales position.
(3) Senior sales position or key account sales position.
(a). Contacts larger more important customers.
b. There are two career paths.
(1) Permanent salespeople.
(2) Management.
G. Rewards: the sky’s the limit.
1. Two types of rewards:
a. Non-financial (i.e. psychological income or intrinsic rewards).
(1) Feeling of self-worth and accomplishment.
(2) Realization that his job is important.
b. Financial
(1) The opportunity to earn large salaries.
(2) Rewarded on basis of performance.
(3) Comparatively large beginning salaries.
(4) Overall, salaries for field sales personnel have been moving rapidly upward.
c. You can move quickly into management.
(1) District sales manager.
(a) First managerial level.
(b) Promotion usually occurs within the first three years.
(2) Compensation of sales managers.
(a) A beginning sales job is the stepping stone to higher positions and higher salaries.
(b) Both corporate and field sales managers receive higher salaries than others at the same organizational level.
X. IS A SALES CAREER RIGHT FOR YOU?
A. Seven questions to ask yourself:
1. What are my past accomplishments?
2. What are my future goals?
3. Do I want to have the responsibility of a sales job?
4. Do I mind travel? How much travel is acceptable?
5. How much freedom do I want in the job?
6. Do I have the personality characteristics for the job?
7. Am I willing to transfer to another city? Another state?
a. Once you have answered these questions, you should:
(1) Determine the industries, types of products and services, and specific companies in which you have an interest.
(2) Talk to people presently or formerly involved in sales.
B. A Sales Manager’s view of the recruit.
1. What are the applicants judged on?
a. Appearance
b. Self-expression
c. Maturity
d. Personality
e. Experience
f. Enthusiasm
g. Interest in the job
XI. SUCCESS IN SELLING-WHAT DOES IT TAKE?
A. Think of success spelled with four S’s as in "success".
1. S - Success begins with love.
a. The successful salesperson is an individual who loves selling.
b. Of the eight, love is the number one characteristic of successful salespeople.
2. S - Service to others.
a. Salespeople love to help others fulfill their needs through selling their products.
3. U - Use the Golden Rule of Selling.
a. Today’s salesperson needs to treat others as he would like to be treated.
b. People like to buy, not be sold.
4. C - Communication ability.
a. Good salespeople are good communicators. Great salespeople are great communicators.
b. Top salespeople speak the other person’s language.
5. C - Characteristics for the Job.
a. It helps if you possess the personal characteristics needed for a sales career.
6. E - Excels at strategic thinking.
a. High performing salespeople tend to be strategic problem solvers for their customers.
b. Match up products benefits with customer’s needs.
7. S - Sales knowledge at the M.D. level.
a. Top salespeople have mastered the basic competencies of product knowledge and selling skills.
b. As goods and services become more complex, companies place more emphasis on training of salespeople.
c. Knowledge is power, but enthusiasm pulls the switch.
8. S - Stamina for the challenge.
a. Today’s salesperson needs to be physically, mentally and spiritually prepared to meet the daily challenges of a sales career.
b. The increased feeling of well-being gained from exercise transmits itself to the body and mind.
c. People’s faith may direct everything they do on the job, ranging from how customers are treated to how ethical they act toward their employer.
XII. CHARACTERISTICS FOR THE JOB EXAMINED
A. Caring, Joy, and Harmony
1. Through caring comes the joy of helping others.
a. Customers recognize when someone truly cares.
b. A caring attitude helps to create harmony in the relationship.
c. Place customer first, not pride of egos.
B. Patience, Kindness, and Moral Ethics
1. Salespeople are under heavy pressure to make a quick sale
a. Have to handle pressure and demonstrate patience
b. Patience in closing the deal goes a long way in building long- term relationships.
c. Buyers do not like to be pressured into making a quick decision.
2. When the customer knows they come first, they are more likely to trust the salesperson.
C. Faithful, Fair, and Self-Controlled
1. Self-control is the most difficult trait for a salesperson to develop because it involves our emotions, passions, and desires.
2. Avoid using pressure, or unethical sales practices to compel the customer to buy something they don’t need.
3. Also involves creating time for family, parents, spouse, and children.
XIII. DO SUCCESS CHARACTERISTICS DESCRIBE YOU?
A. Only self-imposed limitations can hold you back.
B. When you go beyond the limits, the impossible becomes possible.
C. Successful people break through their self-imposed limitations.
XIV. RELATIONSHIP SELLING.
A. The salesperson of today is a pro.
1. Relationship selling: the process of professionally providing information for helping customers make intelligent actions to achieve their short- and long-term objectives.
a. Four main elements (ABC’s) in the customer relationship process used by salespeople to build relationships are:
(1). Analyze customer needs.
(2). Present product Benefits.
(3). Gain Commitment for the purchase.
(4). Provide excellent Service in order to maintain and grow the relationship.
XV. SALES JOBS ARE DIFFERENT
A. Since salespeople represent their company, opinions of a company and its products are often based on the salespeople.
B. The outside salesperson typically operates with little direct supervision and needs high degree of motivation
C. Salespeople probably need more tact, diplomacy and social poise.
D. Authorized to spend company funds on entertainment, transportation and other business expenses.
E. Selling requires mental toughness and physical stamina.
XVI. WHAT DOES A PROFESSIONAL SALESPERSON DO?
A. A Territory Manager plans, organizes and executes activities that increase the sales and profits in his territory (i.e. a group of customers assigned to him in a geographical area).
B. Territorial manager performs nine functions:
1. Creates new customers.
a. Locate people and/or organizations that have the potential to buy their products.
b. Needs the ability to close the sale.
2. Sells more to current customers.
3. Builds long-term relationships with customers.
a. Earning the opportunity to sell a present customer more product means the salesperson must have a professional relationship with people and organizations.
4. Provides solutions to customers’ problems.
a. Shows how these problems can be solved through the purchase of his company’s products and services.
5. Provides service to customers.
a. Handling complaints.
b. Returning damaged merchandise.
c. Providing samples.
d. Suggesting business opportunities.
e. Recommending promotional techniques.
f. Working at the customer’s business.
g. In-store demonstrations.
h. Accompany distributor’s salespeople on sales calls.
6. Helps customers resell products to their customers.
a. Contacts both wholesale customers (distributors) and their retail customers.
b. Develops promotional programs for retail customers.
(1) Advertising materials.
(2) Store demonstrations.
(3) Setting up product displays.
7. Helps customers use products after purchase.
a. Help the customer obtain full benefit from the product.
8. Builds goodwill with customers.
a. Develops a personal, friendly, business relationship with anyone who may influence a buying decision.
9. Provides company with market information.
a. Provides his company with information on:
(1) Competitor’s activities.
(2) Customers’ reactions to new products.
(3) Complaints about products and policies.
(4) Market opportunities.
(5) His own job activities.
XVII. THE FUTURE FOR SALESPEOPLE.
A. Learning selling skills.
1. Both an art and a science.
a. Requires practice.
b. Requires training.
2. Conceptual skill: ability to see selling process as a whole and relationships among its parts.
3. Human skill: ability to work with and through others.
4. Technical skill: understanding and being proficient at specific tasks.
B. Preparing for the 21st Century.
1. Changes are occurring which will require salespeople to be knowledgeable in new areas.
a. International dealings.
b. Sales force’s reflecting customer diversity.
c. Customer partnering to keep current customers.
d. Success based on customer satisfaction.
e. Increasing use of technology
XVIII. E-SELLING: TECHNOLOGY USED BY SALESPEOPLE
A. Salespeople are going high-tech to better service customers.
1. Talking computers, e-mail, cellular phones, faxes, satellites, and automated maps with driving directions are products being used by salespeople.
