Sales Notes

1The History of Sales:

The oldest sales practice is known to be barter, swapping, and exchanging products. Before
currencies existed, barter was the most accepted form of commerce. It is an informal system
in chic parties trade items of comparable value on a trust basis. The equality of the value in
a one-on-one barter is often an issue. In a barter system, there should be a coincidence of
wants before a trade is made. A medium of exchange permits the value of goods to be
assessed.

The next phase was money, currency: The oldest currencies are found back in Mesopotamia
and China. It was at around 1200BC, smaller tokens were used as a media of exchange.

Defining Sales:
Advertising, Marketing, Promotion, Public Relations, Publicity, and sales. All these activities
relate with each other. Let’s define them to better understand what we are talking about.
Advertising: it is the process of bringing attention to a specific product through signs,
commercials, brochures, and so on.
Promotion: Promotion tries to keep the product in the minds of the customer and
involves advertising and publicity.
Marketing: It is the wide range of activities involved in making sure that you are
meeting the needs of your consumers and getting value in return.
Inbound Marketing: market research, analysing the competition, positioning the product
Outbound Marketing: promoting, sales, public relations, advertising
Public Relations (PR): It includes ongoing activities to ensure the positive image of
the company. PR includes helping the public understand the company.
Publicity: It is non-paid mentions in the media, usually organizations have no control
over the messages in the media. The message could depend on the topic of matter.
Sales: Sales involves most of these activities, including cultivating prospective
buyers, conveying the pros of a product to the lead, and closing the sale. Sales plans
can vary depending on the product.

Example:
--if the circus is coming to town and you paint a sign saying 'Circus Coming to the
Fairground Saturday', that's advertising.
--If you put the sign on the back of an elephant and walk it into town, that's promotion.
--If the elephant walks through the mayor's flower bed, that's publicity.
--And if you get the mayor to laugh about it, that's public relations.
-- If the town's citizens go the circus, you show them the many entertainment booths, explain
how much fun they'll have spending money at the booths, answer their questions and
ultimately, they spend a lot at the circus, that's sales.

Marketing=>Sales :
4+1 P’s: Price, Product, Place, Promotion, People (company)
4+1 C’s: Cost, Consumer Value, Convenience, Communication, Characters
(consumer)
Both address the same things, but from different perspectives. One is for characters, the
other for people
Role of Sales in business process:
Every department has a specific goal to accomplish in a company’s business flow and
process. Nowadays, many companies function without a sales team in the field as they
would rather rely on an intern sales activity, just like another company might only rely on field
sales.

Let’s now imagine that a sales team has no backup from internal teams or customer service,
all calls and pending orders, deliveries and invoices will have to be handled by the
salespeople. This would cause a loss of time and efficiency. This is why Customer Service
is important for sales to be successful.

Sales Dimensions:

B2C: Business to Consumer is the most common sales situation for us, as a consumer.
We all go to shops and markets to purchase needs. Even though most of the time, sales in
shops don’t really happen due to the customer already knowing what he wants. However,
there are times where there is real sales effort, and the salesperson has an actual dialogue
with the client.

B2B: Business to Business is a different kind of situation. In this case, the salesperson is
rather an order-taker. The main focus, in this case, is the role of the salesperson and its
activities on the market. The relationship with the client is essential for this situation. In many
sales organizations, the salespeople have to contact several people from different
departments in the client company. The situation and the relations become more complex,
leading to client or account management.

Selling Ideas: When you are looking for a job, you have the task of selling yourself. Once in
the job, you might want to help improve the company, so you might have to sell an idea.

Sales Approach:
--Hunters are salespeople who love to chase new leads and sales.
--Farmers prefer to get more business out of their existing clients.
--Prospecting is the first step in the sales process, which consists of identifying potential
customers, aka prospects. The goal of prospecting is to develop a database of likely
customers and then systematically communicate with them in the hopes of converting them
from potential customers to current customers.
--Account management is a post-sales role that focuses on nurturing client relationships.
Account managers have two primary objectives: retain clients' business and grow those
opportunities. They accomplish these objectives by learning what their clients' goals are and
helping their clients achieve them.
--A one time sale is pretty self-explanatory
--An Order Taker can be defined as a salesperson who collects orders but does not attempt
to find new customers or persuade existing customers to increase the size or frequency of
their orders.
--Need creation is about making the customer have a need for a product

Styles of Sales:
Selling styles can really make a difference, let’s look at the five prominent sales styles:
The Relationship selling style
This style is all about cultivating a close, personal rapport with the prospects and customers.
Relationship sellers are known for their friendliness and outgoing personalities. They use
that to get interest from customers.

The Technical Problem Solving Style

Sales professionals who are experts on their products and are able to educate their
audience on the details of their offerings are practitioners of the Technical Problem Solving
style. These individuals tend to be quite analytical and excel at establishing technical
credibility in front of their prospects.

The Account Servicing Style

Representatives who use this selling style focus on keeping existing customers happy while
asking for more business. This is a service-minded style that is built upon a foundation of
responsiveness, proactive follow up, and a strong commitment to doing what is right for
clients.

The Attack Style

They drive activity as a way to win business. Strong attack-style representatives typically
bring a rather competitive approach to work. These reps are usually intense and assertive.

The Business Partnering Style

Sales professionals who establish a business consulting relationship with their customers
employ this style. Business Partners understand strategic issues and market conditions that
influence the client’s business practices. These representatives excel at helping clients grow
their businesses. Features of this style are market knowledge, persuasive communication,
creativity, critical thinking.

Which styles work best?

It is said that out of these five selling styles, three of them are necessary to be successful.
The Relationship Selling, Technical Problem Solving, and Account Servicing styles are the
best for B2B situations. The best sellers bring a combination of styles. They are competitive,
goal-focused, and accountable.They are students of their industry and are viewed as
business partners by customers.
5 styles profiler:
Hard Worker: always goes the extra mile, doesn’t give up easily, and is self-motivated.
Always willing to get feedback and has an interest in development.
Challenger: always has a different view of the world, understands the customer’s business,
loves to debate, and pushes the customer.
Relationship builder: builds strong customer advocates, generous in giving time to help
clients, gets along with everyone.
Lone Wolf: follows his own instincts, is self-assured, is independent.
Problem Solver: reliably responds, ensures that all problems are solved, is detail-oriented.
Knowing the Customer
The Iceberg Model
Human beings can be compared with icebergs as they only show a small part of what and
how they think. What we can see is the outside, the way that we dress, behave, talk…
Our behavior is easy to change. The most profound part is the invisible sub-conscious
Being. Much closer in our awareness is our mindset, our thoughts, convictions, feeling…
These are critical drivers that will define our decisions.

Marston Typology
Marston typology is for the purposes of this course the preferred one, as it’s a simple and
very pragmatic one, mainly based upon the observation of people’s behavior.
The foundation for the DISC model comes from Marston back in the 1920s. His idea was
that people base themselves in one of these four factors: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness,
or Compliance. This tool is used to improve work productivity, communication, and
teamwork.

DISC measures your personality and behavior style. IT doesn’t measure intelligence values
or mental health. It describes human behavior in various situations.

1 Dominance (Driver)
As the label may suggest, most people that fall to this category have a dominant personality.
Individuals with this style are usually direct, strong-willed, impatient, result-oriented, and so
on. People with this style are likely to seek control over situations and people. These people
are fast-paced and usually impatient with other people and situations that confront their
goals. Without this style, teams wouldn’t be as fast.

2 Influence (Inducement)
People who fall to this category tend to be accepting, outgoing, lively, high-spirited, social,
enthusiastic, and so on. These people are more talkative than the average person and
interpersonally positive. Without this style, teams wouldn’t be as engaging.

3 Steadiness (Stabiliser)
People with the S style are typically interpersonally warm. Frequently, they describe
themselves as calm, peaceful, even-tempered, and patient. These are seen as the
counselors of any group. They will listen patiently to the issues and are usually interested in
what others have to say. Without this style, teams wouldn’t feel as supported.

