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Setting Your Goals

You must have realized that knowing your goals is mandatory for you to be successful. If you don’t know
what you want, you cannot be successful. A goal has an extraordinary power over the direction of your life
and business. Accomplishing a goal is a satisfying pleasure a person can experience and termed as
“Success”.

Goals should be SMART

SMART is an acronym which stands for SPECIFIC, MEASURABLE, ACHIEVABLE, RESULT FOCUSSED and TIME
BOUND.

ACTION PLAN

1. Sit down and write at least 10 outcomes that you want to achieve in the next week.

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

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____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

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____________________________________________________________________________

2. Write down your outcomes every six months. Have at least two in each of the following groups:

➢ Professional life
➢ Personal health
➢ Relationships
➢ Money
➢ Self-development
➢ Spiritual life

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List each one in as much detail as you wish. Keep this list where you can refer to it. At the end of six
months, look over it and renew it for the next six months, replacing those outcomes that you have
achieved with new ones. Write them out carefully or do them on a word processor. Your unconscious mind
will not put any value on poorly written goals on a scrappy piece of paper. So write them out as if they are
very important. They are.
Do them as if they could change your life. They will.
____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

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____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

3. Write down three HUGGs.(Huge Unbelievably Great Goals)

____________________________________________________________________________

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2. Knowing Your Customers

After understanding your goals as a successful sales person, you need to understand your customers. One
of the techniques of understanding your customer is through Building Rapport. Rapport Building can be
done in the following ways.

➢ Body language.
You can gain rapport by matching:
Breathing pattern
Postures
Gestures
Eye contact

➢ Voice tone.
You can match:
Speed of speech
Volume of speech
Rhythm of speech
Characteristic sounds (e.g. coughs, sighs and hesitations)

Matching voice tone is very useful for building rapport on the telephone, where you have the auditory
channel, so voice tone and words are all you have to build rapport.

➢ Language.
You can match:
Key words and phrases that designate values (for example when you summarize to check for
agreement)

➢ Words that show how a person is thinking.

These are called predicates. They show that a person may be visualizing, hearing mental sounds or voices,
or paying attention to feelings. By matching predicates, you show the others person that you respect their
way of thinking.
V Visual Seeing
A Auditory Hearing
K Kinesthetic Feeling
O Olfactory Smelling

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G Gustatory Tasting

Visual Auditory Kinesthetic

Defocused, or up Below the Midline Usually

Eye Movements In the Midline
to the right or left to the right

Melodious tone
Generally rapid Low and deeper tonality,
Voice Tone and resonant , at a medium
speech, high clear Often Slow and Soft , with
Tempo pace . Often has an
voice tone Many Pauses
underlying rhythm

High, Shallow
Even breathing in the
breathing in the Deeper Breathing from the
Breathing middle part of the chest
top part of the abdomen
cavity.
chest

Often Medium
More Tension in (Mesomorphic) body
the body , often type. There may be
Rounded Shoulders, Head
with the neck rhythmic movements of
Postures & down , Relaxed muscle
extended . Often the body as if listening to
Gestures tone , May gesture to
thinner music. Head may be
abdomen and Midline
(ectomorphic tilted to the side in
)body Type. thought in the
‘telephone position’

Tick the relevant answer what comes to mind the moment you see it and answer them all
immediately:
1. Petrol:

a. An image of some sort, e.g. a car, a petrol station?

b. A sound, e.g. the sound of petrol pouring into a tank, the sound of an explosion?
c. A touch, e.g. the feel of the pump handle?
d. A smell, e.g. the smell of the petrol?
e. A taste, e.g. the taste of petrol (assuming you know!)?

2. Your best friend:

a. A sound, e.g. the sound of their voice?

b. An emotion, e.g. your feelings toward them?
c. A smell, e.g. the smell of their perfume?
d. A taste, e.g. the taste of a meal you ate with them?
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e. An image, e.g. what they look like or a place you have been to with them?

3. The way you would like to spend your time:

a. The sound associated with doing this, e.g. the sound of people’s voices or the sounds of the
environment?
b. A taste, e.g. the taste of a favorite meal?
c. A smell, e.g. the aroma of your environment?
d. An image, e.g. where you would be or who you would be with?
e. A touch or an emotion, e.g. how you feel when you think of spending your time this way, the
sensation of your muscles working in your body?

