HOSPITALITY SALES MANAGEMENT

HA - 400

ROLE-PLAY COURSE PACK

ROLE-PLAY IVb – STRATEGIC SALES PLANNING FORM

“Anticipating and Negotiating Sales Resistance ”

OVERVIEW

Planning for Buyer Resistance is Key to Presentation Success

1. Assume that buyers will generally resist at least one of the salesperson's proposed "Need/Benefit Statements."

2. Price is almost always resisted.

3. Plan by anticipating and then preparing the Strategic Sales Planning Form:

a. What Type of Resistence will potentially be encountered (see "Types of Resistance" below)?

b. What might the customer say when resisting?

c. What method or technique (See "7 Techniques" ) might the salesperson use?

d. What, exactly, might the salesperson say (exact verbal response) to negotiate this resistence (See "FEEL/FELT/FOUND Guide" )

Common Types and Patterns of Customer's Concerns

While there are infinite types of questions or concerns that a potential customer can raise, there are five common categories of questions which a salesperson can expect to be asked:

1. Concerns related to the need for the product/service. For example, "I don't need your product/service."

2. Concerns related to the product/service itself. For example, "I'm not familiar with your brand."

3. Concerns related to the source of supply. For example, "I have been buying from Marriott for years."

4. Concerns related to time. For example, "I want time to think it over."

5. Concerns related to price (the most common form of concern). For example, "This is too far above my budget."

Advantages of Preparation Before Meeting With the Customer

Knowing the most common forms of customer concerns is an advantage to salespeople. With this knowledge, they can anticipate customer concerns and prepare potential responses to them. Of course, one can only guess all of a customer's concerns, however, if the customer is well-known and researched, an approximate guess will get the salesperson into the ballpark. What are some specific types of responses that a salesperson could pre-plan if he or she anticipated any of the above common types of concerns?

Below is the Strategic Sales Planning Form that is prepared in advance of the sales persentation for the purpose of anticipating ALL potential customer resistance points. The salesperson should do serious thinking and preparation before meeting with the customer and making a "sales presentation." While the salesperon may or may not encounter these specific objections (may be surprized by other ones, the types listed are the most common and clearly gives the prepared salesperson an advantage over the unprepared.

To prepare, the salesperson will complete the form for all anticipated resistance. There are two parts:

1. Anticipating the Sales Resistance

2. Preparing a Potential Response to the Resistance

HOMEWORK: Complete the following form

IVa - STRATEGIC SALES PLANNING FORM: