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Summary Sales Management - MNM3703
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- University Of South Africa (Unisa)
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MNM3703Sales Management
STUDY UNIT 1
Sales careers and the selling process
1.1 Overview of the selling process
- Personal selling has changed over the years
- Selling is a marketing component
- A salesperson can be described as specialist, Well informed, Self-managed, Motivated, Well organized,
Flexible, Enthusiastic, Even-tempered
- Consumer protection act 68 of 2008 and the national credit act 34 of 2005
- 3 types of sales support
- self-support: responsible for all sales related activities themselves
- core team support: cross functional selling teams under supervision of sales manager
- external support: support outside the chain of command
1.2 Roles of the salesperson
- The major roles of salespeople are the sales role, marketing role and customer relationships role
- Sales role
- Short term goal
- Persuade customer to buy
- Marketing role
- Problem solving
- Meeting needs of both customers and business
- Developing and implementing sales strategies
- Customer relationship (partnering)
- Building and maintaining relationships
- Customer orientated to create value
- Develop solutions to enhance profits
- Develop long term relationships and trust
1.3 Drivers of change in sales management and selling
- The world is constantly changing, and this a sales person needs to be able to adjusts and these are the
drivers
- Building long term relations with customers: This can be achieved when salespersons
are honest and dependable.
- Sales organizations structure adaptable to all customer needs: This means that the structure of the
organisation must be flexible to cater for diverse customer needs. The structure could be a matrix structure, for
instance.
- Create a feeling of job ownership and commitment in salespeople: Salespersons must not be
micromanaged, as this can demoralise them. A feeling of job ownership can be achieved when allows its
trained sales force to advise potential
clients on financial decisions.
- Shift sales management style from commanding to coaching: When salespersons are mentored,
they tend to have a positive attitude towards achieving company and personal objectives.
- Leverage technology for success: Technology is advancing at a rapid pace. Salespersons and
sales-oriented organisations can communicate products and services via social media platforms such as
Facebook and Twitter. In addition, salespersons can enhance customer relationships by taking advantage of
communication channels such as WhatsApp.
- Be aware of the drivers of change in selling: Salespersons must be sensitive to the developments
in selling.
1.4 Selling as a career
- Why should you choose sales?
- Serve others by helping them
- Many sales jobs available
- Freedom and independence
- Challenges that a sales career offers
- Opportunity for advancement
- Financial and non-financial rewards
Page 1 of 60
,Career stages:
1.5 Types of sales jobs
- Retail salespersons: Found in most retails stores in aisles or on the floors of the stores.
- Wholesale salespersons: who are responsible for distributing and training staff members in retail outlets,
are also good examples of wholesale salespersons.
- Manufacturers’ salespersons: Pharmaceutical sales representatives from companies such as Adcock
Ingram and Aspen are examples of manufacturers’ salespersons.
1.6 The steps in the selling process
A. Step 1: Prospecting
Overview
- Identify new customers and replace old customer who we have lost
- Stop buying due to death, switch suppliers for quality, price and demand, relocation and bankruptcy
- Finding leads of prospective customers and qualify those who have potential
- Lead is a name, address, contact number or email
Prospecting methods
- Cold calling, referrals, content marketing, networking, email marketing, webinars, seminars, social
networking, door-to-door, advertising
- Compiling prospect lists:
Set objectives for prospecting
Allocative time to prospecting activities
Decide on the best prospecting method to meet objectives
Customize the prospecting plan
Evaluate the results
Internal Method External Method Personal Contact
Examine company records for Ask existing customers for
Cold canvass calling
previous contact referrals
Ask each prospect you approach Look and listen for evidence of
Follow up on call centre enquiries
for name of other prospects prospects
Respond to incoming phone, mail,
Ask Social media friends
SMS, email and internet enquiries
Contact organisations such as
Ask other company salesperson clubs and business chambers for
names
Approach non-competing
salespeople
Attend webinars, sales seminars
and trade shows
B. Step 2: Pre-approach
First stage
- Learn everything about the prospect’s operations, current customers, competitors, products, suppliers
- Financial health and credit rating must be checked
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, Second stage
- Should approach the prospect with pre-notification and seeding techniques
Third stage
- Obtain information by a low profile preliminary call
- Benefits of information gathered during this phase:
