Sales Fundamentals

Sample

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface .............................................................................................................................................. 3

What is Courseware? ................................................................................................................................ 3

How Do I Customize My Course? .............................................................................................................. 3

Materials Required ................................................................................................................................... 4

Maximizing Your Training Power .............................................................................................................. 5

Icebreakers ........................................................................................................................................ 6

Icebreaker: Friends Indeed ........................................................................................................................ 7

Training Manual Sample ..................................................................................................................... 8

Sample Module: Understanding the Talk ................................................................................................. 9

Instructor Guide Sample ................................................................................................................... 13

Sample Module: Understanding the Talk ............................................................................................... 14

Quick Reference Sheets .................................................................................................................... 21

Certificate of Completion ................................................................................................................. 23

PowerPoint Sample .......................................................................................................................... 25

Full Course Table of Contents ........................................................................................................... 328

Preface

What is Courseware? Welcome to Corporate Training Materials, a completely new training experience!

Our courseware packages offer you top-quality training materials that are customizable, user-friendly, educational, and fun. We provide your materials, materials for the student, PowerPoint slides, and a take-home reference sheet for the student. You simply need to prepare and train!

Best of all, our courseware packages are created in Microsoft Office and can be opened using any version of Word and PowerPoint. (Most other word processing and presentation programs support these formats, too.) This means that you can customize the content, add your logo, change the color scheme, and easily print and e-mail training materials.

How Do I Customize My Course? Customizing your course is easy. To edit text, just click and type as you would with any document. This is particularly convenient if you want to add customized statistics for your region, special examples for your participants’ industry, or additional information. You can, of course, also use all of your word processor’s other features, including text formatting and editing tools (such as cutting and pasting).

To remove modules, simply select the text and press Delete on your keyboard. Then, navigate to the Table of Contents, right-click, and click Update Field. You may see a dialog box; if so, click “Update entire table” and press OK.

(You will also want to perform this step if you add modules or move them around.)

If you want to change the way text looks, you can format any piece of text any way you want. However, to make it easy, we have used styles so that you can update all the text at once.

If you are using Word 97 to 2003, start by clicking the Format menu followed by Styles and Formatting. In Word 2007 and 2010 under the Home tab, right-click on your chosen style and click Modify. That will then produce the Modify Style options window where you can set your preferred style options.

For example, if we wanted to change our Heading 1 style, used for Module Titles, this is what we would do:

Now, we can change our formatting and it will apply to all the headings in the document.

For more information on making Word work for you, please refer to Word 2007 or 2010 Essentials by Corporate Training Materials.

Materials Required All of our courses use flip chart paper and markers extensively. (If you prefer, you can use a whiteboard or chalkboard instead.)

We recommend that each participant have a copy of the Training Manual, and that you review each module before training to ensure you have any special materials required. Worksheets and handouts are included within a separate activities folder and can be reproduced and used where indicated. If you would like to save paper, these worksheets are easily transferrable to a flip chart paper format, instead of having individual worksheets.

We recommend these additional materials for all workshops:

• Laptop with projector, for PowerPoint slides

• Quick Reference Sheets for students to take home

• Timer or watch (separate from your laptop)

• Masking tape

• Blank paper

Maximizing Your Training Power We have just one more thing for you before you get started. Our company is built for trainers, by trainers, so we thought we would share some of our tips with you, to help you create an engaging, unforgettable experience for your participants.

• Make it customized. By tailoring each course to your participants, you will find that your results will increase a thousand-fold.

o Use examples, case studies, and stories that are relevant to the group.

o Identify whether your participants are strangers or whether they work together. Tailor your approach appropriately.

o Different people learn in different ways, so use different types of activities to balance it all out. (For example, some people learn by reading, while others learn by talking about it, while still others need a hands-on approach. For more information, we suggest Experiential Learning by David Kolb.)

• Make it fun and interactive. Most people do not enjoy sitting and listening to someone else talk for hours at a time. Make use of the tips in this book and your own experience to keep your participants engaged. Mix up the activities to include individual work, small group work, large group discussions, and mini-lectures.

• Make it relevant. Participants are much more receptive to learning if they understand why they are learning it and how they can apply it in their daily lives. Most importantly, they want to know how it will benefit them and make their lives easier. Take every opportunity to tie what you are teaching back to real life.

• Keep an open mind. Many trainers find that they learn something each time they teach a workshop. If you go into a training session with that attitude, you will find that there can be an amazing two-way flow of information between the trainer and trainees. Enjoy it, learn from it, and make the most of it in your workshops.

