Essential selling skills
Increasing sales is the core of objective for all salespeople and it is vital they are given the tools and techniques to thrive in this highly competitive environment. The landscape within which salespeople operate is ever shifting, and now more than ever it is recognised that the key to successful selling is understanding the customer’s needs and working collaboratively with them to achieve their objectives.
This highly practical programme has been developed to support salespeople to develop their all-round sales skills using a customer-focused approach. The course will be fun and informal, using practical exercises to help new and experienced salespeople ensure they are equipped to deal with the challenges of selling.
Learning objectives
- Develop core sales skills such as building rapport, questioning and presenting benefits
- Identify the roles and goals of key contacts and recognize the importance of consultative selling
- Understand how to achieve sales by uncovering needs, matching benefits and promoting value
- Understand how to structure and control a customer interaction and set clear objectives for each account
- Develop techniques for handling objections, questions and staying positive
- Master the art of closing a sale and gaining agreement
- Understand tactical selling and how to build multiple contacts and relationships
- Develop skill and confidence in selling to both new prospects and existing customers
Who should attend?
This practical course is aimed at those who are starting their selling journey or more experienced individuals looking to refresh or develop their skills to ensure they are up to date.
Format
A very practical, interactive one-day session for a maximum group size of 12. There are lots of different activities throughout the day where participants will have the opportunity to put learning into practice.
Special features
The majority of the training we deliver is either tailored or completely bespoke. This workshop can therefore be delivered entirely as advertised, or it can be tailored to your particular requirements, or we can simply take it as a starting point for a conversation with you before we draft a completely bespoke programme for you – the choice is yours.
Expert trainer
His work has taken him all over the world and involved him in working closely with hundreds of different organisations from all business sectors, his client list including such organisations as BT, Vodafone, AT&T, Orange, Pfizer, GSK, Boots, Unilever, American Express, Thomas Cook, Apple, Sony, Motorola, Cisco, MFI, Barclays Bank, LIFFE, Abbey National, Prison Service, Home Office, Law Society, BBC, Daimler-Chrysler, Citroen, Weetabix, Nikon, Shell and many, many others.
Some of the most popular areas in which he supports his clients are:
- Better business writing skills, including reports, bid writing, and technical manuals
- Value-added and consultative selling
- Presentation skills for managers and professionals
- Managing challenging client conversations / assertiveness
- Customer service skills
- Key account management
- Commercial negotiation skills and commercial awareness
- Sales prospecting and appointment making
Graham has written over twenty books, published in several different countries, including Working Smarter, Companies don’t succeed – people do!, Customer Relationship Management, Sales Training Games, 90 Brain-teasers for Trainers, and Telephone Tactics.
Known internationally as both a trainer/coach and a popular motivational speaker, he believes that effective learning has to be interactive and challenging. All his learning events are built around practical exercises, role play and case studies. His training style focuses not on just explaining new ideas or developing new skills, but also on motivating people to use them and to develop themselves as individuals. This approach gets results, as the following comments from programme participants show:
‘Brilliant course, really interesting and very focused to my job role and day to day work.’
‘Took away some very good ideas that I can use every day… good examples too.’
‘Very confident in the subject, and amusing too. Made the course very interesting. A very clear sales model to use going forward.’
‘Full of useful hints and tips which I will apply to my job.’
1 Consultative selling – key principles for success
- Recognise the importance of consultative selling and being client-focused
- Build the right processes to achieving sales targets – questions before features
- Assess your core sales skills; building rapport, asking questions, presenting features and benefits, closing
2 Consultative sales call skills
- How best to structure and control a customer meeting or call to be client-centric: Four Cs
- The importance of setting clear objectives for each call and account
- Setting the agenda and pre-call preparation
- Planning sessions
3 Your mission, message and meaning – comparative advantage
- Defining sales messages and USPs; positioning value and quality not price
- Knowing your target product and services and their value to the customer
- Understanding your customers buying role and qualifying the opportunity
4 An effective sales meeting – part 1
- Opening the sales interview – and building rapport
- Gaining and retaining the full attention of the customer
- Probing and identifying real needs using effective sales questions
- Planning and practice sessions for consultative selling
5 An effective sales meeting – part 2
- Matching customer needs and wants to products and services available
- Presenting your product or service using features, advantages, and benefits
- Recognising and responding to buying signals and other sales opportunities
- Planning and practice sessions
6 Closing the sale successfully
- Anticipating objections and seeing them as positives, including price objections
- Handling objections using proven methods and models
- How and when to ask for the sale professionally
- Follow up and follow-through
- Planning and practice sessions
Any questions? Please just give us a call on 01582 463463 – we’re here to help!