AboutLeo Lingham Expertise Any questions around sales, sales planning, sales development,
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Experience 18 years in working management covering business planning,
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24 years in management consulting covering business planning,
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Expert: Leo Lingham Date: 3/15/2008 Subject: sales interview questions
Question Q.1
what is cross selling skills?
Q.2
what is called time management skills?
Answer KATAKARAJU,
HERE IS SOME USEFUL MATERIAL.
REGARDS
LEO LINGHAM
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WHAT IS CROSS SELLING SKILLS
SUGGESTION SELLING / CROSS SELLING
As a good salesperson, you must learn to suggest additional
merchandise to the customer and in an appropriate situation,
encourage them to buy better quality merchandise.
WHAT IS SUGGESTION selling?
Suggestion selling is the selling
technique through which you will give
the customer a buying idea that leads
to the purchase of additional items.
It is commonly identified with
selling additional merchandise
to the customer.
It is usually related, very
closely, to an idea expressed by
the customer.
Suggestion selling increases
sales.
The customer benefits from the
suggestion selling.
TYPES OF SUGGESTION selling
There are various types of
selling that you can use; each one
designed to sell additional
merchandise. You have to choose the
kind of suggestion that is applicable
to the sales situation.
RELATED MERCHANDISE
Items that can be used with the
article the customer has just bought
are called Related Merchandise.
original Item//Suggested Item
Shirt//Tie
Dress//Belt/scarf
Paint//Brush
Shoes//Shoe Polish
LARGER QUANTITIES
Suggestion of a larger quantity of
some items, can benefit the customers
‑ by way of economy and convenience.
NEW STOCK
Most customers appreciate it when you
tell them that new stocks have been
received by the store eg, Manchester.
NEW PRODUCTS
Customers are always interested in
hearing about the arrival of new
products eg, new summer dresses.
SPECIALs
As a good salesperson, you must
always suggest to the customers any
“special" sales.
SPECIAL OCCASION
As an alert salesperson, you should
make appropriate suggestions for
gifts for special occasions and when
possible remind the customers of
coming events eg Christmas Day,
Valentine's Day, Easter.
WHEN TO USE SUGGESTION selling
Satisfy the customer's original
before you suggest additional
items.
Usually, the best time to
suggest additional items is just
before the purchase is wrapped
and paid for, while the customer
is still in a buying mood.
HOW TO HANDLE SUGGESTION SELLING
To avoid any resentment on the
Part of the customers, follow
these three rules:
Explain the reason for the
suggestion before making
the suggestion itself.
Suggest a specific item, to
fit in with your customer's
buying situation.
Show and demonstrate the
item. Often the
merchandise will speak for
============================================
AS preparation, you must polish your product knowledge for each product
-features
-benefits of each features
-how the benefits will help the customers needs.
=============================================
WHAT IS TIME MANAGEMENT SKILLS
It means skillfully managing
-your workload
-your work schedule
maximizing your outcomes in an effective/ efficient way.
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Why do we need time management –
Take a minute to think through as to why do you need time management ?
What are your objectives of attending this program?
Some of the objectives according to us are :-
q To achieve our goals.
q Feel a sense of control.
q Reduce stress.
q Allocate time to areas that are important to us.
q Feel a sense of balance.
q Reduce effort.
q Enjoy life.
q Feel that we have a choice.
q Be efficient.
By using Time Management skills you can learn to:
· Determine which of the things you do are important, and which can be dropped
· Use your time in the most effective way possible
· Increase the time in which you can work
· Control the distractions that waste your time and break your flow
· Increase your effectiveness and reduce stress
By becoming more effective in your use of working time, you can reduce stress by:
· being more in control of what you do
· being productive, and secure in your job because of this
· enjoying what you do
· giving yourself more quality time to relax and enjoy life outside work
Definition of time management –
q It is the skill of taking action for the right reason at the right time in the right way.
Time can be of various types –
Biological time –
q This is the time we spend on sleep, physical recreation and food etc.
Social time –
q This is the time we spend on meeting friends, making social calls, talking on the telephone, family occasions, get-togethers, spend on self development like reading etc.
Business time –
q This is the time spent on meetings, interviews, data entry etc.
Demands on your time
How do you spend your day now?
Memory is a very poor guide when it comes to assessing how you spend your time - it is too easy to forget time spent talking to colleagues, making coffee, eating lunch, etc. It can also function poorly when you are at a low ebb during the day.
You may also be unaware that your energy levels may vary through the day - most people function at different levels of effectiveness at different times. This may be caused by the amount of sugar in their blood, the length of time since they took a break, routine distractions, stress, discomfort, etc.
How to use an Activity Log to find out
A revealing technique is to keep an Activity Log for several days. Without modifying your behaviour, note down the things you do as you do them, from the moment you start working. Every time you change activities, whether opening mail, working, making coffee, dealing with colleagues, gossiping, going to collect paper from a printer, etc., note down the time of the change.
As well as noting activities, it is worth noting how you feel, whether alert, flat, tired, energetic, etc. This should be done periodically throughout the day.
Analysing your log
Once you have logged your time for several days, analyse the log. You may be alarmed to see the length of time you spend opening mail, talking to colleagues, dealing with disruptions, or doing low value jobs!
You may also see that you are energetic in some parts of the day, and flat in other parts. A lot of this can depend on the rest breaks you take, the times and amounts you eat, and quality of your nutrition. The activity log gives you some basis for experimenting with these variables.
Now please do the following exercise –
Ř Decide where most of the demands on your time come from?
o List down the three major time demanders.
Ř Also decide where the least demands come from?
o List down the three least time demanders.
Which of these activities are value adding activities ?
Which of the activities are non value adding activities ?
There are common time wasters which need to be identified
In order for a time management process to work it is important to know what aspects of our personal management need to be improved. Below you will find some of the most frequent reasons for reducing effectiveness in the workplace. Tick the ones which are causing to be the major obstacles to your own time management. These we refer to as your "Time Stealers".
Identifying your time stealers
· Interruptions - telephone
· Interruptions - personal visitors
· Meetings
· Tasks you should have delegated
· Procrastination and indecision
· Acting with incomplete information
· Dealing with team members
· Crisis management (fire fighting)
· Unclear communication
· Inadequate technical knowledge
· Unclear objectives and priorities
· Lack of planning
· Stress and fatigue
· Inability to say "No"
· Desk management and personal disorganisation
Fortunately there are strategies you can use to manage your time, be more in control and reduce stress, but you can analyse your time and see how you may be both the cause and the solution to your time challenges.
Whats required is a - The Central Shift in Attitude
At the heart of the subject is a simple, but obvious, shift in focus:
Concentrate on results, not on being busy
Many people spend their days in a frenzy of activity, but achieve very little because they are not concentrating on the right things.
This is neatly summed up in the Pareto Principle*, or the 80/20 rule. This states that typically 80% of unfocussed effort generates only 20% of results, and that the remaining 80% of results are achieved with only 20% of the effort. By applying time management, including planning, we aim to change this to ensure that we concentrate as much of our effort as possible on the high payoff tasks. This ensures that we achieve the greatest payoff possible with our investment of time.
Below, we examine time management