Chapter 8

Republic of the Philippines
BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

The National Engineering University
ARASOF-Nasugbu Campus
R. Martinez St., Brgy. Bucana, Nasugbu, Batangas, Philippines 4231
E-mail Address: cabeihm.nasugbu@g.batstate-u.edu.ph
Website Address: http://www.batstate-u.edu.ph
CHAPTER 8: PLANNING THE SALES CALL IS A MUST
MAIN TOPICS
 The Tree of Business Life: Planning
 Strategic Customer Sales Planning—The Preapproach
 The Prospect’s Mental Steps
 Overview of the Selling Process
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Planning the sales call is the second step in the selling process. It is extremely important to spend
time planning all aspects of your sales presentation. After studying this chapter, you should be
able to;
 Explain the importance of sales call planning.
 List the four planning steps in order and understand them.
 Develop a customer benefit plan.
 Describe the prospect’s five mental steps in buying.
FACING A SALES CHALLENGE

After being hired, trained, and given a sales territory, you have been assigned by your boss to
work with three of your company’s salespeople. You immediately notice they are not doing what
you’ve been trained to do. They walk into an office, introduce themselves, and ask if the
customer needs anything today. Prospects rarely buy, and customers tell them what they need.
This doesn’t seem like selling to you. It’s order taking, and that type of job is not for you. The
problem is, how do you get someone to listen to you? How do you know what they think of your
product? How do you know when they’re ready.
THE TREE OF BUSINESS LIFE: PLANNING

Begin Your Plan with Purpose
The sales manager’s question is forcing the new salesperson to create a broad philo-sophical
statement toward a business meeting with a customer or prospect. Purpose is broad in scope.
Purpose is not a list of plans, goals, or objectives that differ from one sales call to another.
Purpose is a constant truth that guides your business life. Purpose directs how you approach each
Leading Innovations, Transforming Lives, Building the Nation

sales call. It defines success for you. Purpose classifies your relationships. It helps define who
you are as a sales professional.
Knowing your purpose focuses your sales efforts to serve others. It concentrates your effort and
energy on what is important. Knowing your purpose motivates your life and is your reason to get
out of bed in the morning. Purpose produces passion. Nothing energizes like a clear purpose.
Conversely, passion evaporates like smoke in the wind without purpose.
Hopefully your purpose for making any sales call is to make a contribution to the welfare of the
person or organization. You want to help someone. Could you be enthusiastic and passionate
about asking someone to buy something that would help him? You want to make a contribution
to the welfare of others—don’t you? So how do you help someone? You need a plan that is
related to your purpose.
Plan to Achieve Your Purpose

Your tomorrow is today! Your today was yesterday’s tomorrow! Concentrate on today. Do not
worry about tomorrow. There are enough worries for today.
What does that mean? How you think, how you act, what you accomplish today will determine
your future—your tomorrow. To an overwhelming degree, you can control your future by what
you do today.
So plan each day, do the best you can to carry out your plan and adjust to circumstances as you
go, and then at the end of each day evaluate your day to ensure you are on your way toward a
successful tomorrow.
Everyone knows this, yet the difference between successful people and less successful people is
that successful people plan, implement their plans, and evaluate the day’s sales results in order to
know what to do tomorrow. Less successful people think about planning but seldom do it.
Do you plan how to prepare for a test? Once you have taken the test (implemented your plan), do
you evaluate how and what you studied versus your test results? Few students do, but the ones
who plan, work their plan, and then evaluate their results do much better on the next test. Try it!
It works in a class, just as it does in sales.
WHAT’S A PLAN?
A plan is a method of achieving an end. A plan involves what you want to accomplish and how
you will do it. The foundation of your plan must be based upon the truth.
You see “The Tree of Business Life” from time to time as a reminder of the importance of truth.
For from your honesty (integrity), people realize you can be trusted. Your honesty and
trustworthiness form your character or who you are to others. Your use of facts (truth) without
distortion by personal feelings or prejudices makes you like a superhero, a super salesperson.
How?
You want to help someone in need! How? Sell her something? Why? It will help her meet her
need. You can do that!
WHAT IS SUCCESS?
With purpose comes a plan; with a plan comes success. What will be a successful sales call?
How do you define success? For example:
 A baseball coach might define success as winning more games than losing. Her or his
boss might define success as winning the national championship or the World Series.
 You might define success as making an A or just passing this course.
 A salesperson might define success as making sales quota this year or being the top
salesperson in the company.
But what about calling on the individual customer? What is a success for you? It goes back to
purpose. Success is setting a goal and accomplishing it. You are meeting with someone with the
purpose of helping him or her. Your purpose, plan, and goal do not center on selling but helping.
Can you fail?
Successful but No Sale

