Sales Terms Flashcards
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Account
A customer, usually a business-to-business organization; a major account is a large organization; a national account is a customer with branches or sites that constitute a nationwide coverage.
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Active Listening
A high level of listening capability and method in which the sales person actively seeks to understand how the speaker feels, and what their issues are. Goes beyond common inattentive listening and is related to the concept of empathy, trying to understand before attempting to be understood.
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Added Value
The elements of a service or product that a sales person or selling organiation provides. A customer is prepared to pay because of the benefits obtained. Added value can be real/perceived, tangible/intangible.
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Advantage
The aspect of a product or service that makes it better than another, or that of a competitor.
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Appointment
A personal sales visit to a prospect, usually arranged by phone.
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Benefit
The gain (usually a tangible cost, but can be intangible) that accrues to the customer from the product or service.
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Buyer
A professional purchasing person in a business; can also mean a private consumer. Major purchases are noramlly prescribed to the buyer from their company.
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Buying Signal
A comment from a prospect which indicates that he is visualising to whatever extent buying your product or service.
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Buying Warmth
Behavioural, non-verbal and other signs that a prospect likes what he sees. Very positive from the sales person’s perspective.
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Call/Calling
A personal face-to-face visit or telephone call by a sales person to a prospect or customer. A Cold Call is a first contact call without introduction.
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Call Center
A department for outgoing and/or incoming telephone calls to/from customers. Most modern call centers are effectively customer services centers containing staff dedicated to telesales and customer services activities.
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Cavass/Canvassing
Cold-calling personally at the prospect’s office or more commonly now by telephone. Executed in an attempt to arrange an appointment, present a product, or to gather information.
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Close/Closing
When the sales person encourages the prospect to say yes and sign the order.
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Concession
Used in the contect of negotiating, when it refers to an aspect of the sale which has a real or perceived value, that is given away or conceded by seller (usually) or buyer.
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Consumer
A private or personal customer or user, as distinct from a business, organizational, or trade customer.
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Customer
The purchaser, organization, or consumer after the sale. Referred to as a prospect before the sale.
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Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
The process of managing the entire selling process within a department or organization. Computerized CRM systems enable management of prospect and customer details, contacts, sales history and account development.
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Decision-maker
A person in the prospect organization who has the power and budgetary authority to agree to a sales proposal.
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Deliverable
An aspect of a proposal that the provider commits to do or supply, usually and preferably clearly measurable.
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Demonstration
The physical presentation by the sales person to the prospect of how a product works.
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Demographics
The study of, or informationa about, people’s lifestyles, habits, population movements, spending, age, social grade, employment, etc, in terms of the consuming and buying public.
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Distribution
The methods or routes by which products and services are taken to market. Establishing best sales distribution methods - routhes to make - are crucial aspects of running any sales organization.
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Empathy
Understanding how another person feels and typically reflecting this back to the person. The ability to feel and show empathy is central to modern selling methods.
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FABs
Features Advantages Benefits - the links between a product description, its advantage over others, and the gain derived by the customer from using it.
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Feature
An aspect of a product or service.
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Field
Means anywhere out of the sales office. Field sales people or managers are those who travel around meeting people personally in the course of managing a sales terrioty.
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Sales Forecast
A prediction of what sales will be achieved over a given period, anything from a week to a year.
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Gestation Period
The time from enquiry to sale. Awareness and monitoring of Sale Gestationis crucial in sales planning, forecasting and management.
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Influencer
A person in the prospect organization who has the power to influence and persuade a decision-maker. Influences will also generally be decision-makers for relatively low value sales.
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Intangible
An aspect of the product or service offering that has a value but is difficult see or quantify (for instance, peace-of-mind, reliabiltiy, consistency).
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Introduction
Can mean either the first stage of the face-to-face or telephone sales call, or a personal introduction - also called a referral - of the sales person to a someone in the buying organization by a mutual friend or contact.
