The Art of Giving Gifts

Chapter Five
Planning the Sales
Call: Steps to a
Successful
Approach
PowerPoint presentation prepared by
Dr. Rajiv Mehta

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Chapter 5 | Slide 2
Chapter Outline
• Importance of planning the sales call
• Planning for the sales call: seven steps to preapproach
success
• Initial sales call reluctance -- sales “stage fright”
• Interaction with the receptionist
• Approaching the prospect
• Greeting the prospect
• Improving one’s self-image

After reading this chapter, you should understand:
Learning Objectives
• Why it’s important to plan and prepare for the
sales call.
• How to plan the sales call.
• How to prepare prospects for the initial sales call.
• The causes of sales call reluctance.
• Which strategies to use in approaching the
prospect.
• Necessary steps in greeting the prospect.
• How to interact with the prospect’s receptionist.
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Figure 5.1:
The Personal Selling Process (PSP)
Planning the sales call is the second and third step in the 7-
stage professional personal selling cycle

Importance of Planning the Sales Call
• “Failing to plan is planning to fail”
• Top professional sales representatives thoroughly plan all their sales
calls to ensure success by:
a) Establishing sales call objectives
b) Improving effectiveness and efficiency
c) Preparing for customer reaction
d) Enhancing self-confidence and professionalism
e) Determining which selling strategies to use
f) Avoiding errors
Chapter Review Question:
Give some basic reasons for planning sales calls.

A. Establishing Sales Call Objectives
• When establishing objectives for a sales call, set:
Primary objectives
(targeted outcome)
Minimum objectives
(lowest acceptable outcome)
Optimal objectives
(best possible outcome)
With respect to sales call objectives, explain the difference between a primary,
a minimum, and an optimal objective, and then provide examples of each.
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• Use “S M A R T” steps to set sales objectives:
Specific: Establish a specific, major objective for the sales call.
Measurable: Ensure that your major objective is measurable or
quantifiable, e.g., a certain number of units or dollar sales volume.
Achievable: Make sure the goals you set are realistic and achievable.
Relational: Always try to develop a long-term relationship with the prospect
even if the major objective on this sales call is not achieved.
Temporal: If you can, establish with the prospect a specific timeframe for
achieving the major objective.
What do the letters in SMART stand for? How can
SMART help a salesperson set sales call objectives?

• Ultimately, most sales calls should achieve one or more of three
overall objectives:
• 1. Generate sales: Sell particular products to target customers on
designated sales calls
• 2. Develop the market: Lay the groundwork for generating new
business by educating customers and gaining visibility with
prospective buyers
• 3. Protect the market: Learn competitors’ strategies and tactics
and protect relationships with current customers.
Identify and explain different reasons for
establishing sales call objectives.

B. Improving Effectiveness and Efficiency
• Effectiveness: Results-orientation by
focusing on achieving selling goals
• Efficiency: Cost-orientation by making
the best possible use of the
salesperson’s time and efforts

C. Preparing for Customer Reaction
• Prepare for sales calls by anticipating
prospects’ possible responses to each
step and statement in the selling
process
• It’s better to respond to the prospect’s
question with “I don’t know” than to
make up an answer
• But it’s far better for establishing your
credibility as a professional to have the
necessary information before you see
the prospect

D. Enhancing Self-Confidence and
Professionalism
• You will significantly add to your
perceived professionalism when
prospects see that you have an
organized, confident sales presentation
that demonstrates in-depth
understanding of their needs and
perspectives
• When prospects sense your
confidence and professionalism,
their own confidence in your
knowledge is enhanced, and they
typically become more receptive to
sales negotiations

E. Determining Which
Selling Strategies to Use
• The objective of the sales call could be to:
• Each objective requires the selection of an appropriate
sales presentation strategy.
• Introduce yourself
• Gather more information about the
prospect’s needs
• Develop a closer relationship
• Win a large order

F. Avoiding Errors
• Gathering prospect information ahead of the sales call helps
salespeople reduce their chances of making serious errors in front of
the prospect.

Planning for the Sales Call:
Seven Steps to Preapproach Success
• Sales call planning increases in importance when:
• Ensure success plan for the sales call by using seven steps
• The customer's decision is a complex, high-
involvement, high risk one
• Future interactions and negotiations with the
customer are expected
• The customer's needs are unique
• A range of alternatives is available to the
customer
• The sale is very critical to the salesperson

Planning for the Sales Call: Seven
Steps to Preapproach Success cont’d
Prepare the prospect for the initial sales call
1.
Sell the sales call appointment by prenotification
2.
Gather and analyze all relevant information about the prospect
3.
Identify the prospect’s problems and needs
4.
Identify the product features, advantages, and benefits
5.
Choose the best sales presentation strategy
6.
Plan and rehearse your approach
7.
What are the steps to preapproach success?

