Effective Selling and Sales Management: How to Sell Successfully and Create a Top Sales Organization

EFFECTIVE

SELLING AND

SALES MANAGEMENT

How to Sell Successfully

and Create a Top Sales Organization

Gini Graham Scott, Ph. D.

ASJA Press

New York Lincoln Shanghai

Effective Selling and Sales Management

How to Sell Successfully and Create a Top Sales Organization

Copyright © 1988, 2007 by Gini Graham Scott

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Originally published by Brick House Publishing

ISBN: 978-0-595-46486-9

ISBN: 978-1-4620-4844-1 (ebook)

Contents

Introduction

1  Creating Sales Materials

2  Getting Started

3  Selling Techniques

4  Finding Leads

5  Using the Telephone Effectively

6  Effective Presentations

7  Recruiting Others to Sell For You

8  Recruiting a Sales Manager

9  Recruiting Your Own Sales Team

10  Interviewing Sales People

11  Orienting New Sales People

12  Organizing Effective Sales Meetings

13  Setting up a Training Program

14  Coordinating Sales Activities

15  Keeping Your Sales Group Motivated

16  Providing Extra Assistance and Support

17  Training Sales People to Train Others

EFFECTIVE

SELLING AND

SALES MANAGEMENT

Introduction

This book is written to help the many people today, from entrepreneurs and small business people to managers of corporate sales groups, who have products or services to sell. Whether you have your own business or are part of a larger organization, whether you want to begin by selling yourself, work with a handful of sales people, or are building a large sales group, this book is designed to help you do it.

Today, as never before, sales and marketing are the keys to success in any business enterprise. The marketplace has become so competitive, with many new products and services jostling for attention, that good sales people and good sales techniques are more important than ever in gaining an edge.

The signs are everywhere. Large advertising agencies are getting even larger. Licensing has become a major source of income in industries that produce books, films, dolls, and toys, where big bucks buy big, splashy promotions for popular commercial characters. And sales people, like John Scully of Apple Computers, are gaining more and more visibility and receiving higher and higher salaries, more than a million dollars annually in some cases, because they are considered so important to the success of a company.

What does this mean for the owner or manager of a small business? For a new sales manager in an established company?

For the entrepreneur, it means that you’ve got to sell well yourself, or get someone good to do it if you can’t. And if you want your business to grow and expand successfully, you’ve got to recruit good sales people and develop an effective sales organization, or hire someone who can.

For the new sales manager, it means that selling is now what you must teach and direct, not simply do well yourself. And it means that effective recruitment, development and management of a sales group is how you will be measured for success.

Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs and many managers of established businesses don’t know how to create or mobilize a good sales effort. For example, when Andrea T., an experienced chef, tried to launch a small catering service, she tried to do most of the promoting and selling herself. But she disliked it, wasn’t particularly good at sales, and preferred to spend her time creating hors d’oeuvres. She would have done better to recruit one or more sales people to sell her services.

Tom G. had a different problem. He liked sales and was very aggressive. But when he became sales manager in a medium-sized specialty gifts company, he found it hard to coordinate and motivate his sales people. He knew what to do himself, but he didn’t know how to convey that knowledge, or how to motivate others through training and support. As a result, the company perpetually suffered sales volume lower than expected, and a high turnover of sales people who quit out of frustration.

George L., on the other hand, had the basic skills of managing people and the enthusiasm to build a successful distribution organization, selling a new specialty foods product through direct sales. But he didn’t know how to develop an effective sales organization. So his good ideas, management skills, and enthusiasm languished.

The information and advice in this book are based on my own experience in organizing sales groups in the field of health, food, consumer savings, and travel, and in consulting about selling and marketing with the owners and sales managers of dozens of companies. From this experience and additional informal interviews with hundreds of other business people I found that:

Many creative or technical people running their own companies don’t know how to sell their own products or services, and they don’t know how to get others to do it. Many people who have good sales skills themselves, don’t know to teach others to do what they do. Their sales people are ineffective. Some people manage the initial stages of building a sales group well, but then have trouble coordinating activities and maintaining group enthusiasm and commitment. Some new business people are unfamiliar with already organized networks of sales representatives and distributors in their own fields, and fail to take advantage of these sales channels for their own products or services. Many companies lack good sales or training materials, or don’t effectively adapt materials they do have to meet the needs of their sales people.

This book is designed to provide solutions to all of these problems and to help you build sales or a sales team successfully. Like a road map, it can help you chart your course, but then it’s up to you to carry out your plans to reach your destination or goal.

1

Creating Sales Materials

When most people decide to buy something, they already have an idea of what they want, an idea created by advertising and publicity they have already seen. Today, all customers expect this, be they consumers, retailers, or wholesalers. They want to see something that briefly positions and presents the product, such as a brochure, flyer, or catalog sheet. And in the case of some products, they even expect to see films, slide presentations, and videotapes.

What you have in the way of literature for your product or service really makes a difference, even if you are selling the same thing as someone else. People look on the quality of your literature as representative of your company.

A PERSONAL EXAMPLE

I have reacted the same way myself in making a buying decision. For instance, I attended a recent trade show looking for telephones to use in my new office. Several companies displayed telephones, all offered at about half the retail price since this was a trade show for company buyers only. One firm had a slick and glossy color brochure illustrating their phones; other firms had the same phones, but only black and white photo copies of product illustrations, and a price list.

I discovered that the phones I wanted were carried by all three wholesalers, though the one with the glossy color brochure was charging about two dollars a phone more than the others. Nevertheless I decided to get my phones from them. Why? Because their attractive catalog sheet made me feel more confident in their ability to deliver what I wanted. The high-quality catalog sheet made them seem solid and substantial as a company.

