Book Review : Selling a Team Sport

Description
Selling a team sport.One of the good books on sales and marketing

?
? ? ? ?

What does selling mean? Whose responsibility is it? Meet Sal Murphy & Betty Cornstarch What’s the issue here ? What could have been done?

?
? ? ?

Selling as Problem Solving Putting it across to the customer Unleashing the power of sales team Making Organization - Wide selling a reality?

?
?

Differentiating your organization in today’s environment Selling as problem solving
? Sales people as natural problem solvers ? People Oriented ? Risk takers ? Curious and inquisitive ? Good listeners ? Result oriented ? Handle rejection

?

Content Vs Process in Problem Solving meetings
? Quality of thinking ? Climate

?

Problem solving roles and responsibilities
? Problem owner ? Facilitator ? Participants

?

Problem Solving Sequence
Position the session Analyze the Problem Generate Alternatives Evaluate the selected ideas ? State the solution and action plan ? ? ? ?

?
? ? ?

Determining the customer’s needs So what is the problem? Needs Vs Solutions A Needs driven selling sequence
? ? ? ? ? Open sales call Determine the needs Present products and services Overcome the objections Close the sale

?

?

Combining the needs driven selling and problem solving sequences Problem solving selling
? ? ? ? ? Position the meeting Analyze the situation Offer recommendations Resolve the issues Reach closure

? ?

?

Importance of Positioning Trust Formula = Creditability * Intimacy Risk Expected attributes of Salesperson
? ? ? ? CRedibility Empathy Sensitivity Trustworthiness

?

Ask appropriate questions

? Transaction Questions ? Needs Clarification Questions ? Strategic Questions ? Speculative Questions ? Current Events Questions ? Problem Analysis Questions

?

Listening for Needs

? Needs driven need ? Corralling Questions ? Note taking

?

Reviewing your understanding of the customer’s needs

?

Communication with a customer is a quintessential to showcase what your company has to offer
Informal conversation Credentials presentation

o
o

?
?

Don’t let your comfort with presenting get you there too soon When you present prematurely, your behavior contradicts the needs-driven, customer-focused message.

?

?

?

Recommendations should be as different as our customers and their unique problems The canned pitch has probably done more to ruin the image of a salesperson Emphasis on the benefits that are specific to the customers’ needs

?

?

Feature- descriptive specification of some characteristic of the product/service Benefit- an explanation of how the feature will help the customer ? Generic benefit ? Specific benefit

Needs

Recommendations

Specific Benefits

Generic Benefits

?

?

?

?

?

Don’t save the best for the last moment. First review the customers needs. Immediately discuss your recommendation, offering specific benefits. Have subject matter experts participate. Suggesting ideas is crucial

?

Stop playing solo
Time to bring customer back into the game Open ended questions Decide on appropriate moment to make the request Rejection is the first step to selection

?

?

?

?

?

If there is ever a time that you may lose your composure, it is when the customer resists your recommendations and ideas
Stay neutral, without immediately agreeing or disagreeing Demonstrate a problem-solving attitude-better way to deal with a potential conflict

?

?

?
? ?

?

Use Use Use Use

open ended questions pre-question statements mirroring silence

?

Objections are unfulfilled needs in disguise
Stay positive to keep the process moving forward Use ‘I’ messages Use ‘need’ language Seek confirmation

?

?

?

?

?
? ? ? ? ?

Use benefit statements & Describe parallel situations
Sell yourself & organization

Involve the customer & Respond with ideas
Avoid words like problems, issue

Give up the airtime when you seek elaboration
Share the airtime when you transform objection into a need and seek confirmation

?
?

?
? ? ?

Most sales professionals, no matter how seasoned, are at some level, reluctant to ask for business Reaching closure-goal of entire problem solving model of selling Invite other objections Ask for business Establish next steps Sales process-series of closes

?
? ? ?