How could you “not” make a sale and still have a successful sales call? What if your customer
did not have a need? You did not fail. What if your product would not help meet the needs of the
person? How could you say you were not successful?
Now consider this. There are reasons you may not make a sale. Agreed? But there should never
be a reason that you do not meet the “purpose” of your business meeting. Why? What is your
purpose? To help someone!
Review until You Understand

This section of your book is so important to your understanding that I hope you will take time to
review it several times during the next few days. The fundamentals taught in this book will
benefit you only when you believe in them. You must learn these words of truth. They must
guide your actions. They must come from your heart. When you truly are a person of integrity,

truthfulness, and good character, people’s needs will become more important than your self-
centered needs.
The Gap
Many people do not trust salespeople. Often salespeople are self-centered, only wanting to make
a sale for their own benefit. How can the gap between seller and buyer be crossed? The seller has
to build a bridge!
STRATEGIC CUSTOMER SALES PLANNING—THE PREAPPROACH

Once the prospect has been located, or the salesperson determines which customer to call on, the
salesperson is ready to plan the sales call. Planning is often referred to as the preapproach (see
Exhibit 8.2 ). This chapter discusses the many aspects of planning a sales call. Let’s begin by
learning why salespeople should consider the customer’s needs in order to recommend a creative
solution that will benefit both the buyer and the seller.
High-performing salespeople tend to be strategic problem solvers for their customers (refer back
to Exhibit 1.7). Strategic refers to programs, goals, and problems of great importance to
customers. The top salespeople who are effective strategic problem solvers have the skills and
knowledge to be able to
 Uncover and understand the customer’s strategic needs by gaining in-depth knowledge of
the customer’s organization.
 Develop solutions that demonstrate a creative approach to addressing the customer’s
strategic needs in the most efficient and effective manner possible.
 Arrive at a mutually beneficial agreement.
EXHIBIT 8.2: The Pre approach involves planning the sales presentation.
1. Prospecting
2. Preapproach
3. Approach
4. Presentation
5. Trial Close
6. Determine Objections
7. Meet Objections
8. Trial Close
9. Close
10. Follow – up
These key terms—strategic needs, creative solutions, and mutually beneficial agreements—are
critical to strategic problem solving. When properly executed by the salesperson, they create a
strategic customer relationship or a formal relationship with the customer, the purpose of
which is joint pursuit of mutual goals. Strategic goals for a customer typically include reducing
costs and/or increasing productivity, sales, and profits. The sales organization has goals of
increasing sales and profits.
STRATEGIC NEEDS
The salesperson who understands the full range of the customer’s needs is in a much better
position to provide a product solution that helps the customer progress more efficiently and
effectively toward achieving his or her organization’s strategic goal. “The top salespeople have
an in-depth understanding of our needs,” said one business purchasing agent. “They can match
up their products with these needs to help us reach our goals.”
CREATIVE SOLUTIONS
For each customer, a salesperson is often faced with a specific, unique set of problems to solve.
As a result, each customer requires a specific solution from the sales organization. The ability of
a salesperson to tailor a “custom” solution for each customer is critical today. The salesperson
needs to use creative problem solving to identify the specific solution that meets each customer’s
needs. Instead of one product, the salesperson often must create the solution from a mix of goods
and services. Usually, the solution represents one of two options:
1. A customized version or application of a product and/or service that efficiently addresses
the customer’s specific strategic needs.
2. A mix of goods and services—including, if appropriate, competitors’ products and
services—that offers the best possible solution in light of the customer’ strategic needs.
The better a salesperson is at creatively marshaling all available resources to address a

customer’s strategic needs, the stronger the customer relationship becomes. Today’s salespeople
need to be creative problem solvers who have the ability to develop and combine nontraditional
alternatives to meet the specific needs of the customer.
MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL AGREEMENTS

Salespeople and customers say that a significant shift has occurred in their expectations of the
outcome of sales agreements—from the adversarial win–lose to the more collaborative “win–
win” arrangement. To achieve a mutually beneficial agreement, salespeople and customers must
work together to develop a common understanding of the issues and challenges at hand.
Information about an organization’s business strategies and needs is often highly confidential.
But more and more customers, in the interest of developing solutions that will help achieve their
strategic goals, are willing to let salespeople cross the threshold of confidentiality.
THE CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MODEL

