Selling Skills and

Selling & Buying Styles

Unit 2 Part A

Selling Skills
A.

Communication

B.

Listening

C.

Conflict Mgmnt & Resolution

D.

Negotiation

E.

Problem solving

A) COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Definition:
Communication is the process of exchanging
information and ideas. . An active process, it
involves encoding, transmitting, and
decoding intended messages

How do you go about Establishing

Rapport?

You need Self-Confidence

You must Understand People

You must be Enthusiastic

You must make Eye Contact

You must be Interested in them

The 7cs of effective communication

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Completeness
Conciseness
Consideration
Clarity
Concreteness
Courtesy
Correctness

1. Completeness - The information conveyed in the message

should be complete for the communication to be effective.
2. Conciseness means communicating what you want to
convey in least possible words.
3. Consideration Effective communication must take
audience into consideration by knowing the viewpoints, back
ground, mind set, educational level,
4. Clarity - implies emphasizing on a specific goal or objective
at a time, rather than trying to move away from track.
5. Concreteness - implies being particular and clear rather
being fuzzy and general. Shows good level of confidence
6. Courtesy - means being polite, kind, judicious, enthusiastic
and convincing
7. Correctness - implies that the correct information is
conveyed through message.

B) Listening

What is Listening?

Listening - the process of receiving,

constructing meaning from, and responding
to spoken and/or nonverbal messages; to
hear something with thoughtful attention.

Listening vs. Hearing

Hearing- physical process; natural; passive

Listening- physical & mental process;

active; learned process; a skill

Listening is hard!
You must choose to participate in the
process of listening.

8 keys to effective listening

1. Find areas of interest.
The Poor Listener: Tunes out dry topics.
The Good Listener: Seizes opportunities: "What's in it for me?
2. Judge content, not delivery.
The Poor Listener: Tunes out if delivery is poor.
The Good Listener: Judges content, skips over delivery errors.
3. Hold your fire
The Poor Listener: Tends to enter into argument.
The Good Listener: Doesn't judge until comprehension is
complete.

4. Listen for ideas.

The Poor Listener: Listens for facts.
The Good Listener: Listens for central theme.

5. Work at listening.
The Poor Listener: Shows no energy output, fakes
attention
The Good Listener: Works hard; exhibits
alertness.

6. Resist distractions.
The Poor Listener: Is distracted easily.
The Good Listener: Fights or avoids distractions; tolerates
bad habits in others; knows how to concentrate.
7. Keep your mind open.
The Poor Listener: Reacts to emotional words.
The Good Listener: Interprets emotional words; does not
get hung up on them.
8. Thought is faster than speech; use it.
The Poor Listener: Tends to daydream with slow speakers.
The Good Listener: Challenges, anticipates, mentally
summarizes, weights the evidence, listens between the lines
to tone and voice.

Types of listening

Content listening
Understand and retain the speakers message

Critical listening
Understand and evaluate at different levels
logical level of argument, strength of the evidence
and validity of the conclusions

Empathetic listening
Understand speakers feelings, needs and
demands

C)

Conflict Mgmnt skills

Conflict management: Process of identifying the

nature of the conflict and taking corrective action so
that the conflict does not emerge.
CONFLICTS
Classification

process

Functional

dysfunctional

task
relationship

Conflict Mgmnt skills

Components of conflict
Interest
Emotions
values

Reasons for conflict

Frustration
Anger

Methods of conflict resolution

Competing
Collaborating
Accommodating
Compromising
Avoiding

Methods of conflict resolution

Competing: It means being concerned about ones own
goals without any thought for the others.

Accommodation: One party helps the other achieve its

goals without being worried about its own goals.

Compromise: Both sides give up something to meet mid

way.
Collaboration: Also known as a problem solving approach.
Tries to maximize the benefit to both parties while solving
the dispute.
Avoidance: Problem is postponed or discussion avoided.

Methods of conflict resolution

Collaborating

Competing

Partys
attempt
to
satisfy
own
concerns

Compromising

Accommodating

Avoiding
Partys attempt to satisfy
others concern

The ability to successfully resolve conflict depends on your

ability to:
Manage stress quickly while remaining alert and
calm.By staying calm, you can accurately read and
interpret verbal and nonverbal communication.

Control your emotions and behaviour.When youre in

control of your emotions, you can communicate your needs
without threatening, frightening, or punishing others.

