Special offer
Mike Pellet Mortgage and Lending

RAINER

24,525

Mike Pellet
location_on Fullerton, CA
Get to Know Mike Pellet

One of the most important stages of selling is closing the deal, which is the actions taken by the sales person to gain agreement to the sale. There are many closing techniques in sales, which are prescribed actions that sales people take to persuade the customer to make the necessary commitment. Here are some of these:

1-2-3 Close - close with the principle of three.

Adjournment Close - give them time to think.

Affordable Close - ensuring people can afford what you are selling.

Alternative Close - offering a limited set of choices.

Artisan Close - show the skill of the designer.

Ask-the-Manager Close - use manager as authority.

Assumptive Close - acting as if they are ready to decide.

Balance-sheet Close - adding up the pros and the cons.

Best-time Close - emphasize how now is the best time to buy.

Bonus Close - offer delighter to clinch the deal.

Bracket Close - make three offers - with the target in the middle.

Calculator Close - use calculator to do discount.

Calendar Close - put it in the diary.

Companion Close - sell to the person with them.

Compliment Close - flatter them into submission.

Concession Close - give them a concession in exchange for the close.

Conditional Close - link closure to resolving objections.

Cost of Ownership Close - compare cost over time with competitors.

Courtship Close - woo them to the close.

Customer-care Close - the Customer Care Manager calls later and re-opens the conversation.

Daily Cost Close - reduce cost to daily amount.

Demonstration Close - show them the goods.

Distraction Close - catch them in a weak moment.

Doubt Close - show you doubt the product and let them disagree.

Economic Close - help them pay less for what they get.

Embarrassment Close - make not buying embarrassing.

Emotion Close - trigger identified emotions.

Empathy Close - empathize with them, then sell to your new friend.

Empty-offer Close - make them an empty offer that the sale fills.

Exclusivity Close - not everyone can buy this.

Extra Information Close - give them more info to tip them into closure.

Fire Sale Close - soiled goods, going cheap.

Future Close - close on a future date.

Give-Take Close - give something, then take it away.

Golden Bridge Close - make the only option attractive.

Handover Close - someone else does the final close.

Handshake Close - offer handshake to trigger automatic reciprocation.

Humor Close - relax them with humor.

Hurry Close - go fast to stop them thinking too much.

IQ Close - say how this is for intelligent people.

Minor points Close - close first on the small things.

Never-the-best-time Close - for customers who are delaying.

No-hassle Close - make it as easy as possible.

Now-or-never Close - to hurry things up.

Opportunity Cost Close - show cost of not buying.

Ownership Close - act as if they own what you are selling.

Price-promise Close - promise to meet any other price.

Puppy Close - acting cute to invoke sympathy and a nurturing response.

Quality Close - sell on quality, not on price.

Rational Close - use logic and reason.

Repetition Close - repeat a closing action several times.

Retrial Close - go back to square one.

Reversal Close - act as if you do not want them to buy the product.

Save-the-world close: - buy now and help save the world.

Selective-deafness Close - respond only to what you want to hear.

Shame Close - make not buying shameful.

Shopping List Close - tick off list of their needs.

Similarity Close - bond them to a person in a story.

Standing-room-only Close - show how others are queuing up to buy.

Summary Close - tell them all the things they are going to receive.

Testimonial Close - use a happy customer to convince the new customer.

Thermometer Close - they score out of ten, you close gap.

Think About It Close - give them time to think about it.

Treat Close - persuade them to 'give themselves a treat'.

Trial Close - see if they are ready for a close.

Valuable Customer Close - offer them a special 'valued customer' deal.

Ultimatum Close - show negative consequences of not buying.

Yes-set Close - get them saying 'yes' and they'll keep saying 'yes'.

This is a big list, but the real list of closing techniques is almost endless. You can go to each need, for example, and invent several closes around satisfying or threatening them. Here are closing tips to help you further.

'Sell on the tangibles, close on the intangibles' is good general advice. Note how many of these methods follow this rule.

Don't forget the caveat in all of this. If people feel tricked or otherwise betrayed, they will not only not buy from you now, they may well never buy from you ever again or even turn all their friends against you. In particular beware of using unsubtle techniques with professional buyers, who can usually see them coming from miles away.