- Information is useful when approaching prospects
- Helps in making sales presentations
- Helps avoid errors
- Increases self-confidence
- Armed with knowledge
Fourth stage
- Get the appointment
- Checklists when using a phone
- Plan what you are going to say
- Write down key points
- Identify the person to speak to
- Greet the prospect in a friendly but respectful manner
- Identify themselves and the company represented
- Make sure they are speaking to the right person
- Not waste time
- Use the phone only to secure an appointment and not to sell
- Use the prospects name frequently
Fifth stage
- Sales presentation
- Structures
- Memorized or canned presentation used in direct selling, same product sold on every call
- Has benefits aimed at motivating the prospect to buy
Advantage: all sales people selling the same message
- Unstructured
- Need-fulfilment or need satisfaction
- Flexible and interactive
- 3 stages:
- Need awareness: ask probing question and customer realise his need
- Need acceptance: get the buyer to acknowledge the need
- Need fulfilment: by showing the buyer how the product will satisfy the need
- Semi-structured
- 5-point sales presentation
- Structured and personalized
- Best for routine calls where the needs exist
- Advantage: information is logically presented
- Disadvantage: not adaptable to complex selling situations
- Customized
- Problem solution
- Suitable for detailed in-depth analysis of the prospect’s needs
C. Step 3: Approaching prospects
- First 5 seconds are key as the prospect observes the customers appearance, manner and mannerisms
- Stand upright, speak clearly and confidently, smile and make eye contact
- Introduce yourself, state company name and purpose of your visit
- Different approaches
- Introductory: states name, company and reason for visit
- Product demonstration: attempts to engage in trying to examine the product
- Customer benefit: emphasizes the benefits of purchasing to the customer
- Curiosity: asks questions or gives statements that arouse curiosity
- Question: starts by asking questions to gain additional insights
- Statement: opens with a short and effective statement
- Premium: giving a small gift
- Survey: starts presentation with an information gathering survey
- Compliments: giving a sincere compliment that boosts prospects ego.
- Shock: telling the prospect something he doesn’t like to hear, like their website is crap
Page 3 of 60
, D. Step 4: Sales presentations
- First 5-10 minutes, breakdown and barriers that may exist
- Once they settled, can describe the product and how it meets their needs
- Presentation must
- Logical order
- Describe product/ service
- Benefits must be clearly indicated
- Details which assist in closing the sale must be given
- Enable the sales person to achieve their goals
- Should ask questions and listen to the answers, show empathy, simple message, mutual trust, positive
attitude
- Watch body language fir buying signals or rejection
E. Step 5: First trial close
- This is not an actual closing technique but a way to test the prospects attitude towards the presentations
- Used to gain the prospects opinion by posing a question
- Favourable response means they could be ready to close the sale
- Use product features, advantages, and benefits (FAB)
- Could also use SELL, show features, explain advantages, lead into benefit, let customer talk
- Important times during the presentation a trial close should take place
- After strong selling point
- After presentation
- After answering objections
- Before moving to close
F. Step 6: Determining objections
- Objections are concerns, statements or questions raised and are sign of hesitation
- Valid objections are concerns that needs to be addressed before they buy
- Invalid objections are irrelevant, untruthful reasons for not buying
- Categories of objections:
- Uncommon: heard another company had a problem with your product/service
- Hidden: unimportant concealed questions. When they don’t want to tell you that they are closing
down
- Stalling: Want more time so they don’t have to deal with you
- No-need: good product but we don’t need it
- Price: too expensive, which means you didn’t add value to your presentation
- Product: product is not well known
- Source: loyalty towards current provider
G. Step 7: Handling objections
- Basic points to assist in handling objections
- Anticipate objections
- View objections as opportunities
- Reflect positive attitude and body language
- Listen carefully
- Strategy to handle objections
- Welcome the objection
- Carefully listen and observe body language
- Rephrase and repeat objections
- Boomerang technique- when the reason they don’t want to buy is the reason they should
- Overturn objections by correcting facts
- Ask direct questions
- Acknowledge the prospects objective
- Let another person answer the objection
H. Step 8: Final trial close
- Establish the prospects frame of mind
- Ask questions to have clarity about the presentation
- Give the buyer a chance to say if they are ready or not
- Best time to try to close if when a strong selling point is made, answered an objection, completed the
presentation or immediately before the salesperson wants to close the sale
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