Think Big and Smile..!

Mark I’Anson
Think Big, and Smile..!

Area Sales Management & How to Outperform
Mark I’Anson
4/23/2009
Think Big, and Smile..! 2009
Introduction
The author, Mark I’Anson spent 12 years in the Armed Forces after leaving school. I had an exciting time,
learnt loads of skills, had fun and had an extraordinary career.
At the ripe old age of 27, I had to forge a second career. Following a short time in retail, I chose sales. I cut
my teeth in the home selling bedroom furniture, then moved onto professional sales in business.
I spent the next 3 to 4 years selling products to retailers, left to sell big
ticket scanners to NHS and private sector hospitals.
I broke into sales management and managed the best sales team in my
industry. A contact head hunted me into corporate sales management
and after another 4 years of life at 120mph I discovered property.
International property was my first step. A sales team that sold more
property than any other before them. I set up my first business, a
website design company, a small company that paid the bills and
brought in cashflow.
More international property, then UK property to investors. I am now

working for myself, of course I’m selling. It’s what I do.
Before reading this book, and I hope you enjoy it. You have to have a single minded passion to succeed in
sales, to become the best. Think about nothing else apart from your next sale. This is a workbook, you
don’t have to read it all at once. Choose parts to read and practice, practice, practice.
You will succeed, of that I have no doubt, Think Big and Smile..!
Mark I’Anson
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Contents
Chapter One
Back to Basics – The accompanying notes to the Standard Sales

Training Course.
Chapter Two
The Selling Model explained - The sales model in.
Chapter Three
Questioning Skills – Fact Find questions and role played.
Chapter Four
Telephone Sales Skills – Incoming calls and how to up sell effectively.
Chapter Five
Presentation Skills – Effective presentation, get your message across!
Known as the Match stage during our sales model.
Chapter Six
Key Account Management – Get the most from your top buying
accounts, notes to accompany the course.
Chapter Seven
Negotiation Skills – Do you price crumble? Get the highest prices for
your product with this intensive negotiation course.
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Chapter One
Back to Basics
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Back to Basics
Decide to be outstanding.
Thousands of people feel that they have great potential, but just don’t
know what it is. They read books on how to discover the ‘self’. Some
go on courses for guidance on how to develop this potential. But they
never find it because nothing is there.
The self isn’t found it’s created. We don’t discover our potential; we
DECIDE on it and then go to work to develop it.
So: Decide to be outstanding
Decide to become an enthusiast for your profession
Selling is simple. Keep it simple.
ASK for the order.
People buy people first and whatever else second.
We must sell ourselves first.
This is done through identification. Whenever we say something
which gets the reaction “He is just like me” or “He thinks like I think”
we are identifying.
People like people who are like they are, who think like they think.
Avoid: “I don’t agree with that because”
Avoid: “Let’s agree to disagree”
Instead: Agree and outweigh
Sell results not products.
Convert features into benefits, what the product will DO.
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Given a feature, do not automatically assume the prospect will see the
benefit, explain it to him.
FEATURE = = = = = which means that = = = = = BENEFITS
BENEFITS = = = = = because of = = = = = FEATURES
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The most common mistake is being an excellent presenter with poor
sales figures.
Try the “So what” test.
Selling is NOT about proving a need; it’s about FINDING a need.
This sounds obvious, but research indicates that this is one of the
principal reasons for ineffective selling.
Differentiate between Motivation and Manipulation.
MOTIVATION getting people to do what THEY want to do.
MANIPULATION getting people to do what WE want them to do.
No one is interested in what WE want, they are interested in what
THEY want, so:
Step 1: find out what they want, and then:
Step 2: show them how to get it.
“Priceitis”
Everyone suffers from this occasionally.
It means believing that our products are somewhat over priced. It’s
highly contagious – if we’ve got it, our prospects will catch it.
Cure: Rebuild belief, the first sale we have to make is to ourselves.
Think about all our satisfied customers and the benefits they
have received
Before presenting a solution, make sure you UNDERSTAND the
problem.
We all sell solutions, but different problems require solutions. Be like
a doctor – he spends time asking questions, probing, exploring and
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then matches the CORRECT solution. Only when he fully understands,
does he prescribe.
Don’t necessarily accept the prospect’s idea of the solution, until you
know what the problem is.
Prospect: “What it is I want is X and you’re in competition with 3
other people.”
I.e. Prospect has in mind what he thinks the solution is – he has
thought about it.
Seller: “Fine, what do you want to achieve?”
There may be a different solution or one we can do exclusively.
Build VALUE of the solution BEFORE offering it.
A common mistake is offering the solution too early. Offering
premature solutions to half-developed desires simply produces
objections. We must build the value of THE solution before offering
OUR solution.
Put the emphasis on objection prevention not cure.
Obvious objections should be pre-handled early in the presentation.
E.g.: Product shortcomings – keep in mind that the prospect will
accept a products shortcomings, so long as it DOES what we want it to
do.
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Selling against Competition
Whenever possible, never mention your competitors by name.
It’s free advertising
It raises the prospect’s confidence in your competitors
Don’t always assume that you are up against competition.
Just because you are in a competitive market, don’t always assume
that you are up against competition. You might be or you might not
be.
Business is often lost because the seller is too aware of the
competition and consequently inadvertently suggests it to his prospect
with the phrase:
“Are you seeing anybody else?”
Never use this phrase as the prospect thinks – maybe I should!
Try these alternatives:
“Have you done anything about this so far?”
OR
“How far have you got with this?”
OR
“What plans have you got for solving this situation?”
What is the one exception when it is permissible to use “Are you
seeing anybody else?
Wherever possible don’t talk about your competitors at all.
If you must talk about them:
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Don’t call them “Our competitors”
Don’t say “The competition”
Don’t say, “Compare with us”
All these phrases simply add credibility to the strength of your so-
called competition.
Don’t knock your competitors.

Knocking is unprofessional and most people regard it as such. It also
breaks the basic rule of business – what you hand out, you get back.
Establish your unique sales points (USP’s)
Selling against competition is all about selling the difference.
Take your product out of competition by accentuating the difference.
Build desire for the difference.
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Psychology of the sales process
Objectives: To ensure the structure of the presentation is “action

producing”.
Action is only ever the result of motivation. If someone acts,
something at some stage motivated them to act.
So sales presentation should always obey the rules of motivation,
which is a two-step process.
Step 1: FIND OUT what the customer wants
Step 2: SHOW HOW he can get what he wants with our product
These two steps represent the basic structure of any persuasive
process.
DESIRE: Building desire is often talked about. Salespeople are
usually aware of its importance, but are usually unsure
exactly how to go about it.
It is useful to look at building desire through the eyes of the above two
steps.
Step 1: We find out what the prospect wants.
We build the importance in his mind of the value, the
benefit of what he wants.
Step 2: We then show how our product does what he wants, how
it matches his requirement.
This translates desire for A solution into desire for OUR
solution.
So: Matching builds desire.
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Sell Matching Benefits
In back to basics we discussed the importance of converting features
into benefits. However, research indicates that the concept of selling
benefits, which for years has been the key to effective selling, is
incomplete.
The subject of selling skills like most other disciplines has progressed.
The modern approach is to sell MATCHING benefits.
What makes product A superior to product B is not the fact that it
does more, but that it does more of what the customer WANTS it to
do.
Anti-aircraft systems
Consider a parallel between a World War II anti-aircraft installation
and a modern surface to air heat seeking missile.
The old pom-pom guns turned the air black with airburst explosive but
you saw very few hits. A large amount of energy was expended in the
general of the target without much accuracy.
This is similar to the “canned” presentation of the so-called
“representative”.
It is inaccurate and consequently difficult to close.
The heat-seeking missile has a sensor, which detects heat produced by
the enemy aircraft. This feedback enables the missile to continually
adjust its trajectory. The result is greatly improved accuracy.
The same principle applies to professional selling. We must
continually ask questions throughout the presentation and so ensure
accurate matching.
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FOUR CONTROL AREAS
It is useful to visualise the complete presentation as a conceptual,
portable black box with 4 controls representing the four distinct
control areas of the sales process.
Each control is designed to achieve a certain reaction and we keep
turning it until we get that reaction.
Control area 1: Meet and greet

Mr Customer, we have been able to offer some of our customers a
great deal on soft luggage that saved them over 15% on their present
supplier. At this stage I have no idea whether we could do something
similar for you. So what I would like to do is ask you one or two
straightforward questions. How does that sound?
Control area 2: Fact Find
Find shape and guide what the customer is looking for. Define the
doorframe, which the presentation will later close on.
Control area 3: The match
Sole purpose is to show how our product does what the prospect
wants (determined by control area 1).
Only mention the benefits that match.
People buy by their eyes. So a useful tip is to begin with the phrase:
“Let me show you what we have”.
And then show HOW it does what he wants.
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Control area 4: The close
We should only close when we have a match.
So at the end of the presentation:
TEST THE MATCHING FIRST.
This is called the TEST CLOSE.
Examples:
How do you feel about that?
How does that strike you?
Are you happy with everything?
If we get a positive answer – THEN CLOSE
If we get a negative answer – DO NOT CLOSE
Find out what he is unsure of.
Closing questions
Close business by asking for it.

Always ask a closing question; don’t hint at a close.
Questions demand answers – don’t make the error of closing with a
closing statement.
Customers EXPECT a good salesperson to ask for the order at the end
of the presentation.
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If you don’t ask for the order, you’re working for the competition.
Never let a sale you’ve worked for go unasked for.
Don’t mistake hesitance for refusal – it’s natural for people to hesitate
before making a decision.
Shut up and wait for the answer after your closing question!
Tactics and psychology

Selling is all about MATCHING what we are offering to what the
prospect wants – his criteria for ordering.
In establishing criteria for ordering our objective is two fold:
First: We want to assist the customer to draw up a set of criteria,
which we know we can subsequently match.
Second: We want those criteria to include one or two of our USP’s so
that ONLY our product will match his criteria. I.e. we must
shape and guide the customer’s idea of what he wants to
include what our product does EXCLUSIVELY.
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Fact Find / questions not reasons
So far we have assumed that the customer has a requirement, but

suppose he doesn’t, suppose he is quite happy with his present
arrangements. We then have to uncover a problem and enlarge it to
the point where he is willing to do something about it.
The find out stage then becomes
UNCOVER THE PROBLEM = = = = = = = = ENLARGE IT
Step 1 – Uncover a problem
In order to come up with a series of probing questions we must get
ourselves into a “what will it solve?” mind set. We should analyse
what we sell in terms of its problem solving capacity. Ask yourself
“what problems can I solve for this customer?”
LIST THE POTENTIAL PROBLEMS THE CUSTOMER MIGHT HAVE
1)
2)
3)
Then simply convert them into questions
1)
2)
3)
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Be careful to differentiate between “probing” and general background

questions. Don’t spend too much time on general background
questions: customer will find them boring to answer and will be
unimpressed with salespeople that know nothing about their business.
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Step 2 – Enlarge it / Make them want it more
Your customer may accept that he has a “problem” but unless he feels
that it is worth solving, nothing happens. We have to make him feel
it’s more serious than he thought.
The technique of “make them want it more” is straightforward.
List all the REASONS you’d use to convince the customer that the
problem you have uncovered is really serious.
1)
2)
3)
Then, keeping in mind that questions not reasons are your main
persuasive skills, turn each of these reasons into a question.
1)
2)
3)
The key skill is not to begin the presentation too early. Using
questions to uncover and develop the customer’s requirement prior to
presenting the solution is vital.
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Objections
Don’t enshrine objection handling
Over the years the prominence given to objection handling skills both
in books and sales training courses suggests that they are crucial to
effective selling.
Many salespeople regard objection handling as “all powerful” – if only
they had better answers to objections their results would really
improve. One or two companies even have objection handling
advisors, whose full time job is to come up with model answers to
objections. This emphasis is misplaced. It doesn’t matter how
brilliantly an objection is answered; it has still created a gap between
buyer and seller at the end of a presentation.
The emphasis should be on pre-handling. Obvious objections, which
always come up, must be handled early on in the presentation.
The majority of objections are not inherent to the buyer, but are
created by the behaviour of the seller.
Common sense suggests that for every hour of face-to-face selling
time, two people selling the same products in a comparable market
place would receive about the same number of objections. Research,
however, indicates that this is not the case. In some sales teams one
seller frequently had to handle 5 times as many objections as another,
i.e. Inept selling advice creates objections.
Example: Consider a computer systems salesperson making a 6
monthly follow-up call to a customer.
Seller: “Are you completely satisfied with the system?”
Buyer: “Not entirely the printer is a little slow”.
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Seller: (Seeing the opportunity to sell a faster printer)
“Then what you need is our new high speed printer, it’s 35%
faster than the one you are currently using.”
Buyer: “Yes, but it’s not worth paying all that extra just for an
increase in speed.”
The PRICE objection!

What has happened is the seller has offered his solution, a faster
printer, too soon. Many salespeople make this error; they offer their
solution too early.
Salespeople, who hold back on offering their solutions, until they have
built a strong desire, not only receive fewer objections – they close
more sales.
So to avoid the price objection show the customer what it will make /
save in pound terms FIRST. Build his judgement of value BEFORE
offering the solution.
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Objection Handling
Having discussed the importance of keeping the emphasis on pre-

handling, it is nevertheless inevitable that objections are going to crop
up from time to time and we must be able to handle them.
Every product has perhaps half a dozen objections, areas of mismatch,

which customers often raise. It is essential to know how to handle
these.
NB. New salespeople often fear objections. There is, therefore,
considerable value in training them how to handle all the different
objections, which can occur. The danger point comes when the
demand for training in objection handling, gives it more prominence
than objection prevention.
Summary
Poor selling creates objections – the solution is not to become better
at handling objections, but to improve the presentation so they do not
occur.
Answering objections
3-stage sequence
Stage 1: Ask it back (you must listen first)
Stage 2: Agree
Stage 3: Answer (outweigh)
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Negotiation
Know your prices
There is nothing worse than salesmen that don’t know how much to
charge. We will make mistakes along the way, but no one will be on
the phone to tell you off.
Discount structure
For motorcycles we have a discount structure that starts at 30%

discount off the retail price for new or small customers. That
increases to 40% for larger customers.
Cycle dealers have a net price list for individual items, boxed rate and
a bulk quantity rate.
Using a calculator
Learn how to work out deals on the calculator. How do we work out
net prices? How to work out deals with some items FOC.
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Use of presenter
Why a presenter?
We have tried using a laptop in front of customers. The batteries run

out quickly, the things take ages to switch on. You will never have the
right page open if a customer phones you with an order. A presenter
is quick, simple to use, and easily accessible. It can contain your order
pad, your calculator, your pen, and any press that we’ve had. It is part
of your office so look after it and take it everywhere.
What do I do with it?
Open the presenter, open it out, put it in the vertical position and
fasten the press-studs to hold it up. It is that simple.
Where do I put it?
It can be placed on the counter, a bike seat, on a workbench, any

surface so the customer doesn’t have to move his head to look at it.
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Use of samples
Why do I need samples?
Would you buy anything without seeing it and touching it? Neither
will a dealer. If you don’t take samples into a dealer, don’t expect an
order. It is said that a picture paints a thousand words: well a sample
paints a million. Our samples are real products, ready to sell. They are
not different in any way from the product the dealer receives.
It doesn’t make any difference how good a salesman you are, you
could not describe something never seen before as well as a sample
can. So take them in.
What do I do with them?
Get to know them, practice your presentations on a friend before you

even speak to a dealer. Open them out, play with them, unzip them,
and throw them around. You need to know your products and the
best and fastest way to do it is by playing with your samples. The last
thing I want is to see a presentation of a product done badly. You
might as well be working for the competition.
What if I break them?
Order new ones. No excuses.
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Order building
Bumping
Will you have enough until my next visit?

What if a customer asks for a colour that you haven’t got?
By having a range we sell more, the slow moving items sell the faster
ones.
Multi choice colours / sizes
How are you for red ones?
How are you for each size?
Have you got extra small?
Boxed quantities
Boxed quantities are listed on most presenter pages. This allows us to

sell in boxes. It is there for our help and to help the warehouse.
“If you take a box of 12 I’ll give you a couple FOC, how does that
sound?
Enough to last
If you sell 4 tax safes I can guarantee you that another ASM will be in
there with a deal on a hundred.
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You will walk in next time to see a hundred tax safes sitting on the
customer’s shelves. Who’s fault would that be?
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Deals
The deals that you do are up to you. I need decision makers on the
road for me. You are stood in front of the customer at the sharp end.
I will back you 100% with your deals.
Everything in life is a negotiation: that includes selling.
If I wanted order takers, I would have asked the agency for order
takers. I didn’t, I asked for salesmen.
Long-term commitment
How do we gain long-term commitment?
Why do we want it?
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Time management
Work smarter not harder; remember it’s not the hours that we put in,
it’s what we put in hours that matters.
Time is the only commodity that cannot be banked, stored or saved. It

can only be spent. Even a millionaire on his deathbed cannot
purchase one second of time.
Each of us has a bank account in common, in it are days. Each day we

make a withdrawal but we don’t know how many days we have left, so
make each day count.
Do things one at a time
We cannot do everything at once. We must organise ourselves to do

one thing at a time. Like an egg timer, initially all the sand is in the top
bulb, then it passes into the bottom bulb one grain at a time.
The Ivy Lee system is one of the most effective ways of doing this;
At the end of each day, write down the six most important things to be
done tomorrow and then number them in order of importance. The
following morning begin at number one and, wherever possible, keep
at it until it is completed. Then go on to number two; keep at it until it
is completed and so on until the end of the day.
Now if we don’t complete all six, it doesn’t matter. We are working on

the most important ones and if we can’t finish them using this
method, there is no other way we could have finished them.
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Avoid procrastination by training yourself to act in response to do it
now!
People, who procrastinate, miss things, they may be late for an

appointment, they may miss a train, but more importantly they may
miss an opportunity that could change their lives for the better.
You may recall the story of the Babylonian trader and his camel. They
both travelled with a wealthy caravan. One night the temperature
dropped, it became cold and the camel begged the traveller to warm
his nose - only his nose - in the trader’s tent.
Can you guess what happened? Little by little the camel inched in his
head, his shoulders, his front legs, first one hump and then the other
until finally he took over the entire tent. The trader was left out in the
cold.
This is exactly the same way in which procrastination can inch its way
into our lives. Every time we procrastinate or put off until tomorrow
what we can do today, it creeps up on us – it takes over a large part of
our life.
Three familiar words are required DO IT NOW!
Getting more things done, becoming an action person who makes use
of every opportunity does not require the memorisation of some
complex system; it simply requires relentless determination to ACT in
response to DO IT NOW! And keep this up over a long enough period
of time to make it a habit – an automatic reflex.
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Perhaps the most overlooked application of DO IT NOW! Is the
relation to our own ideas. We all have certain timidity towards ideas
we think of – ideas are personal things, part of the person who gives
them birth. Most of us treat criticism of our ideas in the same way
that we treat criticism of ourselves. Those of us who might otherwise
be creative tend to remain silent for fear of this criticism. DO IT NOW!
Gets us into action before we have time to think about possible
criticism.
Make each hour count
If we make each hour count, then day-by-day, each week, each month
counts.
An hour in our life is like a single brick in the building of a house. A
house consists of thousands of bricks but each one carries part of the
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load and makes up part of the appearance of the finished structure. If
we make each hour count, we will build an outstanding career.
Have the phrase: “What am I doing NOW to get a sale” on a card
where you will see it often.
Convert excess tension relieving time into goal achieving time
Consider how the hours during the day are broken down. They fall
into two distinct areas of activity. The first is goal achieving: the
second is tension relieving. Goal achieving is the time we spend
progressively moving towards our goal, moving through the particular
stages of our plan. Tension relieving is the relaxation, the unwinding
that each of us needs every day, but we only need so much of this
unwinding to recover from the stress and strain of daily life. Any
excess is waste – and we want to be a success, it is this “excess” which
we must transfer into goal achieving time.
Can you increase your customer contact time (CCT)?
TWT Total working time
PST Prime selling time
CCT Customer contact time

The time actually spent face to face with a customer
Be Positive
When that “I’m swamped” feeling creeps up on us and threatens to

destroy our day – stop and say:
“I can get everything done quickly and easily, by simply planning my
work and working my plan.”
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Our success or failure in our work depends on how we think about it:
Think it’s hard and it’s hard
Think it’s easy and it’s easy
Spend a minute now thinking of your work as easy.
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Territory planning
Customer record cards

We use record cards because we cannot remember everyone. We
have the capacity to remember around 250 people at any one time in
our lives. Around 100 will be friends and family; around 90 are old
school chums and associates from previous employment. That leaves
60 for dealers and important people in a dealership. Each area is
roughly 160 dealers; you don’t have to be Einstein to figure out the
math. So record cards are vital to the way we do business.
Organising the folders
The month is split into four weeks. Each week has a folder. I.e. week
one; week two and so on. Each day is split into eight calls by using
these plastic holders. Dividers separate the days.
The front of the folder should have you call cycle for that week from
Monday through Friday. This allows you to see at a glance, your plan
for the week.
How to expand and build
We can take our existing folders and put empty plastic sheets into
days that have not already got eight calls.
This is to remind us that this is where we have time in our day to fill to
achieve a full months work.
If we have a prospect call on a full day, of course we go and sell him
lots of items. It would be rude not to! But we have to make a clinical
decision about the other eight calls. Which dealer is wasting my time?
Which dealer have I been to see twenty times and sold him nothing?
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Chapter Two
The Selling Sequence

Explained
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The complete selling sequence
The eight stages of the Selling Sequence
Stage 1 Lead
Stage 2 Ask
Stage 3 Confirm
Stage 4 Pre-Close
Stage 5 Order of Importance
Stage 6 Match and Tick
Stage 7 Ask Back
Stage 8 Close
The standard sales course outlined the four steps of the sales process.
The find out and the match can be expanded into a more advanced
eight-stage process that can significantly improve your selling
effectiveness.
This model - will provide you with a profound insight into how to
structure the face-to-face element of selling. It’s like driving your car
with a clear windscreen – it’s a lot easier to see where you’re going.
The model looks into the detailed ‘nuts and bolts’ of the sales process,
with the focus firmly on the customer’s perspective, their concerns,
their requirements and their priorities.
The model structure, like all selling skills, is designed not to be
followed with unbending rigidity, but to provide you with confidence
and an underlying system of questions to move the sales forward.
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The best salespeople don’t have a whole range of techniques. They
ask the right questions. They know how to listen. And they have a
sales model that makes sense, which they use as a navigational tool.
That’s the role of the model.
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The technique involves the following steps
1. LEAD the conversation to focus on the customer’s requirements.