IXX. SELLING IS FOR LARGE AND SMALL ORGANIZATIONS
A. America’s large organizations are easily recognized and important for our prosperity.
1. Their importance can be overestimated
2. Small firms are a vital component of the economy
B. The Small Business Administration classifies approx. 98% of all businesses as small businesses.
1. Often these businesses may not be able to compete head to head
2. Many large firms started out small and prospered.
XX. THE PLAN OF YOUR TEXTBOOK.
A. To provide the student the fundamentals of what Selling is all about.
1. Major topics:
a. The role of the sales force in the firm’s marketing efforts.
b. The social, ethical and legal issues in selling.
c. Why people and organizations buy what they do.
d. Verbal and non-verbal communications.
e. The importance of knowing your own, and your competitor’s products.
f. An in-depth discussion of the selling process.
g. Self, time and sales territory management.
h. Important functions of sales management.
XXI. BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS THROUGH THE SALES PROCESS
A. The sales process refers to a logical, sequential series of actions that can greatly increase the chances of making a sale.
B. Ten steps in the selling process:
1. Prospecting
2. Preapproach
3. Approach
4. Presentation
5. Trial Close
6. Objections
7. Meet Objections
8. Trial Close
9. Close
10. Follow-up
CHAPTER 2
Ethics First … Then Customer Relationships
LECTURE OUTLINE
I. SOCIAL, ETHICAL, AND LEGAL INFLUENCES
A. An organization’s environment is a major influence on how the firm sells its products.
B. These issues are very important due to the environmental turmoil in the world of commerce.
II. MANAGEMENT’S SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES
A. Social Responsibility—Management’s obligation to make choices and take actions that will contribute to the welfare and interests of society as well as those of the organization.
B. Organizational Stakeholders.
1. Stakeholders—any group within or outside the organization that has a stake in the organization’s performance
2. CCC GOMES—an acronym for stakeholders; Customers, Community, Creditors, Government, Owners, Managers, Employees and Suppliers.
C. An organization’s main responsibilities
1. Economic—producing goods and services that society wants and to maximize profits for its owners and shareholders.
2. Legal—what society deems important with respect to appropriate corporate behavior.
3. Ethical—behaviors that are not necessarily codified into law and may not serve the corporation’s direct economic interests.
4. Discretionary—purely voluntary and guided by a company’s desire to make social contributions.
D. How to demonstrate social responsibility
1. Taking corrective action before required.
2. Working with affected constituents to resolve mutual problems.
3. Working to establish industry-wide standards and self-regulation.
4. Publicly admitting mistakes.
5. Involvement in appropriate social programs.
6. Helping correct environmental problems.
7. Monitoring the changing social environment.
8. Establishing and enforcing a corporate code of conduct.
9. Taking needed public stands on social issues.
10. Striving to make profits on an ongoing basis.
III. WHAT INFLUENCES ETHICAL BEHAVIOR?
A. The individual’s role.
1. Personality, religious background, family upbringing, personal experiences, and situational factors shape our belief system.
2. Since people have differing beliefs about the world around them, also called a worldview, they have differing beliefs about ethics and morality.
a. Morals are the adherence to right or wrong behavior or thinking.
3. Individuals usually can be placed into one of three levels of moral development:
a. Pre-conventional—an individual acts in one’s own best interests, and thus follows rules to avoid punishment to receive rewards. Will break moral and legal laws. “What can I get away with?”
b. Conventional—individual conforms to expectations of others. Upholds moral and legal laws. “What am I legally required to do?”
c. Principled—an individual lives by an internal set of morals, values and ethics. These are upheld regardless of punishments or majority opinion. “What is the right thing to do?”
B. The organization’s role
1. Often, organizations are characterized by pre-conventional or conventional levels of moral behavior.
a. Acquiesce to questionable ethical standards to keep their jobs.
b. Usually only follow formal policies and procedures.
IV. ARE THERE ANY ETHICAL GUIDELINES?
A. What does the research say?
1. American adults said by a 3-to-1 margin that truth is always relative to a person’s situation.
2. People are most likely to make their moral and ethical decisions on the basis of whatever feels right or comfortable in a situation.
B. What does one do?
1. What would you do if you found a bank bag with $125,000? Would you return it to the bank?
2. What would you do if you found a wallet? Why might you be more likely to return the wallet without taking any of the money?
3. Out of class, is it alright to copy someone’s homework assignment even when the course syllabus states that you have to do your own work? What keeps you from copying on an exam when your professor is out of the room?
4. Is it okay to offer a customer a $10,000 trip if they place a $3 million order? Why would you not even question paying for a $20 lunch associated with the same purchase?
C. Is your conscience reliable?
1. We all have an internal ultimate moral standard that we use to measure good and evil, right and wrong.
2. Most of us know not to keep the $125,000 or the wallet or copy someone else’s work, but what would we actually do?
3. If a person’s value system is at the level 2 stage of development, this person makes decisions based upon the “situation” and what others say and do.
a. Usually people rationalize their actions, such as, “I will only copy the homework this one time.”
4. Many people are so accustomed to doing things unethically that they think nothing about it.
D. Sources of significant influence.
1. Do your decision factors include your friends, family or things you see on television or in the movies? Do their thoughts on what is ethical sometimes change from day to day?
2. Basic research by Barna has found that the leading influencers in American society are movies, television, the Internet, books, music, public policy and law, and family.
3. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to base your decisions on something that never changes?
4. The situations businesspeople face are frequently the same, yet many ethical decisions are unique to the situation.
E. Three guidelines for making ethical decisions.
1. You need a fixed point of reference that is separate from you so that you and no one else may influence it.
a. Fixed point of reference—refers to something that provides the correct action to take in any situation and never gets “tailored” to fit an occasion.
b. Separate from you—refers to something outside yourself that may be used for reference.
c. No one else may influence it—refers to something that is unchangeable by you or anyone else.
(1) An example of this is using stars for navigation—the stars are fixed points in the sky that are separate from you and no one can change them.
d. How does this relate to a person making ethical and moral decisions in life?
F. Will the Golden Rule Help?
1. One similarity in virtually all faith-based principles is the presence of a “Golden Rule” concept.
2. The Golden Rule does not involve reciprocity—“if you do for me, I will do for you.” It is doing for others without expecting something in return.
3. “Could the Golden Rule serve as a universal, practical, helpful standard for the businessperson’s conduct?”
4. President Bush thinks so, he said, “A call to love your neighbor just like you’d like to be loved yourself. It’s a universal call, and it’s a call that has been applicable throughout history. It’s really needed right now.”
5. Would you consider your faith a fixed point of reference that never changes and is separate from you?
V. MANAGEMENT’S ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES
A. Ethics—Code of moral principles and values that govern the behaviors of a person or group with respect to what is right or wrong.
B. What is ethical behavior?
1. Ethical Behavior—treating others fairly.
a. Being Honest.
b. Maintaining confidence and trust.
c. Following the rules.
d. Conducting yourself in the proper manner.
e. Treating others fairly.
f. Demonstrating loyalty to company and responsibility.
g. Carrying your share of work and responsibility.
