Sales Strategy Fundamentals

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Users GuideThe Sales Strategy

Fundamentals

Center For AdvantageTM


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Copyright 2006 Center For Advantage and its licensors

Table of Contents

Introduction Card Set Description

Card Use Sales Managers

Sales Training


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Introduction


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What are The Sales StrategyFundamentalscards?

The Sales Strategy Fundamentalsis a card setof winning sales strategies designed to sharpenthe selling skills of any professional with a

product or idea to sell.

It is also a playing carddeck made from casino

grade card stock


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Qualifications

The Sales StrategyFundamentalshas beenrigorously reviewed by salesprofessionals to includeformer creators and trainersof the vaunted IBM SalesTraining School, and is

certified compliant by theUnited Professional SalesAssociation (UPSA)


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Why were The Sales StrategyFundamentalswritten?

The ability to sell is themost important skill inevery profession that

involves person toperson interaction

No one does anything until someone sellssomething


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Who are The Sales StrategyFundamentalsfor?

Sales Professionals Sales Managers

Entrepreneurs

Marketers Executives

They are also an excellent tool for personal andteam sales training


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Who else are The Sales StrategyFundamentalsfor?

The Sales Strategy Fundamentalsis also writtenfor customers

Salespeople who know how to execute the

fundamentals of sales can better help customersbuy what they want and need

A salesperson that can

genuinely help a customeris a prized asset of thatcustomer


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Why should I use The SalesStrategy Fundamentals?

The better you are atsales, the morepeople you can help,

and the more moneyyou can make

Leaders in sales, just like in any other

profession, succeed by practicing and masteringthe fundamentals


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As the famous football coach,Vince Lombardi, said:

Excellence is achieved by the masteryof fundamentals.

- Vince Lombardi

Even the greatest professional

football teams spend most of theirtime practicing blocking, tackling,and handling the ball


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Practice

The key to using the fundamentals of salesnaturally is to practice, practice, and practice Review the cards in training

Review the cards before sales calls

Review the cards after sales calls to improve yourperformance next time

Use the cards in your weekend card games;

your unconscious mind will process the ideaswhile you have fun


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The Sales Strategy Fundamentals

makes practice easy and fun

and as rigorous as you want your

practice to be


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Card Set

Description


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54 Cards: 54 Fundamentals of Sales

4 points of advice

per card

216 points of adviceIn total


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Card Layout

Title Name of thestrategy

Strategy Definition of

the strategy Basis Why the

strategy works

Sales Tip How tomake best use of thestrategy

Traditional number & suit

Category(See next slide)


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Four Categories

Each suit has a category noted on the lowerright corner of the card (See previous page)

All sales involve an interplay and progression ofthe categories as follows:

Position - Set yourself apart

Shape - Influence the evaluation

Bridge - Link needs to solutionsClose - Convert interest into a sale


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Mutually Supportive

Each card offersadvice

You may or may not

know how to enactthat advice

If you do not know how to enact advice from one

card, you can find an answer on another card


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Example of Mutual Support For example, the answer

for how to do the sales tipRecommend a choice ofA or B, either of which isa suitable commitment,

from the 10 of Spades,could be executed bySelling the best or best-fit solution can make the

competition irrelevant,from the King of Hearts.


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Example Mutual Support

Choice A for a rising young executive might bethe best car in the showroom for example, theBMW M3, top of the BMW 3 series line

Choice B might be the best-fit car for example,the BMW 330i, that performs almost as well asthe M3 but is less demanding to buy, insure, and

maintain


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Winning Solutions: Best, Best-Fit,or Cheapest This example leverages the fact that winning

solutions in sales are either:

The best

The best-fit

The cheapest

Masters of the sales fundamentals know they

should offer just one or two of these three to anygiven prospect


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Card UseStructured yet flexibleapproach that modelsreal life


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Review tool

A simple but effective wayto use the cards is to justread them and thinkthrough them

There are only 2,400 words in the entire cardset, so you can read it in under twenty minutes

Do this a few times, and your sales performance

will improveLike any art form, repetition of the fundamentalsleads to improved performance


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Card Logic

For more sophisticated use, you can use otheraspects of the cards as well

The cards are organized logically, but unlike a

book, the cards can also be arranged in anyfashion suitable to asituation

This flexibility helpswith opportunitymanagement


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Rank: The Suits and Numbers

Higher ranked cards tend to denote strongerfundamentals than lower ranked cards

However any fundamental, no matter the rank,could be part of the right and strong strategy fora given sales situation

All fundamentals need to be a part of you so you

use them naturally, without thinking about themtoo much


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Opportunity Management

As you manage the sale, you seek to rely on

fundamentals described in The Sales StrategyFundamentalsfrom higher and higher ranks If your strategy is grounded on fundamentals at the

top, for example the four aces, you are in a greatposition to win with high profits