Pay attention to the feelings being expressedas well

as the spoken words of others.

Be aware of and respectful of differences.By avoiding

disrespectful words and actions, you can almost always
resolve a problem faster.

D) Negotiation

Negotiation is a process that tries to maximise the

benefit to both buyer and seller and takes a long term
view of their relationship.

Styles of negotiations:

I win, you lose

Both of us win
You win, I lose
Both of us lose

Strategy of principled negotiation

Separate people from the problem
Invent options for mutual gains
Insist on objective criteria

Assumptions vs Facts
Buyer is all powerful, holding all the cards.

1.

1.

Fact: Very rare situation

Buyer knows what he wants.

2.

1.

Fact: sometimes he does; sometimes he doesn't

You will make the sale solely on the basis of

price.

3.

1.

Fact: Price is most overrated word in negotiation

Your competition is all around you with better

products and better prices.

4.

1.

Fact: this is almost never the case

Assumptions vs Facts, contd

5. You would close more sales if you had more authority.
Fact: In most cases, you would be better off
with less authority.
6. Your only weapon is the ability to lower the price.
Fact: Price cutting is only one of dozens of
negotiating tools at your command and many are
more effective than price cutting.
Moral: we underestimate our own power and
overestimate the power of the buyer

E) Problem solving skills

Should act as a problem solver and as a
consultant to the customer.
Problem solving process:

Define the problem

Generate alternate solutions
Decide the solution
Implement the solution
Evaluate the solution

SELLING & BUYING STYLES

DIFFUSION PROCESS

It is a macro process concerned with a

spread of a new product from its source to
the consuming public, by marketing
activities.

Adoption Process

The acceptance and continued use of a

product by a consumer is referred to as
adoption.

Adopter categories

Innovators
Early Adopters
Early Majority
Late Majority
Laggards

Innovators

These are the people who are fundamentally committed to new technology
on
the grounds .

Early Adopters

These are the true revolutionaries in business and government who want to
use the discontinuity of any innovation to make a break with the past and
start an entirely new future. Their expectation is that by being first to exploit
the new capability they can achieve dramatic and insurmountable
competitive advantage over the old order.

Early Majority

These people make the bulk of all technology infrastructure purchases. They
do not love technology for its own sake, so are different from the techies,
whom they are careful, nonetheless, to employ. Moreover, they believe in
evolution not revolution. they are interested in making their companies'
systems work effectively and look to adopt innovations only after they have
established a proven track record.

Late Majority

These consumers are pessimistic about their ability to gain any value from
technology investments and undertake them only under duress -- typically
because the remaining alternative is to let the rest of the world pass them
by. They are very price-sensitive, highly skeptical, and very demanding.
Rarely do their demands get met, in part because they are unwilling to pay
for any extra services, all of which only reconfirms their sour views of high
tech.
Laggards

This group delight in challenging the hype and puffery of high-tech

marketing. They are not so much potential customers as ever-present critics.
As such, the goal of high-tech marketing is not to sell to them but rather to
sell around them.
The Marketing Strategy

With these customer segments in mind, the typical approach is to seed new
products with the innovators so they can help educate the early adopters.
When the early adopter's are interested, do everything that is possible to
make them happy as they will then serve as references for the early majority
which is the group where most of the money is made from a new product or
service. Then leverage the success with this large group so that the product
matures and stabilizes enough to be of interest to the late adopters. All the
while, ignore the laggards and their skepticism.

Normal distribution of adopter

categories

Key

3
4
1

12345-

Innovators
Early adaptors
Early majority
Late Majority
Laggards

Selling & Buying Styles Grid

Framework
9

1,9: Focus
on
customer
& his
feelings

Concern
for
custome
r

9,9: Problem
solving
approach.
Long term
benefits

5,5: Equal
weightage
for customer
and sale

1,1,:Sell on its
own. Logistics
is key
1

9,1: Push
product through
promotional
schemes
5

Concern for sale

Sales strategy

Systems & Processes designed around the customers:

to give them high value products and services
Deliver more satisfaction
Retain customers

Traditional vs Modern sales Mgmnt transaction

relationship vs Customer relationship
Industrial sector: cross functional teams
Reorient the strategy to build relationship

Product driven vs technology driven vs system driven

Satisfied customer more profitable than acquisition

Use of technology

Quote
The only way a relationship will last
is
if you see your relationship as a
place
that you go to give, and not
a place that you go to take.