4. What you did yesterday:

a. A taste of some sort, e.g. what you ate?

b. An image of picture, e.g. the scene of where you were?
c. A sound, e.g. of a conversation?
d. A touch, sensation, or emotion?
e. A smell, e.g. of your environment?

5. A time you didn’t enjoy very much:

a. A smell, e.g. of something distasteful?

b. A sound, e.g. what you heard or what you were saying to yourself?
c. A taste, e.g. of a bad meal?
d. An image, e.g. the feel of something, or an emotion, how you felt at that time?
e. What you were feeling?

6. Your favorite restaurant:

a. A touch or emotion, e.g. how you feel being there?

b. What you see, e.g. the people you are with, your surroundings.
c. What you hear, e.g. the conversation, the music?
d. A taste, e.g. of the food?
e. A smell e.g. the aroma from the kitchen?

7. Something from your childhood:

a. A smell, an aroma, a perfume?

b. A touch or an emotion?
c. An image?
d. Sounds or voices?
e. A taste?
f.

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8. Your work:

a. A sound, e.g. of equipment or voices?

b. An image, e.g. the picture of what you do?
c. A smell, e.g. of your surroundings?
d. A touch or an emotion, e.g. the texture of what you can feel or how you feel about your work?
e. A taste?

9. Where you might be tomorrow:

a. An image or picture?
b. An emotion or touch?
c. A taste?
d. A smell or aroma?
e. A sound?

10. Something you find difficult to do:

a. An image or picture?
b. A taste?
c. A sound or an inner conversation?
d. An associated emotion or a touch?
e. A smell?

11. Something you find rewarding:

a. An emotion, e.g. a feeling of satisfaction, or a touch, such as the physical sensation of a sport?
b. A taste?
c. A smell?
d. A sound, e.g. what you say to yourself or the sound of voices or your environment?
e. An image, e.g. of what it looks like?

12. Something you find amusing:

a. A sound, e.g. what someone says or what you hear?

b. An image, e.g. something or someone you see?
c. An emotion, e.g. the sensation of amusement, or a physical touch, such as the feel of something?
d. A taste?
e. A smell?

13. A goal that you have for the future:

a. What you are seeing?

b. What you are hearing?
c. What you are feeling?
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d. What you can taste?

e. What you can smell?

14. Your expectations for the rest of this week:

a. Your image of what you see happening?

b. Your emotions about what you expect?
c. An aroma?
d. A taste?
e. How you are feeling?

15. What you are doing this moment:

a. What you can smell?

b. What you can see?
c. What you are hearing?
d. What you can taste?
e. What you are feeling?

Thinking Patterns analysis

S.No Visual Auditory Feelings Taste Smell

1. A b C e d
2. E a B d c
3. D a E b c
4. B c D a e
5. D b E c a
6. B c A d e
7. C d B e a
8. B a D e c
9. A e B c d
10. A c D b e
11. E d A b c
12. B a C d e
13. A b C d e
14. A e B d c
15. B c E d a

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3. Communication Skills for Sales

Understanding communication:
The benefits to a salesperson who understands communication style in sales and the selling process are
numerous indeed and when mastered or applied, will produce alot of results for you in your sales career.

These benefits of understanding communication styles can include better working relationships with
existing customers and your co-workers, classifying new customer’s communication styles and then
adapting to their style for easier conversion of their business short and long term, less tension on cold calls
and first contacts as you learn to adapt to people and they way they prefer to communicate, increase in
sales short term and long term, less pressure at work from better relationships and increased sales and in
the end, more enjoyable work days.

All of these benefits of communication style work towards giving you more sales, so in the long run, by
investing some time into learning about communication style and styles you can benefit greatly in a lot of
areas of the sale process not only with your customers but with yourself too.

