Personal Selling

Question 1

What is the personal selling funnel?

Answer 1

1) start with leads -> people you have contacted
2) some of them will become qualified leads -> people you want to do business with
3) identify the needs of the qualified leads and present solutions to those needs in a pitch
4) after the pitch you will either win or lose -> if you win you will close the deal

Question 2

What is the personal selling funnel also known as?

Answer 2

The conversion funnel

Question 3

What is the conversion rate?

Answer 3

How many of your leads you convert to deals

Question 4

What is the hit rate?

Answer 4

The percentage of pitches that lead to deals

Question 5

What are the 5 roles in customer organisations according to Webster/Wind?

Answer 5

1) Gatekeepers -> those who control the flow of information into the buying center
2) Influencers -> those who directly or indirectly influence the decision process, providing info and criteria for alternative buying options
3) Deciders -> those with the authority to choose among alternative buying actions
4) Buyers -> those with formal responsibility/authority for contacting with suppliers
5) Users -> those who use the purchased good/service

Question 6

Why is knowing who has what role in a customer organisation important?

Answer 6

So that you know who is best to share information with/ who to appeal the product most to -> if you appeal to the wrong person, the buyer may never find out about your product

Question 7

Why is researching customers and their needs important?

Answer 7

So that we know more than just their surface needs and can satisfy their needs as best as possible

Question 8

According to Rackham, how do we identify consumer needs?

Answer 8

We use the S.P.I.N model?

Question 9

What is the S.P.I.N model?

Answer 9

S -> Situation -> what is your position? Who are your current suppliers? Other than you, who are the key decision makers?

P -> Problem -> what are the key challenges that you are facing? How do these challenges manifest themselves? What kind of obstacles are you facing?

I -> Implications -> what effect does this problem have? What does it mean for your overall vision and targets? What would happen if you did nothing?

N -> Need-payoff -> what kind of solution best fits your current needs? What benefits would you see if something was done about this? What needs to be done to ‘wow’ you?

Question 10

How do you present a solution to a customer’s needs?

Answer 10

F.A.B -> Feature, Advantage, Benefit

Example: this car has A/C (feature), you can adjust the temperature (advantage), means you will be comfortable when driving in summer (benefit)