2. The selling process is generally divided into seven
steps that, once you understand them, will empower
you to sell virtually anything you want and satisfy your
customers:
 Prospect and qualify
 Pre-approach
 Approach
 Presentation
 Overcome objections
 Close the sale
 Follow-up

4.  Before planning a sale, a salesperson
conducts research to identify the people or
companies that might be interested in her
product.
 A prospect is a lead that is qualified or
determined to be ready, willing, and able to
buy.

5.  Thepre-approach is the “doing your
homework” part of the process. A good
salesperson researches his prospect,
familiarizing himself with the customer’s
needs and learning all the relevant
background info he can about the individual
or business.

6.  First impressions (e.g., the first few minutes
of a sales call) are crucial to building the
client’s trust.[
 This usually involves introductions, making
some small talk, asking a few warm-up
questions, and generally explaining who you
are and whom you represent. This is called
the approach.

7.  The presentation should be tailored to the
customer, explaining how the product meets
that person or company’s needs.
 It might involve a product demonstration,
videos, PowerPoint presentations, or letting
the customer actually look at or interact
with the product.

8.  After you’ve made your sales presentation,
it’s natural for your customer to have some
hesitations or concerns called objections.
Good salespeople look at objections
as opportunities to further understand and
respond to customers’ needs

9.  Eventually, if your customer is convinced
your product will meet her needs,
you close by agreeing on the terms of the
sale and finishing up the transaction.
 Sometimes a salesperson has to make several
trial closes during a sales call, addressing
further objections before the customer is
ready to buy.

10.  The follow-up is an important part of
assuring customer satisfaction, retaining
customers and prospecting for new
customers.
 This might mean sending a thank-you note,
calling the customer to make sure a product
was received in satisfactory condition, or
checking in to make sure a service is meeting
the customer’s expectations.

12.  Inrecent decades sales reps have become
adept at discovering customers’ needs and
selling them “solutions”—generally, complex
combinations of products and services.
 This worked because customers didn’t know
how to solve their own problems, even
though they often had a good understanding
of what their problems were.

14.  The hardest thing about B2B selling today is
that customers don’t need you the way they
used to.
 Customer’s have become skilled at finding
their own solution; they don’t need reps as
they once did.
 In this environment a group of high
performing salespeople have emerged-reps
who have abandoned the traditional
playbook and devised a novel sales strategy.

16.  The best salespeople are replacing
traditional “solution selling” with “insight
selling”-A strategy that demands a radically
different approach across several areas of
the purchasing approach.
 These star reps coaches the customer in
identifying unrecognized needs.
 High-performing reps are still selling
solutions—but more broadly, they’re selling
insights.

17. Insight selling is built on three strategies
outlined below
 Avoid trap of “established demand”
 Target Mobilizers, Not Advocates
 Coach customers how to buy

20.  Social networks are an exciting development
for sales reps.With little managerial
discipline, all that clicking ,following and
sharing will win more business.
 Veteran salespeople and now sales trainers—
offer insights to help companies and reps get
maximum value from sites like LinkedIn,
Twitter, and Facebook .

21.  We know that customers are online and that
they use the web to investigate purchases
they’re considering. The shift from a “push”
to a “pull” world of commercial messaging
has been thoroughly documented by now.
 Social media’s greatest potential, is at the
start of the sales cycle, during prospecting,
opportunity qualification, and pre-sales-call
research. Short messages sent via social
media produce much greater response than
cold calling—and, even better, reps don’t
always have to start the conversation.

22.  In social networking environment reps often
find potential customers expressing interest
in solution they sell . Identifying these
slightly warm prospects can save a rep from
making many unwelcome cold calls.
 Potential customers are surprisingly
responsive to short messages sent via social
media.