Personal Selling: Preparation and

Process
LBSIM, New Delhi
 Agenda

• To understand psychology in selling, buying decision

process and buying situations
• To learn communication skills, sales knowledge, and
sales related marketing policies
• To understand personal selling process
Psychology in Selling: Stimulus Response Model

Stimulus Buyer’s decision Response

(Sales Presentation) making process (buy or no buy)

• If a sales person makes a presentation, the prospect

may or may not buy
• The above “buyer behaviour model” does not tell us
the reasons of buying or not buying
• To understand the psychological aspects of selling or
buying, salespeople should study consumer or buyer
behaviour, including buying process and situations
 Buyer- Seller Dyadic Interaction:
Study by Jadish Seth
• Two Major Factors as the basis for buyer- Seller
interaction.
• Content/s ------- of Information
– Product features, price, services, and also individual
needs of buyers and sellers
• Style of Interaction
– Task Orientation
– Interaction orientation
– Self Orientation
The study suggests that if both buyer and seller are
compatible the chances of sales are high.
 Buying Process of Consumers and Business Buyers
Five – stage model for household
customers
1. Problem / need recognition
2. Information search / collection
3. Evaluate alternatives
4. Purchase decision
5. Post – purchase behaviour
Eight – stage model for business
buyers
1. Problem / need recognition
2. Characteristics and quantity
determination
3. Specification development
4. Supplier search and qualification
5. Obtain and analyze supplier proposals
6. Evaluation and selection of suppliers
7. Selection of purchase order routine
8. Performance feedback and post-
purchase evaluation
 Buying Situations Faced By

Household customers Business Buyers

• Routine decision-making • New task / New purchase

• Limited decision-making • Modified rebuy / change in

supplier
• Extensive decision-making • Straight rebuy / Repeat purchase

• Buying process and situations differ for household

consumers and business buyers.
• Consumers / Buyers may skip or reverse some stages in
buying process. E.G. A consumer buying toothpaste
Knowledge of Sales and Sales-related Marketing
Policies

Sales Knowledge Marketing Policies

• Company knowledge • Pricing and Payment policies
• Product knowledge • Product policies
• Customer knowledge • Distribution policies
• Competitor knowledge • Promotional policies

Major reasons for giving above information / knowledge

through training programmes to salespeople are:
• increase their self-confidence
• Meet customers’ expectations
• Increase sales
• Overcome competition
 The Sales Process
As a part of selling activities, if salespeople follow the steps or
phases shown below, their chances of success are far better.

Prospecting & Preapproach / Discovering

Qualifying Approach
Precall planning Buyer’s need

Follow-up & Trail close / Overcoming Presentation &

Service Closing the sale Objections Demonstration

• The sequence of above steps may change to meet the

sales situation in hand.
• Some of the above steps may not be applicable for selling
to the trade
Prospecting
• It is identifying or finding prospects i.e. prospective or
potential customers.
• Methods of prospecting or sales lead generation are: (1)
referrals from existing customers, (2) company sources (website,
ads., tradeshow, tele prospecting), (3) external sources
(suppliers, intermediaries, trade associations), (4) salespersons’
networking, (5) industrial directories, (6) cold canvassing, (7)
standard industrial classification (SIC) system.
Qualifying
• Companies qualify sales leads by contacting them by mail or
phone to find their interests (or needs) and financial capacity.
• Leads are categorized as: Hot, Warm, and Cool
Impact of follow up : sales people get more than 80% of buyer’s
business when they FOLLOW UP a sales enquiry as compared to
40% when not followed up.
 Prospecting

Successful prospecting

50 potential prospects 50 potential prospects

15 Qualified prospects 25 Qualified prospects
6 Interviews 17 Interviews
1 sale 7 sales

No Yes

Successful prospecting
 Standard Industrial Classification
http://www.mospi.gov.in/classification/national-
industrial-classification/forewords

https://www.indiafilings.com/nic-code
 MAD principle for prospecting
• The salespersons should ask following
questions to themselves to check if an
organization or person is qualifying to be a
prospect;
1. Does the prospect has money to buy?
2. Does the prospect has the authority to buy?
3. Does the prospect has the desire to buy?
 Qualifying the leads
• Leads are categorized as: Hot, Warm, and
Cool
• Hot: These prospects are likely to buy the
company’s product in the near future and are
financially sound.
• Warm: They are the fence sitters. They want
to buy but are non committal.
• Cold: May take long time.
 Preapproach
• Information gathering about the prospect.
Business(Type and in what), purchasing practices,
location of plant, background of people who will
make buying decisions, major problems faced by
them…..etc.
Sources of information: the Internet, industrial
directories, government publications, intermediaries, etc.
• Precall planning
• Setting call objectives
• Tentative planning of sales strategy: which products,
features and benefits may meet the customer needs
 Pre call Planning
• Following 4 Questions:
– Whom to see ?
– Where to go?
– What are the call objectives?
– How to approach the prospect?
 Discovering Buyer’s Needs
• Huthwaite’s research of SPIN
– https://www.huthwaiteinternational.com/why-
us/research/spin-research/

4 different types of questions

Situational
Problem
Implication
Need – Payoff
 Situational
• How many people would occupy the
conference hall which needs to be AC?
• Who is involved in the buying decision for this
product?
• How often do you carry out preventive
maintenance for this machine?
 Problem
• Have you experienced any problem in
servicing your machines?
• Have you ever had difficulty in controlling the
quality?
• Have you experienced any delay in getting
those materials from your existing suppliers?
• How satisfied are you with the response time
of your current service provider?
 Implication
• What impact the delays in receiving the
components have on your production and
customer satisfaction?
• Have these staff problems lead you to lose any
client?
• What consequences the errors in your system
have on your customers?
 Need Pay- off
• If the rejection rate for this component at your
quality inspection stage is reduced to less than
one percent, how much would that save you?
• By using our material handling equipment if
you could save 2000 sq ft area, how much
saving would that mean?
• How important is that if the response time to
your consumers would improve by 50%?
 Approach
• Make an appointment to meet the prospect
• Make favorable first impression
• Select an approach technique:
• Introductory
• Customer benefit(discuss the buying motive)
• Product(when new product or some changes have
taken place)
• Question
• Praise(when we will design something, we will
follow yours)
• The approach takes a few minutes of a call, but it
can make or break a sale
What the customer wanted to ask you
but did not spell out to you
• Why should I listen to you?
• What is that important in your presentation?
• What will I get out of it?
• Who says yours is the best in the business?
• So what if you have a great product, everybody
says so?
• Who else has done the buying of your product?
Do I know anyone of them?
 Presentation and Demonstration

There are four components:

• Understanding the buyer’s needs
• Knowing sales presentation methods / strategies
• Developing an effective presentation
• Using demonstration as a tool for selling
 How to Determine Important Buying
Needs–A Key to Success
• L-O-C-A-T-E
 L isten
 O bserve
 C ombine
 Ask questions
 Talk to others
 Empathize
3-27
 Knowing Sales Presentation Methods/Strategies
Firms have developed different methods / styles / strategies of sales
presentation
• Stimulus response method / canned approach.
• It is a memorised sales talk or a prepared sales presentation.
(Script)
• The sales person talks without knowing the prospect’s needs. E.G.
Used by tele-marketing people
• Used when the time for sales presentation is short and product is
non technical in nature.
• Formula method / formulated approach.
• It is also based on stimulus response thinking that all prospects are
similar.
• The salesperson uses a standard formula – AIDA (attention,
interest, desire, and action).
 Sales Presentation Methods (Continued)

• Need – satisfaction method

• Interactive sales presentation
• First find prospect’s needs, by asking questions and
listening
• Use FAB approach: Features, Advantages, Benefits
• Effective method, as it focuses on customers

