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ers on a regular basis – or in the case of department stores or chain stores, a team of buyers may travel around visiting
suppliers.
Keeping salespeople ‘on the road’ is much more expensive than employing them to work in the office because
much of their time is spent unproductively traveling. Telephone selling may use this time more productively (though in
some countries this is illegal), but a face-to-face meeting and discussion is much more effective. Companies involved in
the export trade often have a separate export sales force, whose travel and accommodation expenses may be very high.
So servicing overseas customers may often be done by phone, fax or letter with not so many personal visits. Many firms
appoint an overseas agent or distributor whose own sales force takes over responsibility for selling their products in
another country.
A sales department consists of many people who are based in different parts of the country or the world, who don’t
have the day-to-day contact and opportunities for communicating with each other that office-based staff have. For this
reason, firms hold regular sales conferences where their entire sales force can meet, receive information and ask ques-
tions about new products and receive training.
T a s k 18. Read this text. Which of the points do you agree or disagree with? Give your reasons.
Anyone who has contact with customers is a salesperson – that includes the telephonist who answers the phone
and the service engineer who calls to repair a machine. So that probably includes you!
The relationship between a salesperson and a client is important: both parties want to feel satisfied with their deal
and neither wants to feel cheated. A friendly, respectful relationship is more effective than an aggressive, competitive
one.
A salesperson should believe that his or her product has certain advantages over the competition. Customers want
to be sure that they are buying a product that is good value and of high quality. People in business are not going to
spend their company's money on something they don't really need (unlike consumers, who can sometimes be persuaded
to buy 'useless' products like fur coats and solid gold watches!).
Some salespeople adopt a direct 'hard sell' approach, while others use a more indirect 'soft sell' approach. Which
approach do you prefer? Whichever approach is used, in the end perhaps a good salesperson is someone who can per-
suade anyone to buy anything. On the other hand, maybe a good salesperson is someone who knows how to deal with
different kinds of people and who can point out how his or her product will benefit each individual customer in special
ways. After all a buyer is called a 'buyer' because he or she wants to buy. All you need to do is to convince them that
your product is the one they want. A successful sales meeting depends on both the salesperson and the customer asking
each other the right sort of questions.
T a s k 19. Fill the gaps in these sentences with these words:
Before, buying, client, individual, product, wants, weaknesses
If you want to be a successful negotiator and salesperson you should ...
1. Know your ......... and its main features.
2. Know the strengths and ......... of competing products.
3. Find out who makes the ......... decisions in your client's firm.
4. Plan each sales interview ......... it takes place.
5. Match what you're selling to each client's ......... and needs.
6. Listen to what your ......... tells you.
7. Remember that each client is an ......... not a number.
T a s k 20. Listen to a part of a talk at a workshop for people who have little experience of selling. Listen to
the recording and answer these two general questions:
1. What is the talk about?
2. What stages are referred to in the talk?
Workshop leader: ... All right then everybody, if...um...we look at a typical sales interview where you meet a cli-
ent or where a salesperson visits you to sell you something, we see that there are three stages: the Opening Stage, the
Building Stage and the Closing Stage. And we should add to these stages other activities that will take place when you
are not actually meeting or talking to a client: Preparation and Planning.
So let's look at these stages one by one. If you have any questions don't be afraid to interrupt. Now, the first stage,
one, is the Opening Stage. Usually this is a phone call. But you might be preceding it with a letter, or a brochure or some-
thing like that. The first thing you have to do is get past the secretary, that's the most important. Find out when exactly you
can talk to your prospect. Don't accept a promise to ring you back, ever. And you need to explain who you are and what
you're selling. And arrange an appointment. Right?
And two is what we call the Building Stage. In other words the sales interview itself. It's important to prepare well
and rehearse doing this sales interview. OK? And you can role-play it with a friend or a relation. Erm ... and now this
person should try to be unfriendly and uncooperative and difficult, to give you the right sort of practice. OK? Then
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