If your strategy is grounded on the fundamentals oflow ranked cards, for example the threes, you want toimprove your position for that opportunity

If your rank is low in any one or two of the four suits,even if you are high in the others, you have aweakness you need to address


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Card Rank as a Forecasting Tool

If the success of your sales effort depends uponhigher ranking fundamentals, you generally havea better chance of winning

That can be represented in your forecasts

Steadily progress sales upwards through theranks from initial contact 2 of Hearts and Clubs

to close Ace of Spades


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Go from Contact to Close

Position Shape Bridge Close

Seek to progress the sale from left, Find and engageprospect, to right and up, Close the sale

Find and engageprospect

Close the sale


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Steadily Advance the Sale


Seek to rely on fundamentals from cards

with higher ranks

7

K

107


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Gray Division

Strength by rank is a gray division, not black andwhite

Any fundamental could win a particular sale

With the structure of a sales process in mind,

have the flexibility to use whichever fundamentalmakes sense at the time


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Best/Worst Situation

Your best situation is straight aces whichtogether means you are ready to close aqualified sale that fills a need for a referredbuyer who has contacted you

Your least favorable position is straight twosbecause you are cold calling people who mightnot know you, and might have no need, interest,or qualification to buy


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Identify Critical Weakness


If your rank is low in one suit, even if you are high inanother, you have a weakness you need to shore up

Weakness

Excellent Excellent

GoodK

4

A

J


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Command the Whole ProcessThe longest path to Close the Sale starts at Playthe Numbers Game where you must actively seek new

prospects


2

A


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Then Seek AcceleratorsThe shortest path to Close the Sale starts at ReverseRoles of Buyer and Seller where prospects actively

pursue you


AA


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Deuces Wild

Keep in mind that you make a givenfundamental a winner or loser!!! A cold calling expert might be able to take a new

contact straight to close in one call a win from aweak position

Closing the wrong sale might costyou other better sales a loss froma strong position


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Questions Cards

Questions serve as theuniversal link betweenfundamentals that movethe sales process forward:

At any point in the salesprocess, you can ask aquestion

When you receive a buyingsignal, you ask for the order


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For SalesManager


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Training Tool

The Sales StrategyFundamentalsis aready made trainingtool you can employanywhere and anytime

Select a card, or pull one at random, and youhave material to discuss

Use the cards to critique post sales call results


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Opportunity Management

As per the Card Usesection, you can trackthe progress of yoursales representatives

through the salescycle from the lowerleft first engagementto the upper rightclosed sale


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Forecast Verification

Challenge theestimates of yoursales representativesin order to attain moreaccurate forecastsand shore upweakness before you

lose the opportunity


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Other Advantages

Salespeople, by andlarge, are doers thatprefer to get out thereand make things happen

The cards are geared toward the doer mentality;salespeople will actually read them

Results are immediate; if salespeople read justone card before a sales call, they will likely makea better sales call


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SalesTraining


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Teaching Points

Each card has four pointsyou can talk to

There are 216 teaching

points in total within all54 cards


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Group Discussion

Shuffle the cards Have a participant draw

a card at random

Discuss the strategy

Each card tends to produce at least sevenminutes of discussion

This is a very simple technique, but extremelyeffective


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Sales Practice Review

Tape a sales exec througha practice sales call

Play the tape and stop when youor a student identifies a fundamental in action

Discuss the fundamental and the success of itsexecution on the tape

An entire sales call can be broken down intosales fundamental segments


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Scenario Play

Shuffle cards and drawuntil you have one cardfrom each suit

4 cards in total

Use the combination to describe a situation andask sales representatives what they should do toadvance the sale

This requires some creativity on your part as a

trainer


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Virtual Classrooms The Sales Strategy

Fundamentalscardsare well suited fordistance learning

The physical cards provide a tangible componentto an otherwise visual or audio experience andare immune to technical difficulties

They provide a superior way for sales leadershipto keep salespeople performing at their highestlevel even when in the remotest locations


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Further Details on the SalesProfession

If you want to know more about the salesprofession, consider downloading the UnitedProfessional Sales Association(UPSA) Compendium of

Professional Sellingwhich is available atwww.upsa-intl.org

Or contactCenter For Advantage at

[email protected]


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Good Luck and Good Selling!!!


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Contact Details Center For Advantage

Robert Cantrell

Center For Advantage

P.O. Box 42049

Arlington, VA 22204

(703) 642-2027

[email protected] www.centerforadvantage.com

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Book by Robert CantrellHeartland Reviews

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Publisher and Chief Reviewer forHeartland Reviews, Leavenworth, KS

www.artofwarsuntzu.com

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