Internal (Peer) Training Sessions

Sales & Marketing

Introduction to Marketing & Sales

Feb 4, 2023 (Saturday) Thamil Mani Sethuram

8.30PM SWIFTi Consultants
Session Plan

Session 1 - Introduction to Marketing & Sales

Session 2 – Consumer Behaviour

Session 3 – Segmenting, Targeting & Positioning (STP)

Session 4 – Brand Management

Session 5 – Services Marketing

What is Marketing

Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating and
delivering, offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.

^Set of institutions: various tools, practices, approaches and mechanisms that we would use in a marketing role
What can be marketed
Goods - refrigerators, television sets

Services - lawyers, doctors, beautician

• Goods • Places Experiences - River rafting, Hiking

• Services • Properties Events - Exhibitions (say Arab Health), Olympics

Persons - Film Stars (by their agency), Musicians, Directors

• Experiences • Organizations
Place - Economic Zones (MEPZ), Tourist City like Mahabalipuram,
• Events • Information Kerala God’s own land

• Persons • Ideas Property – Tangible or intangible (real estate/ stocks/ bonds)

Organizations – Museums, University, NGOs etc

Information – Magazine, Study Material (Byju’s)

Ideas – (by social marketers) Nokia – Connecting People;

Apple – Think Different
Customer needs

Customer needs can be summarized as:

• Stated needs: the customer wants an car

• Real needs: The customer wants a car whose operating cost, not initial price, is low.

• Unstated needs: Good service from dealer

• Delight needs: customer want some added feature such as GPS

• Secret Needs: The customer wants friends to see him or her as a rich and savvy consumer.

Customer Vs Consumer > Buy Vs User

Need, Want, Demand & Target Marketing
Needs are human requirements (may or may not be backed by desire and purchasing power)

Wants are needs directed to specific objects/services that might satisfy the need, without which one
can survive & exist: car, cell phone

Demand is the want for specific products backed by an ability to pay.

Demand = Want + willing to pay + purchasing power (ability to pay)

TARGET MARKETING

Very rarely does a product cater to the entire market.

Most products are designed to cater to a group of customers who specifically want such a product.

This group of customers is called a market segment.

Who is our market segment?

Marketing Mix

It is the tools that an organization employs to pursue its marketing objectives in the target market

4P’s-Product, Price, Place, Promotion

4C’s – Customer solution (Wants & Needs), Cost (Overall), Convenience, Communication
Value

Value in products a comparison of benefits vs sacrifices (costs):

Benefits = Functional Benefits ( include the phone capability of an iPhone, the thirst-quenching offered by a
bottle of water and the UV Protection of a Sun glass) + Emotional benefits (“feel-good” factor when
purchasing well-known brand)

Costs = Monetary costs (price) + Time (search) + Energy (effort) + Psychic costs (risk of not buying other
alternate products)
Few Facts on Sales

Sales is a science, sales has a fixed process

Sales is the number 1 factor, which can make or break a company

One does not need to be born as a natural sales person

Sales is a craft that one can learn

The single most important ingredient to success in sales is Discipline

What is Sales

Sales is the act of selling a goods or service, usually in exchange for cash (money).

A sales is said to be completed only when the buyer has received the goods / service
in full and the seller has received the payment in full.

Understand the sales cycle

Making the payment Pizza is received &

Choosing the pizza Preparation of Pizza Pizza is being served
consumed
Types of Sales

B B
B2B refers to a process where-in 1 company makes a commercial

transaction With another company

A business may produce products / materials needed by another

Business to manufacture their products.

There is a vertical hierarchy in the organization thereby increasing the

sales cycle

B C
Focus is more on revenue, cost decrease, payment terms (more tangible)

In B2C, sale happens by the organization directly to the customer/ consumer

The product is usually a finished a good and consumed by the customer

No vertical hierarchy but horizontal hierarchy (circles of influence)

Shorter sales cycles

Higher levels of emotions involved in the purchase

Steps of Sales – B2C Environment

1. Arousal of Interest (sales person’s job) >> Product display, Product presentation, merchandizing, Product information

2. Intent to buy/ dissatisfaction (reason to purchase/ the current product is not working well, time to upgrade etc.)

3. Understand the reason behind the intent / dissatisfaction

4. Understand the dissatisfaction

5. Create choices

6. Create urgency

7. Negotiate

8. Close
Steps of Sales – B2B Environment

Prospecting / Lead Stage – Find the best lead and follow up on them
How to generate leads^
Have an ideal customer profile in mind^

Generate interest – Trial or Demo / Opportunity Stage

Proposal / Closing Stage – involves negotiation and understand customer closing signals

New customer
Key to B2B Sales

Generating enough leads – cold calling, trade fairs, newsletters, social media, trade publications,
industry list, meet up groups, personal contacts, friends of friends

Talk to the right people – the decision maker/ persons involved in decision making
At least aim to reach them as early as possible
Do some research in internet, check is contacts etc.
Don’t talk to people who have no authority or no influence

Know who you are talking^ to – Senior Management / Middle Management / Operational Staffs
Tailor your message accordingly

Have a good pitch

Generate as much interest in your first contact knowing your USP well | Getting peoples attention is hard
Keep finding what you can do for the customer, but don’t over promise in the beginning
Create value to convert lead into an opportunity
Ask the right questions to understand the customer & their business to maximize value creation. 70% listening, 30% talking
Key to B2B Sales …cont

Understand the authority / influence of the person and who is the buying group

Price & Budget

Does the customer know the value your product offers and if he is willing to pay for it

Time frame of purchase – immediate / when?