2. ASK about the buying criteria and what the buyer believes the
successful supplier will have achieved, demonstrated or
established to win the order. Uncover and widen the gap as
necessary.
3. CONFIRM that the list of requirements is complete (and, if
appropriate, will form the basis of the brief or tender for all
suppliers involved).
4. PRE-CLOSE by seeking confirmation that all the requirements are
met the order will go ahead.
5. ORDER OF IMPORTANCE of the key buying criteria, wants and
desires.
6. MATCH the benefits, features and solutions provided by your
product or service to the requirements of the buyer and tick off
each one in turn.
7. ASK BACK before the final proposal is submitted to confirm that
all of the requirements have been dealt with.
8. CLOSE the sale. Submit your proposal and ask for the business.
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Stage 1 – Lead
This is the lead in to the sales and reminds you that it is your
responsibility to take the initiative at the beginning of the meeting, to
give it structure, direction and purpose. It is also an opportunity to
warm the customer up with an opening benefit or credentials
statement.
If the customer has high interest, then right away ask, ‘Would you
mind if I asked you one or two very straight forward questions to
establish whether or not we can be of any assistance to you?
If this is a first or early meeting in the sales process and interest is not
yet high, it is useful to start off with a meeting purpose statement or
‘signpost’. For instance, ‘May I suggest that as this is an introductory
meeting, I begin with a brief overview of our business and then
perhaps you could give me a thumbnail sketch of yours. How does
that sound?
The customer is likely to agree, because he can then sit back and listen
to you while the meeting warms up and he can get the measure of
you. There are two important things to remember here. First, your
introductory statement should be short, five minutes at most, and
more importantly focused on what your business is designed to
achieve for your customers and what differentiates you from other
suppliers.
Secondly, the customer is listening to you but at the same time
thinking about how he will describe his business when it is his time to
speak. You will find that if you mention, for example, your firm’s
turnover, employee numbers and locations, the customer will provide
you with similar information in his thumbnail sketch. You can use this
technique to help establish the information you require from him.
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Once this example is complete, you can then ask, ‘Would it be okay if I
were to ask a few straightforward questions to understand more
about your business and your requirements?’
If the signals are strong and positive, proceed to stage 2.
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Stage 2 – Ask
This is the vital find out or fact find stage on which everything is
subsequently built. The objective is to produce a written set of criteria
on which the purchase decision will be made, that you know you can
subsequently match. Sales skills built around a list of the customer’s
criteria are known as ‘criteria for ordering’ techniques.
Too many salespeople make the mistake of just collecting background
facts at this stage. While this may be interesting for the seller, it is
tedious for the customer.
It is during this stage that we ask the find out questions that probe for
the customer’s requirements.
1. ‘What are you looking for?’

2. ‘What factors are important to you?’
3. ‘Where are you going?’
4. ‘What do you want to achieve?’
The customer begins talking and you say, ‘I’d like to jot these down.’
Probing questions normally produce a list of customer’s requirements
expressed in solution terms, he wants to do this and that. In listing
these requirements, you should be thinking about which ones you
have a good match for and which will require modifying, refining,
clarifying and defining more precisely.
If the customer has no requirements or ones that are only partially
built, then create and enlarge them using probing questions in the
gap.
Either way, you arrive at an initial specification. Your job is now to
take this and construct a set of formalised criteria for ordering that
you can match, better than any other supplier.
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Note that at no time do you mention anything about your product,

which comes later. The core structure of selling, as we have said, is
find out and match. It isn’t find out a bit and match a bit, find out a bit
more and match a bit more. If you are going through establishing your
customer’s criteria and he brings up a point at which you are superb,
resist the temptation to start matching. By all means say, ‘I’ll think
that you’ll find that we are good at that’ but leave the matching to its
proper place after all the criteria have been established and agreed.
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Stage 3 – Confirm
You now confirm that the list of criteria is a complete list of everything
the customer requires. This checks that you have reached the end of
finding out.
One of the strengths of the model is its ability to help you check where
you are in the sale. That’s good for both buyer and seller.
Seller: ‘this looks like a fairly comprehensive list. Is there anything
else you feel is important or have we covered everything?’
Buyer: ‘That’s everything.’
You then draw a line under the list of criteria.
In the unlikely event that the customer says no at the confirm stage,
loop back and find out what other requirements he has, modify them,
with his agreement, and then add them to the list. It is crucial that this
list is complete. Keep going back until it is.
When this list is confirmed, you have agreement that finding out is
complete. The set of criteria you have in front of you precisely
describes the requirements. Once you have this agreement, move on
to stage 4.
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Stage 4 – Pre-Close
We use it when we want to gain some commitment from the
customer before moving on to the matching part of the presentation,
or to check that the customer is serious and not a timewaster.
The pre-close is a conditional close. We ask if we can meet the
requirements, whether we will win the order. You say: ‘If we are able
to meet each of these requirements to your satisfaction, will you feel
comfortable proceeding with this?’ The operative word is if.
The pre-close is a perfectly reasonable question to ask. You have
spent time helping the customer to establish the criteria for ordering
and you have confirmed that these represent all the requirements. So
if you can now show how your product meets each requirement, the
customer should be happy to proceed.
You assume that the customer will answer ‘yes’ to the pre-close. After
all, they have told you what the successful supplier will have done to
win the order, so if you meet the criteria better than anyone else; of
course they will go ahead with you.
So why could it be that after all your efforts, some customers still say,
‘It depends.’ You have agreed and confirmed the decision criteria, so
what can it depend on if you meet all of the criteria better than
anybody else?
‘It depends’ for one of the following reasons:
They are not the decision maker.
They do not feel comfortable with you or trust you fully because
the relationship has not yet been built.
They need to ratify the decision with somebody.
They are unsure about the list.
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They suspect that a colleague may try to influence the decision.
When this happens, you have no choice but to go back through the
sequence. Check the decision criteria check the decision process and
who is involved. Send in the draft specification and visit again.
Whatever the reason, it must be uncovered before proceeding.
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If you are unable to pre-close, it goes without saying that there is a
good chance that you are wasting your time. The general maxim here
is, if you can’t pre-close get out and come back later, or consider going
higher/establishing another contact.
If you can pre-close – and a significant number of times you will, move
on to stage 5.
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Stage 5 – Order of Importance
If, when establishing the criteria for ordering in Stage 2, there are one
or two vital requirements that you know you can match superbly, it is
useful to highlight them now. This is when you use the ‘Order of
Importance’.
You are not concerned here with accuracy ranking all the criteria. You
want to highlight the one of two more important ones to which you
know you have a good match. Put 1 next to the most important.
Ask the customer, “Can you help me please? Which are the most
important criteria? Can we prioritise these?”
Alternatively, it may be obvious from the customer’s comments which
are the main criteria. In this case you say, “I think we’ve agreed that
this is your most important point, so let’s put 1 alongside that”.
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Stage 6 – Match and Tick
This is the presentation itself. You now show the customer how your
product or service matches each requirement. Be enthusiastic,
passionate and believable as you unfold what you have to offer.
Because THE SELLING MODEL is used with a written set of criteria, it
allows you to tick each requirement in turn during the matching stage
and so verify that the customer is satisfied with your proposal.
At the end of the matching stage, all the requirements should be
ticked. If you can’t get a tick alongside one of them, the criteria for
ordering stage was not completed correctly. Keep in mind also that all
possible mismatches should be pre handled during stage 2. You
should have a set of criteria that you know you can match before the
presentation begins.
When match and tick is complete, you can move to stage 7.
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Stage 7 – Ask Back
Here you double check that the customer is satisfied you can meet the
requirements. This conveys your intense customer focus and helps
build the relationship.
You ask, “are you happy that we’ve covered each of these points?”
They are all ticked in front of the customer, so he says ‘yes’. This
double-checks that the matching stage is complete.
Once again, it’s reassuring to know precisely where you are in the sale.
At this penultimate stage in the model process, you confirm that you
met all the criteria.
It is important to satisfy the customer and yourself that you have met
every criteria, if possible better than any other supplier. All relevant
benefits, added value and distinctive competence must have been
revealed at this stage.
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Stage 8 – Close
Closing is very straightforward; in fact it is an automatic part of the

process. Submit your proposal and ask for the business. A written
proposal followed by a meeting is best. This is a good time to express
how important the customer is and how much you want their
business.
It is helpful if you can save something to delight the customer, like
dedicated service levels or some extra item that may not add extra
value but shows you really care.
And whether you win or lose, it is always worth holding a debrief to
learn lessons for next time.
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The Closing Model
Once you have established trust, reduced risk, clearly understood the
customer’s requirements and provided an appropriate solution, the
business is yours, though, as we’ve seen, you must ask for it.
But what happens at the end of the presentation, or any important
stage in a multi site visit, if there is still some mismatch on the mind of
your customer?
He will hesitate over the proposals, usually with the courteous phrase,
“I want to think about it.”
You probably think, ‘Oh no – here we go again.’ After all your hard
work in building the relationship, you are at the brink of the sale and it
looks as if it’s going to be thwarted by the buyers natural instinct to
hesitate at the moment of buying.
What do you do?
What can you do to gain control at this crucial stage? The relationship
building school of selling tells use that if you have built a strong
enough relationship, the business should take care of itself. But, as we
have seen, it is not always the case. Someone once said, “You’ve built
a great relationship. Now what are you going to do with it?”
Having superb relationship and interpersonal skills is not enough. You
must complement these skills with a process for gaining commitment.
That is the function of the closing model.
A million miles from the old style closing tactics, closing is a
consultative approach that will give you a real edge in the final stages
of the sale. It works in all sales environments and has evolved into
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one of the most effective selling processes ever devised. You’ll find
the model provides you with a profound insight into the structure of
gaining commitment.
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Understanding Closing
Since ‘I want to think about it’ at the end of the sales discussion is
indicative of residual mismatch, your objective is to establish which
areas of residual mismatch currently exist and are preventing your
customer from going ahead – in other words, which so called
objections are on his mind.
Assuming you are able to identify these areas, and then satisfactorily
match to them, the business will be closed, or you will have gained
commitment to take to the next stage.
The model takes this concept and makes it both practical and easy to
use. Not only does it provide a seven-step model for handling
mismatch that still exists at the end of a presentation, it also
reinforces the feeling of trust and further cements the relationship.
That’s its strength.
This seven-stage sequence is one of the most effective selling skills
you’ll ever learn. Once you master it, never again will you build great
relationships and leave empty handed, kicking yourself for not getting
the business.
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The Closing Model
Five of the seven steps in the closing model are questions. This
reinforces the questions not reasons are the strongest form of
persuasion.
Closing takes a series of highly effective stand-alone skills and
concentrates them into a single sequence. In effect, it’s a flow chart
that optimises the order in which you use your available skills at the
end of the sales discussion.
Getting into Closing