Verbal contributes to 7% of your influence

Tone contributes to 38% of your influence

Body language contributes to 55 % of your influence

Ten components of communication for it to be effective:

1. Source point
2. Receipt Point
3. Distance
4. Message
5. Intent of source point
6. Intent of Receipt point
7. Attention of Source point
8. Attention of Receipt point
9. Understanding
10. Duplication

Investigation Skills:
Investigation skill will be depending on the following, those are understanding the customer

This isn’t just about knowing what brand of product the customer wants”. Instead, it’s about identifying
the experience that the customer wants to have as they consider making a purchase in your market.
Understanding his problems (Implied Need) and the solution for the same (Explicit Need)
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Types of Question you need to Ask:

1. Situation/Operation Questions
a. Can you explain to me your current business process?
b. How many prototypes do you make very month?
2. Probing/Problem Questions
a. Are you happy with your current service provider?
b. What challenges do you face in your design department with respect to design
communication?
3. Implication/Effect Questions
a. What effect did the delay in prototypes have on your production cycle?
b. Can you let me know how your quality problems affect your employees and customers?
4. Need payoff/Nail Down Questions
a. Can you see the benefits of producing parts in colour?
b. Will it help if the post processing time is near to Zero?

Can you identify which of the following statements are Implied Needs and which are Explicit Needs?

Implied or Explicit?

1. I’m spending too much on postage each month. ______________________

2. I’d like a way to cut my postage costs. ______________________

3. I’m looking for help to do a better job forecasting our sales. ______________________

4. I’m worried about increasing competition from other contractors. ______________________

5. My car has been needing a lot of expensive repairs lately. ______________________

6. I need a low-maintenance car. ______________________

7. Ideally, if we had the right equipment, we’d be able

to reproduce documents in full color. ______________________

8. Our patients are complaining about having to wait an hour after

they check in at the desk----and some have stopped coming. ______________________

9. We really need each team member to be able to send messages

automatically to every other team member in the field. ______________________

10. Our communication systems aren’t as flexible as I’d like. ______________________

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Buy Don’t Buy

Inconvenience

$$$$
Effort to Change

Seriousness of
Problem

Cost of solution
Problems Not Serious Enough
Buy

Lost Customers Don’t Buy

Competition $$$$
Lost Quality Effort of Change
Inefficiency
Slow Response
Inconvenience

Seriousness of Problem Cost of Solution

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Problem Serious Enough

Explicit Need

Implied Needs

Problems This
Could Solve

Your Solution That is Superior to

the Competition

Situation or Probing Question?

1. How many people do you employ here? ____________________

2. Is it hard to recruit skilled people? ____________________

3. Do you have any problem with turnover? ____________________

4. Have you had any difficulty controlling quality? ____________________

5. How much had your organization grown during the last year? ____________________

6. Is any part of the process costing more than you’d like? ____________________

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Probing or Implication Question?

1. Are you concerned about the increased workload? ____________________

2. How has the increased workload affected turnover among your

support staff? ____________________

3. Has the shortage of support staff impacted your ability to respond

quickly to client calls? ____________________

4. Are you worried about the quality of work being produced? ____________________

5. Are you experiencing difficulties recruiting skilled professionals? ____________________

6. Which category of professionals is hardest to recruit? ____________________

7. Have these staff problems led you to lose any clients? ____________________

8. How have you been handling the staff shortage? ____________________

WORKSHEET – PROBLEMS SOLVED BY YOUR PRODUCT / SERVICE

Product or Service: Customer:

Characteristic of Product/Service Problem This Solves for the Buyer or Experience it

gives for the buyer

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Problem This Could Solve/better experience it

Your Solution That Is Superior to the Competition's
gives

Your Solution That Is Superior to the Problem This Could Solve/Experience it

Competition's gives

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Examples of Questions

• “How long have you been with this organization? How has your job [or responsibilities] evolved since you started
with the company?”

• “What would you say you like most about your work?” “Least?”

• “If your employees [team, coworkers, boss, etc.] were to describe this organization in five words or
less, what words would come to mind?” [Listen to the words given and then respond,
“The word _________is good one; could you elaborate on that for me?”

• “What would your best customers say are the reasons they enjoy doing business with you?”

• “What is it that you value most about doing business with us [me]?”

• What do you feel we are [ I am ] doing right to sustain the business relationship?

• In what ways are we [ am I ] helping you to achieve your goals?

• In what ways can we [ I ] improve?

• What changes do we [ I ] need to make to ensure greater success?

• If you could change one thing about our relationship, what would it be?

• What goals would you like to see us [ me ] accomplish with you in the next twelve months?

• How can we [ I ] make your life easier?

• Would you be willing to serve as a reference for my product or company? If so, can you elaborate on what you
would say about us? If not, why not?

• What will it take on our [ my ] part to win the business you are giving to our competition?

• Would you share with me the ideal qualities you look for in a vendor?

