1. Adaptive Selling for Relationship
Building
Chapter 6

2. Important Questions Answered
 What is adaptive selling?
 Why is it important for salespeople to practice adaptive
selling?
 What kind of knowledge do salespeople need to practice
adaptive selling?
 How can salespeople acquire this knowledge?
 How can salespeople adapt their sales strategies,
presentations and social styles to various situations?
2

3. “I’ve learned the importance of adapting to
the specific needs of each customer.”
~Katherine Bowe
Account Executive
6-3

4. Types of Presentations
 Three types of presentations salespeople use are
 Standard memorized presentation
 Outlined presentation
 Customized presentation
4

5. Standard memorised presentations
 These are memorised by the sales persons. The
salesperson presents the same selling points in the same
order to all customers. Some companies insist that their
salespeople memorize the entire presentation and deliver
it word for word. Others believe that salespeople should
be free to make some adjustments.
 Also called a canned presentation
 Completely memorized sales talk
 Ensures salespeople will provide complete and accurate
information
 Limited effectiveness
 Standard, memorized presentations can be delivered at low cost
by unskilled salespeople
7.5

6. Outlined presentations
 These are prearranged presentations that list the
most important sales points. An outlined
presentation can be very effective because it is well
organized.
 Prearranged presentation that usually includes standard
introduction, standard Q&A, and a standard method for
getting the customer to place an order
7.6

7. Customised presentations
 These presentations are based on detailed analysis of
customer’s needs and are prepared carefully and
separately for various customers as and when the needs
come up. The salesperson may bring in specialists to
conduct the study. The customer recognizes the sales
representative as a professional who is helping to solve
problems, not just sell products
 Written and/or oral presentation based on a detailed analysis of
the customer’s needs
 Allows the salesperson to demonstrate empathy
 Customized presentations can be very costly, requiring highly
skilled people to analyze the customer’s needs
7

8. Adaptive Selling and Sales Success
 Adaptive selling is successful as the sales personnel, each
time, change their sales presentations according to the
needs during the sales call. This is done to satisfy the
client; not to be dishonest to win the orders. An example o
non adaptive selling is using the standard memorized
presentation, The customized presentation illustrates
adaptive selling because the presentation is tailored to the
specific needs of the customer.
 Adaptive selling forces the salesperson to practice the marketing
concept.
 The world is made up of diverse people.
 Salespeople should adapt to the customer’s desire for a specific
type of relationship.
 Adaptive selling gives salespeople the opportunity to use the
most effective sales presentation for each customer.
8

9. Knowledge and Adaptive Selling
 A key ingredient in effective selling is knowledge .
Salespeople need to know about the products they
are selling, the company they work for, and the cus­
tomers they will be selling to.
 Product and Company knowledge
 Organising knowledge of sales situations and customers into
categories
 Approaches for developing knowledge
9

10. Product and Company knowledge
 Sales people need to have a good knowledge of their
product, their company as well as their competitors.
Purchasing agents rate product knowledge as one of
the most important attributes of good salespeople.
Effective salespeople need to know how products are
made, what services are provided with the products,
how the products relate to other products, and how the
products can satisfy customers' needs.
10

11. PRODUCT KNOWLEDGE
Know everything.
•External characteristics
The Product
•How to use
Itself
•All available options
•Adaptability
•Life expectancy
Performance •Tolerance to wear and stress
•Maintenance and supplies
needed.
Manufacturing •How is it made
•Quality control
•Distribution strategy.
Distribution •Pricing policies
Channels •Media support
•Target markets
Service
•Service policies
Available 11
•Service personnel

12. Benefits of Gaining Product
Knowledge
 Gives you pride self confidence in the product
 Gives you self assurance
 Allows you to diagnose the customer's problems
 Enables better customer service
 Gives you an air of competence
 Can sell to experts and to beginners
12

13. Knowledge of the Competition
Differential Competitive Advantage
Product Superiority Service Superiority
• Appearance
• Versatility • Design
• Delivery
• Efficiency • Mobility • Merchandising
• Inventory
• Storage • Packaging • Installation
• Credit
• Handling Time • Life Expectancy • Maintenance
• Training
• Safety • Adaptability
Source Superiority People Superiority
• Personal knowledge and skill
• Time Established • Knowledge and skill of support people
• Competitive Standing • Integrity and character
• Community Image • Standing in the community
• Location • Flexibility of call schedule
• Size • Interpersonal skills
• Financial Soundness • Mutual friends
• Policies and practices • Cooperation
13

14. Organising knowledge of sales
situations and customers into
categories
 Even more important than product and company
knowledge is detailed information about the different
types of sales situations and customers salespeople
may encounter and which sales presentation works
best in each situation. By developing categories,
salespeople reduce the complexity of selling and free
up their mental capacity to think more creatively;
they also use knowledge gained through past
experiences. The ability to organize knowledge into
categories leads to better performance in personal
selling.
14

15. Approaches for developing
knowledge
 The approaches for acquiring knowledge are
 Tap the knowledge of sales experts
 Read manuals and trade publications
 Ask for feedback on what you are doing
 Analyse success and failures
 Develop an intrinsic orientation toward your work
15

16. Tap the knowledge of sales experts
 Companies frequently tap the knowledge of their
best salespeople and use this knowledge to train new
salespeople. The company developed role plays for
each sales situation and used them when training
new salespeople. Such role playing enabled the new
salespeople to experience the variety of situations
they would actually encounter on the job. The
strategies recommended by the top salespeople
served as a starting point for the trainees to develop
their own sales methods for handling these
situations.
16

17. Read manuals and trade publications
 Information about the salesperson's company, its
products, and its competitors is available from many
sources, including company sales manuals and
newsletters, sales meetings, plant visits, and business
and trade publications. Knowledgeable salespeople
read sales bulletins and announcements from their
companies and articles in the trade publications
about their customers and their industries. They ask
company employees questions about new programs
and products
17

18. Ask for feedback on what you are
doing
 Frequently the feedback salespeople get from
their supervisors focuses on performance.
However, diagnostic feedback is much more useful
than performance feedback for improving
performance over the long run. Diagnostic
feedback provides information about what
someone is doing right and is doing wrong.
18

19. Analyse success and failures
 Effective salespeople learn from their mistakes,
using them to build a greater knowledge base. They
also learn from their success . After making a sale,
they should analyze what they did to achieve
success. The performance analysis Should focus on
sales strategies used, identifying the specific
strategies causing the performance and determining
weather or how they should be changed in the future.
19

20. Develop an intrinsic orientation
toward your work
 People can have two types of orientation towards
their job.
 Intrinsic orientation: People in this category enjoy their
work. They find it challenging and fun.
 Extrinsic orientation: People in this category view their
job as some thing that has to be done to get rewards or
to avoid punishment.
 When salespeople find their jobs as a challenge
and fun, they want to learn how to do it better.
20

21. The Social Style Matrix
 The social style matrix is a popular training program
that companies use to help sales people adapt their
communication styles.
 Dimensions of Social Styles
 Assertiveness : The degree to which people have opinions
about issues and publicly make positions clear to others is
called assertiveness. They attempt to influence others to
accept these beliefs.
 Responsiveness: Responsiveness is based on how
emotional people tend to get in social situations.
Responsive people readily express joy, anger, and sorrow.
They appear to be more concerned with others and are
informal and casual social situations
21

22. Indicators of Assertiveness
22

23. Indicators of Responsiveness
23

24. Relationship between Responsiveness
and Social Styles
Low responsiveness
ls
High assertiveness
ica
Low assertiveness
t
aly
s
er
An
riv
D
ls ve
iab
a ssi
Am p re
Ex
High responsiveness24
Contd.