And now, time for the training!

Icebreakers

Each course is provided with a wide range of interactive Icebreakers. The trainer can utilize an Icebreaker to help facilitate the beginning of the course, as it helps “break the ice” with the participants. If the participants are new to each other, an icebreaker is a great way to introduce everyone to each other. If the participants all know each other it can still help loosen up the room and begin the training session on positive note. Below you will see one of the icebreakers that can be utilized from the Icebreakers folder.

Icebreaker: Friends Indeed

Purpose

Have the participants moving around and help to make introductions to each other.

Materials Required

• Name card for each person • Markers

Preparation

Have participants fill out their name card. Then, ask participants to stand in a circle, shoulder to shoulder. They should place their name card at their feet. Then they can take a step back. You as the facilitator should take the place in the center of the circle.

Activity

Explain that there is one less place than people in the group, as you are in the middle and will be participating. You will call out a statement that applies to you, and anyone to whom that statement applies must find another place in the circle.

Examples:

• Friends who have cats at home • Friends who are wearing blue • Friends who don’t like ice cream

The odd person out must stand in the center and make a statement.

The rules:

• You cannot move immediately to your left or right, or back to your place. • Let’s be adults: no kicking, punching, body-checking, etc.

Play a few rounds until everyone has had a chance to move around.

Training Manual Sample

On the following pages is a sample module from our Training Manual. Each of our courses contains twelve modules with three to five lessons per module. It is in the same format and contains the same material as the Instructor Guide, which is then shown after the Training Manual sample, but does not contain the Lesson Plans box which assists the trainer during facilitation.

The Training Manual can be easily updated, edited, or customized to add your business name and company logo or that of your clients. It provides each participant with a copy of the material where they can follow along with the instructor.

Sample Module: Understanding the Talk In this module, we will be looking at the types of sales, common sales approaches, and common sales terminology.

Like any profession, sales has its own special vocabulary. There’s nothing particularly difficult about the language of sales. Mastering it just takes a little study and practice. Knowing the language will make you feel more confident and prepared to start selling.

In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative original thinker unless you can also sell what you create.

David Ogilvie

Types of Sales

Here are some characteristics of the different types of sales.

• Telemarketing. In theory, the telephone allows you to reach just about anyone on the planet. In practice, however, many people screen their calls and it is often difficult to get through to a real person. If you use the phone for sales, have a brief curiosity-building message ready to leave on the voice mail of potential customers.

• Direct mail. Believe it or not, a one percent response rate for direct mail is considered average. Despite these long odds, many companies still rely heavily on direct mail to generate sales.

• E-mail. Legitimate e-mail selling is different from spam, the “carpet bombing” approach that sends messages to thousands or millions of people whether or not they have expressed any interest in the product being hyped. If you use e-mail for selling, try to put something in the “subject” line of your message that will attract attention and keep people from deleting the message without reading it.

• The Internet. Most companies offer information about their products on their websites, whether or not they actually do any selling online. If you are in person-to-person sales, you need to be very familiar with what your company says about its products online. The growing interest in social networking sites, such as Facebook, offers new opportunities for online sales.

• Person-to-person. Most sales are still conducted face to face. When you eat at a restaurant, check into a hotel, or buy bananas in a grocery store, you are the customer in a person-to-person sales transaction. Since this is the most common type of sales, most of this workshop is devoted to it.

Common Sales Approaches

More on the three approaches discussed in this activity:

• Consultative approach. This is a long-term approach to sales. It may not lead to sales right away, but by building a relationship with a client it aims to create sales opportunities in the future. The more you learn about a client, the better able you are to understand the client’s wants and needs. It is an approach which depends upon trust – you trust that the customer will see the benefits of buying from you and they trust that you will give them the correct steer. The danger with this approach is that you may spend a considerable amount of time building a relationship and then having nothing to show for it. By building a relationship, however, you increase the chances of large-scale and repeat business.

• Hard sell. Many people are turned off by this approach. They consider it too pushy. This approach is used most often with clients who have a hard time making up their minds. It is only advisable to use the hard sell in a one-off setting where time is at a premium – if they don’t buy now; you are not likely to see them again. Therefore it is “now or never”.

