SALES TRAINING MODULEBy – Prabhat Pandey

Course Aim: To enable participants to understand the basics of selling and building customer relationships. The course will help them to become personally more successful in their sales role. The program is suitable for people who are relatively new to selling, as well as more experienced people who wish to refresh their basic skills. 

How the course worksDelegates are given a full understanding of both the selling and buying processes and the importance of being well organised, with clear sales objectives. Over the period of the course, delegates work through the sales process, practicing the skills at each stage, so that their selling skills are developed and reinforced.

Module Objectives: By the end of this course the participants will be able to:

Explain and demonstrate the Selling and Buying Processes Plan and prepare for meetings Construct questions in a sales context and listen effectively to the

customer’s responses Explain how effective communication can assist them when conducting a

sales interview and when building long term relationships with customers Match product solutions to customers’ individual needs Identify different buyer types Demonstrate how to gain customer commitment to the next step Detail how to close a sale effectively, or gain commitment to future action

Content: Course content includes:

The buying and selling processes Pre-call planning and preparation Structuring the sales call. The Sales Process Communication skills Effective listening Questioning Skills How and why people buy Customer Behavioral Types Presenting features, advantages and benefits Objection handling Closing the sale with confidence After sale customer care

The buying and selling processes

Buyers have a process that they follow in making a decision during purchase.

From a seller's perspective it is important to get in step with this process rather

than trying to manipulate buyers into following their own selling process.

The five major consecutive phases of their buying process and a summary of major events in each phase are:

1. Recognition of needs {Do we have a problem?How big or important is it?Does it justify action?

2. Evaluation of options {What decision criteria should we use?What criteria will this purchase meet?What are the pluses and minuses of different options?

3. Resolution of concerns {What are the risks in moving forward?What can go wrong?Can we rely on this purchase?

4. Decision and implementation {Does everyone buy off on moving forward?Will we get value from this decision?How quickly will we see results?

5. Changes over time { How can we improve?Where do we go from here?

So, the next time you find yourself wondering how you can get the customer to

do what you want them to in your sales process, try to understand what they are

going through. And get in stride with their buying process. It makes for a more

harmonious relationship and consistently more successful sales outcomes.

Pre-call planning and preparation

Sales Call Planning: What to Know Before Every Sales Call

Six sales call planning questions you can answer for yourself before every sales call that will help prepare you for business development success:

1. What is the prospect's current situation?

2. What are my business development goals for this client or prospective client?

3. What is my desired next outcome?

4. What are my relative strengths?

5. What are my relative weaknesses?

6. What actions do I need to take before the next call?

Structuring the sales call. The Sales Process

1. Build Rapport

2. Agree Purpose Recap knowledge gained to date Confirm accuracy of knowledge/perceptions Outline objective of the meeting/call Gain permission to cover your agenda Agree on time available

3. Identify need gaps Customer’s current reality Customer’s future preferred situation Identify the gaps and risks How is customer trying to bridge the gaps? In what areas they might need help?

4. Match solutions to the needs Summarize areas if help needed Take each need in turn Question and agree best solutions Outline options Agree most suitable option

5. Establish benefits State benefits to organization/individual of preferred option. Answer questions/objections Confirm interest/curiosity in help you can provide

6. Propose next step (Close) Next step – Who, What, When? Explain why. Handle questions Agree next step

7. Do it Action what you have promised Within the time-frame To exceed the expectation And add value

Communication skills

Importance of communication skills in sales.

THE LAW OF COMMUNICATION: Every time you communicate, make a point to stop for a few seconds…..and........ reflect on......

What are you about to communicate?

Do not speak until you know what you are going to speak about!

Ten questions to ask yourself in order to determine how effectively you

communicate:

1. Am I taking full responsibility for the message being heard by the other person? (Remember, it doesn't matter what you say, it only matters what the other person hears.)

2. Did I respect the other person's point of view? Did I have a reaction to what they said that prevented me from listening to their full message?

3. Did the other person feel heard and understood? Did I acknowledge them?

4. If I was asking someone to take a specific action, did I make my request clear?

5. Am I speaking in a way that the other person can understand? Am I communicating in a way that will make the other person want to listen?

6. Am I checking to see if the conversation was successful?7. Was I communicating openly, without prejudices, expectations, or

judgment? Or was I focused on having to be right or on having my point of view be accepted?

8. Did I leave the conversation with some value? Did I allow the other person to contribute?

9. Did I give the person the gift of my listening?10. If the outcome of the conversation did not meet my expectations, did I

learn how to better communicate with that particular person? Did I open up a new and greater possibility that I didn't notice before?

ACTIVE LISTENING

Active listening is a way of listening and responding to another person that improves mutual understanding. It is made up of three components:

Hearing Interpreting

Assigning a contextual meaning.

The Process of listening is organized into three steps due to the biological process which regulates listening.