26. Social Style Matrix
7.26

27. Suggestions for accurate Assessment
 Concentrate on the customer's behavior and
disregard how you feel about the behavior.
 Avoid assuming that specific jobs or functions are
associated with a social style
 Attempt to get customers to reveal their styles rather
than react to your style. Ask questions rather than
making statements.
 Test your assessments. Look for clues and
information that may suggest you have made an
incorrect assessment of a customer's social style.
27

28. Categories of Social Styles
The two dimensions of social style, assertiveness and
responsiveness, form the social style matrix. Each
quadrant of the matrix defines a social style type.
 Drivers are high in assertiveness and low in responsiveness.
 Expressives are high in assertiveness and high in
responsiveness.
 Amiables are high in responsiveness and low in assertiveness.
 Analyticals are low in both assertiveness and responsiveness.
28

29. THE BEHAVIORAL OR SOCIAL
STYLES MODEL
Four basic styles based on four functions of human personality
Function Characteristic
Driver Quick reactions to here and now sensory
[Sensor] input
Expressive
Imagination and thought
[Intuitive]
Amiable Emotional and personal reactions to
[Feeling] experiences
Analytical
Logically organizing and analyzing data
[Thinking] 29

30. Drivers
 Drivers are high on assertiveness and low on
responsiveness. Drivers have learned to work with
others only because they must do so to get the job
done, not because they enjoy people. They have a
great desire to get ahead in their companies and
careers. Drivers are swift, efficient decision makers.
They focus on the present and appear to have little
concern with the past or future. To influence a driver,
salespeople need to use a direct, businesslike,
organized presentation with quick action and follow-
up. Proposals should emphasize the effects of a
purchase decision on profits.
30

31. Highlights of Drivers
 Decisive in action and decision making
 Likes control; dislikes inaction
 Prefers maximum freedom to manage self and
others
 Cool, independent, and competitive with others
 Low tolerance for feelings, attitudes, and advice of
others
 Works quickly and impressively alone
 Seeks esteem and self-actualization
 Has good administrative skills
31

32. Expressives
 Expressives are high on assertiveness and high on
responsiveness. Warm, approachable, intuitive, and
competitive, expressives view power and politics as
important factors in their quest for personal rewards
and recognition. People with an expressive style
focus on the future, directing their time and effort
toward achieving their vision. They have little
concern for practical details. Salespeople need to
demonstrate how their product will help the
customer achieve personal status and recognition.
They prefer presentations with product
demonstrations and creative graphics rather than
factual statement and technical details.
32

33. Highlights of Expressives
 Spontaneous actions and decisions
 Likes involvement
 Exaggerates and generalizes
 Tends to dream and get others caught up in those
dreams
 Jumps from one activity to another
 Works quickly and excitedly with others
 Seeks esteem and group identification
 Has good persuasive skills
33

34. Amiables
 Amiables are high in responsiveness and low in
assertiveness. Close relationship and cooperation are
important to Amiables. They achieve their objective by
working with people, developing an atmosphere of
mutual trust rather than by using power and authority.
Sales people may have difficulty determining an
Amiables true feeling. Amiables are particularly
interested in receiving guarantees about a product's
performance. They do not like salespeople who agree
to undertake activities and then do not follow through
on commitments. Salespeople selling to amiables
should stress the product's benefits in terms of its
effects on the satisfac­tion of employees.
34

35. Highlights of Amiables
 Slow in making decisions or taking actions
 Likes close, personal relationships
 Dislikes interpersonal conflict
 Supports and actively listens to others
 Weak in goal setting and self-direction
 Seeks security and identification with a group
 Has good counseling and listening skills
35

36. Analyticals
 Analyticals are low on assertiveness and low on
responsiveness. They like facts, principles, and logic.
Suspicious of power and personal relationships, they
strive to find a way to carry out a task without
resorting to these influence methods. Salespeople
need to use solid, tangible evidence when making
presentations to analyticals. Analyticals are also
influenced by sales presentations that recognize their
technical expertise and emphasize long-term
benefits. They tend to disregard personal opinions.
analyticals' loyalty is based on their feeling that well
reasoned decisions do not need to be reexamined.
36