1. Get Inspired Everyday. Inspiration is one of the best motivators, and it can be found everywhere. Sources of inspiration can include, but are certainly not limited to: sales blogs, sales articles, sales online success stories, sales forums, peers, friends, sales books, and motivational quotes.

2. Hire A Sales Coach. Working one on one with a sales coach has proven to be one of the most effective methods to truly achieve breakthrough sales results. However, be sure to ask these questions of any sales coach you interview before hiring a sales coach.

3. Have Compelling Reasons For Your Actions. Write them down and know your reasons for wanting to achieve your goals and stay motivated. When you clarify why you want to accomplish certain goals, and what it will mean to you to accomplish them, it will help increase your motivation and keep you on track.

4. Be Ready For Negative Self Talk. Become very aware of that inner voice that says you should just quit and give up. One of the most powerful things you can do is to simply raise your awareness and recognize when it is happening. Just by naming the negative self talk alone, it will help you consciously decide what you need to do.

5. Get Back On The Horse If You Fall Off. Don't beat yourself up if you slip up one day, but make it a rule to get back into your routine the next day. Don't wait any longer. You don't need to be perfect all the time, you just need to brush yourself off, and get back on the horse.

6. Visualize Your Sales Goals. Visualize the successful outcome of staying motivated in great detail a few times for 2 minutes each day. Close your eyes, and think about exactly how your successful outcome in sales will feel. Form as clear of a mental picture as you can.

7. Create A Daily Journal For Your Sales Goals. If you can become consistent about writing notes in your journal, it can be a tremendous motivator. You should focus on writing about what you got done that day and how you felt about the things you did or did not do.

8. Get Competitive. Many sales people are driven by competition. Take advantage of this natural drive by using it to fuel your sales goals. Take a look at your peers around you and see where you are ranking on new clients per month, revenue, or appointments set. Aim to be #1, or stay on top, if you are already #1.

9. Make A Public Statement About Your Commitments. Make a statement on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or announce to your friends and family that you are going to achieve a certain sales goal by a certain date. You will get support and accountability automatically with this method.

10. Think Positive. Monitor your thoughts and become more aware of your self-talk. If you hear negative thoughts, notice them, and then choose to replace them with a positive mind-set.

To plan an effective Sales Strategy, we must first determine the goal of our plan. In most cases the goal will be some variation of optimizing the results obtained by the sales manager or their team. In essence, our plan should dictate which customers we spend what amount of time with to get the greatest overall return from our time investment.

With the sales goal defined, we must next determine the duration or timeline for the plan. Depending on your industry and market, the sales strategy plan durations will vary.  What is the right interval for your industry?  Looking at the seasonality of your business, the frequency of change in company goals, and the timeline you use to measure success to goals or quotas are all things to keep in mind when determining the duration of the plan. Another thing to remember is you may determine that a six month plan is the right length the situation, but this does not mean that you will only focus on this more long term sales strategy. A sales strategy of this type will also need to incorporate monthly planning that rolls up to the six month plan and a daily plan that rolls into the monthly plan to ensure that we stay focused on the overall goal. Breaking the sales strategy into the smallest steps possible will make it much easier to follow and will allow for short term measurement of success.

Pre-Sales Activities Planning

Pre-Sales Activities, as we discussed in the article What Sales Managers Should Coach, are integral in the selling process. While the common belief in Sales Management is that you need to spend more time interfacing with your customers as the more time you spend with your customer, or potential customer, the better your ability to build a relationship and to ultimately meet your goals.  I suppose being in their face is one way to get the results, but most sales reps have way too many customers to call on.  This is why we must determine up front which customers we spend our time with and how much time we spend with them. Remember your time and the time of your team is a limited resource!

As sales managers, we can help our sales reps focus their efforts by segmenting our customers. Who is performing? Who should be performing but is not? Who is not doing business with you today? Putting your customers into these 3 buckets will help Sales Managers and Sales Reps to determine not only how much time to spend with them, but also what to focus on in the time you do spend with them. Much like coaching people, selling to customers will only get you a certain return or level of performance based on the segment they fall in. For more information on how Sales Managers should focus their sales reps' time and the return they can expect, check out the article on Investing Wisely in Coaching.