4 Conscientiousness (Compliance)
This style is more moderate, skeptical, analytical. They are more private, accurate, reserved,
and detail-oriented. People with this style will take more time on projects than others as they
want to understand as much as they can. They have strong attention to details and without
this style, teams wouldn’t be as accurate.
Recognition of the types:
Dealing and interacting with people becomes more effective if you approach them the way
they prefer to be approached. Therefore insight in their behavioral style is important so we
don’t run into surprising reactions from the other person and we don’t do or say something
that upsets the other.
Recognition of types is most effective by:
--Observing both behaviors dimensions --Positioning their behavior upon each dimension
--Connecting both positions
--Checking if further behavioral observations are consistent with this type.
Identifying the profile can be done either Qualitatively or Quantitatively
But one combination of techniques is always required, which is observing the behavior of the
person, watch what he does and how it is done, and listen to what he says and how it is
said.
The Adaptability Principle
It is your willingness and ability to adapt your behavior, it is a prerequisite for your personal
effectiveness.

How to adapt communication type to Driver type:

Do: Be clear, precise, stick to the subject / Ask precise and specific questions
Be prepared with well-formulated objectives and coherent supporting material
Present the facts in a logical efficient way/Bring alternatives and choices to help the decision
Deliver relevant facts and figures about the feasibility of success and efficiency
If you disagree, concentrate on the facts, not the person / If you agree, recognize the facts
Support his conclusions / When done, don’t linger.
Don’t: -Dwell, waist time/ build a personal relationship/ forget things, deviate on the topic/
Find excuses or leave things unexplained/ ask rhetoric questions/ speculate/
steer or command

How to adapt your communication to Influencer type:

Do: Support their intuition/Allow time to develop a personal contact/Talk about people, their
intentions and opinions/Ask for their opinion about people/Bring ideas to carry out decisions/
Invest enough time for fun and humor/Show your appreciation
Don’t: Impose your rules/be cold or distant/ concentrate on facts and figures only/ Leave
decisions unspoken/ be too dominative

How to adapt your communication to Stabilizer type:

Do: Break the ice with a small personal note/ Show sincere interest, be open and look for
common interests/ Ask patiently for personal objectives, listen carefully/ Present ideas
calmly/ Be casual and informal in behavior/ describe clearly what personal contribution you
expect
Don’t: Start with the tough business straight up/ Be too business oriented or too personally
involved/ Force to quick reactions and response/ Be dominant, demanding or threatening/
Discuss facts and figures in length/ force agreement through manipulation/ be non-respectful
Be vague/ offer promises you can’t fulfill

How to adapt your communication to Controler type:

Do: prepare your conversations/ approach in a direct and business manner/ support their
principles, be analytical/ make a clear contribution by adding details/ take your time but
persist/ make a planning, so no surprises arise/ be precise and realistic/ If you disagree,
describe your point of view logically/ Build explanation on actual proof
Don’t: Act uncoordinated or disorderly/ be informal, distracted, casual, and noisy/ be hasty
towards conclusion/ be vague about expectations and commitments/ linger, leave it to a
coincidence or luck/ flatter the person/ threat/ use unreliable resources/ trick or manipulate/
rush it or set unrealistic deadlines.

Selling to the Profiles

The challenge is to match your DISC selling style to the clients. Both parties will influence
each other’s behavior, besides that the situation will have an impact. So identifying the
behavior style of the client is essential for the salesperson to know how to approach his
client.
Steps: Observe-Assess-Recognise-Adapt
The Sales Conversation
No Sale without needs:
It is almost impossible to make a sale if the customer has no need for the product or the
service you want to offer. It is possible to create a need by using hidden feelings or unknown
logic, as in that case you create the need and only then you present the product. A perfect
example of creating a need is the sale of insurances. Nobody needs a fire-insurance or life-
insurance. So only by indicating the cons of not having it, interest can be created.
Maslow Pyramid of Needs:

This model is very relevant, if one level is not filled-in to the requirements, all levels of need
above it become insignificant. This model can also have different dimensions.

SINCMOPER formula:
S: Security assurance, guarantees, insurance
I: I me, prestige, ego
N: New curiosity, novelties
C: Comfort ease, service
M: Money profit, economy
O: Others social contact, belonging, me too
P: Physical health
E: Emotional subjective, tastes, likes
R: Rules law, environment, society conscience

At every purchase at least one of these motives is the main driver for taking the decision.
However, several of these motives play a significant role at the same time. Advertising
deliberately hits on selected aspects. It goes without saying that some of these motives are
more often found with one socio-style than with the other.