Here’s how you enter the process:
Customer: “I want to think about it”.
Seller: “I agree you should think about it, but usually when
someone says that, it’s because they are unsure of
certain points. Is that the case with you?”
Customer: “Yes, there are some things that I’m not sure about”.
It is important that your first response to the customer’s, “I want to
think about it” is agreement. People buy people first and whatever
else second. Put the phrase into your own words, but make sure you
convey to the customer that you understand his desire to chew it over.
Once this is achieved you move on to Stage 1 of closing.
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L stands for List
You now say: “May I suggest we jot them down so we can both see
what we’re looking at?”
Then on a clean pad of paper, list the numbers 1 to 6 down the left
hand side of the page. As you write, say the numbers quietly.
It’s important to appreciate that to use closing successfully, you don’t
have to list 1 to 6, you could do 1 to 8 or 1 to 4, and it depends on the
complexity of your proposal. However, most people find that listing 1
to 6 works well. Now move on to stage 2.
A stands for Ask Back

You ask: “What points are you unsure of?” He tells you and you jot
them down on the list. As you do, keep these tips in mind. First, try to
capture the mismatch (objection) in one word. If you have to go to
two or three words that’s fine, but avoid writing too much. Keep it
simple and short. Secondly, if your customer comes up with a
mismatch that you are nervous about, don’t show your concern. And
thirdly, make no attempt to answer any of the points at this stage.
On completion of stage 2, you will have a written list in front of you
looking something like this:
1. Price
2. Competition
3. Delivery
4. Support
5.
6.
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The mismatches shown here are only for example. Your list will reflect
the particular concerns of your customer.
C stands for Close In

As the name implies, you are now going to draw the discussion to a
focal point. The objective is to gain the customer’s agreement that
the list of concerns in front of you is complete. You say: “Are those all
the points you have?”
In most cases the customer will say ‘Yes’. You then draw a line under
the list. In the unlikely event he says ‘No,’ don’t be concerned; simply
loop back to stage 2 by asking, “What other points do you have?”
The objective is to continue asking back until you have agreement that
all the points are noted. Once you have agreement, your list will look
like this.
1. Price
2. Competition
3. Delivery
4. Support
5.
6.
P stands for Pre Close

This is the pivotal stage in using closing. Having carefully established
the customer’s mismatches with stage 2 and 3 above, you now ask: “If
I am able to deal with each of these points to your satisfaction, will
you then feel comfortable proceeding?”
The customer in most cases will say ‘Yes’ to the pre close question. If
he says ‘No’ you are probably wasting your time.
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The pre close works because you are effectively saying, “We accept
that you have areas of mismatch, but if we were at perfect match, and
each of these points had been dealt with to your satisfaction, would
you proceed?”
When the customer agrees, you have won the business subject to
handling the points. Move on to stage 5.
A stands for Answer

In this stage you carefully study each of the customer’s concerns using
the following three-step sequence.
1. Answer the point
2. Check that you have answered it satisfactory
3. Cross out the point, once crossed out it will not be referred to
again.
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If we cannot answer all of the points at this meeting, at least you now
know exactly what remains to be done. To win the business you will
have to deal with it later or gain the customer’s agreement to
overlook it.
Once you have dealt with everything on the list, move on to stage 6.
A stands for Ask Back

“Are you happy that we’ve covered each of these points?”
This stage double checks the customer is happy, which again conveys
your intense customers focus. It’s a relationship-building question.
C stands for Close

“Good, then we’re in business.”
You now tie up the sale in the normal way with, for example, “Let’s
complete the paperwork,” or, “would you prefer installation this week
or next?” or whatever is appropriate.
That’s the closing model. The model shouldn’t be practised on
customers, but role-played with colleagues initially.
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Chapter Three
Questioning Skills
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Questioning Skills
Asking good questions is an art form. Salespeople usually do all the
talking and seldom ask enough questions. So if you’ve ever had that
dry up feeling and can’t think where to go with your leading questions
as discussed in the LACPOMAC model, here are some to think about.
I’ve tried to explain the strategy behind each question. They should
be known and understood by all good salespeople as a matter of
professional pride!
1. What is your main objective? When you understand what
your customer is trying to achieve, you can match your
proposal.
2. How do you plan to achieve that goal? You may already fit
their plan and not even know it. If you’re part of their plan,
you’re customer will close themselves.
3. What is the biggest problem that you currently face? If you
can help them solve their biggest problem, you will be a big
hero.
4. What other problems do you experience? You may not be
able to solve their biggest problem, so what other problems do
they have that you can solve?
5. What are you doing currently to deal with this?
6. What is your strategy for the future? These two questions,
together, give you an outline of the customer’s strategy.
These questions tend to accelerate the decision making
process.
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7. What other ideas do you have? This fills in the blanks and lets
you uncover their other thoughts with which you can match.
8. What role do others play in creating this situation? Anyone
who is contributing to the problem is a potential adversary.
Find out who they are.
9. Who else is affected? Anyone who is affected by the problem
is a potential ally.
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10. What are you using now?
11. What do you like most about it?
12. What do you like least about it? Always use these questions
as a group. Question 10 tells you what they are buying, from
whom, and for how much, revealing both the need and the
budget. Question 11 gives you their critical buying criteria. A
replacement vendor must be equivalent in these areas even to
be considered. This also tells you the thought process they
went through to purchase the last time. Question 12 tells you
where the competitor is vulnerable. If you can offer them
everything they like most and fix things they like least, they
now have a justification to change.
13. If you could have things any way you wanted, what would
you change? People are naturally resistant to change. “Better
the devil you know than one you don’t.” This question
inoculates the issue of change. It also allows them to dream
and explore the possibilities. You can probably do about half of
the things they wish for. There is something special about
making a person’s dreams come true.
14. What effect would this have on the present situation? This
question brings the dream to reality.
15. What would motivate you to change? This question creates
the rationale they will use to justify the change, reducing their
resistance later.
16. Do you have a preference? If they do, you need to know what
it is and what it is based on.
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17. What has been your experience? If they have had an
unfavourable experience with a competitor, you may be able
to exploit it. If they have had an unfavourable experience with
your company, you better fix it.
18. How do you know? Sometimes they really don’t know. You
want to know where they got their information. Be very
careful with the tone: you don’t want to sound off hand.
19. Is there anything else that you’d like to see? This open ended
question encourages them to brainstorm additional options
and may reveal additional opportunities for the astute
salesperson.
20. How much would it be worth to you to solve this problem?
21. What would it cost, ultimately, if things remained as they
are? These two questions set up the cost justification for the
investment you’ll be asking them to make. Question 20 tells
you the most they should be willing to pay, and question 21
tells you the least they should be willing to pay. If they didn’t
have a budget before, they have a budget range now. Always
ask both questions, because some people are motivated
towards a positive outcome or reward, whereas others are
motivated away from a consequence or penalty. Whichever
question they answer most completely reveals the strategy you
should pursue when preparing your presentation.
22. Are you working within a budget? If so, they should reveal it
here. If not, you have the necessary data to create one. A
budget is the best indicator of commitment.
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23. How do you plan to finance it? Where is the money going to
come from? Can you offer alternative financing?
24. What alternatives have you considered? Don’t be naïve. They
are talking to the competition. It is perfectly appropriate to ask
a prospect who the competition is. You’ll know how to present
your offering in the best light against your competitor.
25. What benefits would you personally realize as a result?
People do things for their reasons, no matter how good your
reasons might be.
26. How would others benefit? The answer to this question
creates a justification for what may ultimately be a selfish
decision.
27. How can I help? Easily the most powerful question in the
book.
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28. Is there anything that I’ve overlooked? This gives you a
chance to tie up any loose ends that might tangle and trip you
up later on down the line.
29. Are there any questions that you’d like to ask? Encourage
your prospect to get all their questions answered here and
now.
30. What do you see as the next step? The prospect will tell you
what to do to advance the sale. Write up an order, check on a
specification, make a presentation to a buying team, or
nothing.
31. Who else, besides yourself, will be involved in the decision
making process? Even if you’re meeting with the shop
assistant always assume that they may be a behind the scenes
influencer. Even if you think you’ve found a decision maker,
keep asking this question of everyone else.
32. On a scale of one to ten, how confident do you feel about
doing business with us? What would it take to get that up to
ten? This two-part question will tell you what incremental
evidence they need and what form of proof they will require.
If they say, “8,” then say, “what would it take to get a 9?” If
they say “10,” then proceed to write the order.
33. Are you working against a particular deadline?
34. How soon would you like to start?
35. When would you like to take delivery? These are all time
frame questions. Remember, if they are not motivated by
some time frame, they probably will not buy, at least not for a
while.
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36. When should we get together to discuss this again? Let them
define the time frame for the next meeting. If they resist, ask,
“how about if I call again within the next four weeks?”
37. Is there anything else you’d like for me to take care of? We
leave too much money on the table, because we do not ask
this simple parting question
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Chapter Four
Telephone Sales Skills
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Telephone Sales Skills
Intro
Why are we here?
Well around 30% of our daily business can come over the phone as an
enquiry.
It is up to us to make sure that enquiry is:
i) Dealt with
ii) The customer is fully informed of our offers/new
products
Why?
i) The buyer was to busy to see an ASM
ii) ASM had another plan for the call
iii) ASM forgot
iv) It takes ASM’s at least a month to visit all dealers
It is our duty to make the most of that phone call because our
customers want to buy!
But why do customers buy? Because they want something. So, why
do they buy more?
They buy more because people buy people, but what does that mean?
People buy people means identification i.e. having the same interest
or hobbies or something in common.
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Ok, how do I gain identification on the phone with someone I don’t
know?
By having and creating a tele prescence.
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Teleprescence
Be under no illusions here: Up selling on the telephone is far harder

than face to face selling and it always will be, in fact telesales is an art
in itself. What we can do is be better at it.
So, back to teleprescence, how do I get one?
Three things and they are:
i) Identification
ii) RSVP
iii) Can Do attitude
Identification
The quickest way to gain identification is by using someone’s name as
often as possible during a call.
Exercise: Practice call.
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RSVP
Rhythm, speed, volume, pitch.

It’s not what you say; it’s how you say it!
Rhythm is the energy level in your voice, have a conversation with a

friend and calibrate that at a level of 5 on a scale of one to ten. Then
have the same conversation but on a level 6 to 7.
See how much enthusiasm is transmitted during the second

conversation.
The speed at which we speak is around 150 to 180 words per minute
however a person can think at 400 to 500 words per minute. So, if you
have anything to say it had better be interesting or your listener will
be bored quickly.
Volume is something that people struggle with on the telephone, let

the microphone do the work and speak at your normal, comfortable
volume of speech.
The pitch of your voice can be used effectively by raising it to

emphasize important points, i.e. Price, quantity etc.
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Voice exercises
Um-hmm one
Try it as an exercise; the word one as spoken in your exercise is YOUR

normal pitch and volume.
Dropping plosives
Plosives are the sound that forces air from the mouth, i.e. b, d, g, k, t.
If you drop the plosive letters, language becomes difficult to

understand and the speaker sounds unsophisticated and uneducated.
Examples are:
B pro’ly for probably

D ‘ol for old
G runnin’ for running
K dar’ for dark
T hones’ for honest
T liddle for little
If you mean to say yes, then don’t say yeah, yep, yup or uh-huh.
Cork exercise
Uncork the bottle, place it between your teeth and read the following
passage aloud as clearly as possible.
Now, remove the cork and repeat the passage and see how clearly it
was read because we are thinking about how we are speaking and not
just what we are saying.
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It’s not what you say; it’s how you say it!
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Can Do Attitude
Lets concentrate on what we can do and not, what we can’t.

Has anyone had to call those job men i.e. builders, electrician,
plumber?
Generally they are one-man companies that think they are too busy to
think about how they answer their phones, so a typical reply might be:
“Well, I’m really busy, so I can’t do it this week or the week after.”
How do you feel when you end the call?
If you cannot possibly do something for the customer, there are a few
phrases, which might help.
i) I’ll check with (x) and see if we can do that.

ii) Let me find out how I can help you with that.
Exercise: Can anyone think of any more ways of positively

dismissing the customer?
Remember: Nothing is too much trouble!
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Up selling
Exercise: a typical customer call.

Sales process – Meet & greet
Find out
Match
Close
So, what do we use to up sell?
i) Box quantities
ii) Carriage paid
iii) Different colours
iv) Promote new products
v) Monthly deals
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Customer Complaints
A complaint is a backward sales opportunity – why.
Meet & greet

Find Out
Match
Close
Make the customer delighted – how?
i) Ask it back
ii) Agree
iii) Outweigh
Repeat back to the customer exactly how you understood it. Why?
Communication is all about reception not transmission!
I know what’s in my head, I think that I know how to say it, I know
what I want you to understand but when the words reach you, it can
mean something completely different.
Everyone remember Chinese whispers?
So, ask it back!
Then agree with the customer, no matter what!!
Agreeing eases the tension in the customer. It relieves that amount of
pressure that is waiting to blow.
Own the problem. It is now, YOUR problem, solve it.
Then outweigh: what can I do to delight the customer?
And last of all: Ask large, think big and SMILE.
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Chapter Five
Presentation Skills
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Presentation Skills
People usually enjoy talking. A speaker finds no difficulty in talking to

people that he knows well, and without a conscious effort adapts his
vocabulary and manner to suit the listeners.
As soon as speech leaves the realms of everyday living and everyday
social conversation, the speaker becomes conscious of the medium of
communication they are using.
If you want to become effective in public speaking or presenting the
first step to take is seeing yourself being successful! You are often
your best friend or your worst enemy.
You will want to put your ideas, knowledge and attitudes to your
listeners so that they will understand exactly what you mean and
interpret your words and actions the same way.
Enthusiasm may compensate for some faults but to be truly effective a
presenter must:
Be well versed in the subject.
Find out as much as he can about his audience.
Have thought about the material so thoroughly that they get the basic
point across however much they have to adapt the material when
they deliver it.
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Preparation
No speech can be better than the preparation, which precedes it!
First stage: Early preparation
1. When will it take place? Be sure that you have adequate

preparation time.
2. Where is it to take place? In surroundings familiar to you? If
not, check beforehand the size, shape, lighting, acoustics,
electrical sockets, equipment etc.
3. Who will be in the audience? How many, male, female, ages,
level of experience. These facts will influence the words and
ideas that you use.
4. How long are you to speak for? Is the time adequate or too
long for your subject? Who are the other presenters/speakers,
if any? What time of day are you speaking?
5. Why you? What special knowledge do you have? What will
the audience expect of you?
Second stage: the purpose
Is it to?
1. Inform
2. To persuade
3. To educate
4. To entertain
5. To inspire
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Third stage: Gathering the material.
Own knowledge, both conscious and subconscious.
Other people’s knowledge, either by direct questioning or research

from libraries and other sources.
Brainstorming ideas.
Using a note pad to jot down ideas as they occur: This could be any
time of the day or night.
Fourth Stage: Organising the material.
1. Material must be given shape and structure.

2. The framework consists of: - opening, body, closing.
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Opening
The opening has a great deal to achieve. It may be necessary to follow
a speaker who is in personal terms or by reason of his subject has
achieved great acceptance, of some other activity of a more
entertaining nature. An impression has to be created and the
attention and interest of your audience captured at once.
To achieve this.
1. Remember that preparation is only complete when the
speech begins. Arrangements of notes, visual aids,
microphone and any other physical considerations must be
thought of and dealt with quietly and effectively.
2. Don’t plunge in – take a few seconds for calm appreciation
of the audience and of you by them. But don’t dither; start
as soon as you and the audience are settled.
3. Never start off by apologising for your lack of knowledge,
ability, subject or presence. Start with the confidence of
preparation well done.
4. Don’t open with clichés or hackneyed phrases. You may
well need to thank your hosts for your invitation to speak,
but this can follow later. The opening needs to be
interesting, original and arresting.
5. Avoid too early a climax – interest falls if a high standard of
opening cannot be sustained.
6. Remember it is only an opening, don’t make it too long.
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7. Some openings may not suit your personality, so be
flexible. For any presentation, write it, polish it, and chose
the best.
8. Speechmakers who fall in the beginning are unlikely to
succeed in the end.
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Closing
The effect of a presentation which is otherwise good can be damaged

by it’s close. Leave your audience wanting more!
1. Avoid “wandering” towards the end. Finish on a high note
which is relevant to all which has gone before.
2. Don’t make a second speech even if a new thought comes to
you do not be tempted.
3. Avoid repetition. If you are finished before your allotted time
is used – sit down. Do not pad. This should not happen if you
have rehearsed your timings.
As you reach your conclusion, look at your audience. Memorise both
your opening and closing phrases so that you can exercise eye contact
without the need to consult your notes.
To be sure you finish on a high note think about ways of rounding off
your presentation.
1. With a question
2. With a quotation
3. Story or analogy
4. Summary
5. Call for action
When you compose and present a speech with a really effective close
you have at your command an unusual power – used in the right way,
this power can do an immense amount of good.
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The dos and don’ts of notes
How not to make notes:
1. Lots of notes distract and alarm.
2. Scribbled cards get lost.
3. Notes on the back of envelopes look unprofessional.
4. Large notes will tie you to where you put them.
Various ways to make a presentation:
1. Write it and read it.
2. Write it and memorise it.
3. Impromptu.
4. Main sentence method – using post cards.
Method 1 Gives no confidence in the speaker.
Method 2 Lacks flexibility.
Method 3 Only one person in a thousand can do it.
Method 4 The best, gives flexibility and spontaneity.
The secret is to take out key sentences after full preparation. Each
sentence must cover a complete thought or idea, an assertion, a
statement, a question, a denial, a command, or a wish.
Number your cards and use a tab to keep them together, write on one
side only and hold them in one hand, gesticulating with the other as
appropriate. Make sure that a change in card coincides with a change
in section, as the audience will literally see it as such.
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Pause dramatically between sections, particularly if you ended the
section powerfully. The audience will need time to assimilate your
words.
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Rehearsals
Work to a timetable that gives you time to rehearse a minimum of 3
times.
Rehearse with your notes to gain familiarity with:
1. Structure
2. Ideas
3. Transitions
4. Timings
Rehearse to test the reaction of an audience using an honest and
trusted friend to provide objective and constructive comments.
Where possible practise in front of a video camera.
You need to project yourself to put your ideas across; your aim is to
appear flexible, natural and confident. The way you move and speak
should complement, not distract from what you say.
Everyone has mannerisms they only become irritating when they are
accentuated by nervousness, and you are not aware of them. If you
know what you tend to do, you are in a position to stop.
Voice
Talk to the back of the room, keep your voice up, and don’t let it drop
at the end of sentences. Emphasise the key words and pause
deliberately to allow significant points to sink in.
Face
Keep your face moving and expressive. Smile. Returning help to
sustain confidence. Keep eye contact. Look at the bridge of their
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noses into their eyes, not the ceiling, the floor or your visuals. Look at
everyone.
Body
You do not have to be rigid to be formal – move naturally and let your
gestures and movements mirror the meaning of what you are saying.
Find a comfortable base position to return to.
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Mastery of the subject
A speaker is asking for trouble if he does not know enough about his
subject. He will be so busy grasping the threads of his little knowledge
that he will not be able to adapt it to the needs of an audience, and he
will be very vulnerable if interrupted. Speakers whether persuading or
informing find they need about four times as much knowledge as they
expect to use in the talk. They need it to cover themselves when
under question and when some point is of particular interest to the
audience. Someone who accepts authority as a speaker may not
retain the audiences respect if he undermines its confidence in his
knowledge of the subject.
Visual Aids
Good visual aids take time to prepare. The audience can only think
about one thing at a time and is easily distracted. You cannot expect
them to concentrate on what is being said if what they are seeing is
more interesting – for right or wrong reasons.
Introduce the visual aid before you pick it up. Give yourself time to
make the important point, which almost always precedes a visual and
let it sink in.
Keep quiet while they take it in. Watch their eyes now the visual to
gauge their reaction and to know when to start talking again.
Focus their attention when necessary with a pointer, lay the pointer
on the glass screen if you need to hold their attention on a particular
phrase – don’t let it shake, rattle or roll, it is very distracting.
Once you have finished with the slide remove it.
If using a flipchart, some preparation can be completed in advance
and it allows you to keep diagrams hidden until the right moment. A
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flipchart is frequently used for small audiences and encourages
participation. Care needs to be taken with handwriting and spelling.
Use any visual aids that you are comfortable with and will assist you in
getting your point message across. But remember they are only an aid
– you are your best visual aid.
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Using a microphone
Addressing a large audience may require the use of a microphone.

Mastery of the microphone gives the poise and confidence essential
for a speaker to gain the attention and respect of his audience.
General rules
1. Stand still; do not vary the distance between the microphone
and yourself by swaying or walking away from it. The ideal
distance for a static microphone is 18” to 24” away, with the
microphone below the line of your mouth.
2. Do not fidget with, or rustle notes near it.
3. Do not address the microphone, ignore it and address your
audience.
The most common faults
1. You get too close to the microphone, speech becomes
distorted.
2. You are too far away and the microphone picks up your voice
and noise.
3. You turn your head away whilst speaking resulting in the
volume rising and falling.
4. Handling the microphone incorrectly resulting in crackling and
thundering noises.
5. Negative feedback from loudspeakers.
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Techniques that liven your presentation
The right language, rhetorical tricks and gestures are all important
techniques of effective presentations. Use short sentences and simple
language. When you practice check that the points you are making
sound crisp and concise. Using certain rhetorical tricks can make your
presentation memorable. The most effective are repetition, contrasts
and lists of three.
Confidence
You must never belittle your knowledge or ability, nor frighten
yourself into thinking that the audience knows more about your
subject than you do. You need to prepare your material so well that
whatever happens you can get the main points across. The audience
will not attack unless considerably provoked. Some members of the
audience may have knowledge of the subject. This you should use,
providing you draw it out in a way that brings out the main points
clearly. They will then feel involved and interested and the others will
still be learning. Experience and success develops confidence.
Appearance
Appearance matters, the audience looks and listens. Dress shows your
attitude to your audience. You cannot afford to be scruffy unless you
have an inordinate amount of personality to compensate for it.
Stance
This will depend on you, the audience and the subject of the
presentation. If you have a large audience it is preferable to remain
standing. However it is important not to move around too much, sway
or look ready to run. You may feel more vulnerable when standing,
but in reality it puts you in a stronger position.
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Standing gives you more authority, allow you to breathe more easily,
gesture more freely and use the visual aids without bobbing up and
down.
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Delivery
You need to deliver your material at the speed an audience can take
in. Speak clearly and vary your tone to prevent monotony. Practise
using gestures and pauses; they give your audience time to digest the
important points.
You can judge your success by your audience’s reaction. Develop the
range of your voice. Practice speaking in low and high register, but
always within the comfortable limits of your vocal range.
Practise
1. Enunciation – voice your words with clarity
2. Pronunciation – voice your words correctly
Always maintain that inner smile!
Time Keeping
Time keeping is important. If the audience causes the talk to over run
it will not matter. If it is your fault they will mind.
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Handling questions
A good question creates a peak of concentration for the audience so
make the most of it.
1. Welcome the question.