Now consider your industry.  To ensure your sales reps are prepared for the next phase, conducting a Competitor Analysis is essential. They should be reading periodicals, trade publications, and studying reports.  Do your sales reps know what their market share is?  As sales managers, its crucial that we focus our teams on taking the time to analyze their competition.  What are the strengths and weaknesses of the competitors and how do those compare to yours?

Once you have the answers to these questions, the sales manager should work with the sales rep to set goals for which customers they will attack this month.  As we discussed, you might have your sales reps segment their customers by producing, non-producing but have the ability to do so, and unsigned customers.  By listing these customers out and determining when to call on them a road map is created that the sales reps can follow and that the sales managers can coach to.  Where does each customer fall on the Relationship Curve?  Knowing this will help to determine how often the sales rep should visit and what approach they should take from a relationship perspective.

Planning to Execute the Sale  

Now that you and your sales reps have determined who to call on, it's time to prepare for the sales call. Preparation means to set qualitative objectives, quantitative goals, and to prioritize objectives, goals, and tasks. As a sales manger, you must ensure your sales rep prepares for the sales call and is clear on their objective.  How will they use the data they have gathered on the industry, competition, and on the customer in the call? To make sure the goal is clear, encouraging the sales rep to write an objective or two for the call will help them remember their focus. You should also stress in the objective that the sales rep should always try to get a win-win; both parties should get something out of the interactions.  After writing the objectives for the call, the sales rep should write down the process or talking points that will help to meet the objective.  Think about the objections they are likely to hear and help them prepare to overcome these prior to them being raised by the customer. When we overcome objections prior to the customer bringing them up, our sales reps have the upper-hand and influencing becomes easier.  Do you think you are through preparing?  Not just yet.  You have written down objectives for the call and out lined your process or talking points.  Next write down the benefit or measurable outcome from the call.  Why do this you ask?  Because, as a sales manager you need to be able to evaluate the call after its complete and to guide the sales rep through what went well or what could have gone better.  

Finally, the part of sales we all like; the execution of the sales strategy plan or making the sales call.  After all the planning and preparation your sales rep should feel very good about the call.  The critical path to execution is understanding the relationship with the customer and to use it when making the call. Also as we've discussed, the sales rep should leverage their strengths such as industry knowledge and capitalize on opportunities by providing solutions. Finally, leverage the relationship to build consensus and gain commitment. 

Post-Sale Analysis Planning

Just when you thought you were through we get to the last portion of the process or sales strategy; the evaluation.  Do your sales reps take time to evaluate their sales calls? Do you, as the sales manager, spend time with them doing the same? Most sales reps will point to the end result of, sale or no sale, as all the analysis that is necessary.  That is certainly step one, but there a few more things to consider before we call it done. By taking the time to document what went well and also what didn't, both the sales manager and the sales rep will have some concrete learning's and best practices for next time. This may feel like overkill, but how often have you seen your sales reps step in the same hole with a customer time and again? Since most sales reps have far too many customers to call on, it is difficult to remember all of our interactions and what worked. This is why Sales Managers must encourage keeping detailed Post-Sale Analysis notes. This will ensure that they always have a history of their interactions at their fingertips.

Finally, we'll also want to reanalyze the segment each customer falls in. Did they move customers from non-producing to producing?  Are any customers producing more?  If the answer is yes or no, why?  Having these answers will allow the sales rep to incorporate their learning's into their sales strategy plan and prepare for the next day, week, or month in your Pre-Sale Activities.

