Selling and Sales planning
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Benefits of selling
No matter how good your product or service, no matter how much of an expert
you are at what you do, if you’re in business today you need to
sell. You need to get out there and market and SELL to the marketplace
so people will buy from you and not from the business over the road.
This subject shows why. Timing: 5 minutes.
The steps of selling
All businesses sell something, whether it’s a product or a service.
Selling doesn’t come naturally but requires the use of certain
processes to be successful. This subject identifies and defines these
processes so you can use them in your business. Timing: 5 to 10 minutes.
Skills for successful selling
There’s more to selling than learning and applying the several component
stages of the selling process. You also need certain personal skills. This
subject identifies them. Timing: 5 to 10 minutes.
Relationships underpin selling
Selling is more than just presenting a sales pitch to your clients. Selling
is about developing mutual relationships with your clients so they trust
you and your product. This subject explores the importance of relationship
building to successful selling. Timing: 5 to 10 minutes.
Relationship building strategies
Most of us know that building relationships doesn’t happen automatically,
even in selling. This subject offers some strategies that can help you
build the relationships that are prerequisite to successful selling. Timing:
5 to 10 minutes.
Features tell; benefits sell
Have you ever had someone try to sell you something because of the great
colour? Did you buy it? Chances are you didn't - that's because they were
trying to sell the product's features (the colour), rather than its benefits.
This subject should help to ensure that you don’t make the same mistake.
It explains features and benefits and their relationship to customer needs
and why product feature and benefit lists help sell products. Timing: 5
to 10 minutes.
Product knowledge
Knowing your products makes selling a lot easier, more enjoyable and more
successful. This subject shows how. It also shows you how to keep your
product knowledge at your fingertips so it's readily available when you're
selling. Timing: 5 to 10 minutes.
The sales presentation
The way you sell to your customers what’s in it for them to buy your
product is an important part of selling success. It's called your sales
presentation. This subject shows how to make your sales presentations so
they get you the most sales. Timing: 5 to 10 minutes.
Increase
your sales
This fact sheet provides 12 steps you can take to increase your sales.
Customer
service
Businesses which prioritise quality customer service have a greater chance of capturing and keeping loyal customers. Here are some tips on providing good customer service.
Quoting
successfully
This fact sheet outlines sound quoting practices and principles that give customers and potential customers a good impression of your business.
Sales planning
The need for sales targets
Sales targets are important to your business because they keep you profitable.
Learn why you should have targets for your product and service range and
learn how to set them so you don’t spend unnecessary time on lower
profit or slow-moving items. Timing: 15 to 20 minutes.
Developing sales targets
A key tool to achieve the goals you seek for your business is a marketing
plan. A good marketing plan identifies sales targets. This subject shows
how to set sales targets and include them in your marketing plan so you
grow your business. Timing: 15 minutes.
How to meet sales targets
Setting sales targets is one thing. Identifying strategies and tactics to
achieve them is quite another. This subject shows how to develop those
strategies and tactics and incorporate them into a sales plan so that your
salespeople are able to deliver their sales targets. Timing: approximately
20 minutes.
Developing a product strategy
A product strategy is a particular type of strategy that can help with your
selling. This subject shows what a product strategy is and how to develop
one. Timing: 5 to 10 minutes.
Prospecting for sales
Before people buy from you, they’re prospects. This subject shows
how prospecting benefits your business. It explains what prospecting is
and how you go about it to improve your sales. The subject goes on to invite
you to develop a technique for qualifying leads so you maximise your sales
efforts. Timing: 5 to 10 minutes.
Sources of prospects
There are many different sources of prospects for your sales. This subject
outlines what they are and invites you to select those most likely to give
your business best results. Timing: 5 to 10 minutes.
A prospecting database
Most businesses work to generate their sales by making direct or indirect
contact with people. Most businesses record whom they’ve contacted,
when and with what results and most do so using databases. Then they use
their databases to generate even more sales. This subject should help you
decide whether a database will help your business generate sales and, if
so, help you identify the type you need. Timing: 5 to 10 minutes.
Dedicated sales staff
For many businesses selling is the key to success. This subject shows how
dedicated sales staff can help many businesses. It goes on to help you
identify the type of salespeople you might need and it lists some possible
sources of such people. Timing: 5 to 10 minutes.
Managing time for effective selling
Most of us use different forms of time management as we go about our business.
This subject outlines some common time management strategies salespeople
use that can help you get best advantage from your selling time. Timing:
5 to 10 minutes.
Motivation and sales
The concept of motivation is intrinsic to selling. Best sales result from
salespeople who are motivated themselves to sell and who know how to tap
into a buyers’ motivation to buy. This subject should help your business
tap into that motivation. Timing: 5 to 10 minutes.
Selling and ethics
You sell best when you sell ethically. This subject explores ethical selling
and covers: the business benefits of selling ethically, statutory requirements
for selling ethically, developing a Code of Practice and informal fostering
of ethical behaviour. Timing: 5 to 10 minutes.
Consumer
buying behaviour
By trying to better understand how consumers think - their shopping habits and what influences their buying decisions - businesses can improve their sales strategies.
Retail
environmental design
Merchandising (how you display the goods you have for sale) sets the mood and character of a business. This fact sheet provides some simple steps you can take to successfully set up your merchandise to attract customers and increase sales.
Managing
your stock effectively
Good stock management is knowing what stock to buy, when to buy and how much to buy. The better you are at it, the more profitable your business. Learn here about optimising your stock levels.
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