C. What is an Ethical Dilemma?
1. Arises in a situation when each alternative choice or behavior has some undesirable elements due to potentially negative ethical or personal consequences.
VI. ETHICS IN DEALING WITH SALESPEOPLE
A. Sales Managers have social and ethical responsibilities to their sales personnel.
B. Five ethical considerations by sales managers are:
1. Level of sales pressure to place on a salesperson.
2. Decisions affecting territory
3. Whether to be honest with the salesperson.
4. What to do with the salesperson who is ill.
5. What rights do employees have?
a. Termination-at-will—must now have accurate records which led to an employee’s termination.
b. Privacy—non-job related information is being taken out of personal files by employers.
c. Cooperative acceptance—employees are protected by law from acts of discrimination and sexual harassment.
C. Company benefits of respecting employee rights:
1. Employees more productive.
2. Attracting good sales personnel.
3. Reduce legal costs.
4. Reduce wage-increase demands.
VII. SALESPEOPLE’S ETHICS IN DEALING WITH THEIR EMPLOYERS
A. Salespeople, as well as managers, may occasionally:
1. Misuse company assets
2. Moonlight
3. Cheat
4. Affect other salespeople
5. Attempt technology theft
VIII. ETHICS IN DEALING WITH CUSTOMERS
A. Common problems faced in dealing with customers:
1. Bribes—a thin line between good business and the misuse of a bribe or gift.
2. Misrepresentation—of the product, company, company policies, prices, or delivery time in attempt to make a sale.
a. Salespeople must understand the difference between opinions and statements of fact.
(1) Opinions do not have legal consequences.
(2) A company may be sued if its salesperson uses erroneous statements of “fact.”
b. Suggestions for staying legal:
(1) Understand the difference between statements of praise and statements of fact.
(2) Educate customers.
(3) Be accurate.
(4) Know the product’s technical specifications.
(5) Avoid exaggerations about product safety.
(6) Be familiar with laws regarding warranties.
(7) Understand your product’s capabilities.
(8) Keep current with design changes.
(9) Avoid offering untested opinions.
(10) Never overstep authority.
3. Price discrimination—some customers may be given price reductions, promotional allowances and support while others are not. This is a violation of the Robinson-Patman Act of 1936.
4. Tie-in-sales—buyer may be required to buy other products that are not wanted. These are prohibited under the Clayton Act.
5. Exclusive Dealership—also prohibited under the Clayton Act.
6. Reciprocity—buying a product from someone if the person or organization agrees to buy from you.
7. Sales restrictions.
a. FTC “cooling off” laws.
(1) Within three days, buyer can:
(a) Cancel contract.
(b) Return merchandise.
(c) Obtain full refund.
(2) Law covers sales of $25 or over made door-to-door.
(3) Buyer must have written, dated contract and be told of the three-day period.
8. Green River Ordinance—required a license for selling direct to consumers.
IX. THE INTERNATIONAL SIDE OF ETHICS
A. Despite different laws in other countries, U.S. firms are subject to U.S. laws.
X. MANAGING SALES ETHICS
A. Follow the leader—chief executives may set the example.
B. Leader selection—carefully choose managers with high levels of moral development.
C. Establish a Code of Ethics—a formal statement of the company’s views concerning ethics and social values.
1. Principle-based statements.
2. Policy-based statements.
D. Create Ethical Structures.
1. Ethical Committee—group of executives appointed to oversee company ethics.
2. Ethical ombudsman—official given the responsibility of corporate conscience who hears and investigates ethical complaints and informs top management of potential ethical issues.
E. Encourage whistle-blowing.
F. Create an ethical sales climate.
G. Establish control systems.
XI. ETHICS IN BUSINESS AND SALES
A. Do you make your moral and ethical decisions based upon:
1. Whatever will bring you the most pleasing or satisfying results.
2. What will make other people happy or minimize interpersonal conflict.
3. Values taught by your family
4. Religious principles and teaching or Bible content
5. Something other than the above four reasons.
6. What’s ethical to one person may not be for another
B. Helpful Hints to Making Career Decisions.
1. Think about whether or not your personal belief system lends itself to the business or sales profession.
2. Be involved in businesses/organizations that provide worthwhile services not just things that feed the world’s desires.
3. Do what is right according to your beliefs no matter what the cost.
4. Do not compromise your beliefs.
5. Remember that people must always be more important than products, finance, fame, power, and position.
6. Recognize that good people are desperately needed in all types of businesses/organizations.
C. Integrity, Trust, and Character
1. A person with integrity is honest without compromise or corruption
a. From integrity flows confidence that one can trust the other
b. Ethics begin at the individual level of the organization.
2. Integrity and trust form the attributes that make up and distinguish the organization and salesperson, often referred to as character.
3. Character is developed and revealed by tests, and all of life is a test.
4. Integrity, trust, character helps form the values or moral code of conduct toward others.
5. People who use The Golden Rule as their moral compass practice and speak the truth.
E. The Foundation and Cornerstone
1. Although the firm’s foundation is based upon service, its cornerstone is love.
a. Love is the strong affection, desire, or devotion to people.
XII. THE TREE OF BUSINESS LIFE
A. The Golden Rule of Selling should apply to all aspects of business, marketing and sales.
B. The Tree of Business Life represents the application of the Golden rule to business and selling.
1. The tree with the T’s standing for truth are framed by ethical service builds relationships.
2. Roots of integrity, trustworthiness, and character ground the tree.
3. The center of business life is truth.
a. The truth refers to the facts needed to make ethical and moral decisions.
4. You cannot separate an individual’s personal life from his or her business life.
CHAPTER 3
The Psychology of Selling: Why People Buy
LECTURE OUTLINE
I. THE TREE OF BUSINESS LIFE: BENEFITS
A. As you learn about the psychology of selling, why people buy, and emphasizing benefits in your sales presentation, keep the ‘Golden Rule’ in mind.
1. Customers want to trust you and they depend on you to tell the truth.
2. Do the right thing for the person even if it means no sale.
3. Ethical service builds relationships and is based upon the truth.
II. WHY PEOPLE BUY – THE BLACK BOX APPROACH
A. Black Box—the internal mental processes that a person goes through when making a decision.
B. Stimulus-Response Model—assumes that prospects will respond in some predictable manner to the sales presentation.
C. Certain things are known about a prospect’s mental process:
1. People buy for both practical and psychological reasons.
2. Methods are known that salespeople can use to help determine the prospect’s thoughts during sales presentations.
3. We know many of the factors that buyers consider in purchase decisions.
III. PSYCHLOLGICAL INFLUENCES ON BUYING
A. Motivation to buy must exist.
1. Needs—result from a lack of something required or desirable.
2. Wants—needs learned by the person.
3. Have practical (transportation) needs.
4. Have psychological (Cadillac) needs.
B. Economic needs: The best value for the money
1. Economic needs—the buyer’s need to purchase the most satisfying product for the money.
a. Price—higher prices can be overshadowed by superior quality.
b. Quality—performance, dependability and durability.
C. Awareness of needs: Some buyers are unsure.
1. Three degrees (levels) of need awareness:
a. Conscious—fully known needs.
b. Preconscious—may not be fully aware of needs.
c. Unconscious—have needs but do not know what they are.
IV. A FABULOUS APPROACH TO BUYER NEED SATISFACTION
A. Benefit selling—relating a product’s benefits to a customer’s needs.
1. FAB selling technique – (Feature, Advantage and Benefit).
B. The product’s features: So what?
1. Features are physical characteristics.
C. The product’s advantages: Prove it!
1. Advantages are performance characteristics.
2. Advantage: what the product does.
3. How can it be used to the buyer’s benefit?
D. The product’s benefits: What’s in it for me?
1. Benefit selling—answer the question, “What’s in it for me?”
2. Benefits are favorable results of a particular advantage that can satisfy buyer’s needs.
E. Order can be important
1. Emphasize benefits.
2. Describe the advantages, features.
V. HOW TO DETERMINE IMPORTANT BUYING NEEDS – A KEY TO SUCCESS
A. To determine needs, LOCATE:
1. L - Listen
2. O - Observe
3. C - Combination
4. A - Ask questions
5. T - Talk to others
6. E - Empathize
VI. TRIAL CLOSE – A GREAT WAY TO UNCOVER NEEDS AND SELL
A. Trial close—checks the pulse or attitude of your prospect toward the sales presentation. The trial close is one of the best selling techniques to use in your sales presentation, and should be used at these four important times:
1. After making a strong selling point.
2. After the presentation.
3. After answering an objection.
4. Immediately before you move to close the sale.
B. The trial close allows you to determine:
1. Whether the prospect likes your product’s feature, advantage or benefit.
2. Whether you have successfully answered the objection.
3. Whether any objections remain.
4. Whether the prospect is ready for you to close the sale.
C. Trial close asks for prospect’s opinion.
D. Trial close does not ask for prospect to make a decision.
E. Trial close examples are:
1. “How does that sound to you?”
2. “Is this important to you?”
3. “It appears that you have a preference for this model. Is this what you had in mind?”
VII. SELL SEQUENCE
A. One way to incorporate the trial close into your presentation is the use of a SELL sequence:
1. Show the feature,
2. Explain the advantage,
3. Lead into benefit,
4. Let customer talk by asking questions in the form of a trial close.
B. Selling involves determining needs and skillfully relating your product’s benefits to those needs.
VIII. YOUR BUYER’S PERCEPTION
A. Perception—the process by which a person selects, organizes and interprets information.
B. Information is received through the senses that act as filtering devices through which information must pass:
1. Sight
2. Hearing
3. Touch
4. Taste
5. Smell
C. Selective Exposure—only a portion of the information will be retained by a person.
D. Selective Distortion—altering of information to reinforce one’s own beliefs and attitudes.
E. Selective Retention—a person will sometimes completely forget information that does not coincide with his own beliefs and attitude.
IX. PERCEPTIONS, ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS
A. Buyer’s perceptions are learned.
1. Learning—acquiring knowledge or a behavior based upon past experiences.
B. Buyer’s attitude about the product is important.
1. Attitude—learned predisposition toward something.
C. Buyer’s attitude must be converted into a belief.
1. Belief—a state of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in something or someone.
D. The salesperson provides the buyer with product knowledge that allows him to develop favorable personal attitudes toward the product. These attitudes will result in positive beliefs that your product will fulfill his needs.
X. THE BUYER’S PERSONALITY SHOULD BE CONSIDERED
A. Personality can affect buying decisions.
1. Personality—the individual’s distinguishing character traits, attitudes or habits.
B. Self-concept.
1. Self-concept theory—each buyer possesses four images:
a. The real self—the individual as he actually is.
b. The self image—the way the individual sees himself.
c. The ideal self—the way the individual would like to be.
d. The looking-glass self—the way the individual thinks others regard him.
XI. ADAPTIVE SELLING BASED ON THE BUYER’S STYLE
A. Personality typing—method to uncover aspects of the prospect’s personality that might influence a buying decision.
1. Carl Jung
a. Laid the basis of modern psychiatry.
b. Four categories of personality types:
(1) Thinker
(2) Intuitor
(3) Feeler
(4) Senser
c. Guidelines to identify personality type.
(1) Identify the key trait.
(2) Focus on time orientation.
(3) Identify the environment.
(4) What people say.
B. Adapt your presentation to the buyer’s style.
1. Major challenge is to adapt your personal style to that of the person you’re dealing with.
2. Thinker style.
a. High value placed on logic, ideas and systematic inquiry.
b. Present you material in an orderly manner.
c. Have plenty of facts and supporting material.
3. Intuitor style.
a. High value placed on ideas, innovation, concepts, theory and long-range thinking.
b. Give the buyer the “bigger picture.”
c. Build the buyer’s concepts and objectives.
4. Feeler style.
a. High value placed on being people-oriented and sensitive.
b. Relate to buyer the impact on people your idea will have.
c. Keep on a personal note with small talk.
5. Senser style.
a. High value placed on action.
b. Be brief and to the point.
c. Verbal communication more effective than written.
6. Watch for clues.
a. Be observant of a buyer’s environment to determine that person’s personality style.
b. Determine primary (dominant) style and complimentary or back-up style.
C. What is your style?
1. Find out your own personality style by completing the questionnaire at the end of the chapter or going to the web-sites in the “www” exercises at the back of the book.
XII. YOU CAN CLASSIFY BUYING SITUATIONS
A. Some decisions are routine.
1. Some products are purchased by habit.
B. Some decisions are limited.
1. If customers are not familiar with a particular brand, they will seek more information.
C. Some decisions are extensive.
1. Most large purchase decisions are made after the buyer carefully reviews all information.
XIII. TECHNOLOGY PROVIDES INFORMATION
A. Salespeople can serve customers better and faster.
XIV. VIEW BUYERS AS DECISION MAKERS
A. Five basic steps of the buying decision:
1. Need arousal.
a. Help the customer realize his needs.
2. Collection of information.
a. The customer may choose to collect information from a variety of companies.
3. Information evaluation.
a. The customer matches this information with his needs, attitudes and beliefs.
b. To provide buyer proper information, you need to know:
(1) What product attributes are important in buying decision—price, quality, service?
(2) What are the most important attributes?
(3) What are the prospect’s attitudes toward:
(a) Your product(s)?
(b) Your competitor’s product(s)?
(4) What level of satisfaction is expected from buying this product?
c. You must be prepared to:
(1) Alter buyer’s beliefs about:
(a) Your product(s).
(b) Your competitor’s product(s).
(2) Alter importance of attribute – quality and service more important than price.
(3) Bring out unnoticed attributes.
(4) Change person’s search for the “ideal” product into a more “realistic” product.
4. Purchase decision.
a. A buyer’s decision to make a purchase can be altered by four basic factors:
(1) The attitude of others.
(2) The “perceived risk” of buying the product – “will I receive my money’s worth?”
(3) Uncontrollable factors, (insufficient financing, failing of physical exam.)
(4) The salesperson’s action after the decision has been reached.
5. Postpurchase.
a. After the purchase, the buyer may experience:
(1) Satisfaction—the difference between what was expected to be received from the products purchased and what was actually experienced after using the product.
(2) Dissonance—tension over whether the right decision was made in buying the product.
(a) Show the buyer how to properly use the product.
(b) Be realistic in your claims of the product.
(c) Reinforce the buyer’s decision by reminding him how well the product performs and fulfills his needs.
(d) Follow-up after the sale to determine if a problem exists.
