Secondary Literature Review: In the selling process we need to have exhaustive knowledge about our prospects needs and

wants. It is important to understand what will motivate them to make the purchase and for this reason the selling process is sometimes spread over a relatively long time frame without any certainty about closing of the sale. A typical selling process is described in fig. 1. Therefore, the success of the entire process rests heavily on the quality of prospecting and qualifying. Pursuing a prospect requires time which directly translates to resources. These resources can be quantified in terms of the value of the agents time spent on a particular prospect. However, the time invested in all the prospects does not necessarily yield an income. Therefore, if we view our prospects as an investment, we need to qualify them on the basis of which prospects would be a better investment of our time and will lead to a closed sale or income. Fig.1. the Steps of the Sales Process

Preparation

Attention

Examination

Prescription

Conviction and Motivation

Completion and Partnering

It is important to understand why buyers buy. People buy in because the purchase is somehow instrumental in achieving a certain goal that they want to fulfill. Their motivation lies in the fulfillment of their psychological wants and needs. Salesman must tap into that need and preferably work towards a situation which benefits both parties and leads to a win-win situation. We can apply Maslows need hierarchy theory to the concept of selling to needs and wants. Abraham Maslow, a humanistic psychologist, developed a need hierarchy theory which can also be applied to the process of selling. The need hierarchy theory is represented in a pyramid with the lower level representing the basic needs and upper levels more developed needs. The condition for progression to the next level is the satisfaction of the previous level. The needs described in this pyramid are in the following order: biological/physiological needs, security or safety needs, social needs, ego or esteem needs and finally self-actualization need. This hierarchy can also be translated into a hierarchy of information needs from the perspective of the salesperson. In business, people at each level in the needs hierarchy seek information, from basic to more advanced, to help them deal with what is important to them. Let us discuss the levels of information hierarchy and also try and apply these principles to discuss and understand examples where UmoveFree may use these principles to meet their customers information needs. The levels in hierarchy of information may be described as follows: Fig. 2 The Hierarchy of information

Coping information: Information that is needed when a buyer is losing money, or facing a new competitive threat. In selling to buyers, salespeople should appeal to this need by sharing relevant information with their prospects about how the product or service will help the buyer by reducing operating costs and or improving productivity. UmoveFree can meet this information need by helping the customer find more affordable housing than the present one.

Helping information: This is information on how to protect and defend profitability or market share. Salespeople can help their prospects defend against other competitive buyers and prices. UmoveFree can meet this information need by helping the customer with comprehensive information on competitive prices and best value. Enlightening information: This is information on how to improve business performance. Salespeople can also enlighten their prospects about new tools and processes that will facilitate enhancements in the way they and their businesses perform. UmoveFree can satisfy this information need by informing the customer about latest trends and new amenities. Empowering information: Information to enhance employee performance. Many business executives are concerned about improving employee productivity. Successful salespeople demonstrate how their solution (i.e., product or service) will improve the way a prospects employees perform. UmoveFree can satisfy this information need identified by business organizations by providing information about locations that may enhance their familys wellbeing and standard of living. Edifying information: This is information that provides special business support beyond salespeoples information about product performance. As business consultants, salespeople should constantly challenge themselves to help their prospects succeed in the area of community awareness. This requires salespeople to be creative for e.g. UmoveFree can meet this need by Informing about places nearby where they can volunteer to do community service or participate in their religious community. Bridging the gap between customers needs and communication of information: In order to understand what kind of information to convey to the customer, we must first understand the needs of the customer. Therefore, it is important to analyze historical data pertaining to customer specifications and the sales achieved to understand which factors or variables influence the decision of the customer? The motivational process begins when a stimulus engenders arousal or drive. The arousal can be automatic (felt physiologically), such as when a prospect first realizes an urgent need to cut operating costs and shows signs of stress. It can also be emotive, for example, when a client first learns that she is being promoted on the job and becomes joyful. Or it can be cognitive, such as when a prospect is struggling to find a way out of a deal she no longer finds attractive and is in the thinking mode.(2) Automatic and emotive arousal generally leads to relevant behavior directly while cognitive arousal causes a person to deliberate upon the possible alternatives. Such arousal is usually need based and salesman often probe to understand the needs of the buyers and tries to influence their attitude towards their products or services. In order to elicit this arousal seeking behavior salesman should implement optimal level of stimulation. Optimal level of stimulation is at a level where the person should not feel overwhelmed by the

information, yet she should also not feel bored.(3) Therefore, the goal of the salesman should be to keep the buyer interested. Participants involved in a buying situation It is also important for us to know who the participants are who may influence the purchase decision so that we as salespeople can direct our efforts accordingly. Following are the participants: Users: they influence the buying decision by identifying the need for the product and specifying the characteristics of in the product that will fulfill the need. Influencers: they help the buyer evaluate the various alternatives. Deciders: the decider may be the buyer or the one paying for the final purchase. Buyers: they are the ones who make the physical purchase. Gatekeepers: They are the ones who control the flow of information. Qualifying the prospects: Lead qualification involves such things as the prospect's budget, purchasing time frame, market position, and existing supplier situation, as well as key people involved in the buying process. Qualification involves assessing the prospect in terms of the sales organization's criteria to determine whether the prospect has one or more of the prerequisites that show the suspect is a realistic prospect: money, authority, and desire. Money to buy: The ability to buy a product is measured in terms of money or buying power. Three basic components of buying power can be distinguished: income, assets, and credit worthiness.

Authority to buy: Authority to buy is the legal ability to buy and the power to consummate an exchange transaction. In many situations, authority to buy can be difficult to determine. You cannot afford to waste time and energy making presentations to people who do not have the authority to buy. Desire to buy: The desire component is clearly a necessity for a prospective customer. The prospect must want the product. Personal selling and other marketing efforts can stimulate demand by both influencing and persuading people, but no selling or marketing effort, no matter how sophisticated or intense, can make people buy things they do not want. Without desire, a prospect is not a qualified prospective customer.