Sales Skills - How customers buy
Featured in the Selling through Customer Service training manual
By Tony Gillen
Category: Sales Skills
Credit price: 4 download credits (Single user)
This training activity is a mix of whole group work, syndicate and feedback discussions. It focuses on: the five stages customers go through in their own minds in order to make a decision to buy something; how sales people should work with a customer to help the customer progress through each step; and how good use of sales skills fits perfectly with the five buying stages. Two selling scenarios are used: a telephone sale; and a face-to-face sales conversation.
This training activity begins with participants working in pairs to clarify why customers buy from them, to focus them on the customer side of the transaction. In syndicate groups the participants analyse one or both (your choice) of the sales scenarios to clarify what prompts customers to make a purchase decision. The subsequent feedback session requires participants to address three key issues. Participants then consider and describe the sales conversations as a whole. Introduce the buying structure, summarised by the acronym AIDDA. Participants then return to their syndicate groups to sectionalise the scenario conversations into the AIDDA sequence. This prompts whole group discussion on how natural the process is and how good sales skills support it. The training activity ends with a formal look at how the six-step sales structure (covered in the activity entitled, ‘Six steps to selling’) fits in with the five-step AIDDA sequence. This final section reinforces the power of effective sales skills and ends with the age-old issue of ‘When do you close a sale?’
Who is it for: This training activity is intended for use by trainers to introduce participants to the five steps customers go through in their own minds in order to make a buying decision. Knowing the steps will enable participants to help customers to follow them.
| Resource Type: | Activity |
| Min Group Size: | 6 |
| Max Group Size: | 12 |
| Typical Duration: | 02:00:00 |
| No of Pages: | 22 |
Resources: View standard resources for Fenman training activities
Purpose: This training activity is intended for use by trainers with counter and telephone sales staff of all abilities and experience. Participants can be a mix of inexperienced and experienced sales people or made up entirely of those new to selling, or of those who would benefit from a thorough review of how their customers make decisions to buy.
Download the training activity, Sales Skills - How customers buy as featured in the Fenman training manual; Selling through Customer Service