2. Repeat the question so that everyone can hear it.
3. Clarify it if necessary.
4. Provide the answer.
5. Thank them for their contribution.
Handling aggressive questions
If the attack is unjustified, you can normally rely on the support of

your audience. In this case you won’t need to confront your attacker,
he will destroy his credibility for himself, provided that you respond
briefly and rationally. Then move swiftly on to the next question.
If someone is testing your knowledge and experience and you do not

know the answer then say so with a smile but state that you will find
out and get back to him or her. Don’t look ashamed of not knowing;
look pleased at the prospect of learning something new.
The question you are dreading
It is better to prepare for the worst than to assume it won’t happen.

At least you will be able to say, “I thought someone might ask that”.
You could even prepare a visual especially for it. Prepare for it by
rehearsing as you have done for the rest of the presentation – not just
by thinking and hoping it won’t happen.
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The stupid question
Avoid all temptation to say, “If you’d been listening, you’d have known
that”.
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Find out it he is the only one, if he isn’t you’ve pitched your
presentation at the wrong level and take the opportunity to put it
right now.
If he is the only one don’t make him look stupid or you will lose the
goodwill of your audience. Just answer the question and move on.
Overcoming nervous tension
The main barrier in giving presentations is nervous tension brought on

through fear of failure, fear of looking foolish or fear of forgetting.
These can be combated by having courage, deep breathing, and

knowledge of subject, thorough preparation and learning to relax.
Tension clouds the mind. Relaxation clears the mind.
When tension gets out of control – with adrenaline pumping madly

through the body – it can paralyse a speaker. When controlled it can
lift and give sparkle to a performance.
Many symptoms of tension will register only with one person – YOU.
Learn to control the symptoms by sitting in a chair and relaxing each

part of your body from the feet upwards. Avoid the stiff drink for
courage – you can have that afterwards.
If you look the part, behave the part, your audience will respond
accordingly.
Conclusion
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It can be a damming prospect to give a formal presentation –
particularly the first one.
However with practise and perseverance ultimately you will find the
experience both challenging and stimulating.
The speaker who puts across his interest in his subject, and his
enjoyment in discussing it will inspire like feelings in his audience.
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Chapter Six
Key Account Management
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This chapter deals with the management of YOUR key accounts, those
accounts that make the biggest turnover on your area. It may be your
top ten or top fifteen, whichever it is, these accounts could give you
up to 30% of your annual turnover.
It is up to you to make sure that their key accounts are given grade A
customer service.
The notes that follow are accompanies by a two-day key account

training course.
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Our key customer accounts are a very precious resource. They are
almost certainly our greatest source of volume; they should be our
major source of profits. We need to ensure that we have an efficient
strategy to manage and develop our key accounts.
Failure to maintain and develop opportunities within key accounts
should be regarded as an unacceptable loss. Competitors are waiting
like predators for such a failure on our part.
The aim of this programme is to assist you in the development of your
key account strategies. You should consider key account management
as an evolving process through which you are always learning about
your accounts and how to manage them.
The notes in this folder are not intended to be exhaustive. They
should be used as an outline through which you can focus your
strategies, tactics and development techniques.
Key account management is not an exact science. It relies
fundamentally on your ability to develop a relationship with the key
players in your accounts. You will need to devise strategies, which
continuously meet the needs of your customers. These notes will help
you to understand the processes at work in key accounts. You need to
take the principles expressed, and apply them to your own situation.
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Stages of Key Account Management
To help you to develop your own key account management strategy
we have outlined a number of stages. You will need to consider each
of these stages. The stages are not necessarily consecutive. You will
have to decide what is appropriate in your particular scenario.
1. Identifying and selecting key accounts:
☼ Profit or other substantial reason for developing the

account for your company
☼ The potential benefits to the customer
☼ Identifying the differential between you and your
competitors
2. Collecting knowledge about your customer’s business:
☼ Current issues, problems and opportunities.

☼ Perceived needs
☼ Potential solutions
☼ External factors likely to affect account penetration
3. Identify and research decision makers and influencers:
☼ Selecting decision making partners, decision influencing

partners and information partners
☼ Analyse the individual behaviours and the possible
significance in decision making
3. Analyse the need of each level of authority:
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☼ Senior management, operational management and
procurement
☼ Identify formal business and personal objectives
☼ Attitudes, concerns and likely objections
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5. Research and anticipate the decision making process:
☼ Formal and informal

☼ Power structure and group dynamics
6. Plan key account penetration:
☼ Set specific, realistic objectives
☼ Plan entry level, frequency and timing
☼ Adapt plan to deal with group dynamics
7. Develop penetration strategy:
☼ Analyse account history
☼ State competitive advantages and disadvantages
☼ Position company favourably against competitors
8. Organise support:
☼ Identify resources you will need to support your
management of the key account
☼ Think about who will need to be involved. What financial
and technical resources you will need
☼ Confirm your level of authority
9. Develop credibility statements:
☼ Match credibility statements to the perceived needs of
customer
☼ Increase perception of the need for your solution
9. Present your proposals:
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☼ Highlight unique selling points
☼ Minimise perceived advantages of alternative solutions
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11. Negotiate:
☼ Set objectives for your negotiation, consider your
negotiating range
☼ Anticipate buying strategies and tactics
☼ Analyse the cost and value of likely concessions
☼ Organise team negotiations
☼ Set timescales
12. Implement solutions:
☼ Quickly and efficiently. Monitor and review situation.
Strategy and Tactics
As someone responsible for key account management it is important
that you have a clear overall aim, defined by clear objectives and that
your strategy is realistic. You will need to think about your tactics
whilst dealing with the key players in your accounts.
To help here are some definitions:
Aim
A clear and concise description of your overall purpose and direction.
Objectives
Specific points which allow you to measure your performance as you
attempt to meet your overall aim.
Objectives should be “SMART”.
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S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Achievable
R – Realistic
T – Timebound
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Strategy
An outcome of the planning process. It predicts situations which will
arise during the key account selling process and defines the actions
which will be taken to deal with those situations.
Strategy is future – orientated.
Tactics
Tactics are specific actions designed to enable the overall strategy to
be realised.
Example of a Key Account Strategy Statement
Strategy
We will convince the managing director that the business advice we
will provide will improve the performance of his managers through
increased knowledge of the processes involved. We will achieve this
by using third party testimonials from companies within the
customer’s industry.
We will ask the managing director to show the functional managers
how their increased knowledge will enable them to increase
productivity.
We will enlist the functional managers to convince the purchasing
department to accept the changes, thus allowing the company to
rationalise its’ supplier base.
Tactics
To enable the above strategy, you may well use the following tactics.
Site visit – meet with Managing Director
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Key Points
☼ Prove quality of advice
☼ Establish our credibility
☼ Agree need to gain commitment of functional managers
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Presentation to Functional Managers
Key Points
☼ Ask Managing Director to chair meeting
☼ Establish benefits of increased knowledge
☼ Build status of a particular manager
☼ Introduce key support staff from your company
Meeting with Purchasing

Key Points
☼ Supply report from functional managers to demonstrate
benefits of solution
☼ Obtain agreement to buying criteria
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Analysis of Key Account Potential
Customer/Client ………………………………………..
CURRENT CURRENT FUTURE

SITUATION POTENTIAL
£ or Units £ or Units
TOTAL BUSINESS
OUR COMPANY
SHARE
OUR COMPANY
SHARE
Key Account Risk Management

Whether you are developing potential within an existing key account,
or attempting to penetrate a new potential key account, you will need
to think about risk management.
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Your key accounts are your competitor’s key potential. You must
expect them to attempt to gain business in these accounts. How you
manage this risk will depend on the market you are in, and the
particular circumstances in your accounts. You are always at risk in
your key accounts. This may be caused by a change of policy by your
customer, or it may be a result of an offering from one of your
competitors.
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We suggest you adopt the strategy of analysing the offering you are
currently offering to your customer. Think about the situation you are
in and ask yourself searching questions.
For example:
☼ Is the product I am supplying meeting the exact needs of my
customer?
☼ Is the product/application likely to become obsolete?
☼ Are we supplying all of the customer’s requirements? If not,
how do we compare to our competitors?
☼ What is the customer’s purchasing policy? Do they currently
single source? Is this likely to change?
The above questions relate to the product or service you are
supplying. However, you need to think of risk in broader terms than
just product or service. Look at the questions below. Do you know
the answers to any or all of them for your key accounts? If not, you
may be at risk. If you do not have the relevant information you may
find it difficult to manage the risk.
Examples of questions you should consider as part of your risk
management strategy:
☼ How well do we understand the decision making process?
☼ Do we know all of the decision makers in the decision
making unit (DMU)?
☼ What influence could our competitors have on the DMU?
☼ How well are my customers doing in their market?
☼ Do we supply to any of our customer’s major competitors?
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The above examples are not intended to be exhaustive. They are
examples of thinking about the wider issues, which could influence the
level of risk you have to manage in your accounts.
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Key Account Penetration
Key account selling is an involved process. To penetrate a key account
you will need to be very well prepared. You are likely to encounter a
number of factors in key account selling which are just not present in
the smaller accounts.
As part of your strategy ask yourself some basic questions:
1. Who exactly is my customer?
2. What can we do to improve the customer’s situation or
performance?
3. What will we gain from doing so?
4. Why do we want to develop this account?
5. What are the consequences of not penetrating this account?
Business Positions of Key Customers
A customer may be the division or department within a company, we
must consider whether that customer is growing, declining or stable.
Growth customers tend to be sales driven. Your penetration strategy
should be positioned in line with the customer’s needs. What do you
think these needs might be?
Customers in decline are usually cost driven. Your strategy will need
to show how your offering will lower or reduce costs.
Stable customers are sales and cost driven. Sales must be increased,
but not at too great an additional cost. Costs must be reduced, but
not at the expense of market share. Your strategy will need to make
improvements in either area without detriment to the other.
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By aligning your strategy to your customer’s position of growth,
decline or stability, we have taken the first step towards deciding our
‘positioning’.
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Penetration – The Choice of Approaches
The way you approach the penetration of your key accounts will
depend on many factors. However, you will have to decide on your
plan based on the information available to you at the time. In some
cases you may make a very narrow approach, i.e. – focussing on a very
specific sales opportunity, or you may have a much broader strategy,
looking at several opportunities at the same time. You will have to
decide the benefits and risks of your chosen approach.
Positioning
Our positioning in a particular market as a whole or with regard to a
key account describes how we tailor our products or services to meet
the needs of the market place or customer.
The ideal position should fulfil the following criteria:
☼ The customer must have a need for the product or service
☼ Your company and product must be credible – you must be
able to demonstrate your consistency and reliability
☼ You must be able to communicate the ‘unique selling points’ of
your offering
☼ You must be able to deliver what you claim
☼ Your product or service must be adaptable to new challenges.
You must be aware of developments being made by your
competitors.
These criteria should influence the statement we make about how you
will position yourself to any of your key accounts.
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Example of positioning statement
If we are selling components to a growing division of an original
equipment manufacturer, we might make the following statement:
“We will position ourselves to the Manufacturing Director as his
partner in reducing assembly time to allow increased production to
meet demand and reduce waiting time”.
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“We will position ourselves to the R & D Director as his partner in
sharing development costs to further improve product performance,
we will demonstrate that we can do this ‘uniquely’; giving our
customer an advantage in their market”.
The Decision Making Process