• How does your ideal situation compare with your current situation?

• When you originally chose this vendor, what were your selection criteria? In what ways have your criteria
changed as you evaluate your needs today? What would you like to see happen in the future?

• How would you rate your current vendor relationship, on a scale from 1 to 10? (Then, based on the response, ask,
“What would have to happen for it to move from a ____ to a 10?”)

• If you could change one thing about your current vendor, what would it be?

• In what ways can your vendor better align itself with your goals?

• What would you say is different about your organization today from when you started with this company?

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• What originally led you to work for this company? What were your expectations when you came on board, and
how have they changed since you’ve been here?

• Since you have been with the company, what have been some of the biggest hurdles you have faced?

• Could you tell me about the changes your department has gone through recently? What challenges or
opportunities did those changes create for you?

• As you look back on your career, what has given you the greatest sense of accomplishment?

• What’s been your toughest project recently?

• If you could do it over again, what would you do differently?

• What have been some of your likes and dislikes with vendors in the past?

• Can you give me an example of a recent incident in which you had to deal with _____________ Problem?

• What has been a market trend you’ve seen in the past few years? What steps did you have to take to adapt to
this trend?

• Share with me your three biggest challenges. Of these three, which one is the most pressing?

• What problems are you currently experiencing? Why?

• What is causing these problems? Can you give me an example?

• What barriers are in your way?

• What’s working? What’s not? Why?

• How long have you been experiencing this problem?

• Who else besides you is experiencing this problem?

• Think back to when you originally implemented this process. What were your expectations? What results are you
currently getting? What kind of results would you like to get in the future?

• If you could wind back the clock [ or wave a magic wand ], what would you change ?

• Everyone has to deal with change. What’s the one change you [ department, organization] are encountering?
What challenge is this change presenting?

• What are the biggest gripes you hear from your customers? From your internal customers [bosses, peers,
subordinates, or other departments]?

• On scale from 1 to 10, how satisfied are you with your current product/vendor/situation? (Based on the answer,
you respond, “You mentioned the number ______. What would you like to see the product/vendor/situation do/
deliver/accomplish in order to achieve a 10?”)

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• Can you walk me through your decision – making process?

• What are the steps that your organization has to take to reach a decision on this type of purchase?

• How do you see the decision – making process going?

• Do you anticipate problems in this decision – making process?

• Tell me you thoughts on this upcoming project. How does your boss feel about it? Your peers? Others on your
team? The committee?

• Are there some people within your company who will resist this change?

• How can we tailor this message so everyone sees it as a win instead of a loss?

• How do people feel about working for your company?

• How would people working for your company describe the atmosphere to outsiders?

• Do people working for you resist change or embrace it?

• When making a change, how do you introduce it to your employees?

• What plans does your organization have for cutting costs in the future?

• How do the departments in your company interact?

• Have there been any recent changes in your company’s organizational structure?

• Can you tell me about those organizational changes-----for example, why the changes were orchestrated? How
smoothly were the changes made?

• How would you describe the relationship between your corporate headquarters and your subsidiaries?

• Does one department (for example, marketing, personnel, or research and development) lead the way in
innovation?

• Is there a single department that makes more of the company’s decisions than any other?

• How does your company deal with issues of staffing?

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• Does your company feel challenged by the problem of high turnover?

• How does high turnover affect your profitability?

• How does high turnover affect training costs and hiring costs?

“Send me more information.”

“Call me back.”
“Give me a better price.”
“Let me run your ideas by my boss.”
“How about I let you bid on a project in the future?”
“Why don’t you talk it over with the buyer?”
“Can you give us a demo?”

• They are afraid to say no.

• They do not trust you or do not like you.

• They want to gather information from you in order to renegotiate with their current vendor.

• They anticipate possible problems down the road with their current vendor and want to keep their options

open.

• They want to keep you at a distance so that they can maintain power and control.

• They have had a bad experience with a vendor in the past and are afraid to repeat it.

• They are not even aware there is a problem or the potential for one.

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Typical Questions Change into Comparison Questions

Time Example
• Ordinary: “What are your goals?”
• Comparison: “Share with me what you hope to accomplish in the next twelve months. How does this
compare with where you are today?” or, “Share with me what you hope to accomplish in the next twelve
months compared with where you were one year ago.”