37. Highlights of Analyticals
 Cautious in decisions and action
 Likes organization and structure
 Dislikes involvement
 Asks specific questions
 Prefers objective, task-oriented, intellectual work
 Wants to be right, so collects much data
 Works slowly, precisely, and alone
 Seeks security and self-actualization
 Has good problem-solving skills
37

38. Cues for Recognizing Social Styles
38

39. Social Styles And Sales Presentations
 The presentation style depends upon the
personality of the sales person and the type of the
customer. Effective selling involves more than
communicating a product's benefits. Sales­people
must also recognize the customer's needs and
expectations. In the sales interaction, salespeople
should conduct themselves in a manner consistent
with customer expectations. Although each customer
type requires a different sales presentation, the sales­
person's personal social style tends to determine the
sales technique he or she typically uses.
39

40. Presenting to each of the four social styles
Driver Expressive
Planning Planning
o Short term results o Discover their goals and plans at the preapproach
o Your product should show immediate benefits o Concentrate on your offering's exclusive aspects
o Stress their personal and company benefits
Presenting Presenting
o Personal relationship is not important. o They are visionaries, dreamers
o Don't spend too much time on the relationship o Open with innovative suggestions for them to grow
o Move quickly to a substantial benefit with a payback o Learn and relate to their "game plan" Lots of questions
o Be brief stress the bottom line o Discuss ideas and concepts with respect
o Get them involved. Let them lead o Use some showmanship
o Drivers test your mettle. Prepare for a debate. o Don't get into arguments
o Answer objections. Don't bluff o Ask if they want you to respond to their "blue sky" comments.
o Present alternatives. Let the prospect choose o Testimonials are important
o Use an action close. o Let them see how it fits into their plan.
Analytical Amiable
Planning Planning
o Structured. They study everything o They want to know you.
o Know their business thoroughly o They need your enthusiasm
o Use facts o Approach with lots of personal information
o Prepare several alternatives o Bring testimonials, case studies and third party references
o Develop a personal relation ship with the prospect
Presenting Presenting
o Convince of your sincerity.
o Data oriented o They have a hard time saying yes.
o Structured approach o Don't sound "canned."
o Low key, logic based o Make it look real informal but well organized
o Be sure that they understand your structure o Empathize. Reflect their feelings
o Emphasize test proven benefits o Spend time on the relationship during the presentation
o Visual aides, charts and graphs. "Leave behinds" o Be open and candid
o Don’t exaggerate or act flamboyantly o Use an interesting, entertaining style
o Point out positives and negatives of your offering o Assume the sale and move to the next step.
o Use a detailed summary as a close.
40

41. Customer Expectation based on Social
style
41

42. Style Summary
Driver Expressive Amiable Analytical
Backup Style Autocratic Attacker Acquieser Avoider
Measures Accuracy
Personal Results Applause Security "Being
Values By: Right:
For Growth Needs
Listen Check Initiate Decide
to
Allows to build Inspires to reach
Needs climate that Provides Details Suggests
own structure goals
Takes time to be Efficient Stimulating Agreeable Accurate
Principles
Conclusions and Dreams and Relationships
Support their and
actions Intuition and feelings
thinking
Present benefits
What Who Why How
that tell
Testimonials
For decisions give Options and Guarantees and Evidence and
and
them probabilities assurances service
incentives
Their specialty is Controlling Socializing Supporting Technical
42

43. Versatility
The effort people make to increase the productivity
of a relationship by adjusting to the needs of the
other party.
 Versatile salespeople : Those able to adapt their social
styles are much more effective than salespeople who do
not adjust their sales presentations. effective salespeople
adjust their social styles to match their customers'
styles.
43

