Presentations, objection handling and closing in action

About this short course

The main purpose of a sales presentation is to provide your prospect with information about your product, your marketing plan and your business proposition. When the presentation is complete, they should know if your product can solve their problems and if they want to purchase it. In this module you will learn three clear steps used to move your prospect from the attention to the conviction stage of the buying process. You will understand the need for logical reasoning and persuasion through suggestion and discover the key character traits that salespeople should develop in order to build trust. You will also realise that top salespeople weave similes, metaphors, analogies, and parables throughout their presentations to paint a clear picture of how their product will fulfil the needs of the buyer.

There are four methods you can use to get your prospect to participate in your presentation and several proof techniques that can prove that the product’s benefits and the proposal are legitimate. Because people only retain about 10% of what they hear but about 50% of what they see, a presentation that is visually appealing is five times more likely to make a lasting impression. Dramatisation is one of the elements you can incorporate into the presentation to maintain buyer interest and to help convince your prospect. Demonstrations are just as good as they allow your prospect to feel, see, hear, smell, and use the product. With these techniques you are dramatically improving their experience and understanding of the product. Another thing you will learn in this module is how to get your prospects focus back onto your presentation after an interruption.

Handling objections is one of the biggest challenges that salespeople face. Ironically however, prospects who present objections are the ones that are more easily sold on your product. You should welcome sales objections into your presentation, because they indicate prospect interest and help determine what stage the prospect has reached in the buying cycle—attention, interest, desire, conviction, or readiness to close. Having uncovered all objections, a salesperson must be able to answer them to the prospect’s satisfaction. This course explores objection handling techniques that a salesperson can use including the dodge technique, the pass up approach, the rephrase technique, the postpone technique and the boomerang method.

Salespeople need to read a prospect’s buying signals correctly as this will help decide when and how to close a sale, at any point in the selling cycle. Buying signals hint that prospects are in the conviction stage of the buying process. The secret to good closing is to prepare for each sales call and take the time to carefully determine the needs of your prospects by observing, asking intelligent questions, and listening to them. You must therefore be able to use multiple closes throughout your presentation. Sometimes this requires that you come back another day to present and close again. You must also be able to present to a prospect who may be in a bad mood or even one that is being hostile towards you. There are several closing techniques that you can practice and learn to master.

To be a successful salesperson, you should “Always Be Closing”.

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