SalesMaster - Sales Training Manual -  2007
1 The need to plan
Successful selling is not guaranteed by hard work. You must also make effective use of your time by planning who to call on, and when to call on them and by developing a specific plan for each call in order to achieve your objectives.
Planning will build your prospects trust and confidence in you as an organised individual. It will help you to minimise failures and maximise success. Finally, it will enable you to prioritise your own activities and tell you where you stand relative to your goals.
When you see your prospects, you must have clear objectives and a strategy that you wish to follow. You should have an objective for each call: unplanned calls are usually a waste of time, except when canvassing prospects. Before calling you should have reviewed your prospects background, reviewed previous call reports on the account, and re-evaluated what it will take to close the order.
 
Bottom Line
Having a Strategy forces logical thinking as a basis for making decisions. It reminds you of what steps still need to be taken to close the order. Having a strategy enables you to evaluate your performance and improve your tactics.
 
2 Account Planning - The world of the bigger deal
The Environment
A sale is an exchange. For the exchange to take place, certain conditions need to be fulfilled. There must be two parties, each of which must have something that may be of value to the other. Each party must be capable of communication and delivery, and free to accept or reject any offers made.
If these conditions exist, there is potential for exchange. Whether exchange actually takes place depends on whether the two parties can find terms of exchange that leave them both better off than before the exchange. It is therefore a value adding process whereby there is an act of free exchange which increases the value felt by both parties.
The fact that people have needs and wants and that there are solutions and services that are capable of satisfying them, is necessary, but not sufficient, to define Marketing. Marketing exists when people decide to satisfy their needs and wants in a certain way and that is called an exchange.
It is important to distinguish between Selling and Marketing and to define the bigger deal environment which you will find increasingly complex. Selling and Marketing are often confused. It has been said that "selling focuses on the needs of the seller: marketing on the needs of the buyer ". Selling is preoccupied with the need to convert products or services into cash: Marketing with the idea of satisfying the needs of the customer.
The whole concept of selling assumes that people and companies will not buy enough of a companies products and services unless they are approached with a substantial selling and promotional effort. The assumption is products and services are sold not bought. Provided that customer satisfaction is not considered secondary to closing the sale, then trust between buyer and seller should exist.
BUT, to achieve those bigger deals, one needs to adopt the tasks and philosophies of marketing - something best described as the determination of the needs wants and values of your prospects. One needs to adapt in order to deliver those requirements more effectively and efficiently than one's competitors. The larger and more complex the sale, the larger the perceived risk the buyer takes; the larger the marketing cycle: and the greater the competitive effort. Large accounts involve large numbers of people, and there is an increasing need to develop, and continue a sound customer/prospect relationship based on trust. You may also face decentralisation within your account , making an overview of the whole account more difficult. You may be helped by the centralisation of purchasing, on the other hand.
To become a true consultant to your customers/prospects business you must become a business planner, a time manager and a business management strategist for both yourself and your account.
Account Planning is the primary method by which you make that transition. What large account salespeople are required to do is something that is initially alien to us all - PLAN. In the past if we have done any planning at all, it has often been for leisure not work. But in fact, we should plan our work and live our leisure - not vice versa. For centuries, philosophers have implored us to plan our lives. But how can we when we don't know what we want? Even when we do know, it is always subject to change. As a result, few of us have any perception as to how we can truly plan our lives. Account planning in business is much simpler than planning your life. You can set objectives. Here, again, we often fail, usually for one of two basic reasons: we waste countless hours documenting information on chosen accounts but little time in setting objectives: we profile the account without setting the strategy, we spend hours gleaning the information but then never use it! Or, we plan a strategy for an account but don't dream of the potential that exists within it: so the strategies never reflect the true potential.
There is no need for these attitudes. Managers tend to not believe ambitious plans and will leave territory and targets intact. Aim high: your plan will be much better. Is it not better to shoot at the moon and hit an eagle, than to shoot at an eagle and hit a rock? If your goals are great, then your plan to realise them will be great. There is no conflict between your goal and your objective. The goal reflects the ideal, perfection. The objective is more practical in use, precise and measurable, being set in terms of the results to be achieved over a shorter period of time.
In future issues we will follow a planning guide where emphasis has been placed on those parts of the planning process that are key to successful account planning. In using the process you'll become motivated to pursue the plan that you have developed.
 
3 Do you know where you're going ?
For large accounts you may have to make several calls to reach your objective. In the case of a major account the order may be closed many months after the first call. The purpose of each individual call may vary but will be related to the overall objectives. Always plan a primary and secondary objective for each sales call. Pursue the primary objective realising that your prospects responses may force you to improvise: your ability here to think quickly is paramount. As the interview progresses, you may have to refine, expand and revise your plan. Put yourself in the prospects shoes, and set an alternative plan before you make your call.
 
Bottom Line
If you don't know where your going, you'll never get there. In addition to setting objectives, it's also good practice to ask yourself three questions:
  1. What are the benefits that my prospect will receive as a result of seeing me?
  2. Why should he or she want to accept my proposals?
  3. What else could I be doing to help my prospect to a positive decision?
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