The customer relationship model shown in Exhibit 8.3 brings together the main elements of
consultative selling. It shows that customers have strategic needs that salespeople must meet
through creative solutions. In doing so, both buyer and seller benefit. The customer reaches his
or her goal, as does the seller. This results in the seller being able to sell the customer again and
again and again—building a long-term relationship. Strategic customer sales planning is
extremely important to the success of today’s salespeople. Let’s examine the important aspects
of the second step in our customer relationship process, called the preapproach. The
preapproach refers to planning the sales call on a customer or prospect.
EXHIBIT 8.3: CONSULTATIVE SELLING – CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MODEL
Customer strategic
needs
Performance
Mutually Goals
Long-term
Beneficial  Costs
relationships
Agreements  Producti
Salesperson’s vity
creative solutions  Sakes
 Profits
REASONS FOR PLANNING THE SALES CALL

In the fairy tale Alice in Wonderland Alice said to the Cheshire Cat, “Would you tell me, please,
which way I ought to go from here?” “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,”
said the Cat. “I don’t much care where . . . ,” said Alice. “Then it doesn’t matter which way you
go,” said the Cat. Top salespeople realize they cannot be like Alice. They live in the real world,
not wonderland.
Planning the sales call is the key to success (see Exhibit 8.4 ). Salespeople say there are
numerous reasons for planning the sales call, and four of the most frequently mentioned reasons
are (1) planning aids in building confidence; (2) it develops an atmosphere of goodwill between
the buyer and seller; (3) it reflects professionalism; and (4) it generally increases sales because
the salesperson understands the buyer’s needs.
BUILDS SELF-CONFIDENCE
In giving a speech before a large group, most people are nervous. You can greatly reduce this
nervousness and increase self-confidence by planning what to say and practicing your talk. The
same is true in making a sales presentation. By carefully planning your presentation, you
increase confidence in yourself and your ability as a salesperson. This is why planning the sales
call is especially important.
CREATES PROFESSIONALISM
Good business relationships are built on your knowledge of your company, industry, and
customer’s needs. Show prospects that you are calling on them to help solve their problems or
satisfy their needs. These factors are the mark of a professional salesperson, who uses specialized
knowledge in an ethical manner to aid customers.
INCREASES SALES
A confident salesperson who is well prepared to discuss how products address particular needs
always will be more successful than the unprepared salesperson. Careful planning ensures that
you have diagnosed a situation and have a remedy for a customer’s problem. Planning ensures
that a sales presentation is well thought out and appropriately presented.
Like other beneficial presales call activities, planning is most effective (and time efficient) when
done logically and methodically. Some salespeople try what they consider planning, later
discarding the process because it took too much time. In many cases, these individuals were not
aware of the basic elements of sales planning.
ELEMENTS OF SALES CALL PLANNING

Exhibit 8.5 depicts the four components of sales call planning: (1) determining the sales call
objective; (2) developing or reviewing the customer profile; (3) developing a customer benefit
plan; and (4) developing the individual sales presentation based on the sales call objective,
customer profile, and customer benefit plan.
The sales call objective is the main purpose of a salesperson’s contact with a prospect or
customer.
Is it possible to make a sales call without having a sales call objective in mind? Why can’t
salespeople just go in and see what develops? They can: In fact, a survey call is a legitimate sales
technique. However, when all the calls that salespeople make are survey calls, they should be
working exclusively for the market research department.
EXHIBIT 8.5: STEPS IN THE PREAPPROACH: PLANNING THE SALE
Determine sales Develop Develop customer Develop sales

call objective customer profile benefits presentation
THE PRECALL OBJECTIVE

Selling is not a very complex process. It’s just difficult to do on a consistent basis. That’s why,
whether you regard it as an art or a science, the discipline of selling starts with setting a precall
objective.
If anyone doubts this, remember that, by definition, a sales call must move systematically toward
a sale. Often, we’re not talking about elaborate planning. Some- times it takes only a few
seconds before a call. But on every occasion, it’s vital for the sales representative to answer one
simple question: “If this call is successful, what will result?”
Taking the time to do this starts the selling process in motion. Before every salescall, ask
yourself, “What am I going in here for? What is the result I’m trying to make happen? If they
give me the opportunity, what am I going to recommend?”
FOCUS AND FLEXIBILITY

Writing down your precall objective increases the focus of your efforts. Given today’s rising
costs, this focus is essential. If salespeople are just going around visit- ing customers to see what
develops, they are merely well-paid tourists. If they are professional sales representatives, they
should be moving their customers toward a predetermined goal.
Knowing where you are going definitely increases the likelihood of getting there. Obviously, if
the precall objective turns out to be inappropriate as the sales call develops, it’s easy to switch
tactics. Often, such changes involve a simple redirection.
MAKING THE GOAL SPECIFIC

