Sales Skills

Learn to close the deal!

• Be a better salesperson
• Start a new business or grow an existing one
• Advance your job prospects; develop your professional expertise in marketing

This course guides you through many different methods of Opening and Closing a Sale. Discover the secrets of successful salespeople and draw out the ammunition you need to take charge of your career today.

What is the difference between selling and marketing?
Selling is the ultimate destination of the marketing process, but not the whole process. Marketing involves a much bigger and wider perspective, of which selling is only a part. Marketing is the process of packaging up product features, pricing, promotions and distribution and presenting them to the market for consideration. It encompasses both the pre-sale and post sale process.

Lesson Structure

There are 12 lessons in this course:

1. Presentation and selling
   • Personality. "Never judge a book by its cover." A wise old saying! but people who buy do make judgements especially about sales people. Dress and grooming are top priority in selling. As well you must learn how to develop a selling personality.
2. Communication and Conversational selling.
   • Learn the art of written and verbal communication in easy to understand terms.
3. Marketing (Buyer analysis and motivation)
   • Presentation of products to consumers and motivating them to buy.
4. Management (Hierarchy)
   • Dealing with upper management; learn how to get your point across. How to be assertive and positive when dealing with your superiors.
5. Helping the Product Sell Itself
6. Know your product and pre planning.
   • Through observation, reading and listening get to know your products (pre planning is essential in today's complex society).
7. Selling made as simple as A B C.
   • The procedure of selling.
8. "The Opening" (getting the attention of the buyer).
   • Creating the right atmosphere for a sale to take place.
9. "Closing a Sale" (overcoming objections).
   • Buyers will tend to look else where unless a salesman can close a sale in an appropriate amount of time (learn the secrets).
10. "Stress Management"
    • Learn the art of relaxation through stress management techniques, and reduce stress in the marketing environment.
11. The Law and Selling
12. Report Assessment Writing.
    • The majority of sales persons need to have the ability and skill to write a condensed and accurate report on which management will comprehend and act upon.

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

Aims

• Explain the importance of first impressions and learn how to develop a selling personality.
• Explain the art of written and verbal communication in easy to understand terms.
• Explain how to present products to potential customers and how to motivate them to buy.
• Explain how to communicate with your managers and superiors.
• Explain how to help your product to sell itself.
• Explain the importance of preplanning, observation and listening is important in selling.
• Explain the procedure involved in selling
• Explain how to create the right atmosphere for a sale to take place.
• Explain how to close a sale.
• Identify and manage stress levels in a sales situation
• Explain the law in relation to selling.
• Write a condensed and accurate sales report.

What Makes People Buy?

Buyers (consumers) can be divided into three categories :

1. thinking - Thinking buyers require facts.
2. feeling - Feeling buyers will respond emotionally to a sales person’s plea.
3. intuitive - Intuitive buyers believe that they have extra sense ‑ some insight which allows them to arrive at the right decision more often than others.

Within a short period, a professional salesperson can recognise which type of buyer s/he is dealing with and can vary her/his sales technique accordingly.

"Buyer Motivation" ‑ is it a need, is it the price or the quality of the product?

The Quality of Sales Staff can Make or Break a Business

A sales person or shop assistant can be the first port of call for selling your goods and services. They may be the person who forms the closest relationship with customers and clients. They will be the person that customers see when they come into a shop or office, so it is important that retail staff are well trained, polite and fully aware of the products and/or services you offer.

A naturally social personality and charisma; and 'gift of the gab', might not be essential. It can help though.
Front line sales people usually need to be more extroverted than introverted. They need to convey self-confidence, be focussed and considered in their actions. People buy from sales staff who they find friendly and amenable. A good sales person is an actor, who can project the necessary image, even when they are feeling otherwise.

Communication involves not just talking, writing or conveying a message to a customer. It also involves listening skills. Some people have a natural empathy; others develop empathy, and some people are simply never going to hear what people are saying to them; often because they are preoccupied with their own thoughts.

