CHAPTER 8
MAKING THE SALES CALL
Outline of Chapter
I. Making a good impression
A. Waiting for the prospect
B. Very first impressions
C. Selecting a seat
D. Getting the customer’s attention
E. Developing rapport
F. When things go wrong
II. Identifying the prospect’s needs: The power of asking questions
A. Asking open and closed questions
B. SPIN® technique
1. Situation Questions
2. Problem Questions
3. Implication Questions
4. Need Payoff Questions
5. Conclusions about SPIN®
C. Reiterating needs you identified before the meeting
D. Additional considerations
E. Developing a strategy for the presentation
III. Offering Value: The solution to the buyer’s needs
A. Relating features to benefits
B. Assessing reactions
1. Using nonverbal cues
2. Verbal probing
3. Making adjustments
IV. Building credibility during the call
V. Selling to groups
VI. Selling Yourself
VII. Summary
Teaching Suggestions
(an alternative would be to use the PowerPoint slides provided with the text)
1. Overview the chapter contents (Exhibit 8.1). Explain how critical these issues are to
successfully building relationships and partnerships.
2. Discuss several key points in making a good impression. Note that even before a rep says
a word, the rep’s nonverbals speak.
Talk about the importance of dressing appropriately.
3. Discuss attention getting approaches, called “openings” (Exhibit 8.2). Have class
members script a statement using each method assuming that they are selling a
calculator to a fellow student. Then have the students team up and go over these scripts.
4. Discuss the importance of discovering the need behind the need. Until you get to the
root problem (or need) both you and the prospect may have difficulty formulating a
5. Discuss discovering needs using open and closed questions. This is fairly easy for most
6. Discuss the SPIN technique. Some students have difficulty with this material. You may
7. Discuss the methods and importance of relating features to benefits. To practice, call out
several features and ask students to respond with the corresponding benefit. You may also
want to go over a student resume and have them relate a benefit from each feature (e.g.
8. Talk about the importance of assessing the buyer’s reactions to the rep’s presentation.
The rep must make any necessary adjustments.
9. Explain that, for a partnership to develop, credibility must be built. Ask class members
00. Briefly describe selling to groups. Discuss the importance of understanding that each
individual in the buying group has unique needs, personality types, etc.
11. Summarize what was covered.
Importance of making a good impression.
Attention getting approaches.
Suggested Answers to Ethics Problems
1. 1You’re an account executive for Wells Fargo Financial in Seattle. You had an initial
appointment with a customer, Katlin, to find out what her goals were financially. The
meeting went just as a typical first meeting should go, and there was a beneficial product
you could create for her. However, her husband could not meet with you. After weeks of
work and preparation, you have a loan that makes sense. The loan meets the goals Katlin
wanted, so you have a second appointment with her to go over exact terms, again without
her husband. You asked when her husband could come in and sign the loan documents,
and she discloses to you that her husband is not aware of the $35,000 of credit card debts
the loan is going to pay off. Both the husband and the wife must be present at the time of
the loan. Legally you can call the husband and tell him about the loan application. What
should you do?
knows of the loan and all of the details. After all, his name is on the loan also.
2. You’re giving a presentation and it’s going very well. Your prospect has already
commented on how professional your information has been presented. You’ve been using
a feature–benefit chart that you created late the night before to show how your new
product is going to be introduced to the market. While the prospect is asking a question,
you happen to glance down at your feature benefit chart again. You almost gasp out loud
when you notice that the chart claims that $5,000,000 is going to be spent in advertising
the new product launch, when in fact it should say $500,000. Will you admit the mistake
to your prospect?
Suggested Answers to Questions and Problems
1. Assume you’re going to be meeting with one of your professors next week. You’ve never
met with him or her before. What can you do, before and during that meeting, to develop
rapport and build credibility with your professor?
2. “I don’t need to discover my prospect’s needs. I sell Hershey’s candy to grocery and
convenience stores. I know what their needs are: a high profit margin and fast turnover
of products!” Comment.
3. Develop the FEBA for one of the features shown in Exhibit 8.8: 40-cent coupon with front
positioning in the national Sunday insert section.