Alternative Choice Example

• Ordinary: “What do you like about your current system?”
• Comparison: “Describe for me what you like about your current system versus what you do not like.”
Decision - Maker Example
• Ordinary: “Who makes the decision here?”
• Comparison: “Describe for me what qualities in a vendor are important to you, and how that compares with
what others [boss, cohorts, department heads, or team members] expect from a vendor. “Or, “Tell me how
your boss perceives this issue compared to the way you view it.”
Competitor Example
• Ordinary: “Who are your competitors?”
• Comparison: “Share with me the qualities that differentiate you from your competitors.”

Customer Behaviours in three stages of commitment.

Should Want to Have to

The customer responds to
your questions with vague
answers. The customer does
Customer
not recognize that she has a
Behaviour
problem. Rather than
answering your questions,
she lets you talk.
The customer willingly
shares problems and
frustrations. Although the
customer recognizes that
there is a problem, she is
not yet ready to take action
to remedy the problem.
The customer knows that the benefits
of change outweigh the risks of staying
in the current situation. The customer is
eager to talk about solutions. Only
about 10 percent of customers will be in
the Have to phase on their own; others
will need your guidance to get there.

Must
Considering Thinking about
Will
Words and We would like to
Maybe we'll see Not right Definitely
phrases to We need to
now I'm too busy Have to
look for We are looking at
Can't afford not to
We want to
We are ready

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Do not try to sell your

Determine why the client
product/service at this stage
lacks desire; maybe the
because you will only meet If you encounter a customer in this
problem is not affecting him
resistance. Instead, uncover phase you are lucky. All you will need to
directly. You could look for
the motivations to change do is guide him through the problems
What you other contacts at the
and then use those to get he is facing and how your solution can
can do at company or decide that the
the customer to the Have to solve those problems.
this stage company itself is not yet
phase. One way to do this is Remember, most customers will not be
ready to make a decision.
to help him see that the at the Have to phase when you first
Remember, there is not
benefits (ROI) outweigh the meet with them.
always an opportunity to be
costs of his current
had.
situation.

4. Objections
Common Objections about Price

Many salespeople avoid questions about budget and price. They fear offending a customer or hearing an answer
that they will not like. For example, they fear what will happen if they ask a customer, “What is your budget?” and
they get a number that is too low. Or, a customer demands that they lower their price in order to continue with the
process. Here are various questions and good responses about price and budget that will eliminate these fears and
anxieties:
• Objection: Your price is too high.
o Point of Agreement:I understand that money is an important issue to you.
o Question to Clarify: Can you share with me the criteria you use when choosing a vendor?
• Objection: There is no money in the budget.
o Point of Agreement: Well, I can certainly agree that managing your finances is crucial when doing
business.
o Questions to clarify:
▪ Is it a budgetary concern or not being convinced of the value you will receive?
▪ What will it take to secure funding so that you no longer have to experience the problem of
[state a problem your customer shared with you to drive home the frustration of having to
continue with his continuing situation]?
▪ What would allow you to convince yourself that this is an important investment for you
[and your organization], and not a cost? If the response is positive, ask, Then how can you go
about securing the necessary funding to take advantage of this opportunity now versus
later?

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• Objection: Another vendor has offered us the same deal for 15 percent less.
o Point of Agreement:Getting the best value for your money is important.
o Questions to Clarify:
▪ Tell me how important price is compared to quality [or on-time delivery, or service, or
meeting customer expectations].
▪ Share with me the buying criteria you are using for evaluation purposes.
▪ Tell me what’s most important to you : getting the cheapest price or the lowest total
cost?
▪ It’s important that you get the most for your investment. Could you share with me your
decision-making criteria?
▪ What if this product/service could give you a _____percent ROI. Would price still be an
issue?
▪ What if I were to go back to my managers and they were to agree to that price?
▪ Would you do business with me?

Emphasize the “what if”----make it clear you are not committing, only that you are trying to determine if it’s really a
price concern or something else. The last thing you want to do is to lower your price and not get the business.

Still More Questions to Clarify Price

• “Could you describe for me your budgetary process?”

• “So that I can tailor the right solution, what budgetary parameters are you working within?”
• “How will the funding for this project be determined?”
• “How will you go about getting financial approval for this solution?”
• “What hurdles might you encounter when trying to get financial commitment for this project?”
• “Who else will be involved in approving the budget?”
• “On a scale of 1to 10. How important will it be to get the service/product implemented?”
• “What kind of return on investment are you expecting?”