Before you attempt a closure make sure & validate if the value is clear to the customer
Various Scenario

SCENARIO A SCENARIO B SCENARIO C

VALUE PRICE VALUE PRICE VALUE PRICE

Go back & Create more value Negotiate a deal Close the deal
Step away Sign a bigger and extended contract
Alternative: Give a discount Overall price adjustment

If you win the deal – congratulations and understand what helped you seal the deal
If you didn’t – analyse where the gap was and what could have changed the scenario
Analysing Closures

Prospecting / Lead Stage – Find the best lead and follow up on them
How to generate leads^ Check Conversion Rate. If poor,
Have an ideal customer profile in mind^ Lead? Contact Person? Pitch?

Generate interest – Trial or Demo / Opportunity Stage

Check Conversion Rate. If poor,
Value Creation? Presentation?
Proposal / Closing Stage – involves negotiation and understand Setting?
customer closing signals
Check Conversion Rate. If poor,
Objection Handling?
New customer

Your forecast should be based on Data rather than Gut Feeling

Be interested, Be positive, Be authentic, Be likable

 Handling Sales Objections

The Feel, Felt, Found method of Empathy

Attempt Redirection, through

Feel Felt Found

1. Empathize with the customer – “feel” their concern and acknowledge their view point

2. Relate to similar objections share by other customers in the past and accept that others too have “felt” the same

3. Give a possible solution to the customer objection, saying what I “found” is this
How to Handling Sales Objections

1. Clarify with questions. Objections are most times due to a misunderstanding

Mirror the final word of the buyer with an upward tone

“Your price is too high”. Your price is too high? (Pause 3-4 sec)

“Boss said no”. Your boss said no! (Pause 3-4 sec)

2. Validate their concern

Give the customer the feeling that they have been understood

Acknowledge their concern by saying “That’s a valid concern, it seems like you are _______________”

3, Isolate the objection

Sometimes the customer may be having a different objection but unable to articulate it

As, “if we somehow figured out how to solve that completely, what other objections you have that we have to overcome to move forward?”
How to Handling Sales Objections
4. Gain permission to overcome – this is one of the most critical step in objection handling
Neutralize the buyers mind

How to use “Can I give a suggestion?” – This triggers defensiveness, making the customer feel you are trying to dominate him by giving a “suggestion”
Instead, say, can I bounce a few thoughts off to you?

5. Address the objection

Smoke screen – peel the onion to find the real objection. Solution – isolation
Concerns – customer is sold out but has a few emotional (usually fear) concern (like a long delivery lead time, lengthy installation process)

Objections – these are true objections. Reframe. Explore if a problem can be reframed as opportunity, weakness as strength, poor timing as perfect timing
Conditions – these are not objections, but (disqualifying) problems that need to be solved to get the deal. (eg. They don’t have cash!)

Complacency – not an objection, but a buying problem. Relook the sales approach and figure out how to build urgency. Urgency is about building pain &

not selling benefits

6. Confirm an unbiased resolution

“What part of your concern is still unresolved”

7. Attempt to surface others

“what other concerns/ reservations you have still?
What makes customers to not buy

1 No Need / Low need – qualify & disqualify them quickly

2 No Urgency – “I’ll get back to you”, “can me next month”. Create urgency.

3 No Desire. People don’t buy what they need, they buy what they want – car, house, vacation. Make your product desirable

4 No Money. May be they are saying I don’t see enough value in your product. Present your offer in a compelling way. Value Vs. Money

5 No Trust – Product/ Service / Company. Give social proofs, KOL testimony

Sales in Medtec Industry

What’s unique to Medtec Industry

1. Customer – Customer here is a doctor. Very learned & well informed. They like to talk with informed people

2. Fixing a Meeting time – While meeting times are pre-fixed, doctors may get into emergencies and sales person may have to wait

3. Time during F2F – Doctors are always hard pressed for time. They will a small window of time to explain the product. Hence pitching
has to concise and fast
4. Highly Referral Business – Doctors usually takes opinion from another doctors to buy

5. Key Opinion Leaders (KOL) – Some doctor’s opinions are taken as Gospel’s Truth

6. Consumer Vs Customer – Doctor’s register the need, management closes it

7. Demo Intensive – Doctor’s would want to see the product, many times on live patients
Sales Effort in Medtec Industry
Multi-functional effort

Sales Application Specialist

(Usually A Biomedical Engg.)
- Demand generation - (Pre-sales) Product
- Need : Product Demonstration to
mapping & product doctor
positioning - Be with Doctor
- Commercials – nego along with live
& closure patients

------------------------ - (Post-sales) product

training
- Doctor
------------------------
- Nursing Team
- Doctor
- Biomedical
- Biomedical
- Purchase
- Nursing Team
- Finance
Before we close – the secret to success
Any Questions?