When asked the purpose of a call, some salespeople say enthusiastically, “It’s to get an order.
Let’s go!” Of course, everyone’s in favor of getting orders, but that’s more likely to happen if
salespeople stop and ask themselves questions such as these: Whatneed of this prospect can I
serve? Which good or service is best for this account? How large an order should I suggest? The
more specific the objective, the better.
MOVING TOWARD YOUR OBJECTIVE

Just because a salesperson isn’t making a formal presentation doesn’t mean that the call
shouldn’t be planned. Sometimes the sales call has a limited objective. Guiding the customer in
the direction of that preplanned outcome is what I see experienced salespeople doing on most
sales calls. They do it with such simple questions as these:
 If we can meet the spec, can you set up a trial?
 How soon will the vice president be available to make a decision?
 Can you schedule a demonstration before the end of the month?
SET AN OBJECTIVE FOR EVERY CALL

Don’t let anyone tell you that selling is so repetitive that the next step becomes a matter of rote.
Knowing where you are going may be rote, but getting there requires thinking and skill. Set a
SMART call objective that is
Specific—to get an order is not specific.
Measurable—quantifiable (number, size, etc.).
Achievable—not too difficult to fulfill.
Realistic—not too easy to fulfill.
Timed—at this call or before the end of the financial year.
It’s amazing how often even veteran salespeople skip the precall objective step in favor of just
seizing whatever opportunities present themselves. As a professional, it’s your responsibility to
avoid this kind of behavior. Commit to having an objective for every call, and after a call check
your results against that objective. This is a simple truth that the best sales professionals have
known all along. Often the most important step in a sale takes place without the customer even
being there.

In addition, the sales call objective should be directly beneficial to the customer.For example, the
Colgate salesperson might have the objectives of checking all merchandise, having the customer
make a routine reorder on merchandise, and selling promotional quantities of Colgate toothpaste.
The Colgate salesperson might call on a chain store manager with the multiple objectives of
making sure that Colgate products are placed where they sell most rapidly, replenishing the
store’s stock of Colgate products so that customers will not leave the store disgruntled due to
stockouts, and aiding the manager in deciding how much promotional Colgate toothpaste and
Rapid Shave shaving cream should be displayed.
Industrial salespeople develop similar objectives to determine if customers need to reorder or to
sell new products.
CUSTOMER PROFILE PROVIDES INSIGHT

A customer profile sheet, as shown in Exhibit 8.6 , can be a guide for determining the
appropriate strategy to use in contacting each customer. The salesperson should review as much
relevant information as possible regarding the firm, the buyer, and the individuals who influence
the buying decision—before making a sales call—to properly develop a customized presentation.
The salesperson also must consider the material discussed in Chapter 6 concerning why the
buyer buys at this time. A customer profile should tell you such things as these:
 Who makes the buying decisions in the organization—an individual or committee?
 What is the buyer’s background? The background of the buyer’s company? The buyer’s
expectations of you?
 What are the desired business terms and requirements of the account, such as delivery,
credit, technical service?
 What competitors successfully do business with the account? Why?
 What are the purchasing policies and practices of the account? For example, does the
customer buy special price offer promotions, or only see salespeople on Tuesdays and
Thursdays?
What is the history of the account? For example, past purchases of our products, inventory
turnover, profit per shelf foot, our brand’s volume sales growth, payment practices, and attitude
toward.

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Chapter 8

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Republic of the Philippines

BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

CHAPTER 8: PLANNING THE SALES CALL IS A MUST

FACING A SALES CHALLENGE

THE TREE OF BUSINESS LIFE: PLANNING

Leading Innovations, Transforming Lives, Building the Nation

Plan to Achieve Your Purpose

Successful but No Sale

Review until You Understand

Leading Innovations, Transforming Lives, Building the Nation

STRATEGIC CUSTOMER SALES PLANNING—THE PREAPPROACH

The better a salesperson is at creatively marshaling all available resources to address a

MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL AGREEMENTS

THE CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MODEL

EXHIBIT 8.3: CONSULTATIVE SELLING – CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MODEL

REASONS FOR PLANNING THE SALES CALL

ELEMENTS OF SALES CALL PLANNING

EXHIBIT 8.5: STEPS IN THE PREAPPROACH: PLANNING THE SALE

Determine sales Develop Develop customer Develop sales

THE PRECALL OBJECTIVE

FOCUS AND FLEXIBILITY

MAKING THE GOAL SPECIFIC

MOVING TOWARD YOUR OBJECTIVE

SET AN OBJECTIVE FOR EVERY CALL

Leading Innovations, Transforming Lives, Building the Nation

CUSTOMER PROFILE PROVIDES INSIGHT

Leading Innovations, Transforming Lives, Building the Nation

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