The five-phase conversation

There are many approaches to structure a sales conversation. One of the simplest is the
five-phase call. This model suggests a flow for organizing, preparing, and executing a sales
call. The intent is to build relationships and business and not force a standard and uniform
sales approach. There is also some flexibility required to fit the salesperson’s style and to fit
the style of the customer. This won’t cover the complicated and negotiating.

Phase 1: Opening => as it implies, refers to the start of the business conversation. There is
a professional greeting, the first impression, and the personal connecting if the relationship
exists. The most important aspect is to get an agreement on the agenda to be covered.
This builds some attention and interest and creates participation from the customer. The
topics need to be of interest and create a conversation that enhances the practices of the
person’s situation. Observing the behavior is essential from the start as you should adapt as
quickly to the customer. It will help to align and create a constructive atmosphere for the
sales conversation.

Phase 2: Discovery => the most essential part of this conversation, where the salesperson
is saying very little as we try to make the customer talk as quickly as possible. A good
mastering of questioning techniques helps, as does active listening and remembering the
key messages. To find a need that the customer has, the best way to do so is by asking
questions:
-The closed question: brings a precise, predictable answer: yes/no,...
-Open question: invited the other person to speak out his opinion or give a bigger
explanation: why, how,...
-The suggestive question (leading): the answer is already included in the question
-The hypothetical question: brings the person’s mind further in a context, story
-The alternative question: offers a choice and avoids a simple no or yes
-The echo question: repeating the question asked, bouncing it back. To be used carefully. It
has to be relevant to the situation and can’t be used if there is no trust in the relation. This
allows the client to go further and broader into the topic of the question. “mirror” or “reflect”
back to the customer using their own words by turning their statement into a question to
elicit more information.
Active listening: 1.Stop Talking/2.Stop thinking, writing/3.Focus on the customer, his words,
tone, body language/4.Listen attentively, without judgment, or reactions/5.Give a sign of
understanding/6.In a break or at the end, give feedback/7. Ask a new relevant question to go
deeper in detail or boarder on perspective.

Phase 3: Reasoning => arguing or demonstrating the product or services is something

most salespeople are very strong at. Reasoning is about stating the technical qualities of the
product or service while assuming that the customer understands. We have to translate our
product or service into the SINCMOPER range that fits the customer. The key to translation
is lying on the customer’s head: “what’s in it for me?”. The exercise is to take the features of
the product and indicate to the customer what it brings him. It is necessary to understand the
situation from the customer, his needs and motives.
Is there a formula?
There are several combinations available. The profile of the customer, the complexity of the
product, and the situation in the sales process are all matters that influence the order and
even the presence of the steps in the argumentation:
1.Identify: what is the name of the product?
2.Features: the technical description of the product, specifics.
3.Functioning: what does it do? How does it work?
4.Benefits: what advantages does it bring to the customer? More about the client’s interests
5.Value: what is it worth, cost or investment, expensive or added value, saving or gaining
6.Options: conditions of payment, transport, setup…
As mentioned before, this is not a fixed approach. This can be adapted depending on the
situation.
Non-verbal argumentation
It is with some products as important as the whole flow of words and arguments you present
the customer with. Non-verbal argumentation has several appearances. The first one is
supporting material, it concerns auditive and visual aids such as graphs, drawings, pictures,
and so on. These means support the verbal message. They visualize your arguments, they
are better used with your words. The second tool is the use of references. They contain
witnessing messages and names of people or companies that have made use of your
services and products. The reference has to be relevant to give meaning to it. The third tool
is demonstration, mostly it concerns a product the customer can see in action or try it out.
This helps the customer to see himself in a situation after the purchase. It is best to explain
while demonstrating and do it not very fast.