Certifications

 

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, which typically requires special pricing and senior sales attention.

active listening - term used to describe 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, in which the type of listening extends far beyond common inattentive listening. Related to empathy and Stephen Covey's principles of seeking to understand before attempting to be understood.

added value - the element(s) of service or product that a sales person or selling organization provides, that a customer is prepared to pay for because of the benefit(s) obtained. Added values are real and perceived; tangible and intangible. A good, reliable, honest, expert, informed sales person becomes a very significant part of the selling organization's added value, as perceived by the customer, if not by the selling organization.

advantage - the aspect of a product or service that makes it better than another, especially the one in-situ or that of a competitor.

advertising/advertising and promotion/A&P - the methods used by a company to publicise and position its products and services to its chosen market sectors, including product launches, image and brand building, press and public relations activities, merchandising (supporting and promoting the product in retail and wholesale outlets), special offers, generating leads and enquiries, and incentivising distributors, and agents, and arguably sales people. A&P methods are sometimes described as above-the-line (media advertising such as radio, TV, cinema, newspapers, magazines) or below-the-line (non-'media' methods or materials such as brochures, direct-mail, exhibitions, telemarketing, and PR); advertising agencies generally receive a commission (discount 'kick-back') from above-the-line media services, but not from below the line services, in which case if asked to arrange any will seek to add a mark-up. See the marketing page.

appointment - a personal sales visit to a prospect, usually arranged by phone. See the appointment-making process.

benefit - the gain (usually a tangible cost, but can be intangible) that accrues to the customer from the product or service.

buyer - most commonly means a professional purchasing person in a business; can also mean a private consumer. Buyers are not usually major decision-makers, that is to say, what they buy, when and how they buy it, and how much they pay are prescribed for them by the business they work for. If you are selling a routine repeating predictable product, especially a consumable, then you may well be able to restrict your dealings to buyers; if you are selling a new product or service of any significance, buyers will tend to act as influencers at most. See decision-makers, and the buying techniques page.

buying facilitation® - also known as facilitative buying, generally attributed (and registered) to sales guru Sharon Drew Morgen. Extremely advanced form of personal selling, in which the central ethos is one of 'helping organizations and buyers to buy', not selling to them. See collaboration and partnership selling at the end of the section.

buying signal - a buying signal is a comment from a prospect which indicates that he is visualising to whatever extent buying your product or service. The most common buying signal is the question: "How much is it?" Others are questions or comments like: "What colours does it come in?", "What's the lead-time?", "Who else do you supply?", "Is delivery free?" "Do you use it yourself?", and surprisingly, "It's too expensive."

buying warmth - behavioural, non-verbal and other signs that a prospect likes what he sees; very positive from the sales person's perspective, but not an invitation to jump straight to the close.

call/calling - a personal face-to-face visit or telephone call by a sales person to a prospect or customer. Also referred to a sales call (for any sales visit or phone contact), or cold call (in the case of a first contact without introduction or notice in writing).

call centre - also called a contact centre (US = center) - a department for outgoing and/or incoming (outbound/inbound) telephone calls to/from customers, commonly now extending to email communications also if useful for customer service, but not extending to email marketing. Call centres can be primarily reactive (inbound) or proactive (outbound - covering telemarketing, telesales, and research), or both. Call centres can be in-house, part of the employed organization, or external, effectively a contractor or an agency. Most modern in-house or long-term out-sourced call centres are effectively customer service centres or departments, containing staff dedicated to telesales and customer services activities. Other types of call centre activities and operations can be concerned more with short-term telesales, telemarketing or market research campaigns. Run well a call/contact centre is a wonderful function. Run poorly call centres are a nightmare for staff and customers alike. Since the 1990s when the call centre function became de-humanised and obsessively cost-driven by many large corporations the nightmare scenario largely applies. Some call/contact centres are now such vast business units that they warrant being 'off-shored' (outsourced to countries with lower costs), which generally equates to corporate own-foot-shooting on a truly huge scale. A call centre which is inherently liable to upset customers due to inadequate levels of customer empathy and service is quite obviously utterly self-defeating. Staff turnover is unsurprisingly a major challenge in call centres.

canvass/canvassing - cold-calling personally at the prospect's office or more commonly now by telephone, in an attempt to arrange an appointment or present a product, or to gather information.

close/closing - the penultimate step of the 'Seven Steps of the Sale' selling process, when essentially the sales-person encourages the prospect to say yes and sign the order. In days gone by a Sales person's expertise was measured almost exclusively by how many closes he knew. Thank God for evolution. See the many examples of closes and closing techniques in the Seven Steps section, but don't expect to kid any buyer worth his salt today, and using one might even get you thrown out of his office. Use with great care.

