Many salespeople shun pre-call planning because they don’t know what else they can do. So, they rely on their personality or other strengths. Today, many industrial distributor salespeople are sales engineers who depend on their technical experience and application skills to sell.

These things work and are valuable, but selling still requires specific selling skills. Add selling skills and a selling plan and the result will be more new sales, more account penetration and higher margins.

The buying and selling process is dynamic. When two or more people interact in this process, you can’t always anticipate what will transpire. Successful professional salespeople know there is both a buying and a selling process.

Understanding each process leads to greater success.

The buying process
Every buyer goes through a buying process, whether buying a car, a big-screen TV or a power tool (see Figure 1). First, something attracts the buyer’s attention. An advertisement or even seeing the item in our daily routine can begin this step (actually, a good salesperson could attract your attention by presenting something they feel you may want or need). As you start to think about it, it arouses your interest.

The next few steps — building interest, creating a desire to buy and gaining conviction — may take a few minutes, or may take months or even years to complete. This depends on your personality, habits, constraints and others involved. But eventually you agree to buy and the process is complete.

Where does the salesperson fit into the process? Perhaps most salespeople aren’t sure. Many get lost in the dynamics of the sales call and cannot visualize where they are in the interaction or where they need to be.

The selling process
Just as a buyer goes through a buying process, there is also a selling process for sales professionals. The selling process relates to each step of the buying process and therefore becomes a framework for a selling plan.

A salesperson begins pre-call planning with the approach. This step attracts attention. It is a planned question or statement designed around the call objective. It begins the selling process and starts interaction.

The next step is analysis. It requires mastery of the finest skill in selling, which is the ability to ask the right questions. Using open-ended questions, the seller digs deep to discover needs and wants. Closed-ended questions confirm, qualify and redirect.

Professional salespeople spend time preparing, editing and carefully refining open-ended questions and questions designed to elicit critical information. Granted, the skill of questioning is spontaneous and requires experience, but the sales professional formulates the mind-set before a call.

The active presentation is the next step after discovering and confirming the buyer’s needs, wants and true buying motives. Here, sales aids, showmanship and enthusiasm are appropriate, since the salesperson presents solutions and sells value.

Based on the previous analysis, it’s time now to show your organization’s unique factors and value-added services. List these ahead of time. Relating these strengths and product features to customer benefits requires practice and forethought.

Objections happen. They can come at any time in the sales call. Salespeople should welcome them. They are clues to what is important to the buyer. Answering objections and gaining conviction logically lead to an agreement to buy and the close.

Many salespeople and sales teams face similar objections over and over. The best salespeople anticipate objections and develop answers before a call. It makes sense to develop and practice fine-tuned responses to some objections. That’s not to suggest salespeople give a rote reply. Practice and role playing can help sharpen skills. It’s better to work out the bugs of a response than to answer rashly in front of a customer. A finely crafted answer shows professionalism and can produce the correct reaction, which leads to closing the sale.

The final step is when the buyer agrees to buy and the deal is closed. Salespeople should always be closing. They should close on every call, and every step of the way should be designed for the close. Yes, this step should be planned, too.

What buying signals can you expect? How will you ask for the order? What commitment do you want? If you can’t get a sale, what will you ask for? Another meeting? Plan your call objectives and think about flexible back-up options ahead of time.

The sales process described here is called the “5 A’s Selling Plan” (Approach, Analysis, Active presentation, Answer objections, and Always be closing). Salespeople can incorporate all of the selling skills they learned and developed in the past to this framework. They can enhance it by adding more skills and experience. It’s a habit for a lifetime of selling. People skills, relationship building, communication, negotiation strategies and other selling skills are all compatible with this model.

Why a selling plan?
A key reason for pre-call planning is that the sales professional has a better sense of the dynamics in the interaction. Remember in school when you studied hard the night before a test? You reviewed the entire subject because you didn’t know what might end up on the test. Perhaps when you got to class the teacher announced it was an “open book, open notes” test. Ironically, you seldom referred to your notes. The material became a part of you and you performed.

Professional athletes also know the value of preparation. They work daily on basic skills. They memorize the playbook and watch videos to perfect fundamentals. They practice plays repeatedly so that whatever scenario occurs in the game, their response is natural and automatic. In selling, we call it the habit of selling.

The 5 A’s are easy to use and remember under pressure. Following the 5 A’s enables salespeople to recognize where they are in the process and respond accordingly.

Sales calls don’t go step-by-step. The buyer determines how the salesperson should proceed. Salespeople must be prepared for any step as it occurs. They must recognize where the buyer is in the process and be flexible.

It’s the salesperson’s job to influence and help the buyer through the process. Communication and people skills are critical. It’s like a dance where the seller follows the buyer’s lead. The seller may have an objective in mind, but if he moves too fast, he gets slapped; If he moves too slow, he misses out.

A planned call objective should drive every sales call. But the call is not about the salesperson alone. Somehow, the finale must be reached in a way that is win/win for the seller and the buyer. That takes forethought and planning.

Planning is a supreme way to show customer focus and a consultative style. Relationships thrive with this style and can evolve into long-term business and eventually partnerships.

Are you getting a glimpse of why sales organizations need a selling plan? How much more effective could your sales team be if it followed a pre-call plan format?

Using common terminology improves team communication, enables team members to make adjustments and sharpens one another’s skills. A selling plan also enhances post-call evaluation for continuous improvement. It can even foster the relationship between manufacturers and distributors if each utilizes a common planning format.

A call to action
In this changing world of selling, preparation is more important than the presentation. Savvy sales managers consider pre-call planning a required performance activity.

The days of making the rounds are over. Slick showboats who only bring doughnuts and lunch are out of date.

Now, customers expect a sales professional who is there to help them. They want needs met and problems solved. They require product knowledge and technical expertise. Communication, listening and people skills are also a must. Engineering or manufacturing experience can often help. Creativity is a plus.

Do you remember Marcus Welby, the classic TV doctor? He spent a great deal of time outside of the office call hitting the books and searching for that elusive solution. All sales professionals should become “Doctors of Selling.”

Aggressive competition, e-commerce, trained buyers, fewer salespeople, larger regions, team selling, lower margins and a host of other changes face the industrial distributor. End-user consolidation makes for bigger customers, fewer customers and do-or-die proposals.

Today, every call counts. 

Don Buttrey is vice president of marketing with Butler Learning Systems. He can be reached at (888) 298-7462.

This article originally appeared in the Progressive Distributor 2000 ASMMA/I.D.A. spring edition. Copyright 2000.