Selling Process & Managing Sales

Information

Some Traits of Good Salespeople

Step 1. Prospecting and Qualifying

Step 1. Prospecting and Qualifying

Identifying and Screening For Qualified Potential Customers.

Steps in the Selling ProcessSteps in the Selling Process

Learning As Much As Possible About a Prospective Customer

Before Making a Sales Call.

Learning As Much As Possible About a Prospective Customer

Before Making a Sales Call.Step 2. Pre-approachStep 2. Pre-approach

Step 3. ApproachStep 3. Approach Knowing How to Meet the Buyerto Get the Relationship Off

to a Good Start.

Knowing How to Meet the Buyerto Get the Relationship Off

to a Good Start.

Step 4. Presentation/ Demonstration

Step 4. Presentation/ Demonstration

Telling the Product “Story” to the Buyer, and Showing the

Product Benefits.

Telling the Product “Story” to the Buyer, and Showing the

Product Benefits.

Steps in the Selling ProcessSteps in the Selling Process

Step 5. Handling Objections

Step 5. Handling Objections

Step 6. Closing Step 6. Closing

Step 7. Follow-Up Step 7. Follow-Up

Seeking Out, Clarifying, and

Overcoming Customer Objections to Buying.

Asking the Customerfor the Order.

Following Up After the Sale toEnsure Customer Satisfaction

and Repeat Business.

Identify and Qualifying Prospects

Prospecting: Identifying likely new customers◦Leads

Qualifying: Evaluating a prospect’s potential

The process of collecting customer data and checking lead parameters

to make them qualify as prospects is referred as Prospecting.

Prospecting is the first in selling process and involves the search and identification of potential customers who may be willing to buy a product and have the ability to do so.

Information about prospects can be obtained form four different sources - external, internal, personal and miscellaneous contacts.

The salespersons use different techniques to get information form external, internal, personal and miscellaneous contacts.

A successful salesperson effectively utilizes the selling time by distinguishing the prospects from the suspects.

A salesperson identifies three sets of customers at the stage of prospecting – lead customer, prospect customer and qualified customers.

PROCESS OF PROSPECTING

Lead customers – Customers with a desire and a need to purchase the product but no or inadequate purchasing power.

Prospect customers – are the buying units who have a current demand for the product and can get substantial benefit through the acquisition of the product.

Qualified customers – are those who have a need for the product or services in offer and have the ability to buy them, but need further persuasion.

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Prospecting

Successful prospecting

50 potential prospects

15 Qualified prospects

6 Interviews

1 sale

50 potential prospects

25 Qualified prospects

17 Interviews

7 sales

Successful prospecting

No Yes

Prospecting involves a series of steps.

The salesperson searches for customers with unmet needs or needs that are not fully met by the existing product consumption habits.

In the process of prospecting the salesperson can save his time and effort by differentiating ‘leads’ from ‘prospects’ so that optimum efforts can be put for realizing sales.

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Process of prospecting

Identify and define prospects

Search for sources of potential accounts

Qualify the prospects from the suspects

Step 1 - He has to identify the attributes and features of the prospects, which may include the urgency of the need for the product, availability to make payments, expectations and practices of credit payments etc,.

Step 2 – The sources can be primary or secondary.

Step 3 - The next task is to distinguish the prospects from the suspects and then to determine the probable requirement of the purpose.

By an effective prospecting process, the sales person can build his sales strategies and methods to handle customer objections and satisfy their needs.

The salesperson can ask three questions to determine

To determine whether the individual or organization is a qualified prospect.

M-money to buy?A-authority to buy?D- desire to buy?

MAD

Methods of prospecting

Cold canvassing Endless chain customer referral Prospect pool- Leads- Referrals- Orphans-

Customers Centers of influence Non competing sales force Observation- Bird Dog Friends and acquaintances Lists and directories Direct mail Telemarketing-Inbound-Outbound Trade shows and demonstrations

Pre – Approach before selling

Before the sales person approaches the customers for a sale, it is necessary to develop a sales strategy by collecting customer data and combining them with the product attributes as a fit for satisfying the individual and organizational needs.

A pre approach selling strategy for each prospect requires a clear understanding of his personal characteristics and needs.

The need - benefit match is the most essential process of developing a sales strategy.

The product in the last stage and introductory stage of product life stage needs to be treated differently.

The major benefits of doing pre – sale planning are to build up a high level of self confidence before meeting the customer, develop an atmosphere of goodwill and trust, help create an image of professionalism, and to increase the scope of achieving higher sales.

Approach to the customer

In this stage the salesperson tries to get customer attention and generates interest in him.

It is necessary to fix an appointment with the prospect.

The goals of sales approach can be summarized as – getting prospects attention, removing any inhibitions, gaining prospects attention and confidence, probing for benefits and arousing their interest for hearing the presentation.

The various approaches used for this purpose are Approach Focusing

Benefit – Referral -

Introductory –

Product -

Customer benefits.Third party

recommendation.Introducing the

company and himself.Hands over the

product to the customer.

