Effective Selling

Lesson 1

Laying the Groundwork

This first lesson lays the groundwork for successful sales. You'll review some basic sales terminology and learn about how it relates to your profession. You'll also learn about appropriateness and how it can be a powerful tool for your success. This lesson will start the new salesperson off with the right tools to succeed.

Itineraries, Sales Call Reports, and the Customer Database

This lesson will talk about itineraries, sales call reports, and the customer database. Nothing is more important in sales than tracking your progress, your customers, and your prospects. Preparation and record keeping will keep you one step ahead of the competition. You'll also learn how to schedule follow-up calls to avoid letting potential sales pass you by.

Selling Yourself, Your Company, and Your Product

To be successful in sales, you must learn to sell three things: Yourself, your company, and your product. In this lesson, you'll learn the importance of these things and how to make them work in your favor. And no matter how good you are in sales, you will eventually experience a sales slump. You'll learn the simple steps to work through this slump and come through it in a stronger position.

Communication Skills

If you can't communicate, you can¹t sell. That's why communication is the focus of this lesson. You will learn how to effectively communicate with your customers and prospects in order to minimize problems and maximize customer loyalty. Just as important is your communication with your own company. Stop problems before they start, and your sales will increase dramatically.

Developing Effective Sales Presentations

The previous lessons laid out a strong foundation for your sales efforts. In this lesson, you'll learn how to develop your sales presentation. A good sales presentation can mean the difference between making the sale and going home empty-handed. Learn how to guide the prospect to placing the order by using these proven techniques.

Recognizing Personality Types

You'll encounter seven different types of personalities during your sales career, and you'll meet them all in this lesson. Who are they? How can you identify them? How can you relate to them? Most important, how can you sell to them? This lesson will talk about how to identify which personality type you're dealing with so you can develop a unique selling strategy for each of them.

Presentations for Different Personality Types

Knowing how to create an effective presentation, and how to identify the different personality types is essential knowledge. In this lesson, you'll learn how to apply the knowledge you gained in the previous two lessons. You'll also learn how to modify your presentation to meet the expectations of each of the personality types-a recipe for success!

Closing the Sale

The ultimate goal of the salesperson is to make or close the sale. There are six basic ways to close a sale, and this lesson will discuss them all. More importantly, you'll learn how to put each method to use for the greatest effect.

Converting Customer Complaints to Delight

When is an unhappy customer a great sales opportunity? All salespeople will have to deal with customer complaints at one time or another, but few know how to turn a complaint into a powerful sales tool. By properly handling these complaints as they arise, you can turn a customer complaint into customer delight.

Effective Negotiation

Can you negotiate a contract that pleases your customer and increases your total sales and profit? Of course! In this lesson, you'll learn the techniques of successful negotiation. There really is a win/win solution, and you'll learn how to find it in this lesson.

Dealing With Your Competition

It may seem that your competitors are always bigger, faster, cheaper, or smarter than you are. But the fact is, they aren't. This lesson will discuss ways you can find out what your competition is up to and how to use this knowledge to your advantage.

Difficult Situations

The final lesson will delve into some big questions that salespeople must ask themselves. How do you deal with customers that won't return your calls? How important are ethics in the world of sales? How do you deal with the seemingly constant rejection? All those questions will be answered in this lesson.