Difference between Listening and Hearing

Steps to improve your Active Listening Skills

1. Watch body language

2. Observe the tonality shifts

3. Use questions to clarify

4. Use receptive language to show that you are listening

5. Shift places if you are allowed to do so

6. Avoid going to the advice mode

7. Pick out keywords and phrases and use them

REMEMBER: These are just tips. They are not rules.

The most important tip about active listening is to Be Flexible and that will take you a long way.

Practice Active listening by.....

1. Being Externally Focused

2. Avoid Judgment

3. Demonstrate Interest

Questioning Skills

The Question is the number one tool the salesperson has for managing sales calls. It's surprising how many salespeople are poor performers when it comes to asking the right questions. The Best Questions actually "Open" the sale. And you can't close a sale unless you've opened it.

FACT: 86% of Salespeople Ask the Wrong Questions

REMEMBER Poor Questioning leads to resistance in the form of Objections Poor Questioning doesn't allow product or company differentiation Poor Questioning leads to poor sales strategy

Knowing what questions to ask.

Information: Who What Where When Why HowPrecision: What exactly? How much?Reflective: So you're saying that...

Clarifying: Are you saying that...?

Understanding: Could you explain that further?

Other effective questions:

1. Alternate of choice: Which of these two will work best for you?

2. Involvement questions: Get them mentally and emotionally involved in

your product 

3. Tie down: To get more YES’s. These yes's have a critical effect in

persuading people.

4. Bounce back: Answering a question with a question.

Understanding How and why people buy

If you could anticipate every objection a customer might have about buying your product or service, and if you then researched and found satisfactory solutions to all these problems, it would seem reasonable to assume you could persuade them to buy almost anything.

However, although interesting in concept, in reality, human purchasing behaviour can be much more complicated and unpredictable.

The Hierarchy of Human Needs – Maslow Way

Physiological Needs.

Safety & Security Needs.

Love & Belonging Needs.

Esteem Needs.

Self Actualization

WHY PEOPLE BUY

1. People buy essentially for two reasons: To solve problems and make

themselves feel good.

2. People buy with their hearts no matter how much their brain tells them

otherwise.

3. About 75% of all buying decisions are based on unconscious needs and

wants, such as prestige, habit or perceived values.

4. People buy products and services that appeal to their own visual, auditory

or sensory driven patterns of thought.

5. People buy what is missing in their lives.

6. People buy to fulfill the film they have going on in their head.

The philosophy behind most purchases is the fact that every man is really two men – the man he is and the man he wants to be.

Customer Behavioural Types

Understanding your customer and tailoring your sales presentations to fit the

specific needs of the individual customer is a key secret to success. This is

accomplished, in part, by understanding that all customers fit into one of four

specific categories.

Customer 'Categories'

All customers fit into one of four categories:

Belongers - The patriotic types

Emulators - Extremely image conscious

Achievers - Quick, no-nonsense

Socially conscious - They want to fix the world

To make life easier, let’s consider only THREE types of customers:

Those ready to buy

Those needing some education, and

Tire-kickers

Presenting features, advantages and benefits – The F A B Approach

Most people could care less about your company’s products or services. They want to know what it can do for them; how it will solve some problem or help them achieve some business or career objective. 

FEATURE: A feature is an objective and observable characteristic of your product or service. Features remain unchanged whether the prospect buys or not.

ADVANTAGE: An advantage is what the feature does, the service that it performs. 

BENEFIT: A benefit is the payoff of the advantage, or the value it provides to this individual prospect.

Think of benefits as the value of the advantage to the individual prospect. These

are therefore defined by the prospects' goals. The same product or service may

offer different benefits to prospects with different priorities.

Phrases that bring out the benefits in a value proposition include the following:

“… which means that…”

“…and so you will be able to…”

“…and so you will benefit by…”

“…meaning that you…”

If you aren’t talking about your customer (using language like ‘you’ and ‘your’),

and you aren’t explaining what they will get from what you offer, then your sales

presentation is unlikely to be effective.

EXERCISE: Translating features into advantages into benefits.

OBJECTION HANDLING

When a sales person demonstrates a feature, talks about a

benefit or uses a sales closing technique, their customer may

well respond in the negative sense, giving excuses or

otherwise heading away from the sale. The response to this is

to handle these objections. This is 'objection-handling'.

OBJECTION HANDLING TOOLS

1. Listen: Listen to the objection or you will be shown the door.

2. Question: As appropriate, ask some questions. This not only shows

you are interested in them, but it also gives you more information with

which to make the sale.

3. Think: Before you dive into objection-handling, think! What methods will work

best with them?

4. Handle: When you are ready, use the objection-handling method that you

believe will work best.

5. Check: Finally, check to find out whether your objection-handling worked! Ask

if you have answered their question.