XV. SATISFIED CUSTOMERS ARE EASIER TO SELL TO
A. Building relationships with customers makes selling easier.
XVI. TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY – A CHOICE DECISION
A. A salesperson should consider the following questions before developing a sales presentation.
1. What type of product is desired?
2. What type of buying situation is it?
3. How will the product be used?
4. Who is involved in the buying decisions?
5. What practical factors may influence the buyer’s decision?
6. What psychological factor may influence the buyer’s decision?
7. What are the buyer’s important buying needs?
B. People will buy if …
1. They perceive a need or problem.
2. They desire to fulfill a need or solve a problem.
3. They decide there is a high probability that your product will fulfill their needs or solve their problems better than your competitor’s.
4. They believe they should buy from you.
5. They have the resources and authority to buy.
CHAPTER 4
Communication for Relationship Building: It’s Not All Talk
LECTURE OUTLINE
I. THE TREE OF BUSINESS LIFE: COMMUNICATION
A. Body language, coupled with asking questions periodically as you talk with someone and listening to their reply’s are a great way to better understand what is going on in someone’s mind.
II. COMMUNICATION: IT TAKES TWO
A. Communication—the act of transmitting verbal and non-verbal information and understanding between seller and buyer.
1. Face-to-face communication is composed of:
a. Verbal messages
b. Vocal messages (voice quality, pitch inflection and pauses)
c. Non-verbal messages
B. Salesperson-buyer communication process requires feedback.
1. Communication occurs when a “sender” transmits a “message” through some type of “medium” to a “receiver” who responds to that message.
2. Eight major communication elements:
a. Source—salesperson.
b. Encoding process—conversion by the salesperson of ideas and concepts into the language and materials used in the sales presentation.
c. Message—information conveyed in the sales presentation.
d. Medium—form of communication used in the sales presentation and discussion.
e. Decoding process—interpretation of the information by the receiver.
f. Receiver—the prospective buyer.
g. Feedback—reaction to the communication as transmitted to the receiver.
h. Noise—factors that distort communications between buyer and seller.
III. NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION: WATCH FOR IT
A. Four major non-verbal communication channels are:
1. Physical space between people
2. Appearance
3. Handshake
4. Body movements
B. Concept of space.
1. Territorial space—refers to the area around the self a person will not allow another person to enter without consent.
2. Four types of main distances to consider:
a. Intimate space—of up to two feet or about arm’s length is the most sensitive zone, since it is reserved for very close friends and loved ones.
b. Personal space—is the closest zone a stranger or business acquaintance is normally allowed to enter, (two to four feet).
c. Social space—is the area normally used for a sales presentation, (four to twelve feet).
d. Public space—is often used by the salesperson making a presentation to a group of people, (greater than twelve feet).
3. Space threats.
a. The “territorial imperative” causes people to feel that they should defend their space or territory.
4. Space invasion.
a. Prospect allows you to enter or invade personal or even intimate space is saying “come into my space, let’s be friends.”
b. You can then use space to your advantage.
IV. COMMUNICATION THROUGH APPEARANCE AND THE HANDSHAKE
A. Style hair carefully—important factor.
B. Dress as a professional—wardrobe is always a major determinant of sales success.
C. Shake hands firmly and look ‘em in the eye – general rules:
1. Strangers may be uncomfortable shaking hands, so:
a. At times, allow your customer to initiate the gesture.
b. Maintain eye contact, gripping the hand firmly.
D. Body language gives you clues.
1. Acceptance signals—those that indicate that the buyer believes your product might fulfill his needs.
a. Body angle—leaning forward or upright at attention.
b. Face—smiling, pleasant, relaxed, good eye contact, positive voice tones.
c. Arms—relaxed and generally open.
d. Hands—relaxed and generally open, doing calculations, holding on to a sample as you try to withdraw it, firm handshake.
e. Legs—crossed and pointed toward you or uncrossed.
2. Caution signals—the buyer is neutral or skeptical.
a. Body angle—leaning away from you.
b. Face—puzzled, little or no expression, little eye contact, neutral or questioning.
c. Arms—crossed, tense.
d. Hands—moving, crossed away from you.
e. Legs—moving, crossed away from you.
3. How to handle caution signals:
a. Adjust to the situation by slowing up or departing from your planned presentation.
b. Use open-ended questions to encourage the buyers to talk and express their attitudes and beliefs.
c. Listen and respond to what buyers say.
d. Project acceptance signals yourself.
4. Disagreement signals:
a. Body angle—retracted shoulders, leaning away from you, entire body is back – wants to move away.
b. Face—tense, showing anger, wrinkled face and brow, very little eye contact, negative voice tones, may become suddenly silent.
c. Arms—tense, crossed over chest.
d. Hands—tense and clenched, weak handshake.
e. Legs—crossed and away from you.
5. How to handle disagreement signals.
a. Use open-ended questions.
b. Project acceptance signals yourself.
c. Stop your planned presentation.
d. Reduce or eliminate pressure to buy or talk.
e. Let him know you’re there to help him, not sell at any cost.
f. Use direct questions to determine his attributes and beliefs.
6. Body guidelines:
a. Be able to recognize non-verbal signals.
b. Be able to interpret them correctly.
c. Be prepared to alter a selling strategy by slowing, changing or stopping a planned presentation.
d. Respond non-verbally and verbally to a buyer’s non-verbal signals.
V. BARRIERS TO COMMUNICATIONS
A. Differences in perception—buyer and seller should share a common understanding of the information contained in the presentation.
B. Buyer does not recognize a need for product.
C. Selling pressure—enthusiasm and some sales pressure is necessary, but high pressure techniques erect communication barriers.
D. Information overload—presenting too much technical information may confuse or offend the buyer.
E. Disorganized sales presentation—can frustrate the buyer.
F. Distractions—telephone calls and people entering the office may sidetrack the buyer’s thoughts.
G. Poor listening—at times, the buyer may not listen to you.
H. How and what you say—controlled and caring talk are positive; conniving and careless talk are negative.
I. Not adapting to buyer’s style—match your communication style to your customer’s style.
VI. MASTER PERSUASIVE COMMUNICATION TO MAINTAIN CONTROL
A. Salespeople need to be good communicators.
1. Persuasion—the ability to change a person’s belief, position or course of action.
B. Feedback guides your presentation.
1. Salespeople need to generate feedback from the buyer – a recognizable response.
C. Remember the trial close.
1. Predetermine when and what feedback-producing questions, (such as trial closes) to use in your presentations.
D. Empathy puts you in your customer’s shoes.
1. The ability to identify and understand other people’s feelings, ideas and situations.
E. Keep it simple.
1. Make the buyer feel comfortable by using non-technical information and maintaining an attitude of mutual respect.
F. Creating mutual trust develops friendship.
1. Salespeople who develop a mutual, trusting relationship with their customers cannot help but be successful.
G. Listening clues you in.
1. Hearing refers to being able to detect sounds.
2. Listening means getting meaning from sounds that are heard.
3. A good salesperson should listen carefully to a buyer to determine his need or concern. “Guides for listening” are:
4. Listen to words and thoughts.
a. Note changes in eye contact
b. Concentrate
c. Listen between the words
d. Listen to the full story.
e. Recognize feelings and emotions.
f. Restate the buyer’s position (summarize for clarity).
g. Question with care.
5. The three levels of listening:
a. Marginal listening
b. Evaluative listening
c. Active listening
6. Technology helps to remember.
a. Memory is simple recall over time.
b. Memory retention.