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Lead-time
Time between order and delivery, installation or commencement of a product or service.
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Major Account
A large and complex prospect or customer, often having several branches or sites, and generally requiring contacts and relationships between various functions in the supplier and customer organization.
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Profit Margin
The difference between cost and selling price of a product or service. Percentage margin is generally deemed to be the difference between cost and selling price, divided by the selling price ex tax.
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Mark-up
The money that a selling company adds to the cost of a product or service in order to produce a required level of profit.
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Negotiation
The trading of concessions including price reductions, between supplier and customer, in an attempt to shape a supply contract so that it is acceptable to both supplier and customer.
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Networking
A method of developing sales opportunities and contacts, based on referrals and introductions - either face-to-face at meetings and gatherings, or by other contact methods such as phone, email, social and business networking websites.
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Open Plan Selling
A form of selling that is heavily dependent on the sales person understanding and interpreting the prospect’s organizational and personal needs, issues, processes, constraints and strategic aims, which generally extends the selling discussion far beyond the obvious product application.
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Package
Another term for the product offer; the whole product and service offering at a given price, upon given terms.
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Preparation
The work done by the sales person to research and plan the sales approach and.or sales call to a particular prospect or customer.
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Presentation
The process by which a sales person explains the product or service to the prospect, ideally including the product’s features, advantages and benefits, especially those which are relevant to the prospect.
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Product Offer
How the product and/r serivce is positioned and presented to the prospect or market, which would normally include features and/or advantages and also imply at least one benefit for the prospect.
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Proposal
Usually a wirtten offer with specifications, prices, outline terms and conditions, and warranty arrangements, from a sales person or selling organization to a prospect.
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Research Call
The act of gathering information about a market or customer that will help progress or enable a sales approach.
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Customer Retention
Keeping customers and not losing them to competitors. Companies invest heavily into keeping accounts because it far more expensive to fine new customers than to keep existing ones.
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Sales Cycle
Generally describes the time and/or process between first contact with the customer to when the sale is made. Sales Cycle times and processes vary enoumously.
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Sales Funnel
Describes the patter, plan or actual achievement of conversion of prospects into sales, pre-enquiry and then through the sales cycle.
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Sales Report
A business report of sales results, activities, trends, etc, traditionally completed by a slaes manager but could be done by a sales person as well. A sales report can be reuired weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually, and often includes a sales forecast.
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Market Sector
A part of the market that can be described, categorized and then trageted according to its own criteria and characteristics.
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Service Contract
A formal document drawn up by the supplier by which the trading arrangement is agreed upon with the customer.
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Steps of the Sale
Describes the structure of the selling process, particularly the sales call, and what immediately precedes and follows it.
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Tangible
An aspect of the product or service offering that can readily seen and measured in terms of cost and value.
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Sales Target
The issues level of sales performance for a sales person or team or department over a given period.
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Telemarketing
Any pre-sales activity conducted by telephone, usually by specially trained telemarketing personnel. Typically includes research, appointment-making, and/or product promotion.
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Telesales
Selling by telephone contact alone, normally a sales funtion in its own right.
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Tender
A structured, formal proposal in response to the issue of an invitation to tender for the supply of a product or service to a large organization or government department.
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Territory
The geographical area of responsibility of a sales person or a team or a sales organization.
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Territory Planning
The process of planning optimum and most cost-effective coverage of a sales territory by the available sales resources, given prospect numbers, density, buying patterns, etc.
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Uniqueness
A feature that is peculiar to a product or service or supplier - no competitor can offer it.
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UPB
Unique Perceived Benefit - an extension and refinement of the product offer, based on detailed understanding of the prospect’s personal and organizational needs.
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Variable
An aspect of the sale or deal that can be changed in order to better meet the needs of the seller and/or the buyer. Typical variables are price, quantity, lead-time, payment terms, technical factors, styling factors, routine maintenance, installation, delivery, warranty.