• Technical sales. This approach is used most often with highly technical products and services. Sales personnel need some technical knowledge so that they will be on an equal footing with clients. The client will have a clear idea of what they are looking for, and a checklist of priorities. You will point them towards a range of items which meet those priorities – if not entirely then as well as possible. You may offer a personal opinion based on an understanding that you know what they want and they know you have enough product knowledge to point them in the right direction

Glossary of Common Terms

• Close/closing. It is the second to last step in the sales process. In this step, the salesperson encourages the customer to sign the order. In the past, salespeople often became pushy at this stage, but customers are more sophisticated these days and they don’t respond well to aggressive attempts to close a deal.

• Cold calling. The first phone call made to a prospective client.

• Customer relationship management (CRM). A system for managing the entire sales relationship with a client. Computerized CRM systems record all customer contacts, purchases, returns, etc.

• Decision maker. The person in an organization who has the authority to agree to a sale.

• Networking. An increasingly popular method of finding prospects based on referrals and introductions.

• Prequalifying clients. Determining if potential clients are actually worthwhile prospects.

• Qualifying clients. The process of getting to know potential customers — who they are, what they do, what they need.

• Sales funnel. A pattern that describes the conversion of prospects into sales. Many prospects enter the funnel at the top, but only a few are converted to sales. (This analogy is actually flawed because in a real funnel everything that goes in the top comes out the bottom.) The term “sales pipeline” has a similar meaning.

• Warm calling. Calls made after the initial contact with a customer, often in response to a call from the customer.

Instructor Guide Sample

On the following pages is a sample module from our Instructor Guide. It provides the instructor with a copy of the material and a Lesson Plans box. Each Instructor Guide and Training Manual mirrors each other in terms of the content. They differ in that the Instructor Guide is customized towards the trainer, and Training Manual is customized for the participant.

The key benefit for the trainer is the Lesson Plan box. It provides a standardized set of tools to assist the instructor train that particular lesson. The Lesson Plan box gives an estimated time to complete the lesson, any materials that are needed for the lesson, recommended activities, and additional points to assist in delivering the lessons such as Stories to Share and Delivery Tips.

Sample Module: Understanding the Talk In this module, we will be looking at the types of sales, common sales approaches, and common sales terminology.

Like any profession, sales has its own special vocabulary. There’s nothing particularly difficult about the language of sales. Mastering it just takes a little study and practice. Knowing the language will make you feel more confident and prepared to start selling.

In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative original thinker unless you can also sell what you create.

David Ogilvie

Types of Sales

Estimated Time 10 minutes

Topic Objective To understand what is involved in various types of selling

Topic Summary

The main types of selling are:

• Telemarketing

• Direct mail

• E-mail

• The Internet

• Person to person

Despite the growth of online merchants, most selling is still done face to face.

Materials Required None

Planning Checklist Before the workshop, write the five main types of sales listed above on a flip chart.

Recommended Activity Divide participants into five groups. Assign each group one of the five types of sales and ask the group to think of the advantages and disadvantages of this approach. Have the each group report on what they discussed.

Delivery Tips

Explain that you are talking about selling, not advertising. A flier for a department store is advertising. It encourages you to visit the store. A letter asking you to apply for a credit card is selling. If you respond to the letter, the company has made a sale.

Here are some characteristics of the different types of sales.

• Telemarketing. In theory, the telephone allows you to reach just about anyone on the planet. In practice, however, many people screen their calls and it is often difficult to get through to a real person. If you use the phone for sales, have a brief curiosity-building message ready to leave on the voice mail of potential customers.

• Direct mail. Believe it or not, a one percent response rate for direct mail is considered average. Despite these long odds, many companies still rely heavily on direct mail to generate sales.

• E-mail. Legitimate e-mail selling is different from spam, the “carpet bombing” approach that sends messages to thousands or millions of people whether or not they have expressed any interest in the product being hyped. If you use e-mail for selling, try to put something in the “subject” line of your message that will attract attention and keep people from deleting the message without reading it.

• The Internet. Most companies offer information about their products on their websites, whether or not they actually do any selling online. If you are in person-to-person sales, you need to be very familiar with what your company says about its products online. The growing interest in social networking sites, such as Facebook, offers new opportunities for online sales.

• Person-to-person. Most sales are still conducted face to face. When you eat at a restaurant, check into a hotel, or buy bananas in a grocery store, you are the customer in a person-to-person sales transaction. Since this is the most common type of sales, most of this workshop is devoted to it.

Common Sales Approaches

Estimated Time 10 minutes

Topic Objective To understand how common sales approaches work.

