Brain Battle (BB)

The Professional Sales Call
N.B. Synopsis of ProSell© Vet- Animal Health focused selling skills program- Copyrights Eyad Harfoush- 2006

From the moment you intend a visit to your customer to the moment you close your selling call, you will logically pass through three main stages. Two afar from customers and the last is in direct contact with customer. However, the parts before customer contact is never less important than the coral part itself. These steps logically are;

1. Getting Ready for the call.
2. Getting into customer contact
3. The core that includes the 5 parts of your selling call

Getting Ready

1. Review all relevant data
   •Customer account, due and overdue
   •Customer sales history
   •Last visit report and remarks
   •Your last call output and analysis
   •Customer requests & inquiries in your last visit
2. Establish targets for every visit
   •Turning prospect into customer
   •Increase customer loyalty
   •Increase your share
   •Customer satisfaction surveying
   •Collection
   •Order follow-up
   •Results follow-up
3. Prepare all relevant tools
   •Detailing aid/ Brochure
   •Papers / trials
   •Customer account print-out
   •Pointer / Pen
   •Documents or samples committed to deliver on your last visit

Did you REP Before you Go?

Getting In

6 points are crucial for success in the "getting in" phase. These are;

1. Appearance
2. Gait
3. Handshake
4. Voice
5. Gestures
6. Manner

Appearance Elements

• Neat: your appearance should reflect the image of an organized man. Unconsciously the customer will link this not only to you, but to your organizational culture too.
• Clean & Shaved: you should not be drowning in sweat when stepping into customer’s office. Take a second to use your tissue and collect your self before getting in. Some deodorant after your morning shower will be of great value before a tiring day. For gents, unshaven face usually gives impression of a collapsing man, so you better avoid it. If you have a bearded face, you need to have your beard taken care off periodically
• Elegant: it is not about wearing an Aramani suit or ties. It is all about choosing the models that fits to you, managing colors in synergy and using every piece of clothing in its accurate timing.
• Broadly Fashioned: avoiding fads and clown clothes. As it has two unfavorable effects. First it disregards you to some extent in some cultures, and second it takes customer attention to your fad more than to what you say.
• Unspecific: religious as well as thematic clothes should be avoided in salesman appearance.

Appearance Basics

Gait

• Use a brisk pace and erect posture
• Do not walk with a shuffle or with your head facing the ground?
• Never rush-in

Handshake

• Firm, yet not overpowering handshake.
• As you enter a room to meet a prospect, extend your hand and simultaneously say your name and your company name if it is the 1st time

Voice

Reasonable tone, volume and pitch.

Gesture

• Don’t stick your hands in your pockets
• Don’t hold your hands behind your back
• Don’t fold your hands across your chest.
• Don’t make nervous hand gestures.
• Stick to broad accepted gestures.

Manners

• Use good eye contact to establish attention and convey sincerity.
• Respect the prospect’s time get down to business quickly.
• Keep your personal problems to yourself.
• Be friendly and natural e.g. neither smoking nor chewing gums is favorable.
• Table manners in business lunch/ dinner

It is After all … a Common Sense

The Core
Sales call is composed mainly of 5 parts. Each has a role that cannot be replaced by others, and designed to serve certain objective. The 5 parts are:

1. Approach
2. Probing & effective listening
3. Main Message or the Body
4. Handling Objections
5. Closing

While approach helps you passing the attention filter, probing, message and objection handling passes with you the logic filter which is the most difficult. Finally closing passes the interest filter

Copyrights© 2006. Eyad Harfoush