Table 5.1 Seven Steps in
Preapproach Planning

• Prepare prospect for the sales call using 4 "Seeding" steps:
a) Identify industries or customer categories that offer high sales potential
and make a file folder for each
b) Learn as much as possible about the most important concerns of these
industries, such as needs in the areas of new-product development,
product quality, return on investment, or raw material supplies
c) Keep these needs in mind while browsing through newspapers, trade
journals, or general business magazines, and cut out pertinent articles
d) Select specific companies with high sales potential from each of the
industries and find out the names of one or more key people in the
buying center at each company
Prepare the prospect for the initial sales call
1.
Define seeding and briefly explain how this technique can be used.

Planning for the Sales Call:
Seven Steps to Preapproach Success
• Sell the sales call appointment by prenotification using:
Sell the sales call
2.
• Cold call
• E-mail
• Fax
• Mail
• Telephone
Describe the prenotification phone call approach
to obtaining the initial sales appointment.
Royalty-Free, Digital Vision/Getty Images Royalty-Free, Digital Vision/Getty Images

Table 5.2 Prenotification by Telephone
to Obtain a Sales Call Appointment

Table 5.2 cont’d

Gather and Analyze Information
3.
• Gather information on prospects such as:
– The prospect’s name and its pronunciation
– Nickname if preferred
– Job title
– Duties
– Superior
– Education
– Work experience
– Level of technical expertise
– Purchasing authority
– Buying behavior
– Personality
– Prospect’s family
– After-work activities, hobbies, and interests

• Departments in the
salesperson’s company—
marketing, accounting,
credit, purchasing, and data
processing
• Federal, state, and local
government reports
• Trade association
newsletters
• Brochures, and literature
from trade shows and
exhibits
• Trade journals
• Online and off-line directories,
indexes, and bibliographies
• Mailing lists bought from
commercial companies
• The prospect and the
prospect’s business (through
observation)
• Current customers of the
seller
• Consumer credit bureaus
• In-house purchasing agents
• Electronic directories and
databases
Gather and Analyze Information (continued)
3.
• Gather information on prospects from:

Organizational Customer /Prospect Profile:
Summary Information

Selective Electronic Directories and
Databases

• Identify organizational problems and needs using S P I N approach:
Identify the prospect’s problems and needs
4.
• Situation: First, the salesperson tries to learn about the prospect’s
situation.
• Problem: Second, the salesperson identifies a problem that the
prospect regularly encounters with products presently in use.
• Implication: Third, the salesperson learns the implications, or
results, of the problem.
• Needs Payoff: Finally, the salesperson proposes a solution to the
problem and asks for some kind of commitment from the prospect.
What do the letters in SPIN stand for? Give
an example of the SPIN approach.

Identify the product features, advantages, and benefits
5.
• Identify the features of the products being
considered for this sale.
• Enumerate the advantages of your products
relative to competitors’ products.
• Determine as exhaustively as possible the
observable value and benefits of each
product that will be sold to the customer’s
firm.

• Truly customer-oriented salespeople identify
and solve customer problems by skillfully
observing, listening, and asking probing
questions.
• Most successful salespeople learn how to
“flex” (adapt) their communication styles in
accordance with their prospects’
communication styles.
Choose the best sales presentation strategy
6.

• Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse until you have mastered
your total sales presentation and feel comfortable and
confident about it.
• Do not memorize a canned spiel, but keep in mind the key
points you want to make in each of the stages of the selling
process.
• Carefully planning, preparing, and rehearsing each sales
call will spell success.
Plan and rehearse your approach
7.

Initial Sales Call Reluctance:
Sales Stage Fright
• One of the biggest problems new salespeople face is fear of making
the initial contact with prospects
• Kinds of Sales Call Fright
• Social or self-image threat
• Intrusion sensitivity
• Analysis paralysis
• Group fright
• Social class or celebrity intimidation
• Role ambivalence
• Exploitation guilt

Table 5.5 Kinds of Sales
Call Reluctance

Initial Sales Call Reluctance cont’d
Sales Call Anxiety (SCA)
• SCA can be attributed the fear of being negatively evaluated and
rejected by customers
• The 4 facets of SCA include:
1. negative evaluation of the self
2. imagined negative evaluations from customers
3. one’s physiological symptoms
4. protective actions

