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Temperament styles not only determine a person's behavioral traits, body language patterns and buying styles but also influence their compatibility with other people. The four primary styles are aggressive, passive, expressive and analytical, wherein research in the field of psychology shows that people are born into one of these styles. How to sell in each style is also discussed.

Salespeople hear the word 'no' most often from prospective customers but most were not equipped to handle the objections. Every salesperson has to become adept at finessing the prospect person and then handle the idea expressed by that person. How to finesse the customer before dealing with the negative response is also discussed.

The sales profession has been under siege for many years now and salespeople are often isolated from their prospects and customers by impenetrable barriers. The multiple changes in the business environment have made it difficult for salespeople to find ways to utilize their selling skills. Insights on the redefined sales person are also given.

How salesperson can achieve genuine differentiation based on something the customer values and is hard for competition to replicate is discussed. Salespeople can identify opportunities to expand the offering by looking at the customer perspective. The four steps which are typical of the customer's experience with product or solution are also presented.

Salespeople's ability to read customers' minds is examined using a theory-driven scale on their identification of customer intentions. A brain functioning model is presented to determine the differences between the more skilled and less skilled 'interpersonal mentalizers' monitored through functional magnetic resonance imaging.

The job of a sales person with regards to his relationship to a customer can be reduced to six basic elements that begin with engaging with the right people and making them feel comfortable with the sales person. Finding out what they want and showing them how what the sales person provides them is what they want are other elements to this relationship.

This study examines the role ethical salesperson behavior plays in relationship selling. Four key findings emerge from a sample of purchasing agents. First, ethical salesperson behavior is positively related to trust in the salesperson. Second, the effects of ethical salesperson behavior on buyer commitment and buyer behavior are completely mediated by this trust. Third, ethical salesperson behavior is most influential in driving desirable resource-based and social relationship returns, and least influential in driving desirable economic returns. Fourth, the effects of ethical salesperson behavior are moderated by buyer age such that they become significantly stronger as buyer age increases. Managerial and theoretical implications are discussed, and avenues for future research in the area are provided.

This paper examines the benefits of sales force automation from the customer's perspective within a framework based on theories from the sales and information systems literature relating to the benefits of the implementation of information technology. An in-depth study using qualitative research tools is conducted among managers occupying 'buyer/logistic' positions within customer organizations to identify perceived benefits of the use of sales force automation (SFA) systems by their vendors. Three content analytical techniques (thematic, lexical, and cognitive mapping) are used to uncover the benefits most valued by management in customer organizations. Results demonstrate that customers perceive benefits on four main dimensions of their interaction with salespersons--salespeople's professionalism, customer interaction frequency, salesperson responsiveness, and salesperson-customer relationship quality. This study is the first to examine aspects of SFA from the customer perspective.

It's 10 AM Tuesday, and you are about to visit one of your customers. Why are you here? That's the question I have asked innumerable distributor salespeople. Unfortunately, the answer […]

Every holiday season companies send out hundreds of greetings cards and small gifts of appreciation to their customers. Last year, a management company received one bottle of champagne, two baseball […]

There's no absence of words to live by. They range from offering good advice, "On the keyboard of life, always keep one finger on the escape key" to the deviously […]

The extent to which rapport-building behavior is relevant in a commercial setting is examined. Uncommonly attentive, common grounding, and courteous behavior are the three categories suggested by previous research that are confirmed while connecting and information sharing behavior are the two additional categories that are identified.

As a sales trainer, I often confront a difficult obstacle that stands in the way of developing more effective salespeople. Too often salespeople are hindered by limiting beliefs that prevent […]

Let's face it, a major challenge to the sales process is that it is often difficult to put the time and energy that goes into developing quality, long-standing relationships with […]

Tony did exactly as he was trained. He sent a hand-written thank you note to his customer. However, when his customer received it she was furious and tore it up […]

Not all sales interactions run smoothly; even the best salespeople inevitably hit a bump in the road. Maybe you've hit that bump because you unwittingly mishandled a situation, or because […]

The impact of customer loyalty towards a company and its salesperson on the former's sales is discussed.

The use of brand communication by salespersons to effectively convey the brand values to customer is analyzed. The sales strategies that can facilitate better customer relationship and promote business-to-business branding are examined.

The positive effects of sales force automation systems on the productivity of sales personnel is analyzed.

No matter where you work or how good you are, sooner or later, you're going to get complaints. It's part of doing business. Every organization has its share of dissatisfied […]

Managing relationships with customers is often challenging because firms engage in many different types of transactions and their customers vary considerably as to their wants and needs. To meet these challenges, firms are turning increasingly to formal customer relationship management (CRM) programs. Because of their ability to enhance interfirm relationships in business-to-business marketing, firms often turn specifically to customer-needs--driven CRM strategies. These strategies focus on the use of database technology to aid in developing long-term cooperative relationships with key customers. One important resource that enables firms to more easily develop and implement customer-needs--driven CRM strategies is the core selling (CS) team. We examine CS teams' ability to enhance the development of two competences (a knowledge management competence and a relationship marketing competence) that are important components of customer-needs--driven CRM strategy., Managing relationships with customers is challenging for many firms because they engage in many different types of transactions and their customers vary considerably as to their wants and needs (Fichman [...]

David Sciandra was tired of playing hide-and-seek. One of the inside salespeople whom Sciandra manages as eastern regional sales manager for Ametek Solidstate Controls, an electrical power company based in […]

It is believed that the success of a salesperson's transaction lies on the meticulous preparation of a sales presentation. Preparing for a presentation is one way of showing respect and concern for the customer. Other views and information on preparing for sales presentations are presented.

Salesperson and entrepreneur must always be on their game whenever opportunity strikes and take advantage of them whenever possible. Salespeople should be alert to new prospects since they may never know when that special customer is studying them and their company. Insights on the use of mystery shopper to test the sales person are also given.

Best practices for salespeople, in order to achieve customer satisfactioin, are presented.

A suburban Boston man wrote a plaintive account of the bad service he had experienced in just one day. "The dishwasher, which had been repaired on Monday, flooded the kitchen […]

Prospect, qualify, present and close. These are the basic elements of the conventional sales process that most sales organizations and salespeople follow today. The conventional sales process is the most [...]

Byline: LOUIS FEUER, MA, MSW There is always a sense of excitement when you get that first appointment with a potential new customer. You may have waited weeks or even [...]

Imagine a man in his late 20s, married, with three children. He works hard to support his family, keeping a roof over their heads, food in their bellies, clothes on […]

By Carlo Lonardi Has the development of the Internet and other technologies meant less need for salespeople? In reality, the need is more acute than ever We've all seen many [...]

Whatever media outlet you frequent, it's likely filled with relentless prognostications of doom and gloom. High gas prices...home mortgage foreclosures...I could go on and on. As reported here last issue [...]

By Greg Cober Hard times can represent a great opportunity for 'problem-solvers' to step up and make things happen Sometimes the news can seem overwhelming. We hear about a difficult [...]

By Tom Reilly Salespeople may sell products, but they serve people Competence in sales depends on how well salespeople master several areas, one of which is the people side of [...]

An effective salesperson goes beyond dropping off brochures and shaking hands at events. True sales stars make the most of unexpected opportunities and, in our interviews for this report, exude [...]

By Martin C. Shanker Last month I argued that detailed measuring of sales associate behavior and your sales process-not just financial outcomes-can mean the difference between a revenue increase of [...]