07/06/10 1

By :

Prof. Amit Kumar

07/06/10 2

“A student pursuing management education from IILM-

Graduate School of Management, for example may find

himself or herself placed in a firm as a Sales Manager.

Our goal is to prepare the student for the exciting

challenges related to leading sales organizations in

today’s hyper-competitive global economy”.

IILM-GSM

Importance of this course

Selling & Sales Management

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IILM-GSM

Selling & Sales Management

07/06/10

Contents• The Selling Process• Stages in Selling Process

– Prospecting– Pre-Approach before Selling– Approach to the Customer– Need Identification– Sales Presentation– Handling Customer Objections– Closing the Sale– Follow-up Action

• Case Study: The Selling Process in Asian Paints

IILM-GSM

Selling & Sales Management Selling Process

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Stages in the Selling Process

Prospecting

Sales Presentation

Handling Customer Objections

Closing the Sale

Follow up action

Need Identification

Approach to the

customer

Pre- approachbefore the interview

IILM-GSM

Selling & Sales Management Selling Process

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Prospecting

IILM-GSM

Selling & Sales Management Selling Process

• Prospecting involves identifying the potential customers for a particular product or service.

• A prospect is a MAD buyer, someone with Money to spend, the Authority to buy what you are selling, and Desire to buy it. (Although the buyer's desire might not be specifically for your product, at least she has a desire).

• The process of finding prospects involves several steps. The first step is to identify a lead, or someone who appears to have the characteristics of a prospect.

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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

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Selling & Sales Management Selling Process

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Process of Prospecting

Identify and define prospects

Search for sources of potential accounts

Qualify the prospects from the suspects

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Selling & Sales Management Selling Process

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Methods of Prospecting

Cold canvassing Endless chain customer referral Prospect pool Centers of influence Non competing sales force Observation Friends and acquaintances Lists and directories Direct mail Telemarketing Trade shows and demonstrations

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Selling & Sales Management Selling Process

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Methods of Prospecting

Cold Canvassing

It is method in which the sales person goes from door to door in an identified area and tries to find out prospects. cold canvassing involves face to face interviews with people in many instances ,it may result in identifying the buyers needs ,making presentation and doing immediate sale. however, cold calling is time consuming process and one has to spend considerable time in qualifying the customers as the sales representative makes the cold call without much information about them.

It is also useful in business to business for standard item like copiers, calculators and faxes. Insurance agents and

ready made garment reseller also do cold calling.

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Selling & Sales Management Selling Process

07/06/10

Methods of Prospecting

Endless Chain Customer Referral

It is another popular method in which each customer is requested to give a list of names who might be interested in the product It does not take a long time.

To develop a lengthy list of prospects, this method of prospecting is particularly seen in the case of insurance

and securities. In Birla Sun Life the insurance advisor asks for five names who are known to customer and might be interested in the insurance products .Eureka Forbes also

use this method.

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Selling & Sales Management Selling Process

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Methods of Prospecting

Prospects Pool

It is group of names gathered from various sources like a telephone directory or a list . A prospect pool is created from four main sources. they are:

Leads: people and organizations sales people know nothing or. very little about .

Referrals: people or organizations sales people know very little about other than what they learned from the referrals.

Orphans: Orphans customers whose sales person has left the company. Company records are the only source of information about these past customers.

Customers: the most important prospects for future sales.

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Methods of Prospecting

Centers of Influence

These are the people who, because of their position, responsibility, accomplishment or personality, exercise more than ordinary influence .

These kind of people are found in trade association, trade shows seminars and many business related social events. In a typical buying process they are the innovators who set trends in the society for others to follow them.

Film personalities and the celebrities are the centre of influence who can influence purchasing patterns and serve as potential

source of prospects.

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Selling & Sales Management Selling Process

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Methods of Prospecting

Non Competing Sales Force

Sales people of non competing products are rich source of prospects names.

They have the information about new business openings, names of authorities who make decisions and changes in personnel in the purchase department, which can be collected by sales people.

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Methods of Prospecting

Observation

In this method the sales person looks around for the type of prospects that he or she needs.

In the case of EPBAX sellers, they look for construction site and newly coming up office spaces and then prepare a list of prospects.

Many sales people use their sales associate called a’ bird dog’ who make arrangements for their presentation to the prospects.