H. Your attitude makes the difference.
1. Toward both the sales job and customers; interest and enthusiasm in helping them fulfill their needs.
I. Proof statements make you believable.
1. A statement that substantiates claims made by the salesperson.
CHAPTER 5
Sales Knowledge: Customers, Products, Technologies
LECTURE OUTLINE
I. THE TREE OF BUSINESS LIFE: KNOWLEDGE
A. While facts need to be learned, it is more important to have the wisdom necessary to apply the knowledge, and skills needed to help you since customers rely on the help of salespeople.
B. The customer relies on the salesperson to provide information—truthfully.
II. SOURCES OF SALES KNOWLEDGE
A. Sales Training—the effort put forth by an employer to provide the opportunity for the salesperson to receive job-related attitudes, concepts, rules and skills that result in improved performance in the selling environment.
B. Sales Experience—selling is a skill developed through experience.
III. KNOWLEDGE BUILDS RELATIONSHIPS
A. Knowledge increases confidence in salespeople…
B. … And buyers.
1. Thorough knowledge about your product is needed to gain the buyer’s confidence.
C. Relationships increase sales.
IV. KNOW YOUR CUSTOMERS
A. Ask questions to determine needs.
V. KNOW YOUR COMPANY
A. Salespeople should be knowledgeable about their company’s policies and procedures.
B. General company information.
1. Company growth and accomplishment—knowledge of the company’s origin and development provides the salespeople with promotional material and confidence in the company.
2. Policies and procedures—the salesperson should let the customer know:
a. How the order will be processed.
b. How long it will take to receive the order.
c. The policy on returned goods.
d. How to open a new account.
e. What to do if he receives the wrong shipment.
3. Production facilities
4. Service facilities—promise of prompt repair services can help make a sale.
VI. KNOW YOUR PRODUCT
A. A salesperson’s product knowledge should include:
1. Performance data.
2. Physical size and characteristics.
3. How the product operates.
4. Specific features, advantages and benefits of the product.
5. How well the product is selling in the marketplace.
VII. KNOW YOUR RESELLERS
A. Salespeople should learn as much as possible about each channel member.
1. Likes and dislikes of each channel member’s customers.
2. Product lines and assortment each one carries.
3. When each member sees salespeople.
4. Their distribution, promotion and pricing policies.
5. What and how much of a product each has purchased in the past.
VIII. ADVERTISING AIDS SALESPEOPLE
A. Types of advertising differ.
1. National advertising—reaches all users of the product across the country.
2. Retail advertising—used by retailers to reach customers within a geographic area.
3. Cooperative (“co-op”) advertising—conducted by the retailer, and paid for by the manufacturer or cost is shared.
a. Advertising agreement.
4. Trade advertising—undertaken by the manufacturer directed toward the wholesaler or retailer.
5. Industrial advertising—aimed at individuals and organizations that purchase products for use in manufacturing other products.
6. Direct-mail advertising—ads, samples and coupons mailed directly to the consumer or industrial user to expose him to or remind him of the product.
B. Why spend money on advertising?
1. Increase overall and individual product sales.
2. Build product and/or company recognition.
3. Give salespeople additional selling information to use in their sales presentations.
4. Develop leads for salespeople.
5. Increase cooperation from middlemen.
6. Help educate the customer with the company’s products.
7. Inform prospects that a product is on the market and where to buy it.
8. Aid in reducing cognitive dissonance over the product.
9. Create sales between a salesperson’s calls.
IX. SALES PROMOTION GENERATES SALES
A. Consumer sales promotion—includes free samples, coupons and demonstrations to consumers.
B. Trade sales promotion—encourages resellers to purchase and aggressively sell a manufacturer’s products by offering incentives like sales contests, displays, special purchase prices, and free merchandise.
C. Point-of-purchase displays: get them out there.
1. Allow a product to be easily seen and purchased.
2. Point-of-purchase (POP).
D. Shelf positioning is important to your success.
1. Shelf positioning—refers to the physical placement of the product within the retailer’s store.
2. Shelf-facing—the number of individual products placed beside each other on a shelf.
E. Premiums
1. Premium—an article of merchandise offered as an incentive to the user to take some action.
X. WHAT’S IT WORTH? PRICING YOUR PRODUCT
A. Price refers to the value or worth of a product that attracts the buyer to exchange money or something of value for the product.
B. It is important for salespeople to familiarize themselves with the company’s price, discount, and credit policies so that they can use them to competitive advantage and enhance their professional image with the buyer.
XI. KNOW YOUR COMPETITION, INDUSTRY AND ECONOMY
A. Successful salespeople are knowledgeable about their competitors’ products.
B. Salespeople should keep informed about the industry and the economy.
XII. PERSONAL COMPUTERS AND SELLING
A. Valuable tool for increasing productivity within the sales force.
B. Major reasons for using a PC:
1. More effective management of sales leads and better follow-through on customer contacts (permanent lead file).
2. Improves customer relations due to more effective follow-ups, this leads to further productivity gains.
3. Improves organization of selling time.
4. Provides more efficient account control and better time and territory management.
5. There is a definite increase in the number and quality of sales calls.
6. Faster speed and improved accuracy in getting reports and orders to the company.
7. Helps develop more effective proposals and persuasive presentations.
XIII. KNOWLEDGE OF TECHNOLOGY ENHANCES SALES AND CUSTOMER SERVICE
A. Sales force automation (an application of technology) improves customer service and increases sales through:
B. Personal productivity programs—assist with data storage and retrieval, time management and presentations.
1. Contact management is a listing of all the customer contacts that a salesperson makes in the course of conducting business.
a. ACT! Contact Manager—the best known contact management software.
2. Calendar management involves an electronic calendar that automatically checks for conflicts, eliminating the need for rescheduling.
3. Automated sales plans, tactics, and ticklers involves a system begins working as soon as the initial meeting is entered into the system.
a. Reminder to send a thank you letter
b. Schedule a follow-up phone call
c. Prevents clients from becoming orphans when a salesperson leaves or gets promoted.
4. Geographic information systems allow a salesperson to view and manipulate customer and /or prospect information on an electronic map.
5. Computer-based presentations can be a powerful presentation tool and can be easily created at relatively low costs.
C. Communications with Customers and Employer
1. Today’s most popular sales force automation systems involve word processing, email, and faxes.
2. Word Processing can abbreviate the time it takes to accomplish written communications to no more than a minute or two.
3. Electronic Mail allows messages to be sent electronically through a system that delivers them immediately to any number of recipients.
4. Fax Capabilities and Support is the most important piece of communication equipment for businesses next to the telephone.
a. Enables the salesperson to fax a document, in his/her car perhaps, without having to print a hard copy.
D. Customer Order Processing and Service Support
1. Automated systems shorten the sales-and-delivery cycle
2. Salespeople’s mobile offices
a. Some salespeople have begun installing small offices directly into their vehicles, such as minivans.
b. Allows salesperson to maintain constant contact with their customers even when driving between cities or states.
XIV. SALES: INTERNET AND THE WORLD WIDE WEB.
A. The Internet provides salespeople access to research, data, people, and vast amounts of information.
B. Internet—global network of computers.
C. World Wide Web—part of Internet housing Web sites.
1. Page—screen of information.
2. Links—link Web information.
3. Surfing—searching different Web sites.
XV. GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY PROVIDES SERVICE.
A. Increased world-wide interaction requires access and exchange of timely data on a timely basis.
XVI. TECHNOLOGY ETIQUETTE.
A. Netiquette is the term used for etiquette on the Internet.
1. E-mail do’s and don’ts
a. Be concise, but not too short.
b. Respond as quickly to an E-mail as you would answer telephone messages.
c. Avoid flaming, which is the equivalent of a verbal lashing on the Internet.
d. Use clear, descriptive and current subject headings.
e. Use dates, salutations, proper punctuation and a friendly closing.
f. Don’t make comments or requests in an E-mail that you would not make in person.
g. Don’t send repeat messages.
h. Don’t use all capital letters; it is the equivalent of shouting.
i. Don’t send bad news via E-mail.
