All About Sales

Sections of this topic

    All About Sales

    Sections in This Topic Include

    Foundations for Successful Sales

    Sales Process and Sales Pipeline

    Planning Your Sales Strategy

    1. Generating Leads – Using Sales Channels

    2. Qualifying the Client — Is Client a Prospect?

    3. Sales Interviews and Presentations With Prospects

    4. Sales Proposals and Negotiations

    5. Closing the Sale

    6. Account Maintenance and Management

    Miscellaneous Perspectives — and Challenges and Pitfalls

    Managing Yourself for Successful Sales

    Managing Sales Activities and Sales Force

    General Resources

    Also consider
    Related Library Topics

    Learn More in the Library’s Blogs Related to Sales

    In addition to the articles on this current page, also see the following blogs that have posts related to Sales. Scan down the blog’s page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog. The blog also links to numerous free related resources.

    Foundations for Successful Sales

    What is Sales?

    Before learning more about how to do successful sales and selling, it’s important first to get a sense of what sales is, so you can more accurately understand the guidelines, tips and tools provided throughout this topic. Also, it’s useful to understand different viewpoints about sales, especially so you can more accurately understand how your clients talk about sales.

    Also consider
    Marketing (scan the subtopics to understand Marketing)

    Understanding the Sales Process (Sales Pipeline)

    There is a general, overall process that successful sales people follow, although there are different perspectives on that process, including names for the various steps along the way. The next major section in this topic includes more detailed guidelines, tips and tools for each stage of one perspective on the sales process, or sales pipeline as some people refer to it.

    Understanding the Sales Cycle

    The sales cycle is often referred to as the time it takes to do the sales process mentioned above. Timing is critical because the faster and shorter the sales cycle, the faster that more revenue is generated, customers are satisfied and more customers can be gotten by the organization.

    Value of Product Knowledge

    There’s an old saying that a “good salesman can sell anything.” That’s not so true today when the nature of products and services can be highly complex and the nature of customers and clients can be highly demanding. Yet there’s an ongoing argument about which is best — product knowledge or sales skills.

    Also consider
    Product Development

    Useful Knowledge and Skills to Have in Sales

    You don’t have to read all of the resources referenced from the following links. Rather, a quick scan will give you an impression of the different types of knowledge and skills to start learning over time. Perhaps for now, realize that there’s more to being a good salesperson than learning the sales process and sales cycle. Many of the following are also more directly associated with other subtopics in this overall topic of Sales.

    Useful Business Skills for Salespeople

    Useful People Skills for Salespeople

    Understanding Types of Clients and How to Engage Them

    Also consider

    Types of Clients

    Multi-cultural Customers and Sales

    Also consider
    Diversity and Inclusion



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    Planning Your Sales Strategy

    Your sales strategy is the approach you have designed to powerfully describe your products and services to your current and potential customers, so that they appreciate their benefits to them and thus, are more inclined to purchase them from you.

    Your sales strategy should be associated with a variety of methods to guide current and potential customers through the typical sales pipeline (described below). Methods might include, for example:

    1. Qualifying prospects, that is, deciding which prospects are most likely to become customers
    2. Contacting them via communication channels that are most suitable to them
    3. Effectively describing, or pitching, the product or service to them
    4. Closing the sale, that is, getting formal agreement from each customer to buy the product or service
    5. Ensuring follow-up activities, for example, strong customer service to ensure strong customer satisfaction

    Sales Process and Sales Pipeline

    1. Generating Leads — Using Sales Channels

    A lead is a potential customer. (Later, in the sales process, you will qualify the lead to determine if he/she is a prospect, that is, is someone who is very likely to buy from you.) Sales channels are the methods by which salespeople and customers communicate with each other. The resources that are referenced in this subtopic usually give advice about how best to use a particular channel in sales, but don’t go primarily with that advice — also follow the guidelines in each phase of a sales process, so that you’re following guidelines in a systematic manner.

    Direct Postal Mail (Sales Letters)

    Also consider

    Email

    Also consider

    Face-to-face

    Also consider

    Internet and Web

    Also consider

    Social Networking

    Also consider

    Telemarketing (Phone)

    Also consider

    Trade Shows

    2. Qualifying the Client — Is Client a Prospect?

    Once you have a list of leads, you need to qualify them, that is, you need to assess whether they are likely to buy your product or service based on, for example, their needs and wants, match between their needs and wants and the nature of your products and services, key decisions by the decision makers, ability to pay and preferences for the timing to buy. A qualified lead is a prospect. (Depending on the nature of your product or service, you might be asked to provide a proposal, even without having an opportunity to more carefully qualify the lead. In that situation, you can skip to the section Proposals.)