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Selling & Sales Management Selling Process

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Methods of Prospecting

Friends and Acquaintances

They constitute and rich source of prospects that he or she needs.

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Selling & Sales Management Selling Process

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Pre-Approach

IILM-GSM

Selling & Sales Management Selling Process

• During the pre-approach stage, the salesperson tries to learn everything he can about the account.

• Perhaps using contact management software, the account's history with the firm can be explored and salesperson can tell what the customer needs.

• Or, using the Internet, the salesperson can examine the account's financial strength, future strategies and the like.

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Approach

IILM-GSM

Selling & Sales Management Selling Process

• The approach step can be difficult because at this stage the salesperson must ask the buyer to commit to a meeting without really knowing what she needs or wants.

• To obtain this commitment, the salesperson must make an opening statement that gets the buyer's attention.

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Approach

IILM-GSM

Selling & Sales Management Selling Process

• Example, a salesperson might say something like,

“Hi, my name is Kumar from Microsoft, and our firm is helping companies increase sales by upwards of 20 percent. May I have few minutes to explore whether Microsoft could do that for you?”

• This statement is good because the seller is focusing on the potential of increasing sales.

• Alternatively, if the seller said, “Hi, my name is Kumar, and I'd like to sell you CRM software.” the focus is entirely on the seller's goal.

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Need Identification

IILM-GSM

Selling & Sales Management Selling Process

• The next step is need identification step, the step in which the salespeople confirms that the prospect is a MAD one.

• There are few techniques in order to figure out the customer's needs, like SPIN

• The following is a series of questions that might be asked using the SPIN:

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Need Identification: SPIN Technique

IILM-GSM

Selling & Sales Management Selling Process

1. Seller (Situation Question): How far do you have to go to make copies?

Buyer: It is about a 10 minute drive.

2. Seller (Problem Question): Do you ever encounter problems because you are gone from the office so long?

Buyer: Yes, sometimes customers call and I am not there to answer.

3. Seller (Implication Question): Have you ever lost a customer because you weren't there when they called?

Buyer: Yes, I once lost a pretty good customer account that way.

4. Seller (Needs-Payoff Question): So a copier in your office, would that eliminate that problem?

Buyer: Yes, I really need to get one for my office.

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Presentation

IILM-GSM

Selling & Sales Management Selling Process

• During the presentation, the salesperson describes the product and how it meets the buyer's needs. In case of a product with several features, the seller focuses on only those features that buyer needs.

• One approach to presentation is to string together a series of FEBAs or Statements of Feature, Evidence, Benefit and Agreement.

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Presentation

IILM-GSM

Selling & Sales Management Selling Process

A pharmaceutical salespeople might say something like,• Feature: “Placron reduces cholesterol to safe levels.”

• Evidence: “As you can see in this clinical study, the reduction has been well under 200 in about 85% of all patients who did not respond to competitive drugs.”

• Benefit: “So as you noted, you would have fewer patients with difficulty lowering their cholesterol”. Describing how a feature satisfies a need is a benefit.

• Agreement: “Is this the type of cholesterol-reducing program you are looking for.” Finally, the salespeople asks the customer if the product meets the need, gaining agreement.

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Objection Handling

IILM-GSM

Selling & Sales Management Selling Process

• Objections are reasons a buyer offers to not buy your product.

• They can occur anytime during the sales call, not necessarily during or immediately after the presentation.

For example, a salespeople might hear an objection as soon as introductions are made:

“You are with that company? Oh, you guys are terrible- I hate your products.”

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Handling Customer Objections

• 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

• Avoid ‘split the difference’ strategy

• Do not advertise willingness to concede

Suggested by SMITH

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Methods of Handling Customer Objections

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

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Selling & Sales Management Selling Process

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Closing the Sale

IILM-GSM

Selling & Sales Management Selling Process

• Closing a sale should be natural part of the selling process and no surprise to the buyer.

• At this point, the buyer has already said several times that the features of the product meet the stated needs, a budget has already been discussed, an implementation schedule for the product's delivery has been developed.

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Follow-Ups

IILM-GSM

Selling & Sales Management Selling Process

• Following the close and assuming a sale has been made, the customer has to accept delivery of the product.

• The salesperson's job may then be to ensure that the customer has a good experience with the product.

• This responsibility might include training the buyer on how the products work, how to obtain service, and any policies or procedures of which the buyer should be aware.