Sales Training

Concept: Create consistency throughout the selling methods by building a foundation based on non-confrontational and value selling concepts. This approach is also known as consultative selling in many industries however, our term will be a "Customer-Centered" approach.

When a presentation is given to a customer, it is offered in the form of concepts, examples, parables, ProTracks and/or specific language. It is always based on predetermined and understood client wants, needs and motives. Foundation is like a skeleton, we all have one. However, what we look like, act like and sound like differ. Just like of marketing styles, each one of us is truly different in a good and original way.

Topics:

• Sales Cushions: These are also known in the industry as "Base Statements".
  Sales cushions set up difficult dialog and establish what someone (including an organization) represents in value to the client. Sales cushions also allow a discussion of sensitive information with the client’s consent. An example could be financial or credit worthiness matters.
• Justification Barrel: This is a lexicon representing a fictional barrel that has all the information gathered from discussions with the client during our time together, including:
  Customer wants/ needs/ motives; Personalized results from presentations/demonstrations done for the client, and comments made by the client;
  These bits of information are called "Justifications". The justifications are then used to support the sales associate’s position when and if a potential customer concern arises.
• The Enthusiasm Ladder: (Lexicon) This is a lexicon representing a sales associate’s need to increase enthusiasm and decrease stress with each of their customers. Just as we are, our clients are motivated either by stress or enthusiasm. This is psychosocially correct and must be acknowledged with everything we do.
• WordTrack vs. ProTrack: Instead of learning a script (WordTrack), consultants understand what they want to say. When a sales associate knows the message they want to represent, they verbalize it more convincingly their own way, hence, ProTrack . No More Memorization.

Goal: The core of the Foundation stage is to use your own words; come from the customer’s point of view; and always be more professional, so that the client emotionally connects more quickly and deeply with you. Every Professional for Life class supports the elements that are outlined in the Foundation stage.

Concept: When you are yourself and true to your own personal ethics and values, people will naturally like you. When you seem to be trying too hard or are not natural with your approach, customers take much longer to connect emotionally. Professional Meeting and Greeting is all about making that personal connection as quickly as possible.

Topics:

• Engaging Customer Response
  The key to creating rapport is engaging the customer in conversation.  Drill-down or piggy-back skill techniques will be utilized to gain additional information and engagement in a non-confrontational method from your customer. Regardless of the topic, this technique naturally develops conversation.     In addition, the focus is not on steering the conversation during Professional Meeting and Greeting. Instead, it is simply engaging in any conversation to build trust and rapport. Rapport creates less stress and more client enthusiasm.

• Initial Concerns
  Confidence is a key ingredient driving a customer’s desire to work with a specific sales associate. Professional Meeting & Greeting will allow you to avoid being sidetracked by statements like, "I don’t need a sales associate" and/or "I am not going to buy TODAY." In addition, client concerns will be covered in this section. 

  The psychology which plays such an important role in fully understanding our customers and how they act and react will be discussed, modeled and role-played regularly.

Goal: The customer’s perception is all that matters in our world. If we rush over to the customer immediately or compete with other sales associates to meet a customer first, you can imagine the customer perception. The concept of "Think of the Customer First" must be understood completely so that we provide an approach that is customer-centered and engaging.

Concepts: Apply everything you have learned from the "Foundation" and "Professional Meeting and Greeting" stages to counsel and engage your clients, using a blend of client engaged conversation (originally approached and presented in the Professional Meeting and Greeting stage). We will also apply technique-like sales cushioning and differentiation statements to gain critical information through natural customer-centered conversation.

Topics:

• Rules for Client Engagement: If there is information on which you would like to engage the client, the rules are simple.
  1. If the client brings up the topic on their own, you have the right to engage them on that topic (example: sensitive financial matters).
  2. If you want to discuss a topic that has not been brought up, you must ask permission to bridge that subject . This technique is called Sales Cushions and/or Base Statements in our lexicon list. The client must see the value personally of providing that information in order to feel comfortable with the sales associate’s credibility and in continuing the conversation.
  3. If it is not critical to your presentation and demonstration to have that information right away, be patient and gain it later in the sales presentation in a natural and professional way. Gaining information comfortably is much more important than forcing a client to give you information when you want it. Timing is everything.
• Management Involvement and Selection: There is an art to being a great team member, whether you are a manager or an associate. Involving your manager and gaining their input on selecting a product is extremely important. We call this the Manager Pre-Turnover (Pre-TO). It allows for rapport to be built earlier and, if done correctly, the client appreciates the professional courtesy. It also allows for proper product selection.

Goal: Information acquisition is most effectively accomplished when your client is comfortable. Professional Counseling demonstrates your concern for their wants, needs and motives, thereby establishing the credibility of your questions. Noticing what is working allows for the conversation to always be customer-centered. Now we know exactly how to present and demonstrate the product to maximize client enthusiasm levels.

