MKT 313

Prospecting

- Identifying and developing potential customers

Communication style principles

- Individual differences exist and are important- We are all different so sales people must be accepting - A communication style is a way of thinking and behaving; the style is how someone wants to act - Individual style differences tend to be stable- it is based on heredity and environment factors (established when we are in elementary school) - There is a finite number of styles; there are clusters of similar behaviors - To create the most productive relationships, it is necessary to get in sync with a communication style of the people you work with; learn to get along and be accepting

Quantifying the Value Proposition

- Quantifying the value proposition is important in many situations, especially when the customer is a business buyer (B2B) - The value quantification process raises customers' comprehension level as they discover the merits of buying your product or service - It requires communicating how your solution will impact business results, such as providing increased reliability or lower maintenance costs.

Sources of Prospects and Accounts

- Referrals, Friends and Family, Directories, Trade publications, Trade shows, Direct-response marketing, Website, Databases, Cold Calling, Networking, Educational seminars, Non sales prospecting

Creating a value proposition

- Some points to consider when determining fees to quantify a service - value proposition include: -Experience -Exclusivity -Target market -value

The Product Life Cycle Stages

- The product's perceived advantage over available substitutes - The product's benefits and the importance of the needs it fulfills - Competitive activity including pricing, substitute product development and improvement, and effectiveness of competing advertising and promotion. - Changes in technology, fashion, or demographics

Adaptive selling

- altering sales behaviors in order to improve communication with the customer

expected product

- everything that represents the customer's minimal expectations

Differentiation

- refers to your ability to separate yourself, your product, or your company from your competitors. The key to a comparative advantage - Sources of differentiation include: quality, price, convenience, economy, service, and other factors

Consultative sales/ selling presentation guide

-Need Discovery -> Selection of solutionNeed-> satisfaction presentation -> Servicing the sale -Satisfying the needs is crucial. Selecting the solution will solidify you as valuable. Presenting the solution in a manner that will satisfy the customer's needs makes you a problem-solver, and post sales service ensure there is no cognitive dissonance, encouraging repeat purchases

Factors influencing the ethical behavior of sales people

-Role model provided by top management -Company policies and practices -Role model provided by sales manager -Personal values of salesperson -Ethical conduct of salespeople

Situations benefiting from corporate guidance

-Sharing confidential information; do not share customer information -Reciprocity; be careful not to put pressure on reciprocating firms or hinder the bidding process -Bribery; Never fall into the temptation of giving or receiving -Giving gifts- Be sure it is appropriate to give a gift and when to do so -Entertainment; it is a fine line from bribery -Business defamation; don't lie about your product versus a competitor -Use of the internet; use the company internet for business only

Secondary decision makers

1. ; salespeople realize the main decision maker is not the only one to build a rapport with. Receptionists, secretaries, or assistants carry weight in the buying decision

• Keys to a partnering relationship

1. A relationship built on shared values 2. Everyone having a clear understanding of the purpose of the partnership and committed to the vision 3. The role of the salesperson must move from selling to supporting. It's not a one-time sale, so support builds a better relationship.

3 selling prescriptions

1. Adopt the firm's marketing concept 2. Value personal selling 3. Become a partner/solver (consultative selling), not an order-taker

Customer Strategy

1. Results in maximum responsiveness to the customer's needs. Requires a salesperson to learn as much as possible about a customer's needs to evoke a sale that maximizes profits. Prescriptions; Understand the buying process, understand the buyer, develop prospect base

impact of appearance

1. Simplicity; avoid flashy colors 2. Appropriateness; dress to the level of the client. It is better to be over dressed than underdressed 3. Quality; clothes quality count and should be seen as an investment 4. Visual integrity; avoid too much jewelry, dull shoes, and clothes that don't fit well

Relationship Strategy

1. Well thought out plan for establishing, building, and maintaining quality relationships and an integral dimension of relationship selling to establish long-term relationships. Prescriptions; maintain high ethical standards, project professional image, manage the relationship process

Careers in Personal Selling; what are the considerations?

1. Wide range of employment opportunities 2. The activities performed by salespeople; process sa variety of skills 3. Freedom to manage one's own time and activities 4. An above average income 5. An above average psychic income (psychological rewards that satisfy salespeople) 6. The opportunity for advancement 7. Vast opportunities for women (decrease in the gender gap)

Presentation Strategy

1. well-developed plan for meeting objectives for each sales call. Prescriptions; prepare sales presentation objectives (what are you trying to accomplish?), prepare a presentation plan to meet the objectives, renew commitments to customer service. The presentation strategy involves developing one or more objectives. Salespeople should have a pre-sale plan of what they seek to accomplish or continue what they have started.

Reflective Style

: Lower left quadrant; Lower dominance and social ability. Controls emotional expression, displays a preference for orderliness, tends to express measured opinions, seems difficult to get to know, likes to gather information before reaching an opinion Characteristics: Precise, disciplined, questioning, serious

What is partnering

A strategically developed high-quality, long-term relationship that focuses on solving the customer's buying problems. Partnering occurs when the salesperson is able to successfully apply the Partnering leads to more referrals

Win-Win philosophy

Both the buyer and seller come out of the sale understanding that their respective best interests have been served, so they both "win". Adopting the win-win philosophy is the first step in developing a relationship strategy

What is customer relationship management?

CRM systems enable you to collect info about people with whom you maintain relationships, including the taking of notes. It is a good practice to record more than basic transaction info, such as personal details about your customers.

consultative vs transactional selling

Consultative selling is an extension of the marketing concept and this approach emphasizes need identification, which is achieved through effective communication between the salesperson and the customer. Transactional selling is a sales process that matches the needs of a value-conscious buyer who is primarily interested in price and convenience. Because of emergence of e-commerce, most transactional buyers are well aware of their needs and may already know a great deal about the products and services they intend to purchase.

Information Economy and what it means

Economy where information is the primary raw material and source of value with an increase emphasis on informational activities and information industry

Graphic about how sale's person spends their time

Face-to-Face sales; 26%. Sales Prep; 16%. Administrative tasks; 26%. Travel and Waiting; 32%

remembering names

In sales remembering a person's name is very important. To improve your ability to recall names, use one or more of these memory aids; Verify spelling, ask how the person wants to be addressed, relate the name to something easy to remember, use the name quickly, use the name frequently.

Importance of Knowledge workers

Knowledge workers add value to information and are focused on creating, using, sharing, and applying knowledge. Salespeople do more than take orders, they offer solutions to customer's problems, further building loyalty and trust, which will help increase sales.

role of customer service representatives

Knowledge workers who process reservations, accept orders by phone or other means, deliver products, handle customer complaints, provide technical assistance, and assist full-time sales reps. They help process paperwork, check on delivery and engage in follow up duties. This improves customer loyalty.

Directive Style

Lower right quadrant; Higher dominance and low social ability. Appears to be quite busy, may give impression of not listening, serious attitude, likes to maintain control. Characteristics: Aggressive, serious, impatient, demanding, bold, opinionated, intense, determined, pushy. Ex. Hillary Clinton

Adding value with non-verbal messages

Nonverbal messages are "messages without words" or "silent messages". These are messages that we communicate through facial expressions, voice tone, gestures, appearance, posture, and other nonverbal means

Prescriptions of personal selling philosophy

Personal selling occurs when a company representative interacts directly with a customer or prospective customer to present information about a product or service

Product Strategy

Plan that helps salespeople make correct decisions concerning the selection and positioning of products to meet identified customer needs. Requires a study of the features-benefits approach. Prescriptions; become a product expert, sell benefits not the price, configure value-added solutions.

Emotional Intelligence

Refers to the capacity for monitoring our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions. Qualities associated with high emotional intelligence; self-awareness, self-confidence, trustworthiness, adaptability, initiative, optimism, empathy, well-developed social skills

What is the Marketing Concept?

States that achieving organizational goals depends on; Knowing the needs and wants of target markets and delivering the desired products to satisfy the needs and wants.

What is a salesperson's main purpose?

The main purpose of a salesperson is not to make sales, but to create customers

why are service channels so popular?

They include business-to-business and business-to-customer sales. Service companies provide career opportunities in a variety of settings.

Supportive Style

Upper left quadrant; Low dominance and high social ability. Appearance of being quiet, listens attentively to other people, avoids use of power, makes decisions in a thoughtful and deliberate matter, low visibility and seldom draws attention Characteristics; Lighthearted, relaxed, reserved, patient, passive, sensitive, compliant

Emotive Style

Upper right quadrant; High sociability and dominance. Appear quite active, take social initiative, encourage informality, express emotional opinions, stands out in a crowd, has large groups of friends. Characteristics: Sociable, emotional, personable, spontaneous, unstructured, persuasive, dynamic, stimulating. Ex. Jimmy Fallon

Influence of value

Values represent the ultimate reasons people have for acting the way they do. They are deep rooted and create attitudes we possess, which ultimately drives behavior. • When in a situation where a salesperson feel their values are being compromised, they can act in an unethical manner, voice serious concern, or refuse to act unethically.

solution

a mutually shared answer to a recognized customer problem Product selection process is referred to as product configuration

referral

a prospect that has been recommended by a current customer or by someone who is familiar with the product

customer strategy

carefully conceived plan that results in understanding the customer's perceptions and maximizing customer satisfactions and responsiveness

4 key groups of relationship strategies

customers, secondary decision makers, company support-staff, and management personnel

Communication style biases

develops when we have contact with another person whose communication style is different from our own

value added product

exists when salespeople offer customers more than they expect and may not even know exists

Product selling strategies that add value

generic product, expected product, value added product, potential product

Features

include data, facts, and characteristics of a product/service

Benefits

include whatever provides a customer with a personal advantage or gain which can be general or specific

Positioning

involves those decisions and activities intended to create and maintain a certain concept of the product in customer's mind

Customers

it is important to provide mutual support, trust, and have mutual goals nurtured over tie. Regular contact is key to build the relationship

- Who is a prospect?

o An individual or business who meets the qualification criteria established by you or your company

Before a Low-Price Approach, ask:

o Are you selling to high or low involvement buyers? o How important is quality in the minds of buyers? o How important is service?

Major types of consumer buying situations

o Habitual Buying Decisions o Variety seeking decisions Complex buying decisions

Three things to improve the quality of the prospecting effort

o Increase the number of people or accounts who board the ferris wheel (?) o Improve the quality of the prospects who board the ferris wheel o Shorten the sales cycle by quickly determining which of the new prospects are qualified prospects - qualified as to need, authority to buy, ability to pay, and authority to purchase the product

Internet empowered customers - 3 power tools

o Instant, comprehensive information from the internet o Have immense choice in every segment of commerce o Can get real-time price comparisons

steps in the typical buying process

o Needs awareness o Evaluation of solutions o Resolution of problems o Purchase o Implementation

Types of Business Buying Situations

o New Task Buy o Straight Rebuy o Modified Rebuy

Reasons for Customer Attrition

o One-time need or an extended time between purchases o Movement outside the territory o Customer business failure or merger o Loyal buyer or purchasing agent changed positions o Sales are lost to the competition

Product Positioning Options

o Position new and emerging products versus well-established products o Position products with price strategies o Position products with value added strategies

- Organizational buyers

o Purchases made for some purpose other than personal consumption o Decisions made by several people, based on product expertise Lengthy decision process

- Consumer Buyers

o Quick purchases for individuals or household consumption o Decisions usually made by individuals, usually made based on brand reputation

Dimensions of Service Quality

o Tangibles o Reliability o Responsiveness o Assurance o Empathy

- 3 types of buyers and areas to create value

o Transactional Process Buyer - focus on purchase stage o Consultative Process Buyer - focus on needs awareness and helping evaluate solutions o Strategic Alliance Process Buyer - focus on careful study of proposed partner

Buyer Resolution Theory: The 5 W's

o Why should I buy? o What should I buy? o Where should I buy? o What is a fair price? o When should I buy?

Product knowledge

o a top ranked characteristic of salespeople who are able to build trust with customers

product

product encompasses information, services, ideas, tangible products or some combination of these that satisfy the customers' needs with the right solution

potential product

refers to what may remain to be done, what is possible

Management personnel

sales people work not only for the sales manager, but on occasion may take the CEO or President along for a call. Maintaining a good relationship with management can help to further your career

written proposals

specific plan of action based on the facts, assumptions, and supporting documentation included in the sales presentation

Company support staff

support staff hold a lot of clout and information that can be used to build a relationship and make a sale. They may also one day be a key decision maker, therefore establishing a relationship with them is vital

generic product

the basic, substantive product you are selling

Qualifying

the process of identifying prospects who appear to have a need for your product and should be contacted

product strategy

well-conceived plan that emphasizes becoming a product expert, selling specific benefits, and configuring value added solutions

Evolution of Consultative Selling

• : Consultative selling era emerges (late 1960s to early 1970s). Salespeople are becoming diagnosticians of customers' needs as well as consultants offering well-considered recommendations; Mass markets are breaking into target markets. -Customer is seen as a person to be served, not a person to be sold -Buyer needs are identified through two-way communication -Information giving and negotiation tactics replace manipulation

Influence of shaking hands

• The handshake is an important symbol of respect and is the proper greeting. The message we communicate with a handshake is determined by a combination of five factors; eye contact, degree of firmness, depth of interlock, duration of grip, and degree of hand dryness.