• Overcoming Sales Call Reluctance
• Many of the barriers to making sales calls can be overcome through
the following efforts
• Listen carefully to the excuses other
salespeople use to justify call reluctance and
learn to objectively analyze your own excuses
• Use supportive role-playing and discussions
with sales colleagues to overcome fear
• Make some initial prospect contacts with a partner for support; then
make calls without partner support

Overcoming Sales Call Reluctance
• Review and re-enact recent sales calls with sales colleagues to
constructively critique performance for signs of progress
• Shift the focus from individual prospect
personalities to sales objectives by setting
them down in writing prior to making a
sales call
• Observe and model the behavior of
successful salespeople
• Rehearse sales calls with sales colleagues to reinforce positive
behaviors
List several kinds of sales call stage fright.
What would you do to overcome these fears?

Interaction with the Receptionist
• What determines whether
salespeople receive the
receptionist’s assistance is
dependent on the behavior they
exhibit with that person.
• A common complaint of many buyers
is that salespeople are oftentimes
rude, particularly to receptionists.
So, professional deportment with the
receptionist is critical.

Approaching the Prospect
1. Non-Product-Related Approaches
Self-introduction
Mutual
acquaintance or
reference
Free gift or
sample
Dramatic act

2. Peaking Interest Approaches
Customer-benefit
approach
Curiosity

3. Consumer-Directed Approaches
Compliment or
praise
Survey
Question

4. Product-Related Approaches
Product or
ingredient
Product
demonstration
Name as many different approach strategies as you
can, and briefly give a sales example of each.

Table 5.6 Strategies for
Approaching Prospects

Table 5.6 cont’d

Greeting the Prospect
A. Mood
• You can learn to be optimistic (to overcome adversity and develop a
positive mood state)
• This involves three steps:
1. Identify self-defeating beliefs and the
events that trigger those beliefs.
2. Gather evidence to assess the accuracy
of your self-defeating beliefs.
3. Replace the negativity (self-defeating
beliefs) with constructive and accurate
beliefs.

B. Facial Expression
• Maintain a comfortable, erect posture in
greeting prospects in order to project a
positive attitude.
• Warmly smiling with mouth and eyes.
C. Body Posture

D.Shaking Hands
Types of handshakes include:
• Seal-the-deal
• The fish
• Three-fingered claw
• Bone crusher
• The pumper
• Death grip
• Dish rag

Appropriate and Inappropriate
Handshakes

Improving One’s Self-image
• Because failure is so prominent in
selling, salespeople may need to
reprogram themselves so that they can
focus on their successes rather than on
their failures.
• Improve your self image by thinking
positively while maintaining a high level
of personal self esteem and enthusiasm.
How might a salesperson overcome a poor self-image?

Key Terms
• Preapproach
• The approach planning stage of the selling process.
• Approach
• The first face-to-face contact with the prospect.
• SMART
• A method of setting sales call objectives that are specific,
measurable, achievable, relational, and temporal.
• Seeding
• Prospect-focused activities, such as mailing pertinent news articles,
carried out several weeks or months before a sales call.
• Prenotification
• The use of an in-person cold call, a mailing, or a telephone call to
send a strong signal to the prospect that the salesperson would like
to schedule a sales call appointment.

Key Terms cont’d
• Cold Call
• Initial face-to-face contact with a prospect who is not expecting the
salesperson to call.
• SPIN
• A selling technique that enables the salesperson to identify a
prospect’s major needs quickly. The acronym stands for Situation,
Problem, Implications, and Needs payoff.
• Customer-Benefit Approach
• An approach whereby the salesperson offers the prospect a
specific benefit that can be realized from using the salesperson’s
product.
• Survey Approach
• An approach whereby the salesperson asks the prospect to answer
a few survey questions, the responses to which establish quickly
whether the prospect has a need for the salesperson’s product.

Topics for Thought and
Class Discussion
1. What strategy would you use to arrange a sales appointment for each
of the following situations:
• Selling a corporate jet to a CEO of a large company
• Selling lighting fixtures to the chief administrator of a large city
hospital
• Selling the arrangements committee of the American Marketing
Association on choosing your resort hotel for the AMA’s annual
summer educators’ conference three years from now

Topics for Thought and
Class Discussion cont’d
2. You have a salesperson friend who fears calling
prospects on the phone to arrange sales appointments.
You’d like to help him or her overcome this fear. What’s
your advice?
3. You’ve tried many different approaches with an
organizational prospect who seems nice enough but just
isn’t impressed with you. Finally, you decide to risk a
dramatic approach. Describe some dramatic acts you
might use. What risks accompany this approach?