Sales presentationHere the salesperson presents his products and

services before the prospect and makes effort to create and modify their interest into sales realization.

The presentation should always be made keeping in mind the interest level of the customer, nature of product and the time available.

In a typical presentation a customer accepts, objects, counters, demands an explanation, stays indifferent, doubts the product or gives no clear reactions.

- approach to sales presentation

- attracting customer attention- creating interest- arousing desire and building

conviction

• Use FAB approach: Features, Advantages, Benefits

- methods of sales presentation

◦- canned presentation◦- organized presentation◦- tailored presentation

Handling Customer Objections

Objections are many times excuses for not buying.

Objection normally pause the sales process because the customer either has not fully understood the product and its benefits, or is not fully in agreement with the sales person.

An objection is always interrupted as ‘I am not yet ready for the real buying.’

Objections may take the form of doubts, minor objections and major objections.

The major complaint from customers is often a disadvantage in the product when applied to the prospects mind.

Objections provide valuable feedback.An objection is the prospects way of

asking more reasons of buying.It also helps to reclassify the customers

from the point of view of ability to buy, needs(stated and latent) and authority to buy.

• Start with your highest expectations

• Avoid conceding first

• Be sure the customer understands the value

of a concession

• Make concessions in small amounts

• Admit mistakes and make corrections

willingly

• BE prepared to withdraw a concession

• Do not advertise willingness to concede

Salesperson should concede strategically as follows

Methods of handling customer objections

Superior feature method Yes…But method Reverse English method Indirect denial method Pass out method Comparison method Direct denial method Another angle method Narrative method Testimonial method Question or WHY method

Closing the Sale

Closing the sale is the goal of any selling process.How many benefits are sufficient to close a sale?Customers do not come out positively to offer a

buying.Hence it is important to use closing techniques.

Methods of Closing the Sale

Assumptive close – assumes that the sale is made.

Negative close – occurs when the salesperson urges the customer to buy immediately.

Special concession close – is common in grocery stores.

Contd…..Caution method – the salesperson first

makes the customer cautious about the availability of the product and then suggests the close.

Implied consent method – the salesperson believes that the customer is satisfied with the presentation and may place the order.

Contd….Special induced method – the salesperson

reminds the customer about the about the promotional schemes.

Direct order method – the customer will come forward to place the order without any further persuasion.

Choice narrowing method – the salesperson presents the a product with its various specification.

Contd….Ownership suggestion method – the salesperson

suggests the customer to buy the product to impress upon social standing.

Advantages and Disadvantages comparison method – the salesperson asks the customer to compare his own products with that of the competitors on objective basis.

Emotional method – the salesperson creates emotions on matters of social interest.

Follow-up ActionThis helps the salesperson to evaluate the

competitive sales moves, generate additional leads from satisfied customers and also help the company in the idea of cross selling and upselling.

A follow up generally begins by thanking the customer and helps in maintaining goodwill and taking corrective actions for the promises made during the sales presentation and discrepancy arising.

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The salesperson should also do a post call self evaluation to identify personal strength and weakness in the product and company knowledge and selling skills that need attention for improvement.

After-sales service is an important part of the selling process and ensures that it paves the way for building confidence and establishing relationship with customers for future revenues.

Issues in different types of selling methods

1) Understanding customer types through different Selling Styles;

Trade selling – the role of the salesperson is to improve company’s sales volume by providing promotional assistance.

They help retailers who are the customers of the manufacturers in their promotional efforts.

Missionary selling – the prime responsibility of a missionary sales person is to promote the product to the indirect customers of the manufacturer and encourage them to buy from the manufacturers direct customers.

Eg – Medical representatives

Technical selling – Technical salesperson have specialized knowledge in their field, which helps them provide technical assistance to customers. These salesperson cater to the needs of existing customers and advice them on the characteristics of the product.

Eg: Elevators and Escalators, Otis, Kone

New Business selling – the company salesperson makes cold calls on prospects and try to convert them into customers.

2) Finding Customers – Prospecting, that is searching for new customers is the most important and difficult task in personal selling.

In organizational sales, salespersons also have additional challenge of identifying the people who influence the purchasing process in the organization.

3) Searching customers – After identifying prospects the salesperson has to research prospects to learn their tastes, preference and underlying needs.

Conducting detailed research of customers attitudes and buying habits helps the company to develop products that will appeal to potential customers.

4) Communicating Effectively – Personal selling is an effective form of two way communication.

The intended message can be customized according to customers requirement.

The effectiveness of company’s communication to its customers depends on the communication skills of its sales force.

5) Providing Customer Service – With the advancement of internet and other technologies, the customers are now more demanding than ever. They can dictate terms to the sellers.

Companies are now using software tools such as CRM to establish and maintain better relationships with the customers.

The main strategy is to maximize long term customer value and concentrate on serving them better.

6) Creating Customer Satisfaction – Maintaining high level of customer satisfaction is very essential if a company wants to sustain itself in the market for a longer time.

Customer satisfaction leads to customer loyalty.

Usually, companies have three types of customers – Distress, Just satisfied & Delighted customers.