Preliminary Steps
Eden Petty, Jayme Bellenir, Angel Newman, Jessica Held
Getting Ready To Sell
Salespeople do their homework and gather information about their products, and industry trends, and their competition. They also preform tasks involved with merchandising.
Product Knowledge:
Salespeople have to be aware of what they're selling in order to be able to give the consumer what they want. They can learn about the product easily by having experience with the product, publish materials, websites, and formal training.
Experience- Businesses offer their salespeople discounts to encourage them to use their merchandie, as an advertisement. Another way you can gain experience as a seller is by understanding how they product is made and how to use it.
Published Materials and Websites- Product information is found on websites where they publish materials such as labels, user manuals, manufacture warranties, guarentee catalogs, and promotional materials.
Training- This is the best way to educate salespeople, some spend months attending classes and shadowing. For retail training, it is less structured.
Industry Trends and Competition:
Salespeople read magazines to keep up with sale trends and competitiors. They also research their competition to be prepared when a customer asks to compare their products. Salelspeople might also purchase a competitior' product to examine it. They would do this by using SWOT which stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Merchandising
Involves the selling and promoting of products to customers.
Usually takes place in food industries.
Getting customers to keep buying more products and what's new.
Employees use suggestive selling to sell more products.
Feature-Benefit Selling- Matching the characteristics of a product to a customer's needs and wants.
Providing the customer with products they will want and suggesting things you know they will agree to buy.
Making special sales and giving away little free things (such as toys in kids meals) to make people want to buy products.
Using advertisements to promote the company's products.
Product Features - Customer Benefits
Product features: basic, physical, or extended attributes of the product or purpose.
Customer benefits: the advantages or personal satisfaction a customer will get from a good or service.
It is the salesperson's job to analyze products/services to make sure everything is done to perfection.
Product Features
Basic Features Physical Features Extended Product Features
(general apps on the iPhone) (the way it looks) (extra memory on a computer)
Selling point
Selling point is created by noting the function of a product feature and explaining how it benefits a customer.
> Retail Sales Situation
- Customer: Man or woman looking for jeans
- Product: a pair of jeans
- Selling point: The soft cotton denim fabic has 1 % of spandex (fearure), which allows the jeans to streach and makes them comfortable.
> Organizational Sales Situation
- Customer: operation manager for an ice cream manufacturer
- Product: insulated jacket
- Selling point: the insulation in this garmet is effective in cold temperatures, so it will protect your workers and allow them to perform at maximum efficiency while working in the freezer.
Salespeople must consider their competition. They must use inferior fabrics, for better garments use better fagric, the advantage in this case can be a major benefit. Higher quality will last longer.
Prospecting
Propecting: looking for new customers or a sales lead, a potential customer may be a business or an individual like a manufactuer. An example of this would be a golf course which would consider opening a new shop as a prospect or sales lead. The person respoinsible for doing the buying of the course's golf necessities
would also be considered a prospect or lead.This is important in organizational selling situations. Service related businesses and reatilers search for new business opportunities.