General Objections Aimed at Stalling

If you recall the stages of commitment discussed earlier in the book, stalls are nothing more than customers in the
should or Want To Stage. Your goal is to uncover the hot button or motive that will get them to the Have To stage.

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• Objection:I need to think about it.

Point of Agreement: I am glad you are going to give this careful consideration.
Question to Clarify: What are some of the things you like about what I have said so far, and what things do
you have concerns about?
• Objection: We have too much going on right now.
Point of Agreement: Making sure your time, energy, and resources are invested wisely is important.
Question to Clarify: Do you think you could help me understand what is causing your hesitation?

Objections with your (or the Company)

Many times objections are ambiguous. Get the customer to be specific and you’II be able to isolate what the real
concern is.
• Objection:We are unhappy with your service.
Point of Agreement: Getting your needs met is essential in any business relationship.
Question to Clarify: In what ways have we not been meeting your expectations?
• Objection: We like our current vendor.
Point of Agreement: Receiving the best quality, support, and service for your business is extremely
important.
Question to Clarify: Walk me through your decision-making criteria for choosing a vendor.
• Objection: You just do not understand our business.
Point of Agreement: It is vital that any vendor know as much as possible about your situation.
Question to clarify: Could you share with me the problems you have been experiencing or the areas in which
you have concerns?

Now that you’ve plenty of examples, it’s your turn to practice reacting to some objections on your own:

Exercise
Objection: “The last shipment we ordered from you was over two weeks late. We won’t ever
order from you again!” Identify the point of agreement. What question will you ask to
clarify?

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5. Knowing Your Products

What problem does my product solve?
Products that solve customers’ problem. Customer problem can be started directly or indirectly
based on the need of market. Market can consists of Existing, prospects (not at purchased product
but are considering it) and Target market users or customers.

All people that comprise market to avoid falling into traps. Each trap is not entirely bad but can
become problematic. Main key is to balance focus on ensure that we are really listing to entire
market at the same time.

Focusing only on innovation and the competition

Focus only on Customer

Focusing Only on Revenue

Exercise 15:

Analyze the products and write down the FAB of each product:

Features : Characteristics of the products.

1.

Advantages : Characteristics that are only available in your product

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Benefits: Characteristics that your buyer wants

What value does it deliver?

1. Understand the first component of value

2. Know the next components of service

3. Overcome the barriers of the customers

4. What makes or breaks the transaction that exchanges value for money

5. Remember the strategy and marketing are two different concepts

6. Pursue positive returns

Exercise 16:

Analyze the values and how you can deliver your product:

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

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____________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

Presentation skills:
Presentation will be well prepared and relaxed, confident that perform will have the desired impact on the
customer.

Presentation can pass the message easily to the customer exactly and carefully

There should be ability to answer the customer query on the presentation.

Presentation skills are important in business, sales and selling, training, teaching, and generally feeling
comfortable speaking to people.

Exercise 17:

Prepare a skeleton / agenda for a good presentation:

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

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Negotiation skills
Negotiation is a process by compromise or agreement is reached to avoiding argument.

Any disagreement, individuals’ understandable aim to achieve the best possible outcome for their position.

Stages of negotiation are preparation, Discussion, clarification of GOALS, negotiate towards a WIN-WIN
outcome, agreement and implementation of a course of action.

Three elements are important and likely to affect the ultimate outcome of the negotiation. Those are
Attitudes, Knowledge and Interpersonal Skills (Good interpersonal skills are essential for effective
negotiations, both in formal situations and in less formal or one-to-one negotiations)

Exercise 18:

Analyse yourNegotiation skills with the customer based on the product:

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6. Alignment and Best Practices

How to align your goals with that of your customers:

1. Know what you are trying to accomplish

You must start with knowing your destination. Your goals will guide your content decision making. You
want to create content for the intersection of your business goals and the needs of those you are trying to
reach. Typical content marketing goals include:

• Establish credibility and authority

• Create and manage brand awareness
• Increase qualified traffic

2. Know your customer Needs

It’s simple. The more you know what your customer wants, the more likely your product will be both
visible and relevant to them. Don’t skip on doing the homework to thoroughly understand the prospect
you hope to reach.