B. Cell Phones
1. Guidelines
a. The person you are with is the most important person to talk to.
b. Use text messaging to simplify your life.
c. Turn off your phone during meetings, sales calls, and presentations.
d. Don’t engage in cell yell.
C. Voice Mail
1. Always change your outgoing message to let customers know of your availability and leave a contact name and phone number of someone who can help them in case they need immediate assistance.
2. Be courteous when leaving voice messages for others.
D. Faxes
1. Always remember to include a cover page with your fax number, the number of pages being sent and a phone number where you can be reached.
2. Let the person know that the fax is coming.
3. Check the spelling and grammar.
E. Speakerphones and conference calls
1. People in a conference call should identify themselves while speaking, and one person should act as a meeting leader.
F. Pagers
1. Switch your beeper or pager to silent alert during meetings and sales calls.
XVII. APPENDIX: SALES ARITHMETIC AND PRICING
A. What’s it worth? Pricing your product.
1. Price—the value or worth of a product that attracts the buyer to exchange money or something of value for the product.
B. Types of prices.
1. List price—standard price charged to customers.
2. discounts.
3. Zone price—price based on geographical location or zone of customers.
4. FOB shipping point—buyer pays for Net price—price after all allowances for transportation charges.
5. FOB destination—seller pays all shipping costs.
C. Discounts lower the price.
1. Quantity discounts: Buy more, pay less.
a. Large quantities are produced at lower costs; the savings are passed on to customers.
b. Non-cumulative quantity discounts—one-time reductions in price.
c. Cumulative quantity discounts—discounts received for buying certain amounts of a product over a stated period of time.
2. Cash discounts: Get the customer to pay on time.
a. Earned by buyers who pay their bills within a stated period of time.
3. Trade discounts: Get middlemen’s attention.
a. Reduced prices for middlemen.
4. Consumer discounts: Increase sales.
a. One-time price reductions passed on from manufacturer to middleman or directly to the consumer.
D. Markup represents gross profit.
1. Markup—dollar amount added to the cost of the product to calculate its selling price.
2. Gross profit—money available to cover the costs of marketing, operating the business and profit. If you read this, contact me and I’ll send you $10 if you are one of the first three.
3. Net profit—money remaining after paying the costs of marketing and operating the business.
4. Return on Investment (ROI)—an additional sum of money expected from an investment over and above the original investment.
CHAPTER 6
Prospecting – The Lifeblood of Selling
LECTURE OUTLINE
I. THE TREE OF BUSINESS LIFE: PROSPECTING
A. Without previous knowledge of who might purchase their product, the sales locates individuals and/or organizations what have the money, authority, and desire to buy.
B. Since people tend to do business with people they know, plus feel salespeople are not honest or ethical, prospecting is not easy.
II. THE SALES PROCESS HAS 10 STEPS
A. Refers to a sequence of actions by the salesperson which leads toward the customer taking a desired action and ends with follow-up to ensure purchase satisfaction.
B. Steps in the selling process:
1. Prospecting
2. Preapproach
3. Approach
4. Presentation
5. Trial Close
6. Objections
7. Meet Objections
8. Trial Close
9. Close
10. Follow-up
III. STEPS BEFORE THE SALES PRESENTATION
A. Prospecting.
B. Obtaining an appointment.
C. Preapproach planning.
IV. PROSPECTING – THE LIFEBLOOD OF SELLING
A. Prospect—a qualified person or business that has the potential to buy your product or service.
B. Prospecting—identifies potential customers.
1. Increases sales.
2. Replaces customers that will be lost over time.
C. “Lead”—a person or business who might be a prospect.
D. Questions to ask to determine if an individual is a qualified prospect:
1. Does the prospect have the money to buy?
2. Does the prospect have the authority to buy?
3. Does the prospect have the desire to buy?
V. WHERE TO FIND PROSPECTS
A. Sources of prospects can be many and varied or few and similar, depending on the service or good the salesperson sells.
B. Persons selling different services and goods might not use the same sources for prospects.
VI. PLANNING A PROSPECTING STRATEGY
A. Many salespeople prefer to contact prospects having similar characteristics to themselves.
B. Evaluation of possible alteration of prospecting methods.
VII. PROSPECTING METHODS
A. E-prospecting on the Web
1. Individuals
a. Free sites: Yahoo.com
b. Peoplefinder.com offers information for a fee.
2. Organizations
a. The company’s Web address.
b. Other sites: bigyellow.com, switchboard.com, yahoo.com
c. Search engines.
B. Cold Canvas method—relies solely on the volume of cold calls made.
C. Endless Chain Customer Referral – after every sale or contact, the salesman asks the customer for a list of several friends who might be interested in the product.
D. Orphaned Customers—salespeople often leave their employers to take other jobs and their customers are left as new prospects for other employees.
E. Sales Lead Clubs—organization or group of salespeople in related but noncompetitive fields to meet twice a month to share leads and prospecting tips. F. Get Lists of Prospects—make a list of what your ideal prospect looks like and take the information and apply it.
F. Become an Expert—Get Published – by convincing an editor that you’re an expert in your field, you become one and prospects will come to you when they are ready to buy.
G. Public Exhibitions and Demonstrations—frequently take place at trade shows and other types of special interest gatherings.
H. Center of Influence—involves finding and cultivating people in a community or territory who are willing to cooperate in helping to find prospects.
I. Direct Mail—is an effective way to contact individuals and businesses.
J. Telephone and Telemarketing—allows for person-to-person contact and interaction between the lead and the caller.
K. Observation—is a way a salesperson can often find prospects by constantly watching what is happening in the sales area.
L. Networking—is making and using contacts.
VIII. PROSPECTING GUIDELINES
A. Three criteria in developing the best prospecting method:
1. Customize a prospective method to fit your firm’s needs.
2. Concentrate on high potential customers first.
3. Always call back prospects who didn’t buy.
B. Referrals Used in most Prospecting Methods:
1. Cold Canvassing
2. Endless Chain—Customer Referrals
3. Orphaned Customers
4. Sales Lead Clubs
5. Public Exhibitions and Demonstrations
6. Center of Influence
7. Telephone
8. Networking
C. The Prospect Pool
1. Group of names gathered from various sources
2. Usually created from four main sources:
a. Leads-people and organizations you know nothing, or very little, about.
b. Referrals-people or organizations you frequently know very little about other that what you learned from the referral.
c. Orphans-company records provide your only information about these past customers.
d. Your customers-the most important prospect for future sales.
IX. THE REFERRAL CYCLE
A. Provides guidelines for when a salesperson should ask for referrals.
B. The Parallel Referral Sale—sells the product plus sells the prospect on providing referrals.
C. The Secret is to Ask Correctly.
1. Clients objections to giving referrals:
a. Afraid of upsetting friends and relatives.
b. Don’t want friends to think they’re being talked about.
c. May believe in the product but not in the salesperson.
d. Fear the salesperson may not be around years down the road.
e. Don’t feel they can benefit from giving the salesperson referrals.
