A course in perfecting sales skills: from preparing to closing

Why offer a seminar on preparing/closing techniques?

The question and answer stage of any pitch is crucial to its success. Once presented with a solution, the client will generally look for flaws in any features and holes in any arguments. By unsettling the speaker they can drive down the price or renegotiate other terms, earning themselves a reputation as a tough negotiator often at risk to their or their company’s best interests.
For the sale is measured by the close: the close represents how well the sales executive identified and met their customer’s needs during the preparation and interview stage. In other words, it measures the depth of their preparation, the quality of listening and questioning skills, the pertinence of their pitch: their strengths as a sales executive.

“The deeper the dialogue, the greater the sales results…the real expert is the customer” Linda Richardson, The Sales Success Handbook

From the tried and tested win/win approach of the Mutual Gains Strategy (Harvard Negotiation Project) to the more recent reflex approach to handling objections (Mercury); this seminar takes the best from both the cooperative and competitive takes on commercial negotiations and tests the executive in “real life” conditions.

Seminar Objectives

Examine the fundamentals of what makes a successful pitch.
Learn through exercises, group interaction and presentation how to:

• Prepare effectively for any given audience.
• Identify negative and positive leaders upstream and know how to use both populations effectively.
• Find the interests and needs behind the positions through active questioning techniques.
• Gain accord on these needs during the interview process: to “lock in” the customer.
• Pitch with power, communicate to convince.
• Handle objections effectively, as and when they arise.
• Dare to close.