An Example: Our Fan has two bearings(Feature), so it

hardly makes any noise and have longer life(Advantage)
and because of it, they may even be used in the class
room(Benefit)
 The Product’s Features: So What?
• Feature – a physical characteristic
• Many salespeople emphasize features
• Examples:
– Size
– Color
– Price
– Shape

3-30
 The Product’s Advantages: Prove It!
• Advantage – a performance characteristic
• The chances of making a sale are increased by
describing the product’s advantages.
– How a product can be used
– How a product will help the buyer
– Examples:
• Fastest-selling
• Stores more information
• Copies on both sides of the paper

3-31
 The Product’s Benefits: What’s in it for
Me?
• Benefit – a result of advantage
• People are interested in what the product will
do for them.
• Benefits can be both practical and
psychological.
• Benefits should be specific statements, not
generalizations.
• Emphasizing benefits increases sales.
3-32
 Let’s Review FABs, cont…
• “The king size (Feature) will bring you
additional profits (benefits) because it is the
fastest growing ( advantages) and a more
economical size ( Feature).”

3-33
• Consultative selling method / Problem-solving
approach
• Salespeople use cross-functional expertise
• Firms adopt team selling approach
• It is used by software / consulting firms
 Developing an Effective Presentation
Some of the guidelines are:
• Plan the sales call
• Adopt presentation to the situation and person
• Communicate the benefits of the purchase
• Present relevant and limited information at a time
• Use the prospect’s language
• Make the presentation convincing – give evidence
• Use technology like multi-media presentation
 Using Demonstration

• Sales presentation can be improved by

demonstration
• Demonstration is one of the important selling tools
EGs: Test drive of cars; demonstration of industrial
products in use
• Benefits of using demonstration for selling are:
• Buyers’ objections are cleared
• Improves the buyer’s purchasing interest
• Helps to find specific benefits of the prospect
• The prospect can experience the benefit
 When to use which presentation Method
Method When

Stimulus Response/ When selling time is short, product

Canned is simple and non technical.
Formula Method In straight rebuy or repeat
purchase
Need Satisfaction Creative form of selling , suitable
for industrial products or consumer
durables
Consultative Selling High cost technical products
or services
 Overcoming Sales Objections / Resistances
• Objections take place during presentations / when the
order is asked
• Two types of sales objections:
• Psychological / hidden
• Logical (real or practical)
• Methods for handling and overcoming objections:
(i) For Psychological objections: ask questions.
(ii) For logical objections: (a) ask questions, (b) turn an
objection into a benefit, (c) deny objections tactfully,
(d) third-party certificate, (e) compensation.
• Ask Questions:
Buyer: it seems your prices are higher than competitors
Salesperson: I accept your concern. Do you want to know
why my prices are slightly higher than competitors
Buyer: yes!
• Turn an objection into benefit:
Prospect: The delivery period of 4 weeks seems too long
and then one week for installation and commissioning ,
the project will be completed in 5 weeks by now.
Salesperson: sir, the equipment will be specially designed
and manufactured keeping in mind your needs, with our
delivery of 3 weeks and installation and commissioning of
1 week it would be almost 4 weeks, is that OK with you.
• Deny objections tactfully:
Buyer: I don’t want to buy your car, because a friend of
mine told me that he had a lot of problems when we
purchased a newly launched car two years ago.
Salesperson: Yes, I agree, two years ago when we
launched the car we had few problems, but we solved all
of them in six months not only at our factory but at
customers’ premises as well. And yes, in last one and half
year our sales are highest, you can now check with your
friend, if he now offers some positive and good opinion,
would you buy our car?
Compensation: Depute …. Someone for…..
 Few Other Examples of Objection handling
Method When to use How to use
Boomerang When the objection can be turned The salesperson turns the objections
into a positive feature into reason for buying
Compensation With valid objections The salesperson initially agrees with
the prospect and then points out
factors that outweigh/compensate
their objections
Feel felt and With emotional objections Empathize and present
Found
Forestalling With any category of objection From his experience, the salesperson
anticipates the objections and
incorporates appropriate answers into
the presentation itself, so that no
objection is raised