closed question - a question which generally prompts a yes or no answer, or a different short answer of just two possible options, compared to open questions, which typically begin with who, what, where, when, etc., and which tend to invite much longer answers.

cold calling - typically refers to the first telephone call made to a prospective customer. More unusually these days, cold calling can also refer to calling face-to-face for the first time without an appointment at commercial promises or households. Cold calling is also known as canvassing, telephone canvassing, prospecting, telephone prospecting, and more traditionally in the case of consumer door-to-door selling as 'door-knocking'. See the cold calling page.

collaboration selling - also known as collaborative selling and facilitation selling - very modern and sophisticated, in which seller truly collaborates with buyer and buying organization to help the buyer buy. A logical extension to 'strategic' or 'open plan' selling. See collaboration and partnership selling at the end of the section.

commodities/commoditised (products and services) - typically a term applied to describe products which are mature in development, produced and sold in vast scale, involving little or no uniqueness between variations of different suppliers; high volume, low price, low profit margin, de-skilled ('ease of use' in consumption, application, installation, etc). Traditionally the 'commodities' term applies to the 'commodities markets' which trade and set prices for fundamental commodities such as coffee, grain, oil, etc., however in a more generic sales and selling sense the term 'commoditised' refers to a product (and arguably a service) which has become mass-produced, widely available, easy to make, de-mystified, and simplified; all of which is almost invariably associated with a reduction in costs, prices and profit margins, and which also has massive implications for the sales distribution model and methods for taking the product or service to market. Commoditised products are amenable to mass-market and large-scale sales distribution methods and models, as opposed to specialised or high-complexity products, which tend to require closer customer support and greater expertise and advice at the point of selling and installation, and commissioning and application, if appropriate. An electric battery torch is a commoditised product that is freely available, at competitively low price, 'off-the-shelf' at any supermarket (or via the internet); whereas a holographic projector is only available via a specialised supplier, at relatively high cost and profit margin, potentially without a similar competing product, and requires a significant degree of technical advice and support, and possibly user-training. Similarly, a microwave oven is a commoditised product, widely available, inexpensively, off-the-self from a retail store (or via the internet); whereas an integrated commercial kitchen is a specialised system, requiring a high level of sales and selling expertise, support and installation. Commoditised products sell by the millions; specialised products might only sell in hundreds or less. All consumer products and services become commoditised over time. Virtually all B2B products and services become commoditised over time. Colour TV's are cheaper than they were thirty years ago because they've become commoditised. Same can be said for mobile phones, home security systems, computers; even motor cars are becoming genuinely commoditised. In our lifetimes perhaps so too will houses and buildings.

concession - used in the context 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 (more usually) or the buyer. One of the fundamental principles of sales negotiating is never giving away a concession without getting something in return - even a small increase in commitment is better than nothing. See the negotiation section.

consultative selling (consultation selling) - developed by various sales gurus through the 1980s by David Sandler among others, and practiced widely today, consultative selling was a move towards more collaboration with, and involvement from, the buyer in the selling process. Strongly based on questioning aimed at gaining useful information.

consumer - in the context of selling a consumer typically refers to a private or personal customer or user, as distinct from a business or organizational, or trade customer. Notably we see this term in the acronym B2C, which means 'business-to-consumer', which describes the type of business in which the transaction and relationship is between a business and a private 'domestic' customer. A household insurer, or an estate agent, are examples of B2C sales organizations. Retail is by its nature consumer business. A holiday company is a B2C business. B2B describes 'business-to-business' - which is trade and selling between businesses.

customer - usually meaning the purchaser, organization, or consumer after the sale. Prior to the sale is usually referred to as a prospect.

customer relationship management (CRM) - CRM is now a commonly used term to describe the process of managing the entire selling process within a department or organisation. Computerised CRM systems enable management of prospect and customer details, contacts, sales history and account development. Well known examples of CRM computerised systems are Sage's ACT!, which claims (as at 2006) to be the world's most popular CRM system, and Front Range's Goldmine. Chief elements of a CRM system (or strategy, since the term is used to describe the process and methodology as well as the system) are:

compilation and organisation of data (prospects, customers, product, sales, history, etc) planning, scheduling and integrating customer development activities and communications analysis and reporting of all sales related activities and data