We’re going to put a 40-cent coupon with front positioning in the national Sunday insert
4. Assume that you are selling plumbing maintenance and repair services to a large hotel.
Develop a series of open and closed questions to discover the prospect’s needs
Have you ever used our plumbing maintenance and repair services before? What was
your experience like?
What are you looking for in plumbing maintenance and repair services?
What things about plumbing maintenance and repair services have frustrated you in
the past?
5. Assume that you represent your school’s placement service. You are calling on a large
business nearby that never hires graduates from your college. Generate a list of SPIN®
questions, making any additional assumptions necessary.
Do you ever hire people from the want ads or using online services like Monster?
(situation question)
Does the cost of want ads or Monster ever become a burden? (problem question)
6. Prepare a list of features and benefits that could be used in a presentation to other
students at your college. The objective of the presentation is to encourage them to
participate in an attempt to break the world record in creating and eating the longest
banana split. Students would be asked to secure pledges from family and friends for their
participation, with all money raised going to the American Cancer Society..
Answers will vary. For example:
Features Benefits
Money raised helps cancer. You will feel good helping others in need.
you!
7. Sales Technology 8.1 told about technology tools that help evaluate sales calls, including
the use of slang and informal language. How might that be especially helpful when
selling internationally?
8. In Building Partnerships 8.1 you read how one salesperson feels it is important to smile
during a sales call. This chapter also talked about the importance of smiling. For an
exercise to test this, observe what happens in 10 regular conversations you have with
others. In 5 of the conversations, make sure you smile, while in the other 5 five
intentionally avoid smiling. Report your observations of the differences between the two
groups of conversations.
9. As a salesperson, should you use the prospect’s first name (like, “Hello, George“) or last
name (like, “Hello, Ms. Carlin”) in the following circumstances? Why? Assume in each
case that this is your first call on the prospect.
a. Calling on the 72-year-old president of a regional air cargo service.
Answers will vary. There is no hard and fast rule on when to use first or last names. But
10. You’re selling a new line of candy to a grocery store (choose some brand of candy). Make
a list of features and benefits for the grocery store, as well as a list of features and
benefits for the store’s customers (the shoppers who come in and buy candy).
Answer will vary. Here is one possibility:
Features of interest to the store’s
customers
Benefits
Features of interest to the store itself Benefits
50 cents off each case you purchase by
10/31.
More profits for each case sold.
11. In From the Buyer’s Seat 8.1 you heard the reflections of one buyer about a seller who
did not keep his promises. Make a spreadsheet that includes headings of “Reasons I
Might Not Keep a Promise as a Salesperson” and “Alternative Behavior I Might Do,
Rather Than Breaking the Promise.” Populate both columns with five entries, assuming
the scenario as laid out in From the Buyer’s Seat 8.1. In the end, hopefully you will have
generated a list of excuses to break your word, followed by a better approach (than
actually breaking your word).
Student answers will vary. Here is a few examples:
Reasons I Might Not Keep a Promise as a
Salesperson
Alternative Behavior I Might Do, Rather
Than Breaking the Promise
Suggested Answers to Case Problems
Case 8-1: Presidential Aviation2 (Part B)
1. Develop a set of open and closed questions to fully discover Jorge Morales’s needs.
Answer will vary. Here are some examples of the types of questions that might be asked.
How many airline trips do you take in an average month? (closed)
2. Develop a set of SPIN questions to discover Jorge Morales’s needs.
Answer will vary. Here are some examples of the types of questions that might be asked.
How often do you fly each month? (situation)
Case 8-2: The Walt Disney Studios
1. Choose any single cell phone model you wish. Then go to the Web and learn about its
features.
2. Create a feature–benefit chart specifically for the Walt Disney Studios, taking into the
account the information provided in this case. Make sure you communicate about benefits that
are important to Disney in this specific situation.
Answers will vary, based on the model chosen, as well as the assumptions the student makes
about Disney’s needs. Here is a short example:
End of Chapter Role Play
For the Instructor:
The primary purpose of this end of chapter role plays is to work on SPIN and the needs identification
portion of the sales process. Review any difficulties that students have. Our students tell us that one
problem is simply understanding business processes and how Gartner can help. Another challenge is
developing good implication questions. Finally, a third problem is understanding how the questions
should link together. For example, a student will ask one overall problem question, one overall
implication question, and one overall needs pay-off question instead of probing for a specific need. Or the
student may think it has to be S then P, then I and then N. Remind them that the goal is to be
conversational.