Head on/ Initial With objections arising out of

Denial misleading or incorrect information
 Handling Price based objections
• Breaking down the price into smaller units.
• Converting to a lower priced products.
• Firing the customers.
• Postponing
• Showing returns on investments
• Stressing on exclusive features and differences.
• Talking about the ultimate cost( Initial Cost +
Installation + Services Cost)
• Using Comparison
 THE
EXCUSES
 Trial close
• Trial close checks the attitude or opinion of the
prospect, before closing the sale (or asking for the
order)
Go back to the
Salesperson presentation
Makes a (if the prospect’s
Presentation response in
unfavorable)
Salesper
son
Uses a
trail
Salesperson answers close
prospect’s objections
Close the Sales
 Closing the sale
• If the response to trial close question is
favourable, then the salesperson should close
the sale
• Some of the techniques used for closing the
sale are: (a) alternative-choice, (b) minor
points, (c) assumptive, (d) summary-of-
benefits, (e) T-account, (f) special-offer, (g)
probability, and (h) negotiation
 Alternative Choice
• Which of the three models do you prefer?

• Yes I prefer the second or some objections on

all….. Then try to understand again the needs….
And pitch back…..
• Minor Points Close:
if you are buying solar heater, which model are you
preferring, would you like to pay in installments,
how soon would you like it to be delivered….. etc
 Assumptive Close
• The salesman assumes that the prospect will
buy and conveys his assumptions through
comments such as “ would you like to take it
along or we should get it arranged for the
home delivery” and non verbal actions like
starting to wrap or getting credit card
machine…. etc.
 Summary of benefits
• FAB Approcah…..

• SELL Sequence : Show features, Explain

advantages, Lead into benefits and Let
customers talk.
T Close: ___________________________
To act Not to Act
 Special Offer
• Special Offer based Close

• Probability Close: I will let you know, find

out…. And offer some….. And clos….
 Negotiation
• Salespeople, particularly in business to business selling, need
negotiating skills
• When to negotiate?
(a) When the buyer puts certain conditions for buying to the
seller, (b) When agreement between the buyer and the seller
is needed on several factors, (c) When the product is to be
customised, (d) When the final price is to be decided
• How to prepare for negotiation?
(a) planning, (b) building relationship, (c) purpose
• Styles of negotiation
(a) I win, you lose, (b) Both of us win (or win-win style), (c) You
win, I lose, and (d) Both of us lose
 Selling and buying styles

9 (1,9) People Oriented (9,9) Problem Solving Oriented

I am customer’s friend, I consult with the customer so as to

Concern for the customers

inform myself of all the needs in his

8 I want to understand him and situation that my products can satisfy.
respond to his feelings and We work towards a sound purchase
7 interests so that he will like me. It
is the personal bond that leads
decision on his part, which yield him
the benefits he expects from it.
him to purchase from me.
6 (5,5) Sales technique Oriented
I have tried an effective routine
5 for getting a customer to buy. It
motivates through a blended
4 personality and product emphasis (9,1) Push the product Oriented

3 (1,1) Take it or Leave it I take challenge of the customer

and hard sell him, polling on all
I place the product before the the pressure it takes to make him
2 customer and it sells itself as and buy
when it comes.
1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
 Follow-up and Service

• Necessary for customer satisfaction

• Successful salespeople follow-up in different
ways: For example,
• Check order details
• Follow through delivery schedule
• Visit when the product is delivered
• Build long-term relationship
• Arrange warranty service
Solution Selling
 Solution Selling
• It is a process of selling the customers a
solution to their problems as opposed to
selling a product or service.
• Common in – Construction, Software and
Outsourcing industry
 7 Stages in Solution Selling
• Relationship Building
• Consultative Sales- The sales team may provide
access to consultants who can answer the
customers’ questions and provide valuable
industry data such as benchmarks.
• Need Analysis
• Solution Design
• Closing
• Solution Delivery
• Account Management