Sales Skills

Learn to close the deal!

• Be a better salesperson
• Start a new business or grow an existing one
• Advance your job prospects; develop your professional expertise in marketing

This course guides you through many different methods of Opening and Closing a Sale. Discover the secrets of successful salespeople and draw out the ammunition you need to take charge of your career today.

What is the difference between selling and marketing?
Selling is the ultimate destination of the marketing process, but not the whole process. Marketing involves a much bigger and wider perspective, of which selling is only a part. Marketing is the process of packaging up product features, pricing, promotions and distribution and presenting them to the market for consideration. It encompasses both the pre-sale and post sale process.

Lesson Structure

There are 12 lessons in this course:

1. Presentation and selling
   • Personality. "Never judge a book by its cover." A wise old saying! but people who buy do make judgements especially about sales people. Dress and grooming are top priority in selling. As well you must learn how to develop a selling personality.
2. Communication and Conversational selling.
   • Learn the art of written and verbal communication in easy to understand terms.
3. Marketing (Buyer analysis and motivation)
   • Presentation of products to consumers and motivating them to buy.
4. Management (Hierachy)
   • Dealing with upper management; learn how to get your point across. How to be assertive and positive when dealing with your superiors.
5. Helping the Product Sell Itself
6. Know your product and pre planning.
   • Through observation, reading and listening get to know your products (pre planning is essential in today's complex society).
7. Selling made as simple as A B C.
   • The procedure of selling.
8. "The Opening" (getting the attention of the buyer).
   • Creating the right atmosphere for a sale to take place.
9. "Closing a Sale" (overcoming objections).
   • Buyers will tend to look else where unless a salesman can close a sale in an appropriate amount of time (learn the secrets).
10. "Stress Management"
    • Learn the art of relaxation through stress management techniques, and reduce stress in the marketing environment.
11. The Law and Selling
12. Report Assessment Writing.
    • The majority of sales persons need to have the ability and skill to write a condensed and accurate report on which management will comprehend and act upon.

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

Aims

• Explain the importance of first impressions and learn how to develop a selling personality.
• Explain the art of written and verbal communication in easy to understand terms.
• Explain how to present products to potential customers and how to motivate them to buy.
• Explain how to communicate with your managers and superiors.
• Explain how to help your product to sell itself.
• Explain the importance of preplanning, observation and listening is important in selling.
• Explain the procedure involved in selling
• Explain how to create the right atmosphere for a sale to take place.
• Explain how to close a sale.
• Identify and manage stress levels in a sales situation
• Explain the law in relation to selling.
• Write a condensed and accurate sales report.

Extract from course notes:

Buyers (consumers) can be divided into three categories :

a) thinking - Thinking buyers require facts.

b) feeling - Feeling buyers will respond emotionally to a sales person’s plea.

c) intuitive - Intuitive buyers believe that they have extra sense ‑ some insight which allows them to arrive at the right decision more often than others.

Within a short period, a professional salesperson can recognise which type of buyer s/he is dealing with and can vary her/his sales technique accordingly.

"Buyer Motivation" ‑ is it a need, is it the price or the quality of the product? A professional salesperson must understand what motivates consumers to buy.

The following points provide an appreciation of buyer motivation:

1. There is a motive behind every human action.
2. There is always a prime motive and a subsidiary motive. The salesperson, whilst concentrating on the prime motive, must never overlook the subsidiary motives.
3. Different buyers buy similar equipment, but often for different reasons. Selective motives should be used when applicable.
4. There are rational and emotional buying motives, and the importance of emotional motives should never be underestimated.
5. The salesperson's objective should always be to try to include in his/her sales offer, the motivational force which will impel the buyer to buy.
6. Buyers first fulfill basic needs, but often do not recognise their real needs.
7. Benefits should be 'personalised'.
8. A salesperson turns needs into wants by proving benefits to the buyer or his/her company.