    First Impressions and Establishing Rapport With Leads

    Also consider

    Understand the Needs and Wants of Each Lead — Ask the Right Questions

    One of the worst approaches now is to start “pitching” or pushing your product or service. Instead, learn more about the lead, especially by asking useful questions. Here’s where the guidelines in the previous topic Understanding Types of Clients and How to Engage Them are especially useful because you’ll need to really understand more about the lead in order to discern if they are a prospect, if they are likely to buy from you.

    Also consider
    Skills in Questioning

    Getting to Decision-Makers

    Often, the person you first contact is not the person who ultimately will decide whether to buy from you. So even if the first person really likes your product or service, it’s as important that you influence the real decision maker. Many times, that person is a very busy upper manager who does not want to be bothered by someone trying to sell something to him or her.

    Following-Up With Potential Prospects

    Effective follow-up shows you are thorough in your work and are sincerely committed to working with the prospect. Also, your follow-up often reminds the prospect of your initial contact– a contact that they might have forgotten in their busy work lives.

    3. Sales Interviews and Presentations With Prospects

    Effective Sales Presentations

    Also consider
    Presenting

    Convincing the Customer and Dealing With Objections

    Also consider
    Power and Influence

    4. Sales Proposals and Negotiations

    Proposals and Sales Letters

    If you have been successful in prospecting the lead and the prospect indeed is interested in your product or service, then you might be asked to provide a proposal that provides more information about your organization, its products and services, and how you would work with the potential client. The client also might be asking several vendors to provide proposals, so that the client can have more choices from which to choose.

    Negotiations

    Often, your proposal or sales letter is the first time that the client really absorbs the details of the opportunity that you’re bring to him or her. It’s not uncommon that the client wants to modify certain terms or pricing. Thus, it’s useful for you to have at least some basic skills in negotiating.

    Also consider

    5. Closing the Sale

    The closing process is getting the commitment of the prospect to buy your product or service. The close is when the client has committed. It represents the close, or ending, of the sale process. However, many would assert that the sales process really doesn’t end there, rather the sales process continues to ensure a strong, successful relationship with the client even after a contrast has been signed.

    Techniques for Closing

    Sales Contracts

    Also consider
    Business Contracts

    6. Account Maintenance and Management

    What’s Account Maintenance and Management?

    Also consider
    Management

    Customer Service

    One of the main responsibilities in this phase of the sales process is responding to the needs and questions from customers. This phase also is where you can learn a lot about how well your product or service is meeting the needs of customers, and about any changes that you might want to make to those products and services. The following link is to many other links about customer service.
    Customer Service

    Customer Satisfaction

    The ultimate goals of a sales process should be customer satisfaction. Without that, the revenue won’t follow. The necessary learning won’t follow about how to continue to improve products and services,
    about how to innovate to produce new products and services. The following link is to many other links about customer satisfaction.

    Also consider
    Customer Satisfaction



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    Miscellaneous Perspectives — Challenges and Pitfalls

    Various Philosophies of Marketing and Sales

    Before reading the following links, the reader is encouraged (if he or she has not yet) to scan the subtopics in this overall topic to get a sense of the activities required in sales and the order of those activities. This is in lieu of trying to learn about sales primarily be reading numerous different perspectives
    and opinions. Do come back to read some of the following after getting an overall impression of sales.

    Challenges and Pitfalls

    Managing Yourself for Successful Sales

    Staying Motivated

    Also consider
    Motivation

    Keeping Positive Attitude

    Also consider
    Attitude

    Organizing Yourself

    Also consider
    Organizing Yourself

    Managing Your Time and Stress

    Also consider

    Managing Sales Activities and Sales Forces

    Sales Staffing and Training

    Also consider

    Sales Forecasting and Goals

    Also consider

    Motivating Sales Force

    Also consider

    Measuring and Evaluating Sales Effectiveness

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    Compensating Sales Force

    Also consider
    Benefits and Compensation

    General Resources

    Resources Providing Many Resources

    Glossary and Dictionaries About Sales

    Free Tools and Templates

    For the Category of Sales:

    To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

    Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.