44. Less Versatile VS More Versatile
44

45. The Role of Knowledge
 Social style matrix illustrates the importance of
knowledge, organised into categories, in determining
selling effectiveness through adaptive style. Sales
training based on the social style matrix teaches
salespeople the four customer categories, or types
(driver, expressive, amiable, and analytical).
Salespeople learn the cues for identifying them.
Salespeople also learn which adjustments they need
to make in their communication styles to be effective
with each cus­tomer type
45

46. Adjusting Social Styles
6-46

47. Alternative Training Systems for
Developing Adaptive Selling Skills
 Training methods such as the social style matrix and
expert systems are simply a first step in developing
knowledge for practicing adaptive selling.
 Salespeople should avoid rigidly applying the
classification rules.
 When salespeople prepare for global assignments, they
learn to categorise customers according to the culture.
Here it is important to know in detail, the
 Expert systems
 Limitation of training methods
47

48. Expert systems
 A computer programme developed to assist
salespeople to be able to understand the customers
and develop effective sales strategies. The
computer programme mimics a human expert.
The program contains the knowledge, rules, and
decision processes employed by experts and then
uses these elements to solve problems, suggest
strategies, and provide advice similar to that of an
expert.
48

49. Limitation of training methods
 Training methods like social style matrix and expert
systems are a first step in developing knowledge for
practicing adaptive selling. They emphasize the need to
practice adaptive selling to use different presentations
with different customers and stimulate salespeople to
base their sales presentations on an analysis of the
customer. But these methods are limited; they present
only a few types of customers, and classification is based
on the form of communication (the social style), not on
the content of the communication (the specific features
and benefits stressed in the presentation).
49

50. Features and Benefits
 Features
 The components of your product or service
 They are the same no matter who uses the product or
service.
 Benefits
 Benefits are the value to the customer
 Translating features into benefits is one of your most
important skills
 Transitional phrases connect features to benefits
 Because ..
 This lets you …
 That means …
 What this gives you …
50

51. Sales Force Automation Systems
 Also known as SFA system to support their
salespeople. It has an online collection of
information such as policy manuals, sales literature,
analyses, price lists and product description. It has
following categories:
 Key business issues facing the customer
 How can salesperson’s company meet these needs
 Competitive offerings.
 Most effective sales presentations for a particular
customer.
51

52. Sales Force Automation - Computers
in Selling
•Laptops
•Pen based computers
•Palmtops
Personal
•Contact Management Software
Productivity
•Mapping programs and GPS
•Calendar and scheduling
•Geodemographic segmentation
•Smart Card Reader
Improved •E mail
Communication •Internet and videoconferencing
•Telecommuting
Transactional •Electronic data interchange for order processing
Processing •Corporate contact management
•Online databases for ordering
•Marketing strategy built around benefits important to customers.
•Emphasis on service
Product Positioning
•Focusing on the few attributes that really set you apart means you can’t be all things to all people.
•Keep an eye on how your competitors are positioning themselves.
•Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind
•A computer system that coordinates the marketing elements and provides feedback for measurement.
Using computer databases to coordinate all marketing function
Integrated
•Combining demographic characteristics with geographic variables to develop clusters of similar individuals.
Marketing
•Modules within a firm use common information to deliver communications tailored to the market needs
•Account management software facilitates relationship selling because it allows salespeople to match
corporate capabilities against the needs of the customer.
Databases •a collection of related records or transactions. 52
•storing customer and prospect information on a computer.

53. Summary
 Extensive knowledge of customer and sales
situation types is a key ingredient in effective
adaptive selling.
 Experienced salespeople organize customer
knowledge into categories.
 The social style matrix illustrates the concept of
developing categorical knowledge to facilitate
adaptive selling.
 The social style matrix is one example of a
categorical scheme salespeople can use to improve
their knowledge and adaptability.
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54. End of Chapter 6

55. Thank you