MODULE 2

SELLING SKILLS AND

STRATEGIES
 Selling and buying Styles
 selling skills, situations
 selling process
 sales presentation
 Handling customer objections
 Follow-u action.
Selling is one of the most challenging
professions of the modern world.
 These are the sum total of aptitudes and
skills such as communication skills, listening
skills, conflict resolution skills, problem
solving skills and negotiation skills.
Buying styles vary depending upon:
 Capability to pay
 Quantity of purchase
 Ability to take risk- Innovators Vs Laggards
Theory of diffusion
 Bargaining power of the buyer
 Competitors
 Personality traits
 Innovators
 laggards
 People who are adventurous and have high
risk capital are the overnight buyers.
 These buyers are the INNOVATORS In the
market place.
 Who mostly buy on impulse and consider non
functional reasons for making a choice.
 Thisset of people are followed by another
group who accept new products and
innovations after observing the innovators
using it.
 Similarly customers personality traits also
influence the pattern and style of buying.
 The risk – averse customers always take
multiple variables into consideration before
they make a final decision.
 Number of competitors
 Prevailing level
 Quality
 Switching cost
A typical selling situation says what kind of
customers a salesperson is going to face and
what kind of sales approach will help him to
closing a sale in that situation.
 Organizational selling: the customer represent a
group interest/ purchase dept in the organization.

 Service and solution selling: customer does not

come with a specific parameter and during the sales
presentation the customer may unravel the problems
& develop criteria.

 Retail selling : the customer walks in to the store

with the intention of buying a product.

 Cold calling : make an unsolicited visit or telephone

call to someone in an attempt to sell goods service.
 Pharmaceutical selling; the sales person
makes a sales presentation to doctor who is
not the original customer but customer
decision making largely depends on what the
doctors prescribes.

 Creativeselling : the salesperson tries to sell

an abstract thought to the customer.
 Itexplain what kind of customers a
salesperson is going to face & what kind of
sales approach will help
 Tele calling- More chance of rejection
 In B to B – specific pattern , problem and
solutions are defined
 Service & solution selling- unravel his
problem , identify his interest
 Retail- customer walks in with intention to
buy
 Cold call or door to door- no intention from
customer, salesman identify the potential
 Communication
 Listening skill
 Conflict management skill
 Problem solving skills
 Negotiation skills
 THE GOOD THE BAD THE UGLY
SALESMAN SALESMAN SALESMAN

Does not follow up

Walks in without
Honest appointment
Admits the mistakes Begins call by talking Has a alec attitude
Possesses problem casual Calls customer dear /
solving capabilities Puts down competitors sweetheart
Friendly but products Gets personal
professional Has poor listening skills Does not give
Dependable Makes too many phone purchasing people
Adaptable calls credit for their
Well prepared Makes lousy intelligence
Knows my business presentations Lies
Patient Fails to ask about needs lazy
Lacks product
knowledge
Wastes time
 PROBLEM SOLVING
COMMUNICATION SKILLS SKILLS

SELLING
SKILLS

NEGOTIATION SKILLS
LISTENING SKILLS

CONFLICT
MANAGEMENET SKILLS
Communication is exchange of idea and
information between two parties.
 Businessbelieves the trust between buyer
and seller depends on five elements in sales
person behaviour.
Buyer believes seller because…
 Truth of words communicated
 Predictability of action
 Competency- ability/knowledge/resources
 Intent or Empathy
 Likeability
 Personal
 Non-personal- use of mass media
Intended
Feedback Perceived
message message

Encoding
Noise Decoding

Sent Received
message Channel message
 Personal appearance
 Posture
 Gestures
 Facialexpressions
 Eye contact
 Space distancing
 Research suggests that people are only 25%
efficient in their ability to listen
 Average person remembers 50% after 10
minutes
 Then forget 50 % of that within 48 hours
 Content listening- Sales representative to
customer/understanding the content.
 Critical listening- Evaluating the
meaning/logical level of argument/strength of
the evidence
 Empathetic listening- Understand the feelings,
needs and demand so that it can be appreciated
 •Physically hear message and take note
1.Receiving •Affected by external factors i.e noise

•Infer speaker’s meaning based on own experiences

2. Interpreting •Need to understand speaker’s frame of reference

3. Remembering •Store message for future reference

•Consider points mentioned and assess their

4. Evaluating importance

5. Responding •Reacting to speaker’s message

•In certain occasion, action is vital. Put all promised

6. Acting action in writing and make sure to deliver promises
 Feedback

Paraphrasing

Clarifications

Empathetic listening

Active listening
PHYSICAL PSYCHOLOGICAL LINGUISTIC CULTURAL
BARRIERS BARRIERS BARRIERS
BARRIERS

1)Noise 1)Emotional 1)Improper 1)Cultural

Disturbance Message Differences
2)Physical Decoding
Discomfort 2)Anxiety 2) Different
2)Ambiguous values
3)Physical 3)Over Language
Distractions arousal of 3)Different
Emotions 3)Jargon social norms
4)Distance
1)Avoiding
2)Accommodating
3)Competing
4)Collaborating
5)Compromising
 Interests
 Emotions
 Values

Frustration and aggression are the major

reasons of conflict
Negotiation occurs when someone else has what
you want, and you are prepared to bargain for it and
vice versa.
 Situationsand timings for negotiation.
 Formulation of a bargaining strategy
Roger Fisher and Willliam Ury proposed four
principles for conducting principled
negotiation.
1) Separate the people from the problem
2) Focus on interest, not on positions.
3) Invent options for mutual gains.
4) Insist on objective criteria.
1) Acting crazy
2) Auctioning
3) The good guy bad guy routine
4) Big pot
5) Budget bogey
6) Get a prestigious ally
7) The well is dry
8) Limited authority
9) Divide and conquer
10) Whats the rock bottom price?
11) Get lost/stall for time
12) Take it or leave it
A sales person should not be mere order
taker, he should rather act as a problem
solver and a consultant to the customer.
CHARACTERISTICS INEFFECTIVE EFFFECTIVE

Attitude Thinking nothing can be Believes the problem

done can be solved

Actions Lies back and expects Re evaluates the

that a solution will come problem several times to
naturally. look at the issue from
different angles.

accuracy Does not check Checks and rechecks

Solution procedures Does not break the Breaks the problem and
problem, let it be as it is. solves.
 Define the problem

Generate alternative solutions

Decide the solution

Implement the solution

Evaluate the solution

 Hard sell
and Soft sell
strategies

Client
Negotiation Selling centered
strategy strategies strategy

Price –
Win – win product
strategy strategy
 Pre-approach
Pre-sales
Prospecting before the
Preparation
interview

Follow up Approach to
action the customer

Handling
Closing the Sales
customer
sales presentation
objection
 Product
 customer
 company knowledge
 Competitors knowledge
 Identify and define the prospects

Search for sources of potential accounts

Quality the prospects from the suspects

 Cold canvassing
 Orphaned
 Prospect pool
 Centre of influence
 Direct mail
 Observation
 Referral
 Sales lead club
 Non competing sales force
 Trade show
 Telemarketing
 Networking
 Friends
 Attracting customer attention
 Creating Interest
 Arousing desire and building conviction
 Canned presentation
 Organized presentation
 Tailored presentation
 Handling customer objections
 Closing the sales
 Follow up
 1. Explain the different selling skills and selling strategies. (Jan 2012)
 2. Write a note on different types of selling skills? (Dec-2012)
 3. Explain briefly the selling process
 4. Explain 3 types of sales presentation.

DATE OF SUBMISSION : 22nd May, 2017