5a Sales reports Getting started Discuss these questions in pairs. 1 Which of these sales activities do you think is most effective for selling the products or services in the box? Sales reports 1 telephone sales 2 mailorder €@ atime-shere holiday home 3 esales 'b advertising space in magazines 4 sales events ¢ clothes for older people 5 visits from company reps __-d_corporate catering services: 6 retail sales @ life insurance x f machine tools 9 rare books ‘fh theatre tickets i 2. Which of these ways of selling does your company (ora company you know well) find most effective? Why? 3. Which method does your company (or a company you know well) use most often to source services or products? Why?Evolving sales Listening You will hear Mehtar Tilak, a sales manager at a professional conference, talking about how sales activities in his software company, Software Solutions, have changed over the last ten years. 19 Listen and complete the chart with some of the activities (1-6) listed in Getting started. (Note: ‘The answers to the questions are not mentioned in the same order as they are presented in the chart, and there are two activities you will not need.) Software Solutions: sales by sales activity Task tip efor ister, sty the —— chart and what it shows. Visits fom Famniliarise yourself quickly ‘company reps. vith the statisti it expresses. a 3 4 3 0 2 % 0 3 Wi tiow Eo 10 yu age Vocabulary ‘11 Listen again and say whether these verbs mean ‘to increase’ or ‘to decrease’. 1 decline 2 plummet 3 soar 4 rocket 5 recede 6 shrink 2 Work with a partner. Brainstorm other words you can think of to express ‘to increase’ or ‘to decrease’. When you have finished, compare your ideas with the rest of the class. Reading 1. Mehtar Tilak wrote a brief report of the main points shown in the chart above. However, there is one wrong word in most lines. Correct the wrong word. If you think a line is correct, put a tick (¥) by the line. Breakdown of sales In the last ten years, retail sales had fallen from 30% of total sales to just 1 20%, while at the same time, sales resulting of visits by company 2 representatives have mare that halved from 40% to 17%. Similarly, mail- 3 order sales have dwindled from 15% ten years ago to just 3% this yea. *. Inthe other hand, during te lat few years, we have been concentrating 5 ‘more on e-sales. These have expanded spectacularly from 5% ten years 200 6 0 35% now. Telephone sales had also taken off, increasing from 10% to 7 25% over the same period 2 Find other verbs in the report that express ‘to increase’ or ‘to decrease’. Salesreports 55The sales pitch Getting started Cold-calling is when you phone someone you have never spoken to before to sell them a product or service. Discuss these questions in small groups. 1 How do you react when you receive a cold-call? 2. What are the problems of cold-calling for the salesperson? 3. When is it necessary to cold-call prospective customers? 4 What advice would you give to cold-callers? 5 Do you ever cold-call prospective customers? Cold-calling Listening You will hear Rosa Levy, a salesperson from CSS Lid, a security firm, cold-calling the human resources manager of Vogel Leblanc, 2 large property-management company. 1. Before you listen, discuss these questions with a partner. 1 What do property-management companies do? 2. Why might they need the services of a security firm? 58 Thesales pitch 82 Listen tothe conversation and complete Rosa's notes with upto three words in each gap. wh b boo O46 HELLHOE LEEDS 1 Leblanc Contact: Richard Siade, HRM. Sos ployee re ecasonaly verb or “Tneidents occur on phone, in office and when - Present protection for lone workers thraugh a 3 company, Normal procedure: cali the worker and possibly 4 Shortcomings of system * ro cover winen 5 semphy © difficult toe worker in difficuities Meeting. + prn Friday, at office 7 3. Workin pairs. Say whether these statements are true orfalse. 1. Rosa states immediately what services she wants to sell. 2 She apologises for taking up Richard's time. 3. She spends time gathering information, 4. She asks for names of competitors. 5. She does not close a sale during the call. ‘Check your answers by listening again and reading the transcript for track 20 at the back of the book. Match these phrases from the questions in the telophone conversation (1-5) with their function (a-e).. Doyoumind...? > @ starting an opening question First, can you...? /b_ signalling that the questions | are finishing ‘Would [be rightin\ © checking an assumption thinking. \\ ‘And one last \d_ asking whether someone ‘question: tell me...2/ wants to do something Would you be Ce asking permission Interested in ..?Vocabulary Match these words and phrases from the text (1-8) with their definitions (a). ‘examining someone or something to discover if there is anything wrong with them. all the achievements or failures that someone or something has had in the past. It's that sort of situation that we want to avoid. b_ We want to avoid that sort of situation. 1 solicit ~. a when you are legally responsible for something 2 riskeaverse } b operating 3 liability / ¢ made them par ofa group or team 4 screening J) a havea strong distike for taking risks 5 gotthem on board /' e-finda solution toa problem 6 upandrunning { { 7 crack \ g_asksomeone for money, information or help 8 track record h Making a sales pitch se Listening You will hear Rosa from CSS Ltd giving her sales pitch at a ‘meeting with Richard Slade of Vogel Leblanc. iListen and complete the notes Richard made during the meeting with up to three words in each gap. whe bOObe HELL SLE LEEDS Service anitabte every day fort congeane for handling, emergencies To make an emergency signal, workers. just x any 8 Wher security company receives call, the Fell tos waka % + intone ow of fice about 5 + inform the police. iment allons workers 40 be located to within Sr Tuone calls often menn that the attacker stops. Security company: Von nian oe erty + mowiters police every 8 wind. Costs imeltude: + charge ford Sapte hows son (Sopistionted mobiles) (similar amount ta alarm connection) Grammar workshop Cleft sentences 1. Inwhich sentence of each pairis the information in Italics focused on more strongly? 1 a We provide a more complete service. What we do is provide a more complete service All he or she has to do is press a button. b 2a b He or she only has to press a button. We don't want people to be calculating the cost of calling for help. b_ The last thing we want is people to be calculating rhe cost of calling for help. Which one of each pair did you hear in Rosa and Richard's conversation? Listen again to check. 3 Rewrite these sentences starting with the words given. 1. We deliver the pizzas to your home, What 2. You only have to provide the venue. All 3. We find the paperwork too time-consuming, W’sthe 4 You shouldn't settle the invoice before you've received the goods. ‘The last thing © page 63 (Ciett sentences) Role-play 2 Work in pairs. Before you do the role-play, work with another partner who has the same role as you and prepare what you are going to say. Then do the role- play. Student A: You are the sales manager for CSS Ltd. Turn to page 118, Student B: You are the operations manager for TopPlant Repairs Ltd. Turn to page 119. Speaking Work in groups of threo. Take turns to give a sales pitch fora product/service your company offers (or a product/service you know well. ‘The sales pitch