If you intend to have them role play the presentation after reading Chapter 10, you may want to assign
them the task of putting together their visual aids for a presentation now and bring that to class. They can
then use these aids when making their presentation.
ARM Buyer Role Play Information
Chapter 8 End of Chapter Role Play Case
You are the vice-president of sales and marketing and new to the company. Because the company buys
loan portfolios and then makes money by collecting the loans, there has been no sales or marketing in the
past. However, the company is building up a lot of data about the people they collect from and this data
might have value. Your job is to figure out that value and turn that data into products. But you’re a sales
and marketing person, not a data analytics person, nor do you have the IT background to build systems to
support it.
You’ve hired a marketing director and a sales director. All three of you have been out to meet with banks,
financial services companies, retailers, and others who might be potential clients for the new services you
could offer. You have also met with data services providers, companies that aggregate consumer data from
various sources and then sell it to companies for marketing purposes.
For your new role to work, you have to be able to identify features of data products and work with IT to
build out the databases that can then be sold, or to create IT-based systems that can make those databases
work on a rental basis. As an example of a rental, a political candidate could hire your company to
distribute promotional materials to people who meet a certain set of criteria but the candidate would not
get the list – you would use the list to send out the material.
You’ve been told that you’ll get the resources, financial and otherwise, that you need. Your purpose today
is to learn if Gartner, or any consultant for that matter, can help accelerate your development of products
and services.
Note: do not read this to the seller. Answer questions as briefly as you can and
don’t give any information away.
FSS Buyer Role Play Information
Chapter 8 End of Chapter Role Play Case
You are the owner of FSS. A critical factor for your company is effective supply chain management
because the products you sell are not highly differentiated. Competing on cost is critical and a big part of
that is making sure there is no loss of material in the supply chain or wasted costs in the supply chain.
You’re hearing a lot about blockchain technology, the technology behind Bitcoin, as a way to prevent
fraudulent supply chain loss. You’re also hearing about new uses for RFID technology. It’s early in this
area but you and your IT folks need to get the jump on your competitors in the application of IT to supply
chain.
But at the same time, you’ve grown through some acquisitions and you plan more acquisitions in the
coming year. These acquisitions mean integration into existing IT systems and that has been proving to be
difficult. In fact, if you can’t get this year’s acquisitions integrated more fully quickly, you’ll have to put
off your plans for further acquisitions.
You asked your secretary to make this appointment because you heard from your IT person that this might
be a company that can help craft an IT-supply chain strategy while aiding in the integration of systems.
Note: do not read this to the seller. Answer questions as briefly as you can and
don’t give any information away.
Mizzen Industries Buyer Role Play Information
Chapter 8 End of Chapter Role Play Case
You are the VP of Sales for Mizzen. The company recently merged the two divisional sales organizations
to have both reporting to you, and laid off the other VP. This merger of sales organizations was done
because the government sales team really didn’t need its own VP, as it consists of people who respond to
bid requests. They don’t really sell, they are proposal writers. Your role previously was the commercial
market only, and you have four sales teams that report to you through regional sales managers.
You have also just identified a new market that will require some significant investment in both capital
equipment and sales and support. This market is the scaffolding installation, rental, and dismantle
business. Several of your most recent proposals have included leaving your scaffolding up so that
installers of insulation and fire-protection equipment can complete their jobs. You have been tasked with
building this new sales organization.
To do so, you plan to acquire a small scaffolding company. You know from your due diligence that the
company has weak IT systems. Critical to this business is inventory management of the scaffolding parts,
so that billing is done properly. If scaffolding isn’t being rented, you are losing money so you need to
manage that inventory carefully.
In addition, you will need a new CRM system, and you know you’ll need to build some form of electronic
customer lead generation process. Neither you nor the IT director have ever built a company from scratch
but you’re getting to do this now, and you need to be able to assess whether the current systems used on
the painting side will support the scaffolding side.
Your goal for today is to understand whether Gartner might be able to give you a process or support you
in your analysis so you can make the best investments in IT.
Note: do not read this to the seller. Answer questions as briefly as you can and
don’t give any information away.