Another way of looking at the different ways of involving the customer is the
Five Stars Method:
1(Tell&sell):
In the first level, the salesperson is telling his story and uses all selling arguments available.
2(show&sell):
The second level involves already showing and demonstrating the product while selling it
with arguments.
3(show&tell&sell):
The sales reach three stars level when the salesperson shows the product, tells the full story
about it and sells by indicating the arguments
4(let experience&tell&sell):
The fourth level includes a new element: let the customer experience the product, by letting
him touch or try it out, then tell the story and sell the arguments.
5(let experience&let sell):
The best method is when the salesperson lets the customer experience the product and then
invited him to tell what pleases him and how he experienced it. Let the client sell to himself.
The five-star method is not effective for all cases!

Phase 4: Resistance => This is a natural occurrence. The customer doesn’t agree
sometimes with what is said or doesn’t understand. This is not a bad sign. If the customer
objects to our actions or words, he is in fact asking for us to rephrase it or give more proof.
So what to do? First thing is to take a positive attitude towards it. Listen to the reasoning as it
will help to come back with arguments. If the customer isn’t giving more info, we must not
contradict it. The objection must be acknowledged, and try to analyze his reflections.
There are various techniques:
The filter technique: used to get clarification from vague objections
The reformulation technique: used to re-direct the objection to a more positive approach
The conditional agreement: putting the objection aside for later negotiation
The isolation technique: making sure the objection is the only obstacle
The reference technique: compensating objection with positive witness

Phase 5: Obtaining Agreement => This is one of the weakest points for most salespeople.
If you don’t recognize the signals of agreement, you might risk getting into overselling, which
means you keep on talking and reasoning even though the customer has already agreed.
The biggest risk in this part is that you present some new info that might make the customer
reconsider the purchase. It is then essential to catch onto buying signs. The moment you
recognize that he wants to purchase, you can simply ask whether he has taken a principal
decision. Your approach to questioning him might vary with his personality.
Not every conversation leads to a sale, No is not a bad answer. The customer only said no
to the offer, not to you. The first thing is to show comprehension, next resume, or reformulate
your proposition one more time. If the customer stays with his decision, accept it kindly.

Sales Communication
Non-Verbal Language
Asking questions is definetly the technique to get informed on the customer, his situation and
needs, and his motives. But it doesn’t tell us always how he feels about the situation or
about our approach and behavior. Therefore, observing the customer’s behavior is crucial.
Still, be aware of cultural differences.

Reading a message is not enough, what you should ask yourself is whether the attitude is
consistent with the verbal message of the customer and whether the signs reflect a positive
or negative reaction.

Active listening
This is the part where we listen to the verbal message of the customer. To catch the
essence of it, we should practice active listening. Often when it comes to active listening, we
don’t practice it as often as necessary. Often we are already thinking of what to say next.
Some of these steps will help you be more of an active listener:
● Stop talking, or thinking, be attentive.
● Focus on what is being said.
 ● If you understand, nod or make agreeing noises or signs.
● Keep on listening attentively.
● Pause, breathe, and think fast on what is being said.
● Encourage to go on by asking a question in the same line or a question for better
clarification.
● If the topic is complete, reformulate, or paraphrase.
● Then listen actively again to the reaction or ask a new question.

Conclusion
If you combine active listening to words, tone, rhythm, and emphasis of the verbal message
with a focused observation of body language, all of these things will help you to understand
the intentions of the customer.

Reinforcing Sales Activities

Customer Service
A salesperson has to do more than just sell their products. Serving the customer is also a
very essential activity. It can mean that the salesperson takes the side of the customer and
comes to its defense for the interest of the client.
The customer service is about going beyond offering service to the client, it is about
monitoring what happens after the sales, with the delivery, satisfaction, and so on.
Some skills that are useful for this are:
time management, knowledge of the internal process, good teamwork, and basic sales skills
like patience, politeness, tolerance, respect, and so on.
Customer Service people make a high impact by debriefing their findings to salespeople, as
info about their satisfaction or complaints can help them to adapt their approach. Let’s not
forget as well that customer acquisition is much more expensive than customer retention.

Cross-Selling, Up-Selling, Deep-Selling

Cross-Selling: You try sell other products to the customer than the ones already purchased
Up-Selling: You try to sell a more expensive product to an existing customer.
Deep-Selling: You try to sell more of the same product to the customer.
These approaches area about bringing customers to spend more money on products than
normally. We try to increase customer value.
How is it done?
The salesperson usually serves the customer for his primary need, and as the service
progresses, the salesperson can start asking a few questions to create interest in other
products. The key skill for this to work is the ability to combine asking for the right questions
to identify possible needs and present a good offer to go with it.