OBJECTION-HANDLING TECHNIQUES AND METHODS

Boomerang: Bouncing back what they give you. Objection Chunking: Taking a higher or lower viewpoint. Conditional Close: Make closure a condition for resolving their objection. Curiosity: Don't be sad, be curious. Deflection: Avoid responding to objection, just letting it pass. Feel, felt, found: A classic way of moving them. Humor: Respond with humor rather than frustration. Justification: Say how reasonable the objection is. LAARC: Listen, Acknowledge, Assess, Respond, Confirm. LAIR: Listen, Acknowledge, Identify objection, Reverse it. Objection Writing: Write down and cross out objections. Pre-empting: Handle them before they happen. Pushback: Object to their objection. Reframing: Change their cognitive frame. Renaming: Change the words to change the meaning.

Reprioritize: So ones you can't handle are lower. Writing: Write down objections then cross them off as you handle them.

REMEMBER: You can not answer an objection…you can only handle it !

CLOSING THE SALE

A Close is defined as "to put an end to; to finish." In selling, this means the

process used to bring your customer to a decision, whether it be yes or no.

Closing actually is a logical progression of ideas bringing about a decision.

When To Close: ALWAYS BE CLOSING

The Greatest Close: Greatest close ever is an enthusiastic, emotional packed, fantastic presentation.

Why Close? : It is very important that your customers make a decision--whether it be a yes or a no--so that you can react to that decision and close again or move on if necessary. 

How To Close

The how of closing involves several specific steps. Among these are the trial closes, the use of third person selling, attitude, and knowing your "close questions." 

Trial Close: It tells you the dealers temperature

Eight Yes’s Secures A Sale: Have you ever tried to say no while you were nodding your head up and down?

“The” Close Question: For every demo you should establish "a" close question that is designed to induce action.

First To Talk Takes The Goods: Once you have asked the close question, "SHUT UP!" The first person to talk, after the close question, takes the product.

Handling Indecision

If the customer is having a difficult time in making a decision then go into the physical action close.

One More Reason To Buy: You must give him one more reason to buy before closing again. 

Keeping The Sale Closed

Emotion closes the sale, and second, logic keeps it sold.

This Must Happen to Succeed

After summarizing your demo, before packing up, be sure to leave your executive summary and encourage the dealer to review it. You might even suggest that he temporarily use your review as a resource to answer customer questions concerning the products you showed

Closing Techniques

There are several techniques for closing a sale. However, only a few examples will be given here. 

``Closing With Questions" Technique: When a customer asks a question during the close, always answer with a question to get a commitment.

“Assuming The Close” Technique: In a very positive way you assume that the customer has purchased your product/service as you give the presentation.

The “Physical Action” Close Technique: Since most people have a difficult time making decisions, the use of physical action in the close makes it much easier for a customer to decide.

“Best Deal” Closing Technique: The inducement to buy close appeals to the "get something for nothing" (BONUS) emotion that everyone has.

“Secondary Question” Close Technique: The secondary question close starts with a general statement and then gives the prospect a choice of two different sales options--both assume that they are interested.

“Tie Down” Close Technique: The tie down encourages the prospect to answer the question--getting one more "yes" toward a sale. Examples of tie down words include couldn't, wouldn't, Isn't, etc.

CUSTOMER CARE

Customers are the most important people in our business, we give them the best possible attention and service because indirectly they pay our wages.

Ensuring that the customers receive the best treatment and look forward to coming back surely is the responsibility of every sales person and this session will help identify some of the key factors involved. We are going to consider:

Service factors involved

Services offered by the company

Complaints – and how to handle them

SERVICE

For service to be viewed as a constantly improving factor in the business some specific standards need to be established so that it could be properly monitored, measured and maintained. Examples:

Customer awareness: Key Learning Point: Customers expect some recognition from the company’s staff regardless of who they are. A simple smile or “hello” may help to encourage customers to express their interest or needs even if you are just passing by. This may be cue for you to find the right person to help if that is not you.

OutreachKey Learning Point: Customers must come first – all the time! This sometimes means putting ourselves out when it might be inconvenient, or when we least feel up to it.

Try not to say noKey Learning Point: The combination of willingness and time to reflect will sometimes encourage customers to choose from the options you have, rather than the impossible choice which they were seeking.

Appeal for help!Key Learning Point: It should not matter who makes the sale providing a sale is made.

Care for DetailKey Learning Point: Customers often measure their satisfaction by considering the number of things which go wrong in their dealings with your business. Total customer care means that everything should be right – first time.

Politeness costs nothingKey Learning Point: Be polite all the times – and try to maintain a professional image throughout.

Keep in touchKey Learning Point: Successful sales people keep in touch with customers – at all times.

DeliveryKey Learning Point: Don’t make promises you (or someone else) cannot keep. Always consult the delivery department to negotiate a special delivery “promise” before telling the customer – but also try to be helpful whenever you can. Try to ensure that your delivery service is helped to complete the sale by delivering the customers purchases first time and in full.

Be PositiveKey Learning Point: The complaining customers give us a chance to put the problem right and if we use our customer care skills properly, we should be able to cement the customer for life.