2. When to ask
a. Ask professionally at each phase of the referral cycle.
D. The Preapproach
1. The effectiveness of your approach will be the deciding factor in determining whether or not you are given the opportunity to make a sales presentation.
2. Mentioning that a firm or business acquaintance of theirs recommend that you call helps alleviate some of the initial anxiety in dealing with quick objections.
E. The Presentation
1. During this phase, the salesperson has the greatest opportunity to influence the prospect.
2. The prospect will scrutinize every action, word and expression.
3. Must also be conscious of presenting your desire to get referrals.
4. Begins with sitting down with the prospect for the purpose of making a sales presentation.
a. Make conscious effort to mention the referring person.
5. Next 10-15 minutes should be no discussion of the product, but should be used to build rapport and break down any barriers between the prospect and their perception of the salesperson.
6. After building rapport, take a moment to explain to the prospect what will occur during the time spent together.
F. Product delivery
1. Identify precise moment that product has value for the customer.
G. Service and Follow-Up
1. Customer Service is the performance of any helpful or professional work or activity for a person, family, or organization.
2. Provides ongoing opportunities to maintain contact with your customer.
H. Don’t mistreat the referral.
1. The salesperson who mistreats a referral can lose the referring customer and the prospect.
2. Treat the referral professionally.
3. Always follow through on what you have told the referral.
4. Tracking Referrals is just as important as staying in contact with customers.
a. Keep detailed records on all information you collect on the prospect/customer.
X. CALL RELUCTANCE COSTS YOU MONEY
A. About 40 percent of salespeople suffer reluctance at some point.
B. Call reluctance—not wanting to contact a prospect or customer.
1. Comes disguised as a salesperson’s natural tendencies.
2. Countermeasures are numerous and depend on the type of reluctance a salesperson has.
3. Salespeople must seek out prospects to find them.
XI. OBTAINING THE SALES INTERVIEW
A. Getting an appointment is not always easy.
1. Be creative.
2. Persistence pays off.
B. The benefits of appointment making.
1. Ensures an audience with the buyer.
2. Adds to a salesperson’s professional image.
3. Considered a gesture of respect to a prospect.
4. Telephone appointment.
a. Plan or write out what you will say.
b. Clearly identify yourself and your company.
c. Get to the point quickly.
d. Present only enough information to stimulate interest.
e. Be persistent.
f. Ask for an interview.
g. Phrase your appointment request as a question.
5. Personally Making the Appointment
a. Believe in yourself – speak and carry yourself as though you expect to get in.
b. Develop friends in the prospect’s firm.
c. Call at the right time on the right person.
d. Do not waste time waiting.
XII. WIRELESS E-MAIL HELPS YOU KEEP IN CONTACT AND PROSPECT
A. Wireless E-mail keeps you mobile.
CHAPTER 7
Planning the Sales Call is a Must!
LECTURE OUTLINE
I. THE TREE OF BUSINESS LIFE: PLANNING
A. Before making the sales call, salespeople plan on how to help people solve problems and fulfill their needs.
B. For each prospect or customer, a salesperson is often faced with a specific, unique set of problems to solve or needs to fulfill.
1. As a result each sales call requires a specific solution from the salesperson.
II. STRATEGIC CUSTOMER SALES PLANNING--THE PREAPPROACH
A. There are many aspects of planning a sales call.
1. Effective strategic problem solvers have the skills and knowledge to be able to:
a. Uncover and understand the customer’s strategic needs by gaining an in-depth knowledge of the customer’s organization.
b. Develop solutions that demonstrate a creative approach to addressing the customer’s strategic needs in the most efficient and effective manner possible.
c. Arrive at a mutually beneficial agreement.
B. Strategic Needs – the salesperson who understands the full range of the customer’s needs is in a much better position to provide a product solution that helps the customer progress more efficiently and effectively toward achieving his or her organization’s strategic goal.
C. Creative Solutions.
1. A customized version of a product and/or service that efficiently addresses the customer’s specific strategic needs.
2. A mix of goods and services—including competitors’ products and services—that offers the best possible solution in light of the customer’s strategic needs.
D. Mutually beneficial agreements.
1. Salespeople and customers must work together to develop a common understanding of the issues and challenges at hand to achieve a mutually beneficial agreement.
E. The customer relationship model.
1. Customers have strategic needs salespeople must meet through creative solutions.
2. Both come to mutually beneficial agreements.
3. Leads to long-term relationships between the customer and the salesperson.
4. Performance goals.
F. Reasons for planning the sales call.
1. Builds self-confidence.
2. Develops an atmosphere of goodwill.
3. Creates professionalism.
4. Increases sales.
5. Uncovers customer needs.
G. Elements of sales call planning.
1. Determining the sales call objective.
2. Developing or reviewing the customer profile.
3. Developing a customer benefit plan.
4. Developing the individual sales presentation based on the sales call objective, customer profile, and customer benefit plan.
H. Always have a sales call objective.
1. The pre-call objective.
2. Focus and flexibility.
3. Making the goal specific.
4. Moving toward your objective.
5. Set an objective for every call—SMART.
6. Customer profile provides insight, it should tell you:
a. Who makes buying decisions?
b. What is the buyer’s background?
c. What are the desired business terms and needs of the account?
d. What competitors do business with the account?
e. What is the history of the account?
7. Customer benefit plan: What it’s all about!
a. Step 1—select the features, advantages and benefits of your product to present to your prospect.
b. Step 2—develop your “marketing plan.”
c. Step 3—develop your “business proposition” (including your price, percent markup, forecasted profit per square food of shelf space, return-on-investment, and payment plan)
d. Step 4—develop a “suggested purchase order.”
8. The sales presentation is where it all comes together.
a. Seven steps of a sales presentation.
(1) Approach
(2) Presentation.
(3) Trial close.
(4) Methods to overcome objections.
(5) Ways to overcome objections.
(6) Additional trial closes.
(7) Close of the sales presentation.
III. THE PROSPECT’S MENTAL STEPS
A. Attention
1. Goal is to quickly capture prospects attention
2. Attention-getters have only a temporary effect, so be ready to move quickly to sustaining the prospects interest.
B. Interest.
1. Prospects enter the interest phase if they listen to and enter into a discussion with you.
2. Quickly strive to link the product’s benefits to prospects needs.
a. If this is done correctly the prospect will usually express desire for the product.
C. Desire.
1. Desire is created when prospects express a wish or wanting for a product like yours.
2. Anticipate prospects’ objections and provide information to maintain their desire.
D. Conviction.
1. Prospects need to be convinced that your product is the best for their needs and that you are the best supplier of that product.
2. Strive to develop a strong belief that the product is best suited to the prospects’ specific needs.
3. Conviction is established when no doubts remain about purchasing the product from you.
E. Purchase or action.
1. If each of the preceding steps has been implemented correctly, closing the sale is the easiest step in the sales presentation.
IV. OVERVIEW OF THE SELLING PROCESS
A. The presentations approach gets the prospect’s attention and interest by having the prospect recognize a need or problem and state a wish to fulfill the need or solve the problem.
B. The presentation constantly maintains interest in the information you present and generates desire for the product.
C. Uncovering and answering the prospect’s questions and revealing and meeting or overcoming objections results in more intense desire.
D. This desire is transformed into the conviction that your product can fulfill the prospect’s needs or solve problems.
E. Once you have determined that the prospect is in the conviction phase, you are ready to close.