Good CRM strategy and systems are generally considered necessary for modern organisations of any scale to enable effective planning and implementation of sales (and to an extent marketing) activities.

cycle - see sales cycle.

deal - common business parlance for the sale or purchase (agreement or arrangement). It is rather a colloquial term so avoid using it in serious company as it can sound flippant and unprofessional.

decision-maker - a person in the prospect organization who has the power and budgetary authority to agree to a sales proposal. On of the most common mistakes by sales people is to attempt to sell to someone other than a genuine decision-maker. For anything other than a routine repeating order, the only two people in any organization of any size that are real decision-makers for significant sales values are the CEO/Managing Director/President, and the Finance Director. Everyone else in the organization is generally working within stipulated budgets and supply contracts, and will almost always need to refer major purchasing decisions to one or both of the above people. In very large organizations, functional directors may well be decision-makers for significant sales that relate only to their own function's activities. See influencer.

deliverable(s) - an aspect of a proposal that the provider commits to do or supply, usually and preferably clearly measurable.

demonstration/'demo'/'dem' - the physical presentation by the sales person to the prospect of how a product works. Generally free of charge to the prospect, and normally conducted at the prospect's premises, but can be at another suitable venue, eg., an exhibition, or at the supplier's premises.

demographics - the study of, or information about, people's lifestyles, habits, population movements, spending, age, social grade, employment, etc., in terms of the consuming and buying public; anyone selling to the consumer sector will do better through understanding relevant demographic information.

discipline - within the context of an organization this is similar to function, i.e., job role, although a discipline can refer more generally to a capability or responsibility, for example 'financial disciplines', or 'customer service disciplines', or 'technical support disciplines'. Discipline can of course mean separately 'control', others or oneself, which is certainly relevant to sales and selling, but not the reason for its inclusion in this glossary. In business-to-business selling of a complex strategic nature looking at disciplines (capabilities and responsibilities) can help to explore the different ways that people are affected by a change or proposition, which generally accompanies the sale of a product or service.

distribution/sales distribution - the methods or routes by which products and services are taken to market. Sales distribution models are many and various, and are constantly changing and new ones developing. Understanding and establishing best sales distribution methods - routes to market - are crucial aspects of running any sales organisation, and any business organisation too. Sales distribution should be appropriate to the product and service, and the end-user market, and the model will normally be defined by these factors, influenced also by technology and social trends. For example, commoditised mass-market consumer products (FMCG - fast-moving consumer goods, household electricals, etc) are generally distributed via mass-market consumer distribution methods, notably supermarkets, but also increasingly the internet. A lesson in changing sales distribution models, and the need for manufacturers and sellers to anticipate changes is found in the switching of book sales and CD sales from retail store distribution to websites, with the resulting demise of many retailers in those sectors. Future changes in sales distribution will see for example music transferring increasingly via online downloads, thus threatening those involved with or dependent upon physical shipping of products. B2B (business-to-business) sales distribution models have their own shape, again dependent on products and services, customer markets, technology, plus other influences such as economical trends, environmental and legislative effects, etc. Examples of B2B sales distribution models are franchising, direct sales forces (employed), direct sales forces (sales agents), telephone sales (call-centres, out-bound and in-bound), the internet (online website businesses), distributors (independent sellers who carry products and services of other manufactuerers and 'principals'), and channel partners and partnering arrangements (prevalent in telecomms and IT sectors).

empathy - understanding how another person feels, and typically reflecting this back to the other person. The ability to feel and show empathy is central to modern selling methods. See the Empathy page. See also NLP (Neuro-Linguitsic Programming).

ethics/ethical selling/ethical business - this would not have appeared in a selling glossary a few years ago, because the line between right and wrong was a mile wide. To certain leaders and companies it still is, although gradually, slowly business and selling is becoming more civilised. Honesty, morality and social responsibility are now crucial elements in any effective selling method, and for any sustainable business. In Spring 2008 someone left a message on my answerphone. The person said he was from 'central government', working on a 'policy piece' about e-learning, and could I give him a call back. I duly called back. After several sidesteps, the 'seller' eventually clarified that the purpose of the contact was to sell me some advertising in a directory, supposedly endorsed or approved by a 'government department'. This is a fine example of unethical selling, and unethical business too, since the seller was clearly following a company script and set of tactics designed to deceive. Unethical business and selling have always been wrong, but nowadays they carry far greater risks for those who behave badly. Consumers are wiser and better informed. Authories and the courts are less tolerant and more senstitive to transgressions. In all respects today poor ethics guarantee personal and business failure. See ethical management and leadership.