Identifying the Process
Generally, the larger the company, the more complex the decision
making process is likely to be. You must understand how the formal
and informal processes work inside your key accounts. You will need
to know who has got ‘power’ and who has got ‘influence’. There is a
difference between influence and power. It is vital that you
understand the nature of power, formal and informal decision
processes and group dynamics.
Formal and Informal Processes
Decisions may be made through a formal process: a committee, a
board or a group of managers. Often the process is much more
informal, when the decision can be made and influenced by any
number of people. You should attempt to map the decision making
processes in your key accounts.
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EXERCISE
IMPROVING KEY ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT
Please consider your present level of skill in each stage of managing

your key accounts and grade yourself for each stage:
A - Little or no improvement needed
B - Acceptable, but still some improvement needed
C - Considerable improvement needed
D - Unacceptable. Major improvement needed
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1. Identifying and selecting key accounts:

☼ Profit or other substantial reason for developing the account
for your company
☼ The potential benefits to the customer
☼ Identifying the differential between you and your
competitors.
2. Collecting knowledge about your customer’s business:
☼ Current issues, problems and opportunities
☼ Perceived needs
☼ Potential solutions
☼ External factors likely to affect account penetration.
3. Identify and research decision makers and influencers:
☼ Selecting decision making partners, decision influencing
partners and information partners
☼ Analyse the individual behaviours and the possible
significance in decision making.
4. Analyse the needs of each level of authority:
☼ Senior management, operational management and
procurement
☼ Identify formal business and personal objectives
☼ Attitudes, concerns and likely objections.
5. Research and anticipate the decision making process:
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☼ Formal and informal
☼ Power structure and group dynamics.
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6. Plan key account penetration:

☼ Set specific, realistic objectives
☼ Plan entry level, frequency and timing
☼ Adapt plan to deal with group dynamics.
7. Develop penetration strategy:
☼ Analyse account history
☼ State competitive advantages and disadvantages
☼ Position Company favourably against competitors.
8. Organise support:
☼ Identify resources you will need to support your
management of the key account
☼ Think about who will need to be involved. What financial
and technical resources you will need
☼ Confirm your level of authority.
9. Develop credibility statements:
☼ Match credibility statements to the perceived needs of your
customer
☼ Increase perception of the need for your solution.
10. Present your proposals:
☼ Highlight unique selling points
☼ Minimise perceived advantages of alternative solutions.
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11. Negotiate:
☼ Set objectives for your negotiation, consider your negotiating
range
☼ Anticipate buying strategies and tactics
☼ Analyse the cost and value of likely concessions
☼ Organise team negotiations
☼ Set timescales.
12. Implement solutions:
☼ Quickly and efficiently. Monitor and review situation.
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Chapter Seven
Negotiation Skills
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Negotiation
This series of notes were designed to show the effective way of

handling negotiations.
Negotiating is communication with a purpose and one of the essential
aspects is to concentrate on the issue involved rather that the
relationship between the two parties.
It can also be a process for resolving conflict between people where
both modify their demands to achieve a mutually acceptable
compromise. I.e. both sides walking towards each other!
By following the eight step approach, though not necessarily in a rigid
order, you will be taking the steps towards a framework of a skilled
negotiator.
The Eight Steps are:-

(1) Preparing
(2) Arguing/Discussing
(3) Signalling
(4) Proposing
(5) Packaging
(6) Bargaining
(7) Closing
(8) Agreeing
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The 4 Main Phases are steps: 1, 2,4, 6 with 3, 5, 7, 8 Interlinking.
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Step One - Preparing
ESSENTIALS
Be pro-active rather than reactive. A badly prepared negotiator
cannot lead the way or control the outcome.
Define what needs to be achieved and decide how it will be achieved.
OBJECTIVES
Prioritise them: write them out
Primary – Secondary
Be realistic
Objectives need to be realistic and credible.
Use the L.I.M. principle
L – Like to get
I – Intend to get
M – Must get
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OWN INTEREST
OBJECTIVE LIKE INTEND MUST
1
2
3
4
5
6
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CONSIDER
(1) What are the bridging factors that would make an

agreement?
(2) What will you have to trade, or what have you to give, to
promote an agreement?
(3) What fall back positions do you have?
(4) What order do you intend to present your propositions?
COMMON AVOIDABLE MISTAKES

(1) Unprioritised Objectives
(2) Incorrect assumptions
(3) Badly defined limit position
(4) Non-disclosure of useful information
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Step Two – Arguing/Discussing
You negotiate because you have or believe you have a conflict of rights
or interests with another party. This is always more apparent at the
beginning. Both parties are tense and wary.
Some negotiations never get beyond this stage because inter party
tension is so high and you reach a deadlock before moving off the
starting post.
It is estimated 80% of time is spent arguing/discussing. Although the
word arguing is an emotional one it can also mean a rational
presentation of reasons for doing or not doing something. It can mean
two distinct things:
One reasonable and construction, the other unreasonable and
destructive.
How you use this step will affect the progress and the outcome of the
negotiations. Arguing can and often will recur throughout the whole
operation. But getting it to work for you will ultimately improve your
performance.
This stage should be used as an opportunity not an obstacle. It allows
you access to your customer’s objectives, their intentions and permits
you to explore the issues themselves. An interest motivates a
customer to say Yes, an inhibition motivates them to say No. You may
be making assumptions here and therefore using this opportunity to
test them. Arguments are an exchange which can establish the
128 | P a g e
benefits of negotiating a settlement or it can show that no settlement
is either possible of desirable.
129 | P a g e
IMPROVING BEHAVIOUR
(1) Eliminate the habit of interrupting your customer, as the
person receiving this message resents it and before long a
shouting match develops.
(2) Never ignore your customers interest, continuously pressing
home your own.
(3) Destructive argument achieves nothing. Point scoring is a
temptation few can resist. I.e. “I’m not going to let you get
away with what you said 10 minutes ago”.
The attack/defence cycle and the blame cycle are well established
features of destructive arguments. If you attack somebody they will
inevitably defend themselves. If you seek to apportion blame
incessantly your customer will either emotionally resist the charge or
attempt to pass the blame on to you.
Once you are in this cycle it accelerates and the emotional tension
rises. I.e. “are you calling me a liar?”
People in an emotional state make threats. If each side loses sight of
the issue and become solely concerned with ‘Winning’ then every
concession is regarded as a loss no matter how minor.
The end result is that you are both even further apart.
The remedy is simple – listen more than you talk.
Positive listening must be supported by positive talking:
I.e. when you do talk make sure you use your time effectively.
Use open questions which encourage the other party to explain and
clarify their case.
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You have already made estimates and assumptions in your
preparation now is the time to test these.
Avoid provocative language like:
“How do you justify that outrageous demand?”
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Instead say:
“How do you explain the basis upon which your claim has been drawn
up?”
Probe deeper to get more information – try and get behind the hidden
implications.
Before responding summarise your customers position to ensure there
is no misunderstanding.
132 | P a g e
To summarise:
Avoid
■ Interrupting.
■ Point scoring.
■ Attacking.
■ Blaming.
■ Being ‘Too clever.’
■ Talking too much.
■ Shouting your customer down.
■ Sarcasm.
■ Threats.
Practice
■ Listening.
■ Open/probing questions.
■ Summarising neutrally.
■ Asking for justification.
■ Being non-committal.
■ Testing their commitments.
■ Seeking and giving information.
133 | P a g e
Step Three - Signalling
In negotiating it is essential you first understand the nature of the

problem and from this the nature of the remedy. Deadlocks occur
when both parties adopt the strategy of sticking to their opening
position until the other party indicates a willingness to move.
This could be because both parties feel unable to handle a situation
once concessions start to be made. Some people believe once you
commence giving in there may be no stopping, hence the best way to
avoid this is not to make any. This is normally due to lack of
experience – novice negotiators are either pushovers or stonewalls.
This normally achieves lousy deals or no deals!
The way to handle concessions with confidence is to develop skills in
signalling behaviour. This gives you the means to test an opponents
apparent stonewall position and establish whether it is based on his
reading of the relative power balance or upon his lack of confidence as
a negotiator. It could also be due to lack of information.
The Steps in Signalling:
(1) UNDERSTAND THE PROBLEM/OBJECTION
● Listen carefully.
● Active body state.
(2) ISOLATE
● Use ‘apart from.’
134 | P a g e
● ‘Lets suppose that.’
(3) DEFINE THE PROBLEM/OBJECTION
● Question the problem/objection

i.e. “I can see what you mean. Could you tell why
that is particularly important at this time?”
135 | P a g e
(4) RESTATE THE OBJECTION AS A QUESTION
● What you’re saying Mr X is.

(5) PRE CLOSE
● So, if I can satisfy you on this point can we agree?

(6) OVERCOME THE OBJECTION
● By selling benefits.
(7) OBTAIN AGREEMENT
● Confirm that your answer is accepted.

Proceed with the negotiation or go for the close if
appropriate.
136 | P a g e
Step Four - Proposing
If signals are given or recognised this can lead to a proposition.

There are frequently secondary proposals as well as the primary one.
One party may declare that it has preconditions which must be met if
it is to negotiate. These are aimed at weakening the bargaining power
of the opposition.
Preconditions can prevent negotiations taking place until they are
removed or modified. This then depends upon the balance of power
between the parties.
If you are dealing with a grievance it is important to become specific.
People with a grievance are inclined to go on about whatever has
upset them resulting in an argument.
The skill of arguing is to get that step to work for your objective. The
objective is to secure a remedy.
It is very easy for any of us to find fault but we also need to find a
remedy.
The remedy is your proposition. This then shifts the attention away
from the grievance and on to the proposed remedy.
A proposition beats an argument every time. It gets things moving. It
relieves tension. Once you have obtained the opening proposition you
can concentrate on modifying it or considering it.
137 | P a g e
The initial proposal is usually a statement of a party’s ideal position
and the language used reflects the firmness of their position.
● I think we can pay something.

