Selling Today 14e Video Instructor’s Manual
SALES VIDEOS ACCOMPANYING THE TEXT
The video package for the fourteenth edition of Selling Today consists of two
series called the Reality Selling Today Video Series and the Adaptive Selling Today
Training Video Series. Provided free to adopters of Selling Today: Partnering to Create
Value, these two video series provide a complete video package available for using in
your classes.
The Reality and Adaptive Series are developed around information presented in
the fourteenth edition of Selling Today: Partnering to Create Value. The videos in these
two series were formatted into short six to fifteen-minute segments that best fit the
attention span of students, and pedagogy normally desired in the classroom.
A. The Reality Selling Today Video Series
The Reality Selling Today Video Series includes eleven videos, most of which
feature recent college graduates employed in the selling positions graduates enter.
Introduced by co-author Dr. Michael Ahearne, each of these eleven two-part videos
and mock role-plays pedagogy, all revolving around the Reality Selling information
presented in the video. Reviewing these three sources will provide information on the
content of each of the Reality Selling Today Videos.
The videos were designed to be shown when introducing or soon after introducing
the chapter. The case problems can be assigned during or after presenting the chapter.
Chapter
Runtime
Reality Salesperson/Company/Product
Line
Buyer Type
1
14 min
Alex Homer/Tom James
Company/Clothing
Consumer
2
08 min
Ryan Guillory/Independent Consultant
Consumer
3
09 min
Edith Botello/Mattress Firm/Bedding
Products
Consumer
4
11 min
Susana Rosas/CBRE Commercial Real
Estate Services
Commercial
6
24 min
Amy Vandaveer/TexasMonthly/Advertising
and Sales Promotion
Commercial
8
15 min
Ashley Pineda/PulteGroup/Home Building
and Financing
Consumer
9
14 min
Dave Levitt/Salesforce.com/CRM
Solutions
Commercial
10
13 min
Alim Hirani/Hilti Corp/Construction
Products and Services
Commercial
12
12 min
Chris Wylie/Ecolab, Inc./Cleaning &
Sanitizing Products and Services
Commercial
13
10 min
Heather Ramsey/Marriott/Meeting and
Convention Services
Consumer
15
11 min
Khalid Naziruddin/Sewell Automotive
Sales
Consumer
17
10 min
Jaime Barouh/McKesson/Medical
Supplies**
Commercial
*Runtime includes both the interview and sales presentation.
**This segment does not include a sales call.
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Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Inc.
Suggested answers to the case problem and buyer instructions for the mock role–
plays are presented in this Instructor’s Manual. The seller instructions are presented in
Appendix 1 of the text and cast the student in a sales role similar to the salesperson in the
video. The instructions provide a reality context for the development of the role-play.
All the Reality Selling Today mock role-plays are designed to fit the format used
in the national competitive events for making sales presentations. Students completing
any of these mock role-plays will possess valuable experience and insight into making
winning sales presentations at any of the national competitive sales event conferences.
B. The Adaptive Selling Today Training Video Series
The Adaptive Selling Today Training Video Series has been designed around
the popular adaptive selling concepts that you must adapt your relationship and sales
presentation to the specific product needs and communication style of your customer.
Professionally created and produced by noted training video specialist, Art Bauer,
these high-quality videos are designed around the concepts presented in the text. These
videos have been reformatted into short segments that fit the desired timing for classroom
use.
Introduced by co-author Gerald Manning, these 6–15 minute training segments
specific parts of the respective chapter for which they were designed.
VIDEOS-4
Chapter Runtime* Topic Textbook Exercises
5 25 min Adaptive/Communication Selling Styles Application Exercise 1-4
11 19 min Adaptive Questions That Make the Sale Application Exercise
13 19 min Negotiations: Solving the Tough Problems Application Exercise 1-4
14 28 min Ask for the Order and Get It Chapter 14 Role Play
*Includes total runtime. Segments are 6–13 minutes each.