Concepts: Rather than focus on a predetermined order of presentation or demonstration, just stick to the items the client told you was important to them.  Once these key areas are covered, you can move on to value added areas. This approach simply satisfies the client first before we bring in new concepts. It supports our focus of being psychological.

Topics:

• Demonstration Trial Close: By the time we reach a product demonstration, we have already accomplished a lot with our client. Emotionally they are ready (and we have earned the right) to ask their level of interest (Trial Close). For best results, this trial closing question should be asked halfway back through the demonstration. This timing is strategic. In the event that the client response is less than positive, we can then regroup with our customer-centered approach.
• Silent Trade-in Walk-Around: This course will teach skills needed to professionally review the client’s vehicle with them. This process is a critical ingredient to the earlier concept of the "Justification Barrel" and to effectively negotiating, which is covered in the next module.
• Service and Parts Department Presentation: All research shows us that clients do not buy for price alone. Though price or investment is critically important, it is not the only, nor most important, purchasing trigger. They want to know what else they receive as a long term benefit of doing business with you and your organization. We should now know what is important to our clients beyond the product itself. This information allows for a customized presentation of the other long-term services that our organization has to offer. This is yet again another justification to put into the Justification Barrel to have for potential use later in the negotiation stage.

Goal: This extremely simple concept allows for the client to take a quicker psychological ownership of the product much earlier. The client has been presented and demonstrated exactly what they told us were their needs. The result is that the product becomes perfect for them in their mind’s eye because it addresses their specific wants, needs and motives.

Concepts:"Seek first to understand, then to be understood":  Approach each client negotiation as a business conversation. Negotiate from a point of value, justify commitment and price on the customer’s pre-established and confirmed wants, needs and motives. Present logical and pre-discussed reasons that make sense to your client in order for them to commit to investing in your product.  Now we leverage on the "Justification Barrel", "Silent Walk-Around", and "Professional Counseling".

Topics:

• Justification Barrel Concept: Without establishing a firm foundation of positive customer-centered reasons/justifications for owning a product or service prior to negotiation, it becomes more about badgering than communication.  When we attempt to overcome the client’s objections and concerns, the power is in our ability to start the statement with "As we discussed earlier…". Now the example we bring up is based on a prior discussion. The alternative is to bring up new topics which lead to the assumption we would say or do anything to gain the sale.
• Isolation Concept: Isolation allows us to pick, choose, or customize the justification topic that best suits that client. Once the customer’s specific concerns are agreed upon through isolation, they will be non-confrontationally and mutually discussed in order to understand why the customer feels strongly about each concern. When a sales associate understands the "WHY" behind the concern, we can be very pointed with our justification.
• Psychological Concern Presentation: Using what you learned in the previous isolation and other steps, we can now provide the client with information specific to their wants, needs and motives. In that way, when you re-explain the product features and benefits, it directly relates to the customer on a personal and psychological level. This is a very powerful technique if done correctly.
• Working with Your Manager: As with a sports team, each player must consistently and successfully execute their assignments. Once the game is on, no one player is more important than another. True success comes with mutual respect, honesty, and crystal clear communication. When that breaks down, so do profits and closing ratios.

Goal: Understanding why the client feels the way they do and confirming that your value proposition meets all of their objectives.  Then and only then will the client reconsider their stated concern. Use logic and the client’s topics to make your case and all parties will win.

Concepts: Personal Contact Data is the life blood of personal marketing. Each sales associate will have a thorough understanding of how to approach, obtain and maintain data on paper or stored digitally. This "Pure Data," regardless if housed in the organization’s CRM program or the sales associate’s personal PIM (Personal Information Manager) is what makes the difference, medium and long term, for every organization. Promote the Person not the Company; that is what the client wants.

Topics:

• Building An Electronic Database: The key to successful personal marketing is the development and constantly expanding electronic database. Creating strategies for increasing the number of people in that database that — know of you, have been referred to you, and you have met or communicated with over time, is the objection. We never input clients that do not fall into these categories. The lexicon we use for this approach is a "Pure Data" base.  It is not quantity, it is always quality. Mailing lists from other sources have no emotional connection, so the communication sent is worthless.
• Networking: Through the use of best practices, parables and Guided Discovery, you will gain approaches to making your electronic database more robust and increase your contacts.  It won’t happen by making 50 phone calls a day. It will happen by using our creative and innovative talents to get in front of more long-term potential clients. Time to work outside the box.
• Marketing Approaches: All sales associates will commit themselves to the method or methods they will use personally to market themselves. We call it marketing because generally you do not ask your database of clients to buy anything. It is meant to be a subtle way to build the relationship and should not be intrusive . It all has to do with "Name Recognition". Establish that and your percentages of success go up.

Goal: Develop a network of contacts that is ever expanding and represents future business opportunities. This class will insure our client base never forgets: Who we are; What we do; and Where to find us when they need us. It also supports trust and commitment among teams. We can’t do business like we once did, the client won’t allow it.