The Art of Selling

Unit 1 – Presentation and Selling Personality

• Presentation
• Personality
• Personal style inventory
• Personal style inventory scoring sheet
• Interpretation of the personal style inventory
• Introversion-extroversion
• Intuition-sensing
• Feeling and thinking
• Perceiving-judging
• Strengths & weaknesses of the different types
• Some generalizations
• Implications
• The selling personality
• Cheerfulness
• Strength
• Friendliness
• Sincerity

Unit 2 – Communication and Conversational Selling

• What is communication?
• Types of communication
• Methods available for communicating
• Stages of communication stages
• Selling
• Rules
• Speaking in public
• Basic principles of public speaking
• Self-consciousness
• Voice
• Delivery and deportment
• Structure of speech
• Use of language
• Purpose of the speech
• Preparation
• Be logical and truthful

Unit 3 – Marketing and Product Presentation

• Buyer motivation
• Structuring an advertisement or promotion
• The marketing message
• Message generation
• Message evaluation & selection
• Message execution
• Costing
• Materials direct labour overheads
• Marketing – what you need to know
• Concepts in marketing
• The product concept
• Defining the target market
• Determining market segmentation
• Product display
• What sells best

Unit 4 – Management

• Communications
• Communicating with management
• Understanding the supervisory position
• Different ways to communicate
• Memo forms
• Telephone, fax and mobile phone
• Meetings and face to face contact
• Record keeping
• Filing information
• Filing procedures
• Stock control
• Organisational structures
• Formal and informal organisational structures
• Sales team structure /chain of command
• Management styles
• Autocratic but humanistic
• Target orientated management
• Conflict resolution techniques

Unit 5 – Helping the Product Sell Itself

• Merchandising
• Principles to follow when buying
• Selling
• Credit or cash
• Personal service, mail order or self service
• What sells best
• Shop layout
• Fixtures and fittings
• Layout, signs and spacing
• Product display
• Quantity displayed
• Assisting customers in identifying a need for a product
• Financial accessibility

Unit 6 – Know Your Product

• Market research
• Steps involved in market research
• Types of market research
• Types of data
• Secondary data
• Primary data
• Ways of gathering data
• Survey method
• Observation methods
• Experimental methods
• Commonly researched factors
• Listen to the customer
• The importance of product knowledge

Unit 7 – The ABC of Selling

• Sales formulas
• Steps to the order
• The ABC of selling
• Qualify and assess prospects
• Different ways to sell
• Sales team to buyer group
• Types of customers
• The sales person should know
• A good sales person should possess the following characteristics:
• A successful salesperson will:
• Key rules every salesperson should follow
• Ethics in sales

Unit 8 – The Opening

• Convincing the customer
• Principles of approaching prospects
• Avoid selling under adverse conditions
• Self-made adverse conditions
• Buyer generated conditions
• Getting attention
• Factual opening
• The question opening
• The reference opening
• The sales aid opening
• Demonstration opening
• The link opening
• Motivation to buy – additional approaches
• The curiosity approach
• The fear approach
• The gift approach
• The personal interest approach
• The opening approach summarised

Unit 9 – Closing a Sale

• Sales stoppers
• Signals that the buyer is intending to make a purchase
• Asking for the order
• Closing techniques
• The alternative close
• The summary close
• The fear close
• The isolation close
• Verbal-proof story close
• ‘Influencing the mind’ close
• The concession close
• Using a minor point to close
• Get the buyer decision – close!
• Making a decision
• Rational decisions
• Heuristic procedures in decision making
• Stages of the decision making process
• Recognising a problem
• Seeking information
• Evaluating alternatives
• Purchase processes
• Post purchase processes

Unit 10 – Stress Management

• Body changes (due to stress)
• Are you stressed?
• Psychological symptoms
• Common symptoms of stress
• What exactly is causing your stress
• Do you live for your work?
• What are you getting out of life?
• Are you achieving your goals?
• Do you make time for yourself?
• The flight or fight response
• A stress management program
• Methods of reducing and controlling stress
• Relaxation
• Aromatherapy and hypnosis
• Autogenics for stress control
• Exercise
• Straight thinking
• Life planning
• Communication
• Effect of stress on health and wellbeing
• Nutrition
• Drugs and alcohol
• Managing your career
• Work satisfaction
• Goals to follow
• Reviewing your career
• Standing out and progressing

Unit 11 – The Law and Selling

• Business law
• Role of the courts
• Contract law
• What is a contract
• Making an offer, negotiation, acceptance
• Types of offers
• Examples of offers
• Unilateral contracts
• Bilateral contracts
• When an offer does not lead to a contract:
• What is an acceptance?
• Using a seal
• Consideration must be seen to be adequate
• Who can establish a contract?
• Marketing law
• Consumer law
• Warranty and condition
• Sellers liability
• Consumer laws
• Liability of manufacturer
• Statutory liabilities to manufacturers
• International legal rules regarding sales contracts
• United nations convention on contracts for the international sale of goods (CISG)

Unit 12 – Report Writing

• Types of language
• Informative language
• Persuasive language
• Imaginative language
• Connotation & denotation
• Literal & figurative language
• Formal & informal language
• Communication channels
• Vertical internal communication business
• Horizontal internal communication
• Clear wording
• Making meanings clear
• Causes of confusion
• Ambiguity
• Causes of ambiguity
• Concise wording
• Condensing your writing
• Parts of speech
• Sentence structure
• Visual communication