This sales training module aims to change how we do sales by changing our mindset in engaging our customers. AIDA and SPIN Selling techniques are also discussed including best practices being employed in modern selling.

1. Sales Training
Refresher
Facilitator: Eugene Sugian

2. Topics
– The Concept of Sales
– Traditional vs. Modern Selling
– AIDA/AIDCA
– SPIN Selling
– Handling Objections
– The Three Strategies

4. Why do we SELL and
what is it?

5. From the Greek word
“helein”
“to take”

6. The Old and the New
Traditional
– Knowledge
– Sales-person
– Additional services as Added Value
– Value is judged according to selling
price
Modern
– Strategy
– Partner/Enabler/Whole Organization
– Customer’s opportunities/ decision
making/ evaluation as Added Value
– Value is judged according to the cost
to the customer plus non-financial

7. The Old and the New
Traditional
– benefits of supply extend to
products and services only
– seller knows the business
customers' needs
Modern
– benefits of supply extend way
beyond products and services, to
relationship, continuity, and
assistance
– seller knows the needs of the
business customers' customers and
partners and suppliers

8. The Old and the New
Traditional
– Acquire NEW customers
TO SELL
Modern
– Nurturing existing customers/
Customer Retention, community
building
TO HELP

10. AIDA

11. AIDA Process
– Something first gets our attention; if it's relevant to us
we are interested to learn or hear more about it. If the
product or service then appears to closely match our
needs and/or aspirations, and resources, particularly if it
is special, unique, or rare, we begin to desire it. If we are
prompted or stimulated to overcome our natural caution
we may then become motivated or susceptible to
taking action to buy.

12. Attention
– Getting the other person's attention sets the tone: first impressions count , so
smile - even on the phone because people can hear it in your voice - be happy
(but not annoyingly so) be natural, honest and professional.
– If you're not in the mood to smile do some paperwork instead. If you rarely
smile then get out of selling.
– Getting attention is more difficult than it used to be, because people are less
accessible, have less free time, and lots of competing distractions, so think
about when it's best to call.

13. Attention
– Gimmicks, tricks and crafty techniques don't work, because your prospective
customers - like the rest of us - are irritated by hundreds of them every day.
– If you are calling on the phone or meeting face-to-face you have about five
seconds to attract attention, by which time the other person has formed their
first impression of you.
– Despite the time pressure, relax and enjoy it - expect mostly to be told 'no
thanks' - but remember that every 'no' takes you closer to the next 'okay'.

14. Interest
– You now have maybe 5-15 seconds in which to create some interest.
– Something begins to look interesting if it is relevant and potentially
advantageous. This implies a lot:
– The person you are approaching should have a potential need for your product
or service or proposition (which implies that you or somebody else has
established a target customer profile).

15. Interest
– You must approach the other person at a suitable time (i.e. it's convenient, and
that aspects of seasonality and other factors affecting timing have been taken
into account)
– You must empathise with and understand the other person's situation and
issues, and be able to express yourself in their terms (i.e. talk their language).

16. Desire
– The sales person needs to be able to identify and agree the prospect's situation,
needs, priorities and constraints on personal and organizational levels, through
empathic questioning and interpretation.
– You must build rapport and trust, and a preparedness in the prospect's mind to do
business with you personally (thus dispelling the prospect's feelings of doubt or risk
about your own integrity and ability).
– You must understand your competitors' capabilities and your prospect's other
options.
– You must obviously understand your product (specification, options, features,
advantages, and benefits), and particularly all relevance and implications for your
prospect.

17. Desire
– You must be able to present, explain and convey solutions with credibility and
enthusiasm.
– The key is being able to demonstrate how you, your own organization and your
product will suitably, reliably and sustainably 'match' the prospect's needs
identified and agreed, within all constraints.
– Creating desire is part skill and technique, and part behaviour and style. In
modern selling and business, trust and relationship (the 'you' factor) are
increasingly significant.

18. Commitment
– Ask if they agree
– If they do not agree, ask why and probe
– Tell them that you are committed to help them and find the right solution to
their needs
– Always give assurance and follow through it

19. Action
– The better the preceding three stages have been conducted, then the less
emphasis is required for the action stage; in fact on a few rare occasions in the
history of the universe, a sale is so well conducted that the prospect decides to
take action without any encouragement at all.
– Always close the sale with an action
– Tell them what to do. Schedule? Payment? Send us an email? Contact us again
at?

