UNCG
Bryan School of
Business and Economics
executiveeducation. uncg .edu
M eet the Bryan S chool
Executive Educa tion Progra ms .
The Faculty
Selling in Competitive Markets
Learn to sell value and take price out of the conversation
Learn the magic questions to manage the conversation
Learn the secrets to differentiating your product offering
Learn how to sell more profitably, confidently, and professionally
This course is designed to provide a foundation of knowledge concerning value-based
selling, buyer behavior and general sales skills useful for both new and experienced
salespeople. Salespeople will enhance their ability to make calls customer specific. The
course emphasizes communication skills – doing so through role-playing and other
exercises designed to reinforce the materials being covered. The development of effective
methods of handling customer objections/concerns and gaining buyer commitment will be
addressed. This program will also provide participants with an opportunity to gain
additional practice in the areas of identifying and communicating value as defined
differently by different customers. Finally, the Selling Skills Course will focus on providing
service to customers, conducting effective follow-up, dealing with difficult customers, and
negotiating effectively in the sales environment.
Who should attend:
Sales representatives, key account and sales force managers in charge of developing and
executing sales strategies.
Non-salespeople who do not view selling as their main activity – yet spend much of their
time with clients conducting on-going business and generating new business opportunities
such as CPAs, Lawyers, and entrepreneurs, as well as small business owners.
Product managers, marketers, and sales force support people responsible for developing
sales programs, sales collateral, economic value calculators, proposals, etc.
Customer service people, logistics people, and others whose responsibilities bring them
into direct or indirect contact with customers.
Objectives:
Participants will be able to:
-Identify and communicate value
-Conduct customer-focused sales strategies
-Select the proper type of questions to use at critical points during the sales call
Customize their investigation process to increase their effectiveness with
customers/clients by:
- Prospecting more intelligently
- Qualifying prospects more accurately
- Closing more effectively
- Serving customers more economically
- Managing relationships more profitably
- Handle difficult conversations more professionally
- Negotiating more effectively
The Specifics
The two-day seminar meets from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. each day. It combines lecture and
discussion, real business and industrial examples, case studies, and exercises. The class
size is intentionally kept small to provide ample time for extensive discussion and
interaction. Participants are encouraged to bring specific account situations to examine and
work on during the seminar.
The Faculty
Selling
in Competitive Markets
I. Customer Focused Selling: This section will identify what buyers expect from the salesperson in the current sales environment.
Salespeople will understand what it means to be “customer-focused” and how to convey that to the buyer. The internal
organizational implications of firm and salesperson being customer focused will also be discussed.
II. Value-Based Selling: The concept of value will be fully explained and tools for calculating customer value, perceived value, and
effectively communicating complex offerings to customers will be presented and utilized to creative customer specific value
propositions.
III. Use the 7-Step Sales Process: After completing this section, salespeople will understand the stages in the sales process model
and appropriate sales activities that take place at each stage. Further, they will understand how to take the most effective action.
IV. The Buying Process: This module will present and examine the process buyers use in making purchase decisions, and how the
sales process model overlays onto the buying process model. They will also understand how the salesperson can influence the
buying process at each stage and how to respond when encountering a buyer at any stage of the process.
V. Communication Skills-Selling is all about communication: Listening is a key skill underlying the entire value communication
process. This module will assess the listening skills of each participant, offer suggestions about how to enhance listening skills, and
analyze the precision required in word selection during sales calls.
Vl. The 5 Question Investigation Process: This module examines the importance of asking the “right” question. After completing
this module, salespeople will know the 5 key question types and which of those is most important, once again, the importance of
listening will be emphasized due to its critical role in the investigation process. Seminar participants will develop skills based on
proven sales questioning techniques that they will use in role-play scenarios.
Vll. Identifying a Customer’s Ideal Value Equation: This module builds on the 5 Question Sequence skills presented in Module
VI. Salespeople will learn how to use questioning techniques to get customers to clearly identify aspects of the product/service
offering that are vitally important and which ones are of lesser importance. This information can then be used to build more effective
presentations that result in more effective sales calls.
Vlll. Responding to Customer Concerns: Effectively responding to customer questions and objections is addressed in this module
lX. Asking for Agreement: In this module salespeople will further develop their ability to gain customer agreement on the “next
step” to be accomplished in the sales process – whether it is another sales call or getting a signed contract. We will examine this
issue from the buyer’s perspective. Appropriate and inappropriate approaches will be identified.
X. Effective Follow-up: Effectively following up after a sales call, whether successful or unsuccessful is critically important to longterm sales success. This module addressing how to conduct follow-up activities that are both effective and resource efficient.
XI. Dealing with Unhappy/Dissatisfied Customers: Dealing with unhappy customers provides a challenge for all salespeople.
This section will provide a model to help salespeople deal with angry customers. It will provide them with a set of skills that will help
defuse buyer anger, and build resolution in their areas of concern.
When: May 17-18
Tuition: $995 per person, and includes all materials, meals and campus parking.
Where: The Bryan School of Business
Interested? Complete the application at executiveeducation.uncg.edu
Pattie J Hollinger
Executive Education
Joseph M. Bryan School of Business and Economics
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
CS
PO Box 26170
Greensboro, NC 27402-6170
336-334-3088
pjhollin@uncg.edu
The Faculty
Dr. James Boles 2014 winner of the AMA Sales SIG Lifetime
Achievement Award
Dr. James S. Boles, Department Head of the Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Hospitality, and Tourism
Department, was the 2014 winner of the American Marketing Association’s Sales Special Interest
Group’s Lifetime Achievement Award. He received this award for his outstanding contributions to sales
research and education.
Department Head of the Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Hospitality, and Tourism Department in the Bryan
School of Business and Economics, Dr. Boles was Professor of Marketing at Georgia State University
(GSU) from 1990-2013, and received his Ph.D. from Louisiana State University in 1991. At GSU, he
received recognition awards from the Robinson College of Business for research (1997; 2001) teaching
(1996), and Service (2006). Prior to returning to academia, Professor Boles worked in sales in the areas
of investments and real estate. He taught in GSU’s internationally recognized MBA, PMBA, and EMBA.
He was a former editor of the Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, and was the codirector of the GSU sales program. He has published over 60 academic journal articles and has
numerous other publications.
John Chapman, Adjunct Professor of Strategic Selling and Sales
Management.
John holds an MBA from the Babcock School of Management at Wake Forest University and a BS in
Finance from the University of Connecticut. He brings 29 years of experience leading high level sales
efforts in start-ups and established international companies in retail, manufacturing and energy such as
Kennametal Inc., Stanley Works and Coca-Cola. He has also served on the board of directors
for several start-ups and has been a member of the board of directors for Junior Achievement since
2002. John has also been named Junior Achievement Chair of the Board for the 2014/2015 fiscal year.
Currently, John consults in the home improvement and energy industries and is the Director of Business
Development for Executive Education and Adjunct Professor for the Joseph M. Bryan School of
Business and Economics at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro.