How Much Has Your Sales Team Learned?!

COURSE OUTLINE CONSUMER PRODUCT – BUSINESS TO BUSINESS SELLING This course is designed for owners and executives of consumer product companies seeking to increase their Business-to-Business sales effectiveness. On completion of this course participants will have a better ability to sell their product, manage accounts and sales representatives, and implement effective trade-show strategy across multiple channels including brick-and-mortar and e-commerce retailers, private label, fundraising and promotions.

Sales Psychology

The Professional Salesperson is a Business Consultant

Sales as a Profession

Seller-Buyer Equation

The Sales Personality

Eight Roles for Sales Professional to excel in B2B Sales

Buying Psychology

Buyer Profiling

Buying Influences

Buyer fears & Risks

Buyer expectations

Strategic Sales Planning

Define USPs & Value Proposition What is the compelling story?

Identifying Market Segments & Market Potential

Competitive Analysis - SWOT

Setting Sales Goals - Month/Quarter/Annual

Tactical Sales Planning

Prioritizing Markets & Products

Identify highest potential Accounts/markets

Set call priorities and frequencies

Breaking monthly goals into daily action items

Developing a prospect call schedule for maintaining healthy Pipeline

Territory and Channel Planning

How to organize your sales territory to maximize productivity Selling into multiple market channels and retailer types

Product/market Mapping

Manage/Travel the territory in most time efficient manner

Time Management

Optimal use of golden hours of selling

Differentiate selling from non-selling activities

Reducing Interruptions

Quantify value of time

Inbox Management

"ROE" Gap Analysis

Prospecting

Sales prospecting fundamentals

Create Prospect Profile to identify most profitable customers

Active Prospecting - Identify resources to Locate Ideal Prospects

Passive Prospecting - Lead generation methods

Tactics to identify and reach medium-to-high level decision makers

Prospecting best practices for improving prospect quality

Pre-Qualifying a Lead

Pre-Call Planning & Research

Customer Profiling - Organizational & Individual

Identifying power people within the buying organization

Identify the six decision making roles involved in B2B sales

Understanding buying process, buying influences & buyer personalities & fears

Developing a Prospect Specific Value Proposition

Pre-Planned Script - Anticipating conversations

The four essential objectives for every sales call

How to plan and prepare for every sales call

Relationship Selling

Understanding business relationships.

Components of a positive business relationship.

Analyze & assess relationships with every key person in your territory.

How to assess a customer’s personality style quickly and accurately.

Improving your relationships by adjusting style

Communication Skills and the Sales Conversations

Types of communication - verbal and nonverbal

E-Mail Communication

Recognizing positive & negative signs in other people & how to communicate more effectively.

Identifying communication & personality tendencies

Understanding your own personality tendency

Adjusting communication style to suit people of different personalities.

How to phrase questions

How to present ideas

How to respond to questions & concerns

Persuasive communication Vocabulary and semantics which impact action Assumptive v. Asking

Listening Skills

Competitive Analysis & Strategy

Competitor to Product/service Matrix

Competitor Analysis Quadrants

Objections Quadrant

Neutralize, Prevent and/or Respond to Competitor Created objections

Competitor's Weaknesses

Unique and Distinctive Selling Points

Creating Objections for Your Competitors

Trade Show Sales and Trade Marketing Selecting the right show(s) and location Setting a budget and measurable and achievable objectives Designing a stand that attracts customers and helps sells your product Pre-show marketing and opportunities to stand out during the show Utilizing sales agencies to build show effectiveness Effective sales materials, merchandising and promotions Engaging trade press to maximize exposure Integrating Wholesale into Website/Online Presence Tools to save time, pre-qualify prospects and increase sales conversion Building retailer and consumer awareness Providing information of value to prospects Communicating experience and feeling to the retailer and their customer Independent Sales Representation When to hire, when to fire Sourcing and qualifying Training and managing Standard procedures and rules of engagement Commissions and payment terms Showrooms, trade-shows, samples and support materials Key account sales Benchmarks and goals When to expand your internal team Sales management Telemarketing Preparing your staff to sell – Cold-Calling (Telephone) Using a warm-up call or email

Cold-Calling as a process to systematically qualify a prospect.

Opening a Sales Call - Build Rapport within first few moments

Cold Calling Etiquettes & Ethics

Planning & Setting Call objectives

Overcoming Call reluctance or Fear of cold calling

Getting Past the Gatekeepers

Communicating with top-level executives

Strategically manage initial contact objections over the telephone

Securing Appointments

Acquiring agreement for customer actions

Turning incoming calls into sales

Pre-appointment Planning

Communicating the Agenda

Sending across information in Advance

Re-Confirming the appointment

Preparing self

Sales Appointments

Maintaining Professional Appearance & Body Language

Opening a Sales Call - Build Rapport within first few moments

Judging Customer’s State of Mind & adjusting accordingly

Setting the meeting agenda & objectives

The interim close - Acquiring agreement for customer actions

Defining Purpose, Agenda, Action Items & perceived outcomes next steps

Follow-Up Meeting

Product Demo / Sales Presentation

Product Test or Pilot Program

Proposal Submission

Convert screeners and gatekeepers into coaches

Asking Questions

Asking questions in a Conversational manner (as opposed to being Interrogative)

Etiquettes while asking questions

Three question-asking strategies to confidently handle any situation.

Getting a customer to share deep & important information with you.

How to effectively use open vs. close-ended questions.

WIN Analysis - using questions to uncover true Wants, Issues & Needs

Asking Questions to

Develop future/latent Needs

Understanding the buying Process

Identifying all decision makers

Classifying decision makers as - Gatekeeper, Integrator, Virtual Authority, User, Power Broker

Identify other buying influences

Preparing powerful questions

Proposing a Solution

Quickly identify needs only you can fill

Proposing a Solution with Benefit Statements Strategically position yourself as a partner to your prospects

Lead the prospect to rule-out the competition by setting the buying criteria around your USPs.

Responding to Questions/concerns

Handling questions/requests for Price & Proposals Why is it good when they ask for a discount

Eliminating Doubts

Handling an irate, rude or threatening customer

Overcoming Objections

Exploring and expecting Objections

Responding to the most Common Objections

Objection Prevention, Acknowledgement and Diffusion Strategies

Product DEMOs & Sales Presentations

Preparing a Presentation

Organizing & Logistics of a presentation

Presentation tactics to present persuasively.

Public Speaking and Selling Skills

Confident Public Speaking and Overcoming Fear Opening & closing

Keeping them alive & interested

Presentation Etiquettes Managing time

Using Q&A to enhance your credibility

Steps in answering Qs

Verify that you understand the question

Clarify the intent of the question

Answer the question with right amount of information

Confirming if their question was answered

Most common questions that you will face and knock-out answers

Handling Hostile & Competitive Questions

Dealing with hostile or disinterested audiences

Common demo mistakes and how to avoid them.

Handling Product Crashes and Bugs

Dealing with objections during a demo/presentation

Establishing credibility with technical audiences

Establishing credibility with C-Level and executive audiences

Writing a Proposal which stands out from your competitors’ Visual cues Establishing credibility and trust Solution Driven Actionable information

Follow-Ups

Staying in control by knowing where each of your priority prospects are in the sales process

Anticipate & block competitor advances

How to advance the buying process

How to shorten the sales cycle

Negotiating

Seven step process to Guided Negotiations

Avoiding Discounts or Using Them as a Sales Tool

Gaining commitments

Adversarial v. Principled Negotiations

Ways to counter adversarial tactics

Means to Establish Power

Understanding "Needs, Interests, Wants" model to develop negotiation strategies

Closing

When to & when not to Close

Closing techniques

A few comfortable closes

How to create an urgency

Pipeline Management

Calculate a more accurate pipeline

Updating & renewing the pipeline

Action-plan for top prospects for things to be done in order to close

Analyzing Lost Sales - Identifying strategy & timeline to win them back

Post Sales

On-Boarding

Referrals & testimonials

Repeat business

Up-Selling

Cross-Selling Building Loyalty Creating Spokespeople