“Train and motivate everyone in your company to reinforce your value and SELL spontaneously and appropriately. Become a selling organization!”
Team selling is vital to providing total customer satisfaction and developing lifetime customers. In fact, how well your support/service organization communicates and works together with the sales team can be a primary differentiator to set you apart from the competition!
We all sell! Selling is “getting someone else to want to, and to do, something that you want them to do” - and we are all doing that in some form or another every day in our personal lives and as we perform our primary job functions.
Many product support and service professionals have regular contact with customers. The sales person may get the first order, but usually the rest are the result of the relationships and performance of the sales support and service team! These key individuals have a unique relationship of trust and credibility which allows them to be ideally suited to recommend additional sales, discover leads and acquire critical customer information!
Sales Support professionals can often become reactive and transactional due to the nature of their sales responsibilities. However, with proper direction and skills training they can begin to sell spontaneously and appropriately - assessing and capitalizing on every precious interaction.
So, the same fundamental selling skills which equip outside sales professionals can be very valuable to everyone in the sales support organization. We compiled the core concepts of the Four Pillars of the Sales Profession (our outside salesperson course) and developed this course specifically for sales support. The skills in this course will help everyone understand the selling process and give your organization a “sales perspective” as each performs their primary duties. These skills will help sales support recognize and turn reactive situations into proactive selling opportunities - spontaneously and appropriately!
Course Outline
Opening Challenge - From Don Buttrey
Team Selling - We all ‘sell’. This session provides a perspective for the service and support team to understand their importance and part in the selling function. Emphasizes the critical need for personal ownership by each support professional. Each contact is your company to the customer.
Customer Service Facts - Introduces the importance of the customer and the significance of every interaction point in communicating brand value. Discusses relationships.
Attitude - We are in charge of our own attitudes. This section inspires support professionals to stay positive in the midst of a tough, real-world environment.
Communication Model - Inside/outside distractions, Kinesics, Active Listening
Relationship Model - Getting along with different styles of people. Customer focus.
Interaction Points - WORKSHOP. This is a key concept as we involve participants in listing all of the vital interactions that they encounter daily such as incoming emergency calls, phone trouble shooting, coordinating service or engineering remotely, complaints, irate customers, or internal conflicts, etc.
Interaction Process-SELL - This session introduces a logical process to allow preparation, practice, and perfection for each interaction point identified. This provides structure to allow the service professional to develop and share consistent SELL processes and best practices - with a consultative focus on the customer.
Start--How to start reactive and proactive interactions on offense
Evaluate--How to ask questions to understand
Leverage--How to sell benefits and Value. Everyone in the organization must understand the value your company brings to the customer. Service and support are vital in delivering and reinforcing the perceive brand value of your organization!
Lock--How to get action and closure. Suggestion selling and add-on selling.
SELL defense - Learning how to skillfully respond to complaints, objections, and ploys (negative, reactive interactions)
Application: Develop SELL processes for proactive and reactive Interaction Points (from WORKSHOPPED list)
DEFENSIVE DRILLS - Role-play practice assignments suggested for individuals and the team
Team Selling ACTION - Final session commissions the Support Professionals to continuous personal improvement and effective teamwork with the entire company organization - a Sales Professional Organization!
“There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.”
Training your entire support team with this course:
Provides practical skills and repeatable processes - versus simply hype or service philosophy.
Designed to improve tactical skill in every precious customer interaction - by everyone who interacts with the customer!
Tools are applied to actual service interactions. Support Professionals will then document standard service delivery for all interaction points that they encounter in their unique function or department using the SELL Process!
Creates common language with the sales team. (Aligned with Four Pillars sales team curriculum)
Begins a culture change that can be practiced and reinforced ongoing by management!