Selling your product

Principles of successful selling

The Importance of Personal Selling

Personal selling is a promotional technique used by a company’s sales force.

Personal selling has several advantages over other types of promotion:

Helps Build Personal Relationships. Personal selling involves contact by means of face-to
-face meetings, telephone calls, and videoconferences.
Allows for Customized Communication. Because personal selling is an interactive form of
communication, salespeople have the opportunity to adapt their message to each potential
customer.

Helps Reach Business Customers. Personal selling’s two-way method of communicating i

s especially effective for selling to business customers.

Characteristics of Successful Salespeople

Most successful salespeople have the following characteristics:
Positive Attitude
Good Listener
Persistent.

Hard Worker
Truthful
Consistent

The Selling Process

T h e m a i n s t e p s i n t h e s e l l i n g p r o c e s s a r e :
Finding and qualifying sales leads
Preparing for a sales call

Making the sales call

Closing a sale and following up
*A sales lead is a person or company that has some characteristics of your target market.
Leads are obtained in several ways:
Promotional Responses
Referrals
Data Mining
 Cold Calls
* B e f o r e m a k i n g a s a l e s c a l l , y o u s h o u l d :
Set Up an Appointment
Learn About the Prospect
Know Your Product or Service
Develop an Overall Selling Strategy

Write a Presentation Outline

*To make your sales calls more successful:
Be on Time
Try to Build Rapport

Ask Questions and Take Notes

Answer Objections
Ask for a Commitment
*Follow up with new customers to make sure that process met their expectations.

T h e M e c h a n i c s o f S e l l i n g
Commonly used sales forms include:
Sales Call Logs
Sales Proposals
Order Forms
Sales Receipts

Sales Contracts
Call Logs

Estimating Sales
Sales Force Planning
Your sales force planning should answer such questions as:

What selling methods do you plan to use?

Who do you need in your sales force?
How much and what type of training do you need for your sales force?
How large a sales budget do you need so you can pay your sales force?

What estimated amount of sales can you expect the sales force to achieve over a specific ti
me period?
Sales Force Planning
*External sales are obtained by hiring another company to do the selling for you.
*Internal sales are obtained by you or your employees who sell your products or services
exclusively.
*Sales force roles include:
Order Getting
Order Taking

Sales Support

E x p e n s e s R e l a t e d t o a S a l e s F o r c e
After you decide what selling methods you’d like to use and what kind of sales force you’ll
need, the next step is to estimate the costs related to your sales plan.
There are three basic expenses related to a sales force:
Compensation
Training
Expenses

H o w S a l e s p e o p l e A r e P a i d
There are three main options for compensating salespeople:

Salary Only. A salary is a fixed amount of money that an employee is paid on a regular b
asis.

Commission Only. A commission is an amount paid based on the volume of products or s

ervices that a salesperson sells.
Base Salary Plus Commission. Most often, salespeople are paid with a combination of sal
ary and commission.

Sales Training
Most businesses that employ a sales force provide extensive training for new salespeople.S
ome subjects taught in company training programs are:
Company Information
Product or Service Knowledge

Target MarketCharacteristics
Information on the Competition
General Selling Techniques and Mechanics
Technology Skills

Sales Forecasting
A sales forecast is a prediction of the amount of future salesyour company expects to achi
eve over a certain period of time.
There are four general steps in preparing a sales forecast:
 1. Analyzing current conditions
2. Reviewing past sales
3. Making educated predications about the future

4. Estimating your future sales for a specific time period

S a l e s F o r e c a s t i n g T e c h n i q u e s
Common forecasting techniques:

Full Capacity
Observational Data
Industry Standards
Industry/Seasonal Cycles

Team Effort
Number of Customers versus Distance
Market Share
Proportional Scaling