Topic Summary

There are probably as many sales approaches as there are salespeople. The right sales approach is the one that works for you. Understanding common sales approaches, and experimenting with them, can help you refine your own approach.

Planning Checklist

Before the workshop, write these three headings on a flip chart:

• Consultative

• Hard sell

• Technical sale

Recommended Activity

Briefly describe the three approaches you have listed on the flip chart.

• Consultative. In this approach you act as a consultant to the client. You attempt to show that you have a vested interest in the client’s success. This approach builds a relationship with a client. It is sometimes called soft selling.

• Hard sell. In this approach you tell the client in clear, positive terms that your product is the best option available. You stress the importance of making a decision now.

• Technical sale. This approach treats the client as a fellow “techie.” You describe the technical specifications of your product and explain how its features match the client’s needs.

After you explain each approach, lead a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of each.

More on the three approaches discussed in this activity:

• Consultative approach. This is a long-term approach to sales. It may not lead to sales right away, but by building a relationship with a client it aims to create sales opportunities in the future. The more you learn about a client, the better able you are to understand the client’s wants and needs. It is an approach which depends upon trust – you trust that the customer will see the benefits of buying from you and they trust that you will give them the correct steer. The danger with this approach is that you may spend a considerable amount of time building a relationship and then having nothing to show for it. By building a relationship, however, you increase the chances of large-scale and repeat business.

• Hard sell. Many people are turned off by this approach. They consider it too pushy. This approach is used most often with clients who have a hard time making up their minds. It is only advisable to use the hard sell in a one-off setting where time is at a premium – if they don’t buy now; you are not likely to see them again. Therefore it is “now or never”.

• Technical sales. This approach is used most often with highly technical products and services. Sales personnel need some technical knowledge so that they will be on an equal footing with clients. The client will have a clear idea of what they are looking for, and a checklist of priorities. You will point them towards a range of items which meet those priorities – if not entirely then as well as possible. You may offer a personal opinion based on an understanding that you know what they want and they know you have enough product knowledge to point them in the right direction

Glossary of Common Terms

Estimated Time 10 minutes

Topic Objective To become familiar with common sales terminology.

Topic Summary Learning the language of sales will help you understand how the process works.

Planning Checklist

Before the workshop, write the following terms on a flip chart:

• Close/closing

• Cold calling

• Customer relationship management (CRM)

• Decision maker

• Networking

• Prequalifying clients

• Qualifying clients

• Sales funnel

• Warm calling

Recommended Activity

Ask two volunteers to come to the front of the room for a competition.

Tell them you are going to read definitions of each of the terms on the flip chart in random order. The first person to name the term you are defining wins a round. You can keep score, if you like, on the flip chart.

All participants will have a copy of the Glossary on the next page.

Delivery Tips Be sure to read the definitions in random order!

• Close/closing. It is the second to last step in the sales process. In this step, the salesperson encourages the customer to sign the order. In the past, salespeople often became pushy at this stage, but customers are more sophisticated these days and they don’t respond well to aggressive attempts to close a deal.

• Cold calling. The first phone call made to a prospective client.

• Customer relationship management (CRM). A system for managing the entire sales relationship with a client. Computerized CRM systems record all customer contacts, purchases, returns, etc.

• Decision maker. The person in an organization who has the authority to agree to a sale.

• Networking. An increasingly popular method of finding prospects based on referrals and introductions.

• Prequalifying clients. Determining if potential clients are actually worthwhile prospects.

• Qualifying clients. The process of getting to know potential customers — who they are, what they do, what they need.

• Sales funnel. A pattern that describes the conversion of prospects into sales. Many prospects enter the funnel at the top, but only a few are converted to sales. (This analogy is actually flawed because in a real funnel everything that goes in the top comes out the bottom.) The term “sales pipeline” has a similar meaning.

• Warm calling. Calls made after the initial contact with a customer, often in response to a call from the customer.

Quick Reference Sheets

Below is an example of our Quick reference Sheets. They are used to provide the participants with a quick way to reference the material after the course has been completed. They can be customized by the trainer to provide the material deemed the most important. They are a way the participants can look back and reference the material at a later date.

They are also very useful as a take-away from the workshop when branded. When a participant leaves with a Quick Reference Sheet it provides a great way to promote future business.

A Basic Opening for Warm Calls

• Your general appearance: how you dress, personal grooming etc.

• Your facial expression and bearing.

• Your posture.

• Your tone of voice

• Your nonverbal communications: eye contact, nodding, etc.

None of this means that you should pay any less attention to the verbal factors. Pay attention to the language that you use, and ensure that it is appropriate for the circumstances.

Common Types of Objections

Here are some of the real reasons why people are unwilling to make a purchase:

• They don’t have the money.

• They can’t get financing.

• They can’t decide on their own.

• They think they can get a better deal from someone else.

• They’re not sure your product will meet their needs.

• They think your product is overpriced.

• They want to shop around.

• They have an established relationship with another vendor.

Warming up Cold Calls

An opening statement should include:

• A greeting and an introduction

• A statement about the prospect

• A statement about the benefits of your product

• A question or a statement that will lead (you hope) to a dialogue

Here is an example:

“Hello, this is John Jones at Solar Solutions. I saw in the paper that you’re planning a new office building in Smallville. Our company has a product that can cut your heating and cooling bills in half. Have you considered adding solar panels to your building?”

Sales Fundamentals

www.corporatetrainingmaterials.com © Corporate Training Materials

Certificate of Completion

Every course comes with a Certificate of Completion where the participants can be recognized for completing the course. It provides a record of their attendance and to be recognized for their participation in the workshop.

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PowerPoint Sample

Below you will find the PowerPoint sample. The slides are based on and created from the Training Manual. PowerPoint slides are a great tool to use during the facilitation of the material; they help to focus on the important points of information presented during the training.

Full Course Table of Contents

Preface ..............................................................................................................................................5

What is Courseware? ................................................................................................................................ 5

How Do I Customize My Course? .............................................................................................................. 5

Materials Required ................................................................................................................................... 7

Maximizing Your Training Power .............................................................................................................. 7

Module One: Getting Started .............................................................................................................9

Housekeeping Items.................................................................................................................................. 9

The Parking Lot ....................................................................................................................................... 10

Workshop Objectives .............................................................................................................................. 10

Action Plans and Evaluations .................................................................................................................. 11

Module Two: Understanding the Talk ............................................................................................... 12

Types of Sales .......................................................................................................................................... 12

Common Sales Approaches..................................................................................................................... 14

Glossary of Common Terms .................................................................................................................... 15

Module Three: Getting Prepared to Make the Call ............................................................................ 17

Identifying Your Contact Person ............................................................................................................. 17

Performing a Needs Analysis .................................................................................................................. 18

Creating Potential Solutions ................................................................................................................... 19

Module Four: Creative Openings ...................................................................................................... 21

A Basic Opening for Warm Calls ............................................................................................................. 21

Warming up Cold Calls ............................................................................................................................ 23

Using the Referral Opening .................................................................................................................... 24

Module Five: Making Your Pitch ....................................................................................................... 26

Features and Benefits ............................................................................................................................. 26

Outlining Your Unique Selling Position ................................................................................................... 28

The Burning Question That Every Customer Wants Answered ............................................................... 30

Module Six: Handling Objections ...................................................................................................... 32

Common Types of Objections ................................................................................................................. 32

Basic Strategies ....................................................................................................................................... 34

Advanced Strategies ............................................................................................................................... 36

Module Seven: Sealing the Deal ....................................................................................................... 38

Understanding When It’s Time to Close ................................................................................................. 38

Powerful Closing Techniques .................................................................................................................. 40

Things to Remember ............................................................................................................................... 42

Module Eight: Following Up ............................................................................................................. 43

Thank You Notes ..................................................................................................................................... 43

Resolving Customer Service Issues .......................................................................................................... 45

Staying in Touch ...................................................................................................................................... 47

Module Nine: Setting Goals .............................................................................................................. 49

The Importance of Sales Goals ............................................................................................................... 50

Setting SMART Goals .............................................................................................................................. 52

Module Ten: Managing Your Data .................................................................................................... 54

Choosing a System That Works for You .................................................................................................. 54

Using Computerized Systems .................................................................................................................. 56

Using Manual Systems ............................................................................................................................ 57

Module Eleven: Using a Prospect Board ............................................................................................ 59

The Layout of a Prospect Board .............................................................................................................. 60

How to Use Your Prospect Board ............................................................................................................ 62

A Day in the Life of Your Board ............................................................................................................... 63

Module Twelve: Wrapping Up .......................................................................................................... 65

Words from the Wise .............................................................................................................................. 65

Parking Lot .............................................................................................................................................. 65

Action Plans and Evaluations .................................................................................................................. 65