Elapses lead to discontinuity and loss of momentum
Always review the previous meeting with the customer

Avoid manipulative approaches
Ask for the customers’ commitment in a sincere and straightforward way Ask for business- give your customer an opportunity to buy your recommendation Learn to follow the problem-solving selling sequenceapproach closing with comfort and confidence

?

?

?

What is a sales team?
? ? ? ?

Complementary Skills Committed to a common purpose Common performance goals and approach Holding themselves mutually accountable

?

Why have sales teams?

? Groups outperform individuals, and teams outperform groups ? Power of groups is backed by considerable psychological research, and mutual accountability ? Anybody who touches the customer either directly, or indirectly

?

Who is on the team?

?

Which customers or clusters of customers deserve their own sales teams?

? No straight answer ? Wal-Mart-separate teams are dedicated for servicing niche customers ? In generic industries-no specific answer

?

How do the team members work together effectively?
? Keep your colleagues informed ? Surprises are not welcome

Salesperson and resources

Participants

Facilitator Salesperson

Problem Owner

Customer or client

?

How often should sales teams meet?

? Meet as often as needed in order to do what needs to be done for the customer and to keep the team running smoothly

?

Who runs the show?

? To keep everyone on the sales team informed, establish a central focal point.

?

Who evaluates the team’s performance?

? Sales manager as a resource manager ? Performance measures for both the team and for the individual players. ? No performance measure to come into play that is unrelated to customer and the team’s ability to provide customer satisfaction.

?

How are sales teams compensated?

? Compensation from the organizational perspective ? Design a compensation and incentive program

?

Why are we meeting?
? ? ? ? To To To To

obtain information dispense information make decisions solve problems

?

When and where?

? Time and day of the week ? Coordinating schedules ? Hold meetings at different locations ? Work out agenda in advance ? Diversity of views

?

Who should be there?

?

What is the agenda?

? Give serious thought to agenda for every meeting and distribute it to all concerned people in advance ? Warm-up exercise ? Updates ? Consumer-related problem to solve ? Guest from outside the team ? Team building exercise ? Team self-assessment

?

Pure content-free facilitation is not needed at all times. But some kind of facilitation would be desirable

?

Team members to participate in constructive problem-solving sessions-key to building stronger teams, offering greater solutions to pertinent issues.

?

The majority of sales calls would be more effective if everyone participates.
Reasons

?

? Organization would become a customer driven selling machine ? Chance to visit with customers has a major impact ? Involvement enhances commitment ? Allow everyone involved to do some coaching after meeting

?

Planning
? ? ? ?

Why are we having this meeting Who should be there Where and when are we meeting What is the agenda

? ?

Rehearsing the call Conducting a team sales call
? ? ? ? Needs intricate cooperation and understanding of roles Confirming the agenda Transitioning from one phase to the next Reaching closure-closing sales or getting to further steps

?

Debriefing

? Review what happened in each joint call

?
?

Culture=Attitudes +Beliefs +Behaviors Cultural changes starts at the top and cascades down throughout the organization

?

It starts with message

? Content ? Tone ? How will you get the message out

?

Involving people at all levels

? Cross-functional groups can brainstorm ? Questionnaires, surveys

?

Reinforcing the message

? Some group or individual to be the focal point ? Create an organization wide selling effort

?

Implementation means? ? ? ? ?

Interpersonal skills Communication skills Presentation skills Problem-solving skills Training can yield huge dividends Keep people involved Pay attention to trust Use coaching Model the behaviour

?

Keep it going
? ? ? ?

?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

No Rugged individualistic approach Organization wide selling approach Beliefs+ Attitude+ Behaviours=Trust + Respect+ Relationship building with the customer Routinely and effectively solving customers’ problems Bridge building to the non-salespeople in the organization Managing resistance Closure is a natural outcome Offer ideas to customers, besides goods and services Effective use of sales teams Build from the bottom



doc_661022976.ppt
 

Attachments

Back
Top