Sales & Selling Exam

What is selling

Exchange of goods or services by the persuasion of someone to buy something

Why should you learn selling even if you do not plan to be a salesperson?

Teaches persuasion and communication skills, helps understand customer needs, and builds confidence in negotiations.

What is the role of personal selling in a firm?

Interaction with a salesperson and a potential customer to persuade them to purchase good or service

Why do salespeople need to develop their own codes of ethics?

Different companies interact with all different moral guidelines, it’s important to know what’s right or wrong for themselves so can be consistent

What ethical responsibilities do salespeople have toward themselves, their firms, and their customers?

Themselves: going down unethical path can lead to legal issues

Firms: salespeople are face of the firm, need to make sure to keep good report with others so company will look good

Customers: trust is the most important for building professional relationships, allows customer to be comfortable with company

Do ethics get in the way of being a successful salesperson?

No, because having a strong ethical relationship between seller & buyer is important-firm foundation builds trust

Which guidelines should salespeople consider when confronting situations involving an ethical issue?

1.     Would I be embarrassed if customer found out about my behavior?

2.     Would supervisor disapprove my behavior?

3.     Would most salespeople think this behavior is unusual?

4.     Would I be upset if this behavior was publicized on a newspaper?

What are the keys to success in large sales?

-       Many scales calls

-       Larger customer commitment

-       Ongoing relationship

What role do questions play in selling process?

Closed vs open ended questions= make no difference in large sales

Closed: single word answers

Open-ended: require longer answers

How do needs differ by size of sale?

-       More involvement in large scales

-       More need development in large scales

-       Small scales are more emotional and, in the moment,

-       Large scales require careful consideration

-       Small scales have no consequences

-       Large scales have lasting consequences

What are the basic elements in the communication process?

-       Seller encodes message

-       Buyer decodes message

-       Buyer encodes a reply message

-       Seller decodes buyers message

Why are listening and questioning skills important?

Basis of making a sale

How can salespeople develop listening skills to collect information about customers?

-       Tolerate silences

-       Head nodding

-       Eye contact

-       Repeat info

-       Summarize convo

How do people communicate without using words?

-       Body language

-       Facial muscles

-       Eye contact

-       Hand movements and hand shaking

-       Posture and body movements

Which focus on implicit needs and which focus on explicit needs?

Problem & situation= implicit

Implications & need-payoff= explicit

Which factors do organizations consider when evaluating products and services?

-       Depends on if it’s a new task, straight rebuy, or modified rebuy

-       Buyer evaluate characteristics satisfies firms needs & individual needs

-       Importance may differ

-       Suppliers selected based on minimum acceptable performance standards of company

Who is involved in the buying decision?

Users, influencers, initiators, gatekeepers, deciders

new tasks

customer purchases product for the first time

straight rebuys

customer buys same product from original source

modified rebuys

customer buys product in past but is looking for new info

features

describes facts or characteristics of product or service

advantages

product or service can be used to help a customer

benefits

meets an explicit need expressed by customer

situation questions

ask about facts, background on customer existing situation

problem questions

ask about problems, difficulties, & dissatisfactions

implication questions

consequences of a problem

need-payoff questions

tell customer how your solution can help them

implicit needs

statements by customer problems, difficulties, & dissatifactions

explicit needs

statements by customer of wants or desires

industrial salespeople

works directly selling from manufacturer to customer

trade salespeople

helps selling products to distributors

distributor salesperson

sells products for distributor to final business customer

missionary salesperson

communicating specific product from distributor

80-20 rule

salespeople should listen 80% of the time and talk no more than 20%

speaking-listening differential

people only speak at rate of 120-160 words per min, but listen more than 800 words per min

small customer needs

few others, develop quickly, less rational, more emotional, less consequential

large customer needs

involve many others, develop over time, more rational, less emotional, more consequential

manipulation

eliminates or reduces buyers choice unfairly

persuasion

influence the buyers decision, not force it

weighted adding

criteria that mattered, multiple different things to make decision

lexiographic

pick one criteria that matters a lot

satysficing

does it check certain boxes, and the lowest price

elimination by aspects (EBA)

eliminate options on lowest criteria first