Customer Focused Selling Flashcards
Acknowledge
Listening technique used to show customers that you value what they are saying.
Benefits
The positive results provided by travel products, as perceived by the customer.
Clarify
Listening technique used to get more information about your customers’ needs.
Close the Sale
Successfully lead a customer to a buying decision.
Closed Questions
Questions that invite precise, brief answers, usually in the form of “Yes” or “No,” such as “Have you been to this destination before?”
Confirm
Listening technique used to check your understanding of the customer’s needs.
Cross-Selling
Offering extra products and services that go beyond a core product, such as a rental car with an air ticket.
Customer-Focused Selling
The sales approach in which salespeople act as consultants whose knowledge, skill, and motivation will lead buyers to purchase decisions that best suit their needs.
Features
The inherent characteristics of a travel product.
Jargon
Specialized terminology used by people who share a similar profession, such as travel.
Lead
The initial point of contact that directs you to new prospects.
Open Questions
Questions that encourage people to talk, such as “What did you have in mind?” or “How have you enjoyed traveling in the past?”
Preferred Suppliers
Travel providers that have negotiated extra commission rates with your agency based on attainment of sales objectives.
Probing
Asking questions to delve deeper for more information.
Prospecting
The process of finding new customers or identifying prospective purchasers.
Qualifying
The process of asking thoughtful questions and listening for key responses to determine the customer’s travel needs.
Sales Cycle
A series of inter-related steps that describes the sales process.
Situational Selling
The sales technique that requires skilled sales professionals to adapt the steps of the sales cycle appropriately to both satisfy the customer’s needs and keep the process moving toward a buying decision.
Trial Closing
The technique of asking questions like “How does that sound?” or “Will that work for you?” throughout the sales process in an attempt to gain your customers’ agreement and moving them closer to the close of the sale.
Upselling
Upgrading or converting the client to a more expensive or inclusive version of a product or service, for example, an outside rather than an inside cruise stateroom.
Value
The relationship between price paid and performance received or benefits perceived.
Value-added
Additional services or products that support or enhance the travel experience to make it more convenient for the customer.
Sales Cycle: Identifying Customers
The first step in the sales cycle, identifying customers, involves two separate activities: finding new customers and assessing the buying characteristics of the new customers.
Prospecting Techniques
- Review existing customer database
- Ask for referrals
- Contact local groups with specific travel needs
- Call your defectors
- Use advertising