3. Highlight Benefits
Focus on What customer wants and match their wants with your product features. Customer should know
that you are the right person to solve their problem. Do not waste your time on features which may not be
relevant to your customers.

5. Address their Concerns

Your only hope to getting prospective customers to buy is to make your product relevant. The best way to
do that is to address their concerns and meet their needs. There are a number of tactics to find out what’s
relevant. They include getting insights from both internal and external sources.

Internal sources include surveying your own customers, sales and support staff to better understand the
issues important to your prospects and customers. Your competitors should also be analyzed for what
features are engaging the same prospect.

External sources are also valuable in finding questions, issues, trends, etc. These can be social media
conversations, forums, comments/shares on relevant articles, trade/consumer publications, meetings,
blogs, Google Trends, etc. Analytics and spy software, e.g., Spyfu can provide a wealth of information on
the areas important to your targeted audience segments.

6. Give them fresh and helpful information

It’s not enough to be relevant if the information is superficial, not helpful, out-of-date or has the same
content as thousands of other articles, posts, etc. found on the Internet. The more competitive the
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keywords (one or two keyword queries), the harder it will be to create new content. Original, up-to-date
information that educates those you hope to reach is your goal. That usually means using long-tail
keywords (3 or more words) and semantic search approaches. Generating original content in the face of
the onslaught of content marketing is proving to be very difficult for many businesses. Here are a couple of
things you can do for originality.

• Generate your own research on a topic of interest to your audience.

• Summarize other research studies so people can find all of the relevant research in one place.
• Give a familiar topic a new slant, i.e., frame the topic in a different way.

7. Align content with the sales process

The same customer will have different information needs, depending on where he or she is in the buying
process. At the top of the sales funnel, you are trying to get the attention of potential customers. Blogs,
social media posts, videos, eBooks, educational webinars, etc., work well to generate leads. Case studies,
in-depth white papers, reviews, etc., are more appropriate for middle of the funnel potential buyers. Free
trials, demos, free assessments or special offers are some of the types of content used at the bottom of the
funnel.

8. Use different media formats and graphics

Visual content should be part of your content strategy. Some consumers prefer visual content to reading
blocks of texts. The use of graphics, videos, memes, etc., are shown in many studies to increase traffic to
content.

9. Publish it where they congregate

Part of your intended audience research should include their content consumption habits. It’s critical that
you choose the right channels to publish and market your content. What blogs do they read? Do they listen
to podcasts and register for webinars? What are their trusted sources for information? Do they engage
with blogs, social networks, branded sites, partner sites, other websites, etc., as they search for
information? Where and how your targeted audience profiles get their information is a critical piece of the
planning for content marketing.

Include ways that readers can easily share content with their colleagues. One of your goals is to have your
content shared from person to person. The more it’s shared, the greater the chance that it will reach a
potential customer.

11. Give them a follow-up action

Don’t leave readers hanging. Give them a follow-up action, i.e., call-to-action that leads them to more
information and insight on the topic. That’s an important part of creating an ongoing relationship with
those who view your content.
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12. Use responsive designs

Given the rapid acceptance of mobile devices, any content you create and publish must be done in a
responsive design format. Your potential customers will not tolerate trying to read content meant to be
read on a desktop from their mobile device. The result is a quick bounce from it and a lost opportunity to
generate a good lead.

Final Thoughts
It’s still about getting the right message (relevancy) to the right person (targeted persona) at the right time
(position in the buying process) by using the right channels. The approaches listed above are some ways
you can better align your content marketing with your customers’ needs. They all should be part of your
content marketing strategy.

How to align your product with what your customer wants:

The strongest alignment of a business is built on three pillars:
1. A shared appreciation of the differing needs and priorities of each
2. A genuine desire to help the other to achieve the best outcome for all
3. Trust in the other’s integrity
Customer

Sales Product
While we’re looking at how Sales and Product Marketing work with each other, it’s worth remembering also
that each has a relationship with the customer (or prospective customer). This customer focus provides a
way to align the Sales and Product teams around value creation.

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For any clarification please feel free to call 9884060353 or write

to sramaprasad@saamartya.com

The Other Workshops offered are:

1. Sales Excellence
2. Lead to Win – on Leadership and Team building
3. Effective communication
4. Time Management
5. Serve to Win – How to keep your customers for life
6. Feel Worthy – Exclusive program for Women

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