FABs - features advantages benefits - the links between a product description, its advantage over others, and the gain derived by the customer from using it. One of the central, if now rather predictable, techniques used in the presentation stage of the selling process.

feature - an aspect of a product or service, eg., colour, speed, size, weight, type of technology, buttons and knobs, gizmos and gadgets, bells and whistles, technical support, delivery, etc.

feel-felt-found - old-style persuasive push/pressure technique for objection handling, dating back to the 1980s and probably earlier, based on the sales-person using a response built around the three 'feel felt found' elements: "I understand how you feel/why you feel that...//Other customers have felt just the same/that...//But (or 'And') when... they have found that..." The technique seeks first to empathise, then in stage two to move the objection into neutral area avoiding direct one-to-one (2nd person, 'you must change your mind') confrontation, and creating an artificial sense of majority experience and opinion, where in the third stage the objection can be countered and the benefits reinforced with supposed large-scale evidence, persuading the buyer that he/she (if failing to buy) is isolated and deprived of the benefits others are enjoying. The method had limited effectiveness a generation or two ago but now the tactic mostly insults people and makes the sales-person look like an idiot.

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 territory. To be field-based is to work on the sales territory, as opposed to being office-based.

forecast/sales forecast - a prediction of what sales will be achieved over a given period, anything from a week to a year. Sales managers require sales people to forecast, in order to provide data to production, purchasing, and other functions whose activities need to be planned to meet sales demand. Sales forecasts are also an essential performance quantifier which feeds into the overall business plan for any organization. Due to the traditionally unreliable and optimistic nature of sales-department forecasts it is entirely normal for the sum of all individual sales persons' sales annual forecast to grossly exceed what the business genuinely plans to sell. See targets.

function - in the context of an organization, this means the job role or discipline, eg., sales, marketing, production, accounting, customer service, delivery, installation, technical service, general management, etc. Understanding the functions of people within organizations, and critically their interests and needs, is very important if you are selling to businesses or other non-consumer organizations.

gestation period - sale gestation period typically refers to the the time from enquiry to sale, the Sales Cycle in other words, (see Sales Cycle). Awareness and monitoring of Sale Gestation Period/Sales Cycle times are crucial in sales planning, forecasting and management, for individuals sales teams and sales organizations.

influencer - a person in the prospect organization who has the power to influence and persuade a decision-maker. Influencers will be generally be decision-makers for relatively low value sales. There is usually more than one influencer in any prospect organization relevant to a particular sale, and large organizations will have definitely have several influencers. It is usually important to sell to influencers as well as decision-makers in the same organization. Selling to large organizations almost certainly demands that the sales person does this. The role and power of influencers in any organization largely depends on the culture and politics of the organization, and particularly the management style of the two main decision-makers. See decision-makers.

intangible - in a selling context this describes, or is, an aspect of the product or service offering that has a value but is difficult to see or quantify (for instance, peace-of-mind, reliability, consistency). See tangible.

introduction - the word introduction has two different main meanings in selling: Introduction refers either to first stage of the face-to-face or telephone sales call (see the Opening stage in the Seven Steps of the Sale), or the term means a personal introduction - also called a referral - of the sales person to someone in the buying organisation by a mutual friend or contact. Personal introductions of this sort tend to imply endorsement or recommendation of the seller, and since they are made by an existing contact they help greatly in establishing initial trust. The value and potency of a personal introduction genrally reflects the importance of the introducing person and the strength of their relationship with the buying contact. Networking is essentially based on using (sometimes several quite informal) introductions, to connect a seller with a buyer.

introductory letter - a very effective way to improve appointment-making success, and to open initial dialogue, especially for selling to large organisations. See the introductory letters structure and template examples.