20. SPIN® Selling

21. SPIN® It!
S - Situation - the customer's circumstances
P - Problem - a difficulty for the customer
I - Implication - the difficulty causes more serious
disadvantage/cost
N - Need (or Need-payoff) - the difficulty must be solved
(by the seller's offering)

22. In other words…
– Discuss, understand or explain the situation with the prospect.
– Next identify a/the problem that exists or could arise.
– Explain, discuss or understand the implication of the problem for the prospect's
business (how the problem produces a significant organizational or business
disadvantage, which is therefore an opportunity to achieve major organizational
or business improvement).
– This effectively creates a need or opportunity to rectify the problem (by selling
the sales person's product/service) - the 'payoff'.

23. Handling Objections

24. Objection your Honor!
– The best way to handle objection is to prevent it.
– Combine AIDA and SPIN.
– Your questions must be patterned to let your customer say what their problem
is and how it must be solved. Basically, you are helping them solve their own
problem. All you need to do is reinforce the problem and the solution.
– “Why do you say that?" , or better still, “What makes you say that?”

25. Objection your Honor!
-Probe and use open ended questions. Use your questions to your advantage.
- "I understand why that could be an issue, can I ask you to tell me more about why
it is and what's important for you here?..“
-Do not use the word BUT.
-Feel-Felt-Found - "I understand how you feel/why you feel that...//Other
customers have felt just the same/that...//and when... they have found that...“
- “Imagine mam/sir that you’ve already paid this, how do you see your
son/daughter/yourself being serviced by AHEAD? … Exactly sir/mam, and that has
always been our promise.”

27. Strategy 1
Hole in the Bucket

28. Stop the Leak!
– Get the customer’s email address including their parents/guardians
– When you receive the memo for the company discounts/offers, email them
immediately (existing customers). They MUST know it first!
– Old clients who have not renewed their services must be emailed also. Send the
offers and the discounts from the memo.
– Take ownership. These are MY customers and I am responsible for their welfare.
I will help them.
– FOLLOW UP, the SALE is never concluded! After-Sales Process!

29. Strategy 2
Build Your Community

30. Leaders, Champions, Winners!
– Start by identifying “The Leader”
– Transform the Leader into a Champion
– Prioritize the Champion in everything, offer to them the most delicious
discounts, freebies, the early bird promos. They must know first.
– Get his feedback. Ask his opinion on how we can improve. Value and take good
care of him/her.
– Make him realize that he is the Champion of this center. Ask his help to spread
the word and invite his friends
– Monitor and build them, establish a personal level of trust and confidence

32. Strategy 3
Conversion

33. From Non-Believers to Followers!
– When receiving inquiries, answer the customer immediately. The customer
comes first!
– As a rule, inbound inquiries are the easiest to convert. Remember AIDA?
Proceed to Desire Stage immediately! Probe, SPIN, Offer, Close!
– Always provide an alternative when you cannot provide the original inquiry. This
is your opportunity to upsell, cross-sell, or create an opportunity. Don’t give up!
– If they cannot/will not buy now. Offer them the discount. If still a NO, get their
permission to allow you to send them our mailers/offers etc. A delayed sale is
still a sale!

35. Tips
– "I've found a really useful way to deal with a price objection is to
ask the customer; 'If we were the same price as (insert other
quote here) would you buy from us?' When the customer says yes
(which they normally do), ask why. They will then list all the
USPs/benefits that sparked their interest in your product and you
can explain that your price is what it is because of those benefits
they just listed. For most people this convinces them of the value
in your product." (A. Hollingworth - 11 May 2009)

36. Tips
– 'Diagnose before you prescribe'... Sales people
should see themselves as problem solvers, and to
solve problems correctly, they must first
understand the nature of the problem they
intend to solve." (J Pearson - 12 May 2009)

37. Tips
– "There are two sales tips that will make people rich. All you have to remember
about business-persuasion are the two key facets of human personality that
come into play when we're being 'sold' to: 1) We all place more importance on
the words that come out of our own mouths compared to the words we hear
coming out of the seller's, and 2) We all place more importance on the the
things we ask the seller to provide compared with the unrequested things that
the seller freely offers us. So, when we are selling, our key questioning tactic
must be aimed at getting the customer to say what we're dying to 'tell' him. And
then to get the customer to ask us if we can provide the solution (which we
know is hidden in our bag). (Bob Etherington - Feb 2010)

38. Thank you.
Don’t Sell. Help.