Studying communication skills can help improve your ability to speak, write, read and understand body language.  It will also help you to interpret what people say to you (read between the lines). 

In today’s world, you will encounter a need to use technology in almost every area of marketing. Sales people need to use computerised systems for processing orders; marketing managers create spread sheets, reports, financial projections and much more. The creative side of marketing will also involve using computers.

Experience adds Value to Your Studies

You need both study and experience. Either one without the other will limit your career prospects. Don't ever think a course will guarantee a good career in marketing. Similarly, don't think your chances are just as good getting the practical experience without ever studying sales or marketing.

Experience does two things: it allows a person to grow their abilities observing their successes and failures; and it provides potential clients or employers with "proof" of your capabilities. A marketing professional needs to be able to show that they have had successes. Many businesses will consider a good "track record" as being more important than anything else, when choosing staff. Do not forget though, that other things are what contribute toward you being able to create that track record.

WHAT MAKES SOMEONE CHOOSE TO BUY?

1. Pleasure – People will buy some things for pleasure only. The bar of chocolate they love through to luxury items and holidays. 
   Need (an identified problem) – Here the focus of motivation is to encourage the person to make a rational decision purchase. To buy the car that they need. To buy the vegetables they need ..  
2. Acceptance/Fear of missing out – Here we are selling to people who want to go with the trend, to be “in fashion.” They may want the latest phone, the latest clothes, the best trainers ..
3. Fear and anxiety (general) –  You might think that selling using fear and anxiety is not a great way to sell, but it can be used.  As an extreme example, think about the COVID-19 pandemic, people began to buy masks and hand sanitiser out of fear. A large and relatively new market suddenly appeared.   But a more day-to-day example are products such as bleach, cleaners, sanitisers, hygiene products .. These are all sold on the basis that we fear germs.  Deodorants, perfumes and after-shaves are sold because people fear smelling.  Warranties are sold because people fear their car or washing machine or tumble drier . will break down.
4. Health – People buy products as a way to protect and improve their health. This can range from vegetables, certain foods, vitamins ..  It is not just food though, people might also buy products, such as exercise bikes, rowing machines, trainers for walking or running ..  
5. Impulse (momentary excitement) – People buy small to large products on impulse. This could be a book, a bar of chocolate through to clothes, a car, a holiday ..  Impulse buying is common. Research by CNBC found that 44% of Americans had made an impulse purchase in the last three months. It is probably greater than that. Think about yourself.   How often do you go into a shop to buy one product, such as milk, and come out with more?  
6. Money/Financial gain – Some people will buy to make more money. When we say buy, we might also include people who purchase savings bonds, stocks and shares. Or people who buy something to sell on to someone else. For example, a person may buy books from charity shops, then sell them online to try to make a profit.  
7. Self-improvement – People may also buy for self-improvement. This might be courses or exercise equipment or a gym membership or a class on meditation .. It can be a way to improve the mind or the body or both.
8. Aspiration – People may also buy for aspirational reasons. They may aspire to own a larger car or a bigger house or a holiday home or a painting or certain tyres on their car.

WHAT THIS COURSE CAN DO FOR YOU

Many who work in sales are not real sales professionals; but this course will put you on a path to becoming a sales professional.

• A sales attendant or shop assistant takes orders or payments from customers, and may be paid only a very basic wage. They may not be expected to be methodical or aggressive in seeking sales, but if they are making more sales than what their employer expects, they will be valued, and their opportunity to advance will grow.
• A sales professional is a less common phenomenon. They perform well above the sales attendant. They are successful and one of the most valuable commodities in the business world. They earn much more than a sales assistant.

After the Course

On graduation, you will understand how to sell much better than when you started this course; and you will look at customers in a different way to how you viewed them before. This doesn't mean you will be unethical or a bully; but it does mean that you will understands the processes that happen in the mind of a potential buyer, and you will be aware of the pathway you need to follow to bring them comfortably to a point of buying.

This course is your first step toward becoming a successful sales professional. It will give employers more reasons to employ you, and it will give you better income if you undertake any sort of commission sales.