PURPOSES OF PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS

The particular promotional materials you need depend, of course, on the type of products and services you offer, how many you have, how complex they are to explain, and the like. The more complete your arsenal of materials, the better off you will be.

If you are in the early stages of a program, you can develop your materials as you go. In that case, it helps to get feedback from your customers on what they need. Promotional materials can be used to serve a number of purposes.

Attracting Attention

For example, fliers or brochures can be posted or left at meetings or included in a mailing to get a customer to call for information or place an order.

Presenting Product Benefits to a Customer

For example, a sales person can take some time at a presentation to review the material and use a brochure, information sheet, or presentation book to explain benefits and features, and gain credibility.

Giving the Prospect Something to Review

For example, if the customer isn’t ready to make a purchase on the spot, a promotional brochure and order form may be what the customer needs as a reminder after your presentation, in order to think about the product, discuss it with others, or be reassured that it is really needed.

TYPES OF PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS

A typical collection of promotional materials includes, roughly in order of importance, the following items.

Presentation Book

If you’re marketing an expensive product or service, or a variety of different products, a presentation book or manual can be an excellent tool for impressing your customer. It’s a way systematically to present your various promotional materials by combining them together in an attractive book.

I like to put these materials together in a way that allows me easily to move them around to suit a particular presentation. A looseleaf book is good for this purpose, and I personally like clear-view binders, since you can slip in and out different title pages for the cover.

But leather and vinyl covers are good too and are especially well suited to expensive or customized products.

To be able to move materials around easily, I suggest using clear plastic sleeves with three holes. You can easily rearrange your materials, and add or drop items at will by simply putting them in or pulling them out of a sleeve.

Organization. Once you decide on the general order of your presentation, you can organize your supporting materials. It is important that the manual include what you want to cover, and that it be in a suitable sequence. Keep it clear and to the point. Pare out extraneous details.

In advertising, each frame of an ad is used to create a strong, powerful, well-directed message. Your sales manual should be structured that way.

For easy organization, separate each major section, such as Introduction, Product or Service, The Company, Close, with a divider or introduce it with a title page. You can use rub-on letters to make headlines on this page. Either rub them directly on to the divider or title page, or make a master copy of your title page layout on white paper. Then run off a copy on colored paper or good bond paper.

For technical product and marketing information, include an appendix. You won’t discuss this in your initial presentation, but you have it if anyone asks. Finally, prepare a table of contents for easy reference.

Features. Useful additions to your manual include charts, graphs, photographs, and other visual materials. You may be able to get these from the company you represent or from support companies in the same field. For instance, in the travel field, brochures are available from companies, airlines and country tourist offices.

You can also put visual materials together fairly easily. Cut pictures out of a magazine to illustrate a point. Or transform sales figures into a bar graph to show that other customers are buying your product or service in increasing numbers.

Local touches can help, too. For example, if you have organized/or participated in a local promotion, such as a trade show or product demonstration, or have pictures of people in your company at work, use this to create a more personal style.

Brochure or Catalog Sheet

Some people just getting started use only fliers or order forms. But with some notable exceptions (such as an impulse product that immediately sells itself or a person offering services who already has an established name), a brochure or catalog sheet is crucial. Your brochure describes you, your company, and its services or products; a catalog sheet or full catalog features your products. When these materials are good, they represent you and what your products or services stand for. They’re calling cards for you and your company.

Make your promotional materials as good as you can. Put a lot of thought into what you want to say and how you want to say it. Take into consideration your primary target market and design your brochure or catalog to appeal to this group. Are you selling to the ultimate customer? If so, ask yourself, who is most likely to buy? Women or men? Urban sophisticates? Suburban couples? Older people? Middle aged? Young adults?

In designing your material, look at what other people marketing to a similar audience are already doing. That will give you an idea of the kind of look or style to use. If you are selling to a wholesaler or retailer, design your brochure or catalog sheet accordingly so that the materials are even more appealing than usual.

I also recommend using a professional graphics designer. If you’ve got a really good design sense, you can get away with going directly to a printer and choosing the typeface and paper stock and making the layout yourself. But if you’re uncertain about this or if this is your first brochure, I suggest hiring a professional. Professionals know what they are doing, and will save you time and money in the long run. Your brochure or catalog sheet is such an important selling tool, it pays to do it right.

Price List and Order or Sign-Up/Application Form

Some people include order forms in their brochures or catalogs. That’s fine if you know what your prices are going to be for the life of these materials or if you expect to produce an updated brochure or catalog in time for the next price change.

However, it makes more sense to have a separate price list and order or sign-up/application form, which can be easily printed on an as-needed basis. Then you can more easily and inexpensively change your prices or terms; you don’t have to redo the catalog or brochure itself.

Also give some thought to the format of your order form, since a well-designed format can help increase orders and serve as a research tool to gather information about your customers to better target your market. (Order forms are such important selling tools that there are even seminars and workshops devoted to them alone.) Briefly, be sure your order form has these elements:

Name, address, and zip code.

Credit-card check-off boxes with spaces for card number, expiration date, and phone number (assuming that you accept credit cards). A list of products with their prices and space to check off the quantities desired, followed by spaces to write in the total price if there is room. Or leave space so the buyer can write in product names. This makes it easy for customers to order. Spaces where a person can easily add up subtotals and add tax (if applicable) plus freight and handling. A few brief questions for fill-in or check-off, if you want information about your customers. For instance, one woman for whom I consulted had a small catalog with products for cat lovers, and she asked such questions in it as, Do you have a cat? and About how much do you spend on products with pictures of cats on them each year? Questions about credit worthiness (such as references about