● I had hoped we can pay something
● I cannot pay anything.
138 | P a g e
By listening carefully you can learn a good deal about their position.
A secondary proposal moves away from the clearly defined position. It
feels the way forward to common ground, i.e.
● Suppose we were prepared to –
● I might be prepared to consider –

So to summarise:
(1) Are there signs of movement?
(2) What signals have you made to indicate own willingness to
move.
(3) If ignored how can you reword?
(4) What is the cause of stonewalling. Confidence or lack of it.
(5) Listen for use of non-absolute and qualified statements.
(6) Respond positively.
(7) Listen more, talk less.
This tentative way of speaking does not show a weakness but is a sign
of prudence and caution.
I.e.
A negotiator might say to his opponent: - “Are you saying if we
consider some relaxation of our position on this item, that you would
drop your insistence on non-payment?”
139 | P a g e
Here neither side have committed themselves and they must not do
so until the details of the proposed ‘relation’ and proposed
reciprocated ‘modification’ are known.
Tentative proposals help both sides. They mark out the areas from
which agreement can be eventually reached.
Getting into the habit of making conditional propositions is the best
training for negotiating.
If you start that way from the first proposal you will have no trouble
coping with the bargaining stage. If you throw concessions away
recklessly in the proposal stage you will only end up making life far
more difficult for yourself later on.
Propositions are conditional: “If you are prepared to do ……”
(Always present your conditions first and make it specific and then
state your part in a tentative way – consider doing..….)
A common technique used is that of declaring your ideal position and
then immediately modifying it – conditionally of course. This creates
an illusion of a concession where none has been made.
Firmness or Flexibility
The closer you remain to your original position the more firm your
commitment, the further you are prepared to move away from it the
more flexible your commitment.
Firmness can give you a negotiating platform for later flexibility. It is a
difficult balance to find.
140 | P a g e
By being too firm your customer may not decide to pay you at all. By
being too flexible you can remove all your negotiating cards too soon.
Ideally be firm on generalities and flexible on specifics, this gives you
room for manoeuvre.
A general rule is open realistically and more modestly. This of course
depends on the circumstances of the negotiations.
Choosing the opening position can be crucial
In every negotiation there is the presence of uncertainty – you don’t
know their style, their personality traits.
Consider the problem: When your customer opens is he beginning
‘High’ but willing to move a lot or is he willing to only move a little.
Uncertainty can be helpful to your position. Once you have decided
on a style don’t change as no one in a negotiating stance wants to feel
let
141 | P a g e
down or betrayed. You could end up losing everything. Act
consistently.
A determination to be realistic and make minor moves adds to your
own confidence.
Putting a proposal in an ‘either or’ format is a useful technique when
dealing with uncertainty, i.e.
“We can accept £40.00 every 3 months by Direct Debit or £40.00 for 3
months. 1 cheque now plus 2 post dated cheques. Which way do you
prefer?”
This type of proposal avoids instant acceptance or rejection. The
other party might react strongly to one or other.
Confidence is important when presenting a proposal. If you “Um” and
“Ah” before getting to the point it indicates uncertainty, always act
decisively.
PRESENTING PROPOSALS
Where possible separate the proposal from its explanation and its
justification. Itemise what is in the proposal and then if necessary
explain or justify its content.
I.e.
“If you can meet these conditions……. we will be prepared to consider
offering the following ……… . (Pause) our reasons for doing so are
……”.
Then shut up. If you waffle on this gives your opponent opportunities
to find something he disagrees with.
I.e.
The more you talk the more you reveal.
142 | P a g e
Let silence put pressure on your opponent; use it to your advantage.
Having presented your proposal you are in the dominant position in
the negotiation. Providing it is a realistic conditional proposal. You
are laying the foundation for the final agreement. It seizes the
initiative and forces the pace.
143 | P a g e
RECEIVING PROPOSALS
2 Major Rules:
(1) Do not interrupt. It never pays and sometimes costs a lot.
You may well miss a concession that would have been
tagged on to the end. Interruption always antagonises.
(2) Don’t immediately say “No”. Treat it and the proposer with
some respect. Listen and ask questions.
Remember you can answer parts of the proposal which are of interest
to you and which parts are not. A blanket “No” brings you back to the
argument stage or even deadlock.
Aim to find some common ground even if it is very minor.
Use the summarising technique – this keeps people’s mind
concentrated.
The balance of power is often changed by a proposal. The person who
has made the proposal is in a strong position. They can adopt the
attitide:
“I have made you a proposal, if you do not like it, what is your
alternative?”
They have then passed responsibility firmly on to the other side.
144 | P a g e
TO SUMMARISE:
■ Propositions overcome arguments because arguments cannot be

negotiated.
■ Proposals advance negotiations.
■ Proposals seize the initiative.
■ Unrealistic proposals prolong the arguments.
■ Secondary proposals are best put as suggestions.
■ Proposals can be used to gain responses.
■ Be firm on generalities:
■ Do not use weak language, i.e. “We hope, We like”, instead use:
“We need, We must have, We require”.
■ State your conditions first and be specific.
■ Follow with your proposition and be tentative.
■ Opening concessions should be small rather than large.
■ Opening conditions should be larger rather than small.
145 | P a g e
Step Five - Packaging
Packaging in its true sense is a considered activity in response to the

opening ones of the negotiation.
I.e.
It aims to take us from where we are now to where we want to be.
An effective package presents the variables in a form which more
closely matches the other party’s interests and inhibitions: It could
include withdrawing concessions previously granted and substitute
less costly items if the end result is likely to be more attractive to the
other party.
RULES
(1) Address your package to the interests and inhibitions of
the other party.
(2) Think creatively about all the possible variables.
(3) Value your concessions in the other party’s term.
Packaging enables you to influence them possibly enough to alter their
perceptions.
TO SUMMARISE
■ Identify your opponents inhibitions, objectives, priorities and

possible concessions.
■ Review yours and your customers L.I.M. list.
■ Is there enough movement to produce a package?
■ How can you address your package to meet some/all of your
customers inhibitions?
146 | P a g e
■ What negotiating room do you have?
■ Which concessions are you going to signal?
■ What do you want in return?
■ How equitable is the concession rate?
■ Draw up your list.
■ Have you considered all the variables?
147 | P a g e
Step Six - Bargaining
Bargaining is about exchanging – something gained for something

given up.
The most important single rule is to make all propositions and
concessions conditional, i.e. IF.
“If you agree to X I will agree to Y”.
Placing an “IF” in front of a statement protects it from being
misappropriated by your customer.
If the word is not used your opponent can simply say thank you very
much and pocket your concession without giving anything away at all!
By using “IF” it is like an invisible piece of string to the offered
concession which you pull back if they do not agree.
Bargaining proposals should be statements NOT questions, i.e.
“If you confirm that you will send the cheque then I will
process your application for re-mortgage.”
Statements tell the other person the price of an agreement. They do
not ask a closed question that invites a No.
Always use:
“If you ……… then I”.
Some inexperienced negotiators ‘forget’ to put their conditions on
their concessions. The best way to avoid this situation is to lead with
your conditions, i.e.
148 | P a g e
On condition that you do X we will do Y.
or
Provided that you accept X we will agree to Y.
149 | P a g e
Here the condition and offer are specific. If they say YES you have an
agreement. If they say NO you can modify your position or require
that he does so.
If you are required to modify your side then use tentative offers:
I will consider.
I will look into.
If you want to continue the movement of negotiation use expressions
such as:
I feel we have the elements of an agreement here ……
or
We have made significant progress although a number of
issues still separate us …….
LINK THE ISSUES
Never let yourself be the one to fall into the trap of dealing with issues
one at a time. If you negotiate piecemeal you will get chopped up.
To get agreement on one item you will concede concessions. This uses
up valuable negotiating capital.
However if you link the issues by agreeing to “consider that” or “think
about this” you can then deal with them within the total package;
agreement on one is conditional upon agreement on them all.
150 | P a g e
Step Seven - Closing
The negotiator has 2 pressures to contend with:-

(1) The basic uncertainty of negotiating.
(2) To settle before your customer squeezes you any
further.
The longer negotiations continue the more time you have to extract all
the concessions available from your opponent but of course the same
rule applies to your opponent.
JUDGING THE CLOSE
It’s easier to learn how to close rather than when. If it is the wrong
time your opponent will at least let you know about it whereas they
are likely to help you if it is their interest to keep you bargaining.
If you are on your limit position you have a strong incentive to close.
Any further bargaining draws concessions from behind your limits.
However it makes profitable sense to attempt a close before you have
reached that stage.
When you state this is your final offer, although it might not
necessarily be true, it is then your opponent’s job to test your
determination. Timing affects your credibility.
If you try and close too soon they may react with hostility, particularly
if they feel they have given away more than you and will show this by
refusing to move off the bargaining stage.
151 | P a g e
If you have used the ‘final offer’ close it is difficult to use it again with
credibility. If they test your credibility you need to be able to re-
enforce your message firmly cut not provocatively.
The whole purpose of closing is to lead to an agreement.
Your closing package must meet enough of their needs to be
acceptable.
152 | P a g e
Wise Words
REMEMBER:
■ In a good negotiation everybody wins something.
■ The wheels of diplomacy often turn on the grease of

ambiguity.
■ Negotiating is about resolving conflicts within the

overall and continuing relationship.
■ People who don’t listen, normally have problems

getting listened to!
Think Big....and Smile...!
153 | P a g e
Mark I'Anson Property

t: 08456 434 595
m: 07779 012562
e: info@markianson.com
w: www.markianson.com
a: Towcester, Northants
blog: http://markiansonproperty.blogspot.com/
facebook page: http://profile.to/markiansonproperty
"Packaged property deals to leave you time for more important things"
154 | P a g e

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Mark I’Anson

Think Big, and Smile..!

More international property, then UK property to investors. I am now

Back to Basics – The accompanying notes to the Standard Sales

Don’t knock your competitors.

Objectives: To ensure the structure of the presentation is “action

Control area 1: Meet and greet

Close business by asking for it.

Tactics and psychology

Fact Find / questions not reasons

So far we have assumed that the customer has a requirement, but

Be careful to differentiate between “probing” and general background

The PRICE objection!

Having discussed the importance of keeping the emphasis on pre-

Every product has perhaps half a dozen objections, areas of mismatch,

Know your prices

For motorcycles we have a discount structure that starts at 30%

We have tried using a laptop in front of customers. The batteries run

What do I do with it?

Where do I put it?

It can be placed on the counter, a bike seat, on a workbench, any

Why do I need samples?

What do I do with them?

Get to know them, practice your presentations on a friend before you

What if I break them?

Order new ones. No excuses.

Will you have enough until my next visit?

Multi choice colours / sizes

How are you for red ones?

How are you for each size?

Have you got extra small?

Boxed quantities are listed on most presenter pages. This allows us to

Everything in life is a negotiation: that includes selling.

How do we gain long-term commitment?

Why do we want it?

Time is the only commodity that cannot be banked, stored or saved. It

Each of us has a bank account in common, in it are days. Each day we

Do things one at a time

We cannot do everything at once. We must organise ourselves to do

Now if we don’t complete all six, it doesn’t matter. We are working on

People, who procrastinate, miss things, they may be late for an

Three familiar words are required DO IT NOW!

Make each hour count

Convert excess tension relieving time into goal achieving time

Can you increase your customer contact time (CCT)?

TWT Total working time

PST Prime selling time

CCT Customer contact time

When that “I’m swamped” feeling creeps up on us and threatens to

Customer record cards

The Selling Sequence

The eight stages of the Selling Sequence

1. LEAD the conversation to focus on the customer’s requirements.

1. ‘What are you looking for?’

Note that at no time do you mention anything about your product,

Closing is very straightforward; in fact it is an automatic part of the

Getting into Closing

A stands for Ask Back

C stands for Close In

P stands for Pre Close

A stands for Answer

A stands for Ask Back

C stands for Close

Telephone Sales Skills