Communication Styles: A Key to Adaptive Selling
The “Communication Styles: A Key to Adaptive Selling” Video is divided into
5. Additional application exercises provide instructions for having others assess your
student’s style—which provides important feedback on the perception of others; the
assessment of potential customers; and the ability to adapt one’s style to the needs of
others. These application exercises can all be completed outside of class.
Adaptive Questions That Make the Sale
VIDEOS-5
Each video is introduced with material relating to the concepts presented in the
book. Video I and II each ends with a compelling problem that can be used in the
The video series is designed to be shown after students have read Chapter 11. At
this point, they will understand the strategic/consultative/partnering/value adding
concepts related to professional selling today. They will also have the necessary insight
and background to participate in the classroom discussions and the suggested role-play
exercises.
specific instructions would be to let students pick their own selling situation and
complete the directions.
SUMMARY OF VIDEO 1
(Video I running time is approximately 5 minutes.)
“Question 1—Discovering and Confirming Problems”
company learned and perfected a question-based selling strategy in her previous UPS-
type packaged goods shipping company. She attempts to update Johnny’s selling
strategies with her questioning strategy, which includes “let the customer discover his or
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Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Inc.
her solutions.” She stresses a “sell, sell, sell” approach for Johnny to consider, rather than
the “tell, tell, tell” to which he has become accustomed.
The rest of the script introduces strategic questions used in high performance
selling and focuses on Johnny, our lead actor/salesperson, learning the first two—Survey
and Confirming Questions.
Graphic
reveals
PROBLEMS
reveals
MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING
or not this is the best next step, and what should be done next. In the next video, we learn
that the next step is not to launch into a solution. Instructions for writing and role-playing
Survey (Problem) Questions and Confirmation Questions are found in the Application
Exercises at the end of Chapter 11 of the book.
SUGGESTED INSTRUCTOR DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Now that the salesperson and customer both know and understand the problem, is the
turning point in the sales process when Johnny says, it’s time to “fix the problem”?
(Instructor Note: review the first part of Video 2 for what Johnny should do next.)
2. What are the differences between the sales strategies of Johnny and Evita? (Instructor
Note: Johnny’s strategy is product–oriented selling [tell, tell, tell], Evita’s is
consultative style selling.)
3. According to the text, Selling Today, what two types of information do you attempt to
uncover and understand the Survey/Problem question? (Instructor Note: The
Survey/Problem question uncovers facts about the customer situation and the Problem
that is being experienced.) Why is the confirming question important?
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4. Would it be practical for a sales organization to develop a list of sample
Survey/Problem Questions that could be reviewed before making a sales call? What
background information would be needed to write these questions? (Instructor Note:
using the product information in Appendix 3, or with a Product/customer scenario
you select, prepare with your students a list of Survey/Problem Questions.)
5. What did Evita mean when she said the Survey/Problem Question “is important but,
not rocket science”?
6. How important, and what reactions do you have of Johnny and Evita taking notes.
Note the pen and folder being used. Are these appropriate “tools” for salespersons to
use?
Additional questions to consider after viewing Video 1
7. What sales activities has Evita been engaged in before this call to get to this point in
the sales process (Instructor Note: Evita said she had met with the Shipping
Manager.) What precautions should a salesperson be aware regarding preparation for
a sales call? (Instructor Note: make sure you don’t ask needless questions to which
the customer expects you to already have the answer.) Do you think Johnny has
conducted the same preparation for his call on Corrine? Is it more important today to
do this preapproach preparation than in the past?
8. What was your impression of the social contact (described in Chapter 10) made
between Johnny and Evita? How would you describe Johnny and Evita’s relationship
strategy (e.g. appearance, self-image, facial expressions, entrance and carriage,
manners, conversational strategies, etc.) described in Chapter 3?
9. Did you note any communication style bias (see Chapter 5) between Johnny and
Evita? How did Johnny handle the fact that he was not training Evita? Did Evita flex
her style appropriately as the “new hire” that was going to train the “Company
Legend”? Did Johnny flex his style appropriately when his customer told him “NO”?
