The document outlines the typical phases in a sales process: 1. Prospecting and qualifying potential customers. 2. Pre-call planning to understand customers' needs before meetings. 3. Approaching customers to build rapport. 4. Presenting products and demonstrating how they meet needs. 5. Overcoming objections by asking questions and highlighting benefits. 6. Attempting to close the sale while also leaving room to continue discussions. 7. Following up after sales to ensure customer satisfaction and potential for repeat/referral business.

1. Selling Process
Dr. Amitabh Mishra

2. • Sales persons follow a sequence of activities
while making a sale and these may be defined
as different phases followed by salesperson.
– A cycle start with prospect/potential customer
identification, to converting him to a customer.
• The sequential order of the steps may vary
across selling situations
Dr. Amitabh Mishra

3. Phases in Selling Process
Prospecting and Qualifying
Pre-approach/ Pre-call planning
Approach
Presentation and Demonstration
Overcoming Objections
Trial close/closing the sales
Follow up and Service
Dr. Amitabh Mishra
Havaldar and
Cavale

4. I. Prospecting and Qualifying
• Prospecting involves identifying prospects or customers.
• Prospecting is accompanied with qualifying i.e., identifying
potential customers with
– The need/want/requirements of the product
– The financial capacity to buy the product.
• Prospect can be an individual/group/family/organization
which has a need/want, and backed by sufficient purchasing
power.
Dr. Amitabh Mishra

5. Prospect Vs. Sales lead
• A sales lead generates the name of a person in the case of
B2C or an organization in the case of B2B that can be a
potential customer or a prospect. That is one who has a need
and want and ability to pay
• Not all of the sales leads, would have the need/want and/or
the ability to pay.
• The lead is generated, and among various leads some qualify
to be prospects or potential customers.
Dr. Amitabh Mishra

6. Methods of Prospecting
– Referrals from existing customer bases
– External sources like vendors and suppliers and channel
intermediaries, or industry, and trade associations.
– Trade fairs and trade shows
– Trade directories
– Cold canvassing
• Cold calling means, just making unannounced calls to prospects
who would get back once they have a need or want. Often leave
behind their visiting cards and sometimes samples.
Dr. Amitabh Mishra

7. Qualifying is very-very important
• If the sales lead has a requirement of the product or the service, and has the
ability to buy the same, then the sales lead qualifies to be a prospect or a potential
customer.
• The salesperson is able to assess the probable requirement of the prospects, and
must classify them into
• Hot Prospects: have a huge need for a company’s product/service and
they are very-very financially sound.
– Such people must be dealt with by the company’s own sales persons
• Warm Prospects: have a medium or average need of the company’s
product/ service are financially sound.
– Such prospects must be dealt with by the company’s telemarketing
team;
• Cold Prospects: have low requirements, and their financial capacity also
may not be too good.
– They can be dealt by the channel partners or the trade intermediaries
Dr. Amitabh Mishra

8. II. Pre-approach or the Pre-call planning
• In this stage, the salesperson gathers information about the prospect, and
tries to understand him, his background, and his problems before making
a sales call.
• Pre-approach calling
– enables the salesperson to be more organized & be more prepared with the
first interaction with the prospect.
– helps the salesperson gain familiarity with the prospect,
– helps build confidence.
– would increase the likelihood of a sale.
Dr. Amitabh Mishra

9. • Sales person may access different kinds of
information sources
– Company website,
– Internet pages,
– Industry and trade directories,
– Business magazines etcetera.
Dr. Amitabh Mishra

10. Pre-call planning
• The next within the same stage is pre-call planning, where
the salesperson must
– Define the call objective,
– Choose the selling strategy and
– Decide on the method of presentation.
• Salesperson must decide on the date and time of call and
who must be the approached in case of the buying center
(i.e., purchase committee, purchase manager, etc.)
Dr. Amitabh Mishra

11. III. Approach
• Approach stage starts when a salesperson sees the
prospect and ends when he begins a discussion with the
prospect.
• This is the initial few moments/minutes which he spends
with the prospect before he begins discussions on the
product.
– First, the salesperson must seek an appointment, and thereafter
he would meet the prospect for the first time (Approach).
Dr. Amitabh Mishra

12. • Approach involves
– Initial greeting
– Introduction about self, and about the company
– Rapport building via verbal and nonverbal language
– Identifying needs/problems that the prospect is
experiencing, asking questions, listening to them.
• First impression gets created not only with salesman
appearance, but also with the kind of attitude that they
exhibit or display.
Dr. Amitabh Mishra

13. Dr. Amitabh Mishra
Kinds of Approach Techniques
• Introductory: where you introduce yourself and the company
• Praise: where you start with praising the prospect’s
organization or his office or his appearance.
• Question:
– “Sir, is it the right time to talk?”
• Product/service benefit:
– “Sir, I am ABC, and I have come here to display this kind of
a product or present myself to explain what this product is
about or the benefits are about”.

