Study Sales Techniques and Improve Outcomes
This course will take you from developing a strong personality (confidence and knowledge) through to communication, marketing, dealing with upper management, getting to know your product, the A B C of selling, the opening and closing or a sale, stress management, how to increase your company's profits, and more.
Course Duration: 100 hours
Course Structure
This course is nine lessons.
- Developing Sales Concepts
- Goods & Services
- Ways of Managing Sales
- Developing a Sales Concept
- Planning Ahead
- Understanding Selling
- Understanding Buyers
- Steps in the Sales Order
- Increasing Sales
- Developing Sales Relationships
- Sales Methods
- Presentation & the Selling Personality
- Communication skills and conversational selling
- Sales Ethics
- The Law and Ethics
- Social Problems
- Pricing
- Deceit
- High Pressure Sales
- Poor Quality Products
- Predetermined Obsolescence
- The Impact of Marketing and Selling on Society
- Public Responses to Modern Marketing Trends
- Enlightened Marketing
- Building Product Knowledge
- Good & Bad Features
- How & where the product is manufactured
- Materials used
- Wholesale/retail price
- Guarantees, warranty, spare parts, service costs
- Knowing the Competition etc.
- Developing a Customer Strategy
- Types of Buyers
- Buyer Motivation
- Difficult Buyers
- Key Rules for Every Salesperson
- Presentation Strategy Options
- Displays (eg. Locating Your Displays For Best Results)
- Shop Layout
- Trade Displays etc.
- Closing a Sale
- Difficulties with closing a sale & solutions
- Importance of the personal approach
- Managing Yourself
- Time management
- Territory management
- Record Management
- Sales Records
- Stress Management
- Managing a Sales Team
- Building quality partnerships
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The First Step in Sales Management is to Determine Sales Targets for both Quality and Quantity of Sales Required
The first question to ask when managing sales is: What sales do we want?
Too many sales may be as undesirable as too few. Many businesses make the mistake of simply attempting to achieve optimum sales, without considering whether the business can sustain or manage a high level of sales. A successful business can be greatly disrupted when they achieve more sales than they have planned for, or can manage. For example, as sales increase, the manager may need to take on more staff or just accept that the present staff are overtaxed, and that the quality of service may suffer.
The wrong type of sales may also be undesirable. It may be better to sell less or fewer of something that has a high profit margin than more of something that has a low profit margin. Even businesses that might seem to sell their goods at a low price might actually be achieving a high profit margin, because of the very low cost to them of the goods. On the other hand, many small family businesses struggle to survive although they make a brisk trade, because their profit margin is too low.
Another question is “how difficult is it to supply this item or service?” The business person should consider availability, reliability of sources, and the actual material, time or effort required to offer the product for sale. In general, you reduce risk by selling items or services that are easy to supply than by selling those that are difficult to supply. For example, a caterer who offers some exotic dishes that require time-consuming preparation, or who takes on large parties that require more than usual assistants may find themselves losing money or barely breaking even because of the cost and difficulty of supplying the product.
Changes in Retailing
In the past, most things that people purchased were bought by visiting a physical location; normally some sort of shop.
People visited shops because:
- This was the only option for buying something.
- It allowed them to see before buying.
- It allowed them to buy at highly competitive prices; because they were buying from retailers who purchased products in bulk, hence at lower prices.
- It served their social needs, to interact with other people, to have a change in their physical environment and so on.
However, many of these reasons have been partially negated by changes in the world and retailing. People can still purchase products by going to their local shop. But there are also many other ways of buying products.
Today people have found other ways of buying:
- Online
- Phone ordering
- Buying in bulk
- Trading goods for goods or services for services (Cashless economy)
- Parties (such as Tupperware)
Online Selling
Online selling is when people can visit a website, view a product and buy that product online. It will then be downloaded by them or delivered to them. For example, you can buy eBooks online and the eBook can then be downloaded and read immediately. If you prefer a paperback book, you can order the book online and the book will be posted to you. You can order your groceries online and they will be delivered to you at a time you specify.
Many physical shops also have an online presence, so you can visit their shop or go online to their website and purchase the same goods.
Online sellers open up their market to a lot more potential customers. If you are a physical bookstore, you can sell books to people who probably come to your physical shop and buy them. If you offer online sales, you can post the books to customers who buy books from you online. But postage costs may be prohibitive. If you sell eBooks, then customers can buy them anywhere in the world and download it without any postage costs.
What is effective for businesses will depend on what they are selling.
Phone Ordering
Phone ordering is similar, but simply involves the customer phoning a business to place their order, which is then presumably posted and delivered to them. Some services can be purchased and given via phone, such as advice on problems with a computer, telephone counselling and so on. A customer may phone up, give their payment details and then receive their service. It is possible to obtain services like this online as well through webcams and conferencing sites.
Buying In Bulk
Buying in bulk can still occur. A business may buy 5000 alarm clocks and is therefore able to sell them more cheaply by buying in bulk. They also may not maintain a physical shop, so again they have fewer costs than a physical shop would. So they can potentially sell products a lot more cheaply. However, with more and more niche markets, it is not always possible to buy products in bulk. For example, a person may set up a business designing handbags and purses. Each one is individual. They may be unique, so therefore may be more expensive. But a customer may be willing to pay more for an individualised product.
Trading Goods and Services
There are many websites where people can trade goods and services. A simple one is websites that look at services for babysitting, gardening and so on. People may advertise their services on a website, for example, they may offer babysitting services for 10 vouchers. They can then use those vouchers to gain other goods or services. For example, they may use the 10 vouchers to buy vegetables from an organic vegetable grower. The vegetable grower may then use vouchers to get someone to help them with a computer problem.
Parties
Many brands still use parties as a way to sell their products. A sales person will come along and do a party. They will show how the product can be used. For example, make up, clothes, kitchen goods, storage goods, books, candles and so on. Customers can then buy the products at the party or place an order. They may be encouraged to have a party of their own to gain free products. And so they continue.
When looking at ways to retail products and services, all businesses should consider how they intend to sell services and goods in this way and AGAIN, what they hope to achieve by selling the goods in this way. Is online sales the way to go? Is a physical shop the best way? Can I bulk buy or do I produce niche products? It is important to consider what is the most suitable form of retailing for your products and services? There may be more than one option.