Do Johnny and Evita appear to have communication style flexibility, and therefore
can adapt to the styles of others with whom they come into contact? Have you
determined the communication style of Johnny, Evita, and Johnny’s customer, who
told him “no” at the beginning of the video? If not, note their behaviors in the next
two videos and be prepared to suggest their communication styles later. Also,
examine their behaviors and determine their ability to flex or adapt their styles to
meet the needs of the people with whom they come into contact.
ROLE-PLAY INSTRUCTIONS
Student instructions for role-playing the Survey/Problem and Confirming
An alternative would be to allow students to select a product, company, and
customer scenario. If this alternative is selected, it is important that both the customer and
salesperson have enough information to make the selling situation realistic, but not too
much that it overwhelms the participants.
The class can be divided into two groups. Members of the first group would act
“Questions 2—Discovering Customer’s Pain and Pleasure”
The first part of Video 2 presents how the questions in Selling Today reveal the
customer’s pain and pleasure. The dramatics start with a replay of Johnny saying “So
now that you’ve uncovered some of the customer’s problems, it’s time to talk about
fixing them, with your products?” The viewer quickly learns that you need to more fully
VIDEOS-9
Graphic
reveals
PAIN
reveals
PLEASURE
Johnny begins to use his newly learned questioning strategy. However, the second
video ends with Johnny’s, customer abruptly standing and again ending the sales call.
The audience is left wondering what Johnny might do to get the sale back on track.
This treatment produces viewer emotion about the possibility of Johnny failing, at
worst, or figuring out a successful next question to get the sale back on track. This
provides a great opportunity for the instructor to lead a discussion about how to get the
sale back on track. Additional discussion questions are provided below. Instructions for
writing and role-playing the use of Probing and Need-Satisfaction questions appear at the
end of Chapter 11 in the text.
SUGGESTED INSTRUCTOR DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR VIDEO 2
1. Can Johnny get this sale back on track? If so, what can Johnny do? (Instructor Note:
review first part of Video 3.)
2. What is the definition of a Probing/Pain Question? Why does Evita state that it is the
most important question? Why did Johnny state that this question sounded a “little
devious”? (Instructor Note: using the information in Appendix 3, create with students
a list of Probing/Pain Questions.)
3. What is the definition of a Need-Satisfaction/Pleasure Question? Why did Evita state
4. Why did the author state that these questions are the most challenging to prepare yet
the most effective to use?
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5. What information must you confirm before you use either of the questions presented
in Video 2? (Instructor Note: one must confirm the customer’s problem to keep the
sale focused on the customer need and solution.)
6. Why did Evita ask her customers if there were any additional benefits they could
describe as they walked down the hallway?
7. What other appropriate activities, in addition to having lunch, can a salesperson
engage in to get a sale back on track? (Instructor Note: examples include golf,
bringing in technical people, having a team call with the President or other officer of
company, etc.)
8. How can you use a confirming question to assure mutual understanding of your
customer’s answers to your probing/pain and need-satisfaction/pleasure questions?
9. Which of these two questions focus on the benefits of your solution?
10. Assuming you have discovered and confirmed your customer’s problem in a previous
sales call, how important is it that you prepare a list of Probing/Pain and Need–
Satisfaction Questions before you make your next call? How could you make certain
these questions focused on the customer’s problem? Assume you were a Sales
Manager and you wanted your sales staff to make sure they kept their Probing/Pain
and Need-Satisfaction Questions focused on the customer’s problem. Develop a
model for them to follow in preparing and using these questions.
Additional Questions to consider after viewing Video 2
11. Did Johnny properly excuse himself from his meeting with Evita when he answered
12. Evita indicated that the salespeople in her previous company that mastered this new
questioning strategy had a 20% gain in sales productivity. Discuss the reasons why
these questions are so effective.