Internet Exercises
1. You have been appointed to work as a U.S. sales representative for
Airbus Industrie, which has just developed the Airbus 380, a start-of-
the-art double-decker aircraft that carries between 550 and 900
passengers. Conduct a Web-based search for detailed information
about the airline industry. More specifically, to help you plan the sales
call and make your approach successful, find the following
information:
• The addresses and locations of the headquarters of the major players
in the airline industry (passenger airlines and cargo carriers)
• The sales, market share, profits, and size of each of the major
competitors
• The regions of the United States and of the world where they operate
• What type of aircraft they currently use
• The names, addresses, e-mail addresses, and telephone numbers,
purchasing managers for all of the airlines and cargo carriers

Internet Exercises cont’d
2. As a freshly recruited salesperson for a dental supply company that
has developed a revolutionary, less expensive compound for filling
dental cavities, you need to quickly find detailed information about
dentists in your county whom you can contact—information that will
help you plan a successful sales call and approach. Conduct a Web-
based search for the following information on dentists in your county:
• Names, addresses, e-mail addresses, and telephone numbers of
dentists in private practice
• Names, addresses, e-mail addresses, and telephone numbers of
dentists in large dental clinics
• Owner names, addresses, e-mail addresses, and telephone numbers
of dental supply stores

Internet Exercises cont’d
3. In your job as a sales rep for a health maintenance organization
(HMO), you need to contact small, medium-sized, and large
organizations to sell a better employee health insurance plan. Use
the Internet websites identified in Table 5.4 or any others to conduct a
search for the following information, which will help you plan your
sales call to organizations in your county:
• Addresses and locations of small, medium-sized, and large
organizations
• Sales, market share, profits, and size of each of the firms
• Names, addresses, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers of human
resource department managers that make decisions on employee
health insurance plans

Projects for Personal Growth
1. Choose two companies in your hometown, one large and
one small, and plan an approach (preapproach) strategy
for each of them.
2. Assume a selling scenario in which you are the
salesperson. Then develop the best approach strategy
you can for a designated prospect, using the seven steps
to preapproach success.

Projects for Personal Growth cont’d
3. Using the mutual acquaintance or reference approach
and the customer-benefit approach strategies, role-play
how you would execute each one in these two situations:
(a) You are a textbook salesperson for a large publisher
calling on the chair of the marketing department at a state
university. (b) You are a salesperson for a security guard
company calling on a large retail store manager.
4. With a classmate, demonstrate each of the types of
handshakes listed here. Describe your feelings as you
perform each handshake. (a) Seal-the-Deal, (b) Fish, (c)
Three-Fingered Claw, (d) Bone Crusher, (e) Pumper, (f)
Death Grip, and (g) Dish Rag.

Projects for Personal Growth cont’d
5. Develop an organizational prospect profile on your
favorite company. You might start by going online using a
basic search engine such as Google and then requesting
an annual report or other descriptive materials from the
company. Use sources at your school library such as
Standard and Poor’s, Dun & Bradstreet, or Value Line to
learn more about the company and its financial situation.
Note: You might want to practice cold calling by
contacting representatives within the company itself, but
be sure to indicate that you are a student working on a
project before requesting pamphlets and other materials
or information. Otherwise, you may be assumed to be
snooping on behalf of a competitor and may hear a quick
“hang-up”!

Case 5.1: The Really Cold
Initial Sales Call
1. What do you think are John’s major problems as a
salesperson?
2. Outline a strategy for John to follow in making initial sales
call appointments so that he won’t be turned away so
often.
3. What first-meeting approach might John use to win over
“gatekeepers” such as receptionists and administrative
secretaries?
4. What kind of training program do you think EBCC has for
new salespeople? What would you suggest that the
program include?

Case 5.2: Approaching Prospects To
Sell a “Gotta Have It” Product
1. What do you think of Jodi Miller’s general approach to
selling the new line of area rugs? What could she do
differently to obtain appointments with buyers?
2. Critique Jodi’s performance in trying to sell the area rugs
to Thrush’s. What positive moves did she make? What
mistakes did she make? How would you have handled
this account?
3. What might Jodi do now to sell the area rugs to Thrush’s?
4. What strategies would you advise Jodi to use in (a)
scheduling appointments with retail buyers, (b) preparing
for the sales call, and (c) approaching prospects for the
first time?
Case 5.2 is found online at http://college.hmco.com/pic/andersonps2e.

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