Why use this?

Cross, up, and Deep-selling help to increase the loyalty and trust of the client. It shows a
business-oriented interest in the customer’s situation and shows proof of solutions to his
needs. This activity has become quite important in modern sales, as it also helps to promote
new products or even old ones.

Negotiation
Negotiation is a higher level of sales, it is based upon the same techniques but used in more
complex situations, and with higher stakes. The preparation and planning are crucial to
getting to a real sales conversation, and during this conversation, both parties get to a point
of negotiation of prices and conditions.
The best-known technique for negotiation is called BATNA. It stands for Best Alternative To
Negotiated Agreements. It helps to find the level you can reach to achieve a profitable deal
for all. It contains the only option left if the deal reaches a dead-end.

Solution Selling, Consultative Selling

Nowadays, clients are less interested in the products we offer, their main concern is how it
brings a solution to their problem. To come to this point with the customer, we have to
understand his business and his concerns. By using the skills we learned (profiles,
questioning, dialogue techniques,...), we can learn the necessary to advise the customer on
his choice for the best product.

Competitors
A good sales professional knows his competitors and is aware of their strengths and
weaknesses. However, this knowledge isn’t mentioned with the customer, as it is very rare
for a professional salesperson to talk negatively of a competitor. It is essential to show
respect and instead show emphasis on our own strengths. The appropriate behavior is often
the major influence on the final decision of the client.

Ethics
It is possible to sell something the client doesn’t need or sell something that is a bad
purchase and so on. It is a moral dilemma that has to be faced. This is why the ethics of
sales is important, it is the moral principles and values that govern the actions and decisions
of a company or individual. They create guidelines on how to act rightfully in situations of
conflicting interests. Some of these values are: trust, honesty, discretion, respect, reputation,
credibility, commitment, professionalism, …

CRM
Consumer Relation Management is another essential activity of a salesperson. CRM is a
data-system that allows follow-up, tracking, and managing of customer contacts and client
info. The market offers more than 300 different CRM systems. This is important as it allows
the salesperson to enter a conversation fully prepared, and offers info on specific enterprises
as well as the person of contact. The system works both ways as the salesperson can
access all the data and he can fill in info and experiences gathered.

E-Selling
The internet can be seen as a threat to the profession of salespeople, many people may
argue that it is going to replace fully the purchasing process we have nowadays, but it really
depends on the industry/market/customer segmentation as the net can be more or less
impactful depending on the situation. A combination of both could be most effective. Due to
so much info being available online nowadays, customers have the opportunity to be
thoroughly prepared for sales conversations. It is essential for the salesperson to be
extremely well prepared and sound professional as well as credible.
Artificial Intelligence
AI is an area that emphasizes the creation of intelligent machines that act like humans.
Some of the activities that are designed include speech recognition, learning, planning, and
problem-solving. This development could affect the sales profession, as we are witnessing
more powerful algorithms and customer service chatbots.

Selling inside the Company

Selling Ideas: Selling an idea for improvement, while all are used to do things the way they
used to before for some time is more complex than selling an actual product. You have to
tailor your approach for each person you meet and in the presentation of the idea, an
adaptation to the profile to your management is even more important.
Here are three formulas to bear in mind when creating an internal sales speech:
Tell them 3 times:
-Say what you are going to say: give the core of the message or an agenda of the content
-Say what you have to say: bring your message with arguments, benefits, and examples
-Say what you have said: summarize or close with a conclusion or the core of the message

Touch Them:
-Factual arguments: use figures, facts, proof, and present it as visually as possible
-Emotional arguments: build on feelings of individuals, such as success, failures, risk,...
-Logical arguments: focus on rational and logic conclusions, reasoning, analysis

Please them:
A presentation before a group draws its power from a blend of the four approaches. In your
creation of your messages, it is recommended to use a mix of communication styles and info
● D: short and strong messages, no running text
● I: some pictures, graphs, visual help
● S: beware of words like new, change, no overpowering show
● C: no spreadsheet required, but data and structure are required
Proper language is important to get the points across.