Principles of sales

and negotiation
Week 5, lecture

Dr. Nikola Drašković, college professor

Agenda

 Sales dialogue
 Sales communications formats
 Discovering needs
 Customer value proposition and buying motives
Sales dialogue
Sales dialogue

• Series of conversations between buyers and sellers.

• Business conversation between buyers & sellers that occur as
salespeople attempt to initiate, develop, & enhance customer
relationships.
Sales dialogue

 Sales dialogue occurs over time and includes sales calls and other forms of
buyer-seller communication.
 Sales call is an in-person meeting between a salesperson or sales team and
one or more buyers to discuss business.
 Alternatively, a sales call is an unsolicited phone call that a salesperson
makes to a prospective customer to generate business.
 Sales presentations refers to comprehensive communications designed to
persuade the customer to make a purchase.
Sales dialogue

Initiating Developing Enhancing

customer customer customer
relationships relationships relationships

Customer-focused sales dialogue

Sales dialogue occurs over
Sales Calls time and includes sales
calls and other forms of
Follow-up;
Need Sales buyer-seller
presentations
build more communication.
discovery
value
Preparation, preparation, preparation

New customer, prospect

 Knowledge about customer/prospect, competitors, overall market
 Market is constantly changing
 Main sources of information: customer’s website, LinkedIn, personal network
Preparation, preparation, preparation

Existing customer
 Knowledge about customer/prospect, competitors, overall market
 Specific information related to the relationship with the customer (transactions,
sales volume, sales goals, profitability, on-time payment)
 Main sources of information: MIS and/or CRM
Sales dialogue template

• Section 1: Prospect information

• Section 2: Customer value proposition

• Section 3: Sales call objective

• Section 4: Linking buying motives, benefits, support

information and reinforcement method
Sales dialogue template

• Section 5: Competitive situation

• Section 6: Beginning the sales dialogue (ADAPT)

• Section 7: Anticipate questions and objections

• Section 8: Earn prospect commitment

• Section 9: Build value through follow-up action

Sales communications formats
Sales communications formats

 Canned presentations
 Written sales proposals
 Organized sales dialogues and presentations
Canned presentations

 Include:
 Scripted sales calls
 Memorized presentations
 Automated presentations
 Should be tested for effectiveness
 Must assume buyers’ needs are the same.

Hello ___,
My name is _____.
I want to tell you about . . .
Written sales presentations

• The proposal is a complete self-contained sales presentation

• Customer may receive proposal and a follow-up call to explain and
clarify the proposal (and before the document submission).
• Thorough assessment should take place before a customized proposal
is written
Organized sales dialogues and presentations

 Address individual customer and different selling situations

 Conversations over multiple encounters, including sales calls, phone
calls, email, etc.
 Allow flexibility to adapt to buyer feedback
 Most frequently used format by sales professionals
Sales communications formats

Little training is required;

Canned Presentation inflexible/not customizable; difficult
to build trust

Extensive training is required;

Organized Presentation customizable; interactive; fosters
trust

Some training is required;

customizable while being written
Written Proposal but not once delivered; may be
perceived as more credible
Components of a written proposal

Executive summary

• Functions - Demonstrates salesperson’s knowledge

about the customer’s need and creates a desire in
the customer to read it

Customer needs and proposed solution

• Includes situation analysis and the recommended

solution
Components of a written proposal

Seller profile

• Information about the selling company

Pricing and sales agreement

• Presents the pricing and delivery options

Implementation and timetable

• Includes details about the additional information required

to sign the contract
Dimensions for evaluating sales proposals

• Reliability – reflects your (the seller’s) ability to identify creative, dependable,

and realistic solutions and strategies and match them to the buyer’s needs and
wants.
• Assurance – builds the buyer’s trust and confidence in your ability to deliver,
implement, produce, and/or provide benefits.
• Tangibles – enhance and support the communication of your message and invite
readership by its overall appearance, content, and organization (plus, charts,
diagrams or other graphics).
Dimensions for evaluating sales proposals

• Empathy – confirms your thorough understanding of the buyer’s

business and his or her specific needs and wants.
• Responsiveness – developed in a timely manner and demonstrates a
willingness to provide solutions for the buyer’s needs and wants and to
help measure results.
Discovering needs
Discovering needs
ADAPT

• Logic-based funnelling sequence of questions

that identifies and assesses the buyer’s situation. Assessment
• Begins with broad generalized inquiries designed to
identify and assess the buyer’s situation Discovery
• Further questions are generated to probe and discover
more details regarding the buyer’s needs and
Activation
expectations
Projection
Transition
ADAPT
Customer value proposition and buying motives
Customer value proposition

A statement of how the sales offering will add value to the prospect’s
business by meeting a need or providing an opportunity.
Problems/challenges → solutions
Customer value proposition

 Determine buyer’s key reasons for using your offering

 Keep it simple
 Choose 1 or 2 key benefits
 Be specific – focus on tangible outcomes
 Reflect dimension that add value (e.g. training)
 Promise only what you can deliver
Customer value proposition

• Create a value proposition for this product

Philips SmartPro Compact Robot Vacuum Cleaner

Customer value proposition

• Create a value proposition for this product

TAG HEUR Carrera

Buying motives

Rational
• Typically relate to the economics of the situation, including cost, profitability,
quality, services offered, and the total value of the seller’s offering as perceived by
the customer.
Emotional
• Includes motives such as security, status, and need to be liked; sometimes difficult
for salespeople to uncover these motives.
Features and benefits
Features and benefits
Competitive situation

 Buyers make competitive comparisons in their decision processes

 Be aware of your and competitor’s strengths and weakness

 What if lower price is the competitor’s biggest strength?

Initiating contact

 Introduction
 Q&A – to define customer needs and motives
 Presentation of benefits relevant to customer
 Do not rush with pricing
Engaging the customer

Request an appointment
 Give the prospect a reason why an appointment should be granted
 Request a specific amount of time
 Suggest a specific time for the appointment
 Come up with the meeting agenda
Thank you for your attention!