14. III. Presentation and Demonstration
• At this stage the salesperson describes his product and explains as to how
it meets the buyer’s needs.
• Salesperson must begin the presentation keeping in mind
– The customer’s requirements, and
– How the product/service help solve the need or the problem.
• Salesperson must be
– Humble
– Understand the prospect’s mind
– Understand the cognitive processes through which the prospect passes and
– Move the prospect to a state of desire and conviction towards the purchase.
Dr. Amitabh Mishra

15. Kinds of sales presentation methods/ strategies
1. Stimulus-response method/Canned approach
2. Formula method/Formulated approach,
3. Need-satisfaction method
4. Consultative selling method/Problem-solving
approach
Dr. Amitabh Mishra

16. 1. Stimulus-response method or the canned method
• Salesman deliver a very standardized and structured sales
presentation where there is no linkage with the prospect’s
specific need/requirements.
• Sales person makes the same presentation and gives the
same information to everyone
• This method is used by telemarketers or door-to-door sales
persons, and lacks customization
• It is appropriate
– When the product is simple and non-technical
– When the selling time is short
Dr. Amitabh Mishra

17. 2. Formula method/Formulated approach
• Salesperson uses the AIDA approach and
moves the prospect through the five mental
states.
• It is based on the assumption that
All prospects are similar, and in similar situations,
and a similar stimulus would lead to a similar
response
Dr. Amitabh Mishra
Attention Interest Desire Action

18. 3. Need-satisfaction method
• This method focus on the individual customer where
salesperson identifies, understands and uncover the
prospect’s needs.
• It involves unstructured and interactive discussion to
understand prospect’s problems and requirements
with an emphasis on asking questions and listening
to replies.
• It is highly customized to customer requirements and
appropriate in case of B2B.
Dr. Amitabh Mishra

19. • The salesperson uses the FAB approach (Features
Advantages and Benefits), that emphasize on-
– Features: the physical characteristics of the product,
– Advantages: the performance of the product, and
– Benefits: the results of the performance that could be
• Functional
• Emotional
• Symbolic
People buy benefits; they do not buy products
Dr. Amitabh Mishra

20. 4. Consultative selling/Problem-solving approach
• In this approach a cross-functional team is used and sales
presentations are made.
• The sales team is interdisciplinary from different
departments/divisions and the sales persons complement each
other with respect to their knowledge, skills and expertise.
• People from different functional areas work together to solve a
problem that the prospect may be facing.
• It is:
– Very-very customized,
– Very flexible.
– Appropriate in the case of B2B scenario, which involve technical
products, costly products, capital intensive products
Dr. Amitabh Mishra

21. IV. Overcoming Objections
• Objections by a prospect must be handled
very carefully, calmly and patiently.
• Sales person must not react to these
queries/objections negatively; rather he must
encourage them.
• There can be two types of sales objections:
– Psychological and the hidden
– Logical and the real.
Dr. Amitabh Mishra

22. • Psychological/hidden objections remain
hidden and may not always be understood by
the sales person as they are never made
explicit by the prospect.
• It relate to
– One’s values and beliefs
– Resistance to spend money
– Resistance to buy expensive products
– Resistance to buy or try out anything which is new
• Such objections should be dealt by asking
questions
Dr. Amitabh Mishra

23. • Logical and the real pertain to
– The product itself
– The price of the product
– The delivery terms
– The delivery schedule etcetera.
• Logical objections can also be dealt with
– By asking questions, or
– By turning these objections into benefits
Dr. Amitabh Mishra

24. V. Trial close and closing the sale
Trial close
• It occurs after the presentation has been
made, objections have been dealt with, but
the order has not been placed.
• Trial close aims at
– Assessing the prospect’s attitude before closing
the sale, and
– Seeking the prospect’s opinion about closing of
the sale
Dr. Amitabh Mishra

25. • It helps gain an insight into what the prospect
is thinking
• If the prospect’s response to the trial question
is positive, it would mean that a sale will
happen. If response is negative, it would mean
that the sales person must start all over again.
Dr. Amitabh Mishra

26. Closing
• Closing is the stage when the salesperson asks
the customer for an order.
• The sales person must help the prospect make
a decision.
• The prospect may require a ‘push’ from the
salesperson, and the salesperson may have to
be extra persuasive at this stage.
Dr. Amitabh Mishra

27. • The prospect may exhibit certain indicative of the
fact that a sale may happen. He may
– ask some questions
– ask other people’s opinions
– examine the product more closely & look at the
leaflet/brochure/pamphlet/sample
– examine the delivery terms or the price terms
• Different kinds of techniques used to close the sale
– Alternative-choice technique
– Minor points technique
– Assumptive technique
– Summary-of-benefits technique
– Special-offer technique
– Probability technique,
– Negotiation Dr. Amitabh Mishra

28. Alternative-choice technique
• Here, the salesperson here asks the prospect for his choice.
The salesperson would pose a question-
– “Sir, which of the three models do you prefer?” A B or C?” The
response from the prospect could be “I prefer A”.
Minor points technique
• This is similar to the Alternative-choice close, where the sales
person asks the prospect a more detailed and in-depth
question, such as talking about the mode of payment and
mode of delivery, time of delivery
• Ex- “If you have decided to buy the product,
– Which model would you prefer?
– How would you like to pay sir, and
– When and where would you like it to be delivered?”
Dr. Amitabh Mishra

29. Assumptive technique
• It is based on the salesperson’s assumption that a sale will
definitely take place. The sales person feels that he has been
able to win the trust and confidence of the prospect.
• There could be some verbal and non-verbal cues
– Verbal cues: “Would you be paying via cash or credit card?” “Would
you carry it home or should we get it delivered?”
– Non-verbal cues like packing the product, arranging for billing, setting
up the POS machine
• Summary-of-benefits technique
Dr. Amitabh Mishra

30. VI. Follow-up and the Service
• It is very-very essential stage to ensure
customer satisfaction, loyalty and long- term
relationships.
• Customer satisfaction leads to customer
retention.
• Follow-up can also lead to more sales
Dr. Amitabh Mishra

31. • Follow-up and service would involve keeping a
check on
– Order processing
– Delivery schedule
– Payments
– Installation and Demonstrations
– After sales and warranties
Dr. Amitabh Mishra