6.10 Exercises
Exercises (6.1)
- You are preparing for a presentation with three executives to be considered for the internship or job you really want. List the steps you would take to rehearse your sales presentation, making sure to leave room for adaptability.
- You are preparing a presentation for representatives from a large department store who are considering buying your line of men’s shoes. There will be six representatives present, none of whom you have met in person before. You have heard from your original contact at the company that one person in the group is against purchasing your product because he believes he already has something in the line that has the same look. List some things you can do to prepare for this presentation that will address the prospect’s concerns.
- Assume you are a real estate agent and you are selling the dorm room, apartment, or home in which you live. Create a short sales presentation. Rehearse it so that the presentation takes only three minutes. What is the way that works best for you to rehearse?
- Assume you are sales rep for a major telecommunications company and you are preparing a presentation for a buying group at a national retailer. Identify four sources you would use to personalize the presentation to the people in the room. How would you research each of the appropriate people?
Exercises (6.2)
- You are giving a presentation to a busy manager who initially tells you that she can only give you thirty minutes of her time. She seems brisk and businesslike at first, but when you are in her office, you notice a picture of her son in a soccer uniform and mention that your kids are involved in soccer. After this, she relaxes and begins discussing her children at length. Keeping in mind that (a) you have an agenda to get through but (b) establishing a connection is important to you, and you want to take your cue from your prospect, how do you respond, and why?
- You are giving a presentation to a group and notice that one member of the group is more vocal than others and tends to dominate the conversation. What are some strategies you could use to make sure that other members of the group have a chance to participate and contribute their opinions?
- Choose a product or service and prepare a short sales presentation that includes a demonstration. What other items do you need besides the product or service to perform the demonstration (e.g., Internet service for software; water for instant coffee; plates, silverware, and napkins for food products)? How is the product demonstration integrated into your presentation? How do you use the demonstration to engage the prospect with the product or service?
- Assume you are selling environmental design consulting, and an important part of your sales presentation involves using your company web site to demonstrate previous projects you have completed, interactive customer surveys, and your company’s brand image. However, when you arrive at your customer’s place of business to set up your presentation, you learn that the Internet has been down all morning and may not be back up until the next day. What could you have done to prepare for this sort of unforeseen problem in advance?
- Find a PowerPoint presentation you have created for another class—or if this is unavailable, find a PowerPoint presentation online; Slideshare is a good resource. Offer a critique of the presentation based on the information you learned in this chapter.
- Assume you are a sales rep for an Internet advertising company. Your prospect, an online hardware retailer that specializes in compression pumps, is concerned about making the investment for Internet advertising. You want to incorporate the ROI into your presentation. If the prospect spends $90,000 in advertising, it will generate 120,000 clicks to the company web site. At a 2 percent conversion rate (2 percent of the customers who visit the site make a purchase), that is 2,400 orders. If each order is $230, the sales generated from the online ad would be $552,000. What is the prospect’s ROI (show your math)? How would you incorporate this ROI into your sales presentation?
- Imagine that you are selling high-end electronic equipment. Your prospect has agreed to purchase a laptop for $800. Now you tell him about the benefits of purchasing the service agreement, which includes free battery replacement and computer cleaning every year for three years for only $120. A replacement battery costs $200, and a computer cleaning costs $85. How much will the customer save if he purchases the service agreement assuming he needs to replace the battery and have the laptop cleaned once a year? How would you incorporate this into your sales presentation?
Exercises (6.3)
- Assume you own a business that rents out retail space in a downtown area. You have found out from your prospect, the owner of a bagel shop, that his current store location is on a side street that doesn’t get much foot traffic. List at least one each of the following kinds of questions that may help uncover his unstated needs: situation, problem, implication, and need-payoff. Discuss how these questions would work during the investigation stage of your SPIN selling presentation?
- Envision a selling situation between a travel agency that offers a variety of discount packages for business prospects and a consulting firm whose employees travel frequently for business. As a salesperson for the travel agency, what specific information would you need to know about your prospect’s current situation? How much of this information do you think you could find through research? What specific situation questions would you be likely to ask?
- Your firm offers state-mandated alcohol handler’s training for restaurant employees, and you are making a sales call on a manager who has just opened three large restaurants and will be hiring a staff of over seventy-five servers and bartenders. Your training is more comprehensive than that of your competitors because it includes over five hours of training per employee. Many restaurant companies opt to leave the training up to the individual restaurants, which leads to inconsistency and lack of implementation. Companies may not realize how risky this is; the fine for improper implementation is $10,000 per restaurant. Prepare a presentation that includes the four stages of SPIN selling (opening, investigation, demonstrating capability, and gaining commitment). Include the four types of questions during the investigation stage (situation, problem, implication, and need-payoff).
- Assume you work for Apple in their B2B division and you are selling iPhones to a major medical supply company for their employees, including their five-hundred-person sales force. They are currently not using smartphones but realize they have a need for them for their employees to stay in touch throughout the day and to access the Internet while they are away from the office. The prospect is also considering other brands of smartphones. Create a short sales presentation for the iPhone using the four stages of SPIN selling (opening, investigation, demonstrating capability, and gaining commitment). Include the four types of questions during the investigation stage (situation, problem, implication, and need-payoff).
Exercises (6.4)
- Develop two examples each of closed-ended questions and open-ended questions. Ask both questions to at least five of your friends and document the responses. Which type of question was easier to control? Why? Which type of question provided more information? Why? How might you use both types of questions in a sales presentation?
- Develop a five-minute sales presentation to sell your college to high school seniors using the five steps described in this section. Role-play your presentation. Is it difficult to stay within the time constraint? How should you adjust your selling presentation when you have a limited time frame to present?
- Assume you are selling biodegradable bags to a major grocery store chain. The bags are 100 percent biodegradable and are priced comparably to nonbiodegradable bags. You are meeting the eight -person buying committee for the first time. Role-play how you would build rapport with the group before you begin your presentation. What questions would you ask to begin your presentation? What general benefit statement would you make?
- Go to Best Buy or another electronics store and assume you are buying a new computer. What questions does the salesperson ask before he shows you a specific model? Which questions were closed-ended? Which questions were open-ended?
- Imagine that you are selling children’s books to Borders and you arrive at the corporate office to make your presentation and your contact tells you that due to scheduling changes, he can only give you half as much time as he originally planned. How would you adjust your sales presentation?
- Choose a product or service that can be demonstrated or sampled (e.g., a web site, software, food, or a beverage). Create a five-minute sales presentation using the concepts in this section and incorporating the demonstration.
- Assume your prospect is a restaurant on or near campus. Develop a new product or service that your prospect can offer to increase traffic during off-hours. Create a five-minute presentation using the concepts covered in this section.
- Assume your prospect is one of your classmates. Create a five-minute sales presentation for an iPod Touch using the concepts covered in this section. Include a trial close when you present to your prospect.
- Watch this scene from the AMC show, Mad Men. Evaluate the sales presentation based on the concepts covered in this section. Which elements of the presentation are effective? Why? Which elements are not effective? Why?
Exercises (6.5)
- Go to a local health club and go through the sales presentation as if you were going to join. What objections would you have for the salesperson? Which objections did the salesperson address to your satisfaction? Which objections did the salesperson not address to your satisfaction? Why?
- Try to sell your professor on conducting class as a study period next week. How would you prepare for the “presentation” to make your case? What are some objections you might receive? How might you handle the objections?
- Identify the three most common points at which objections occur in a sales presentation. Provide an example of each one in your everyday life.
- Assume you are selling real estate and you are calling a prospect to set up an appointment. How would you handle an objection that she doesn’t have the time to meet with you?
- Assume you are a financial services salesperson. You have presented an investment strategy to your prospect, and he has objected because he is concerned about the state of the market. How would you handle this objection by making him feel more comfortable with the risk?
- Contact a salesperson for a local business and ask him how he handles objections. Share your findings with the class.
Exercises (6.6)
- Assume you are a sales rep for an interactive advertising company. Your prospect is learning about how social networking works and has responded to your presentation with the following comment: “I’m not sure this is really for us.” What type of objection is this? How would you respond?
- Imagine that you are a sales rep for a commercial landscaping company. You have just finished a presentation that includes a five-year landscaping plan for your client’s property. She responded by saying that she doesn’t think there’s enough money in the budget for the plan. What kind of objection is this? How would you respond to her?
- Assume you just presented your ideas to help your prospect increase traffic to his store by adding a sign on the side of the building. The customer was polite and listened to the presentation but said that he’s not sure he really needs the additional sign since there is already one in front of the store. What type of objection is this? How would you respond?
- Choose a type of car that you might like to own. Review the company’s web site along with Edmonds.com to identify the elements that create value for the car. How does the value relate to the price?
- Assume you work for the school you are attending and are responsible for selling sponsorships of campus events to local companies such as restaurants, gyms, and retail stores. If your prospects say the price is too high, how would you overcome this objection?
- Visit a retail store that engages in personal selling. Assume you are a customer for the product and present an objection to the salesperson. Record how she responds to it. Is it an effective handling of your objection? If so, why? If not, what you would suggest to make it more effective?
Exercises (6.7)
- Assume you went on an interview for a job you want. Write a thank-you e-mail and handwritten thank-you note to the person with whom you interviewed.
- Imagine that you are networking with someone who said his company may have an opening and asked you for your résumé. It’s been a week since you sent your résumé to him. When would you follow up? How would you follow up?
- Assume that you are on a job interview and the interviewer says, “You have an interesting background, but I’m not sure you have the experience we need for this position.” How would you respond?
- Draft a list of the projects you have worked on for which you have samples that could showcase your work. Make a separate folder on your computer where you can save any of these files for use during your interview.
- Use the list of popular interview questions and guidelines to generate answers that you can deliver during your interview. Write these answers down and save them somewhere where you will be able to review them before going to a job interview.
- Visit your campus career centre and learn about the opportunity to participate in mock interviews. Prepare for the mock interview and dress for success.
- Assume you are on a job interview and the interviewer has indicated that you might be overqualified for the position. How would you prepare for a question like this? How would you respond?
- Visit your campus career centre and meet with a career counsellor to discuss common objections that may come up in job interviews. How would you handle each one?
- Meet with your advisor or one of your professors or other professional. Share your career aspirations with them. Ask each of them about objections he may have if he were interviewing you. How would you handle each objection?
“9.1 Preparation: Your Key to Success”, “9.3 Making Your Presentation Work”, “9.4 How to Use SPIN Selling in Your Sales Call”, “9.5 Putting It All Together”, “10.1 Objections are Opportunities to Build Relationships”, “10.2 Types of Objections and How to Handle Them”, and “10.3 Selling U: How to Overcome Objections in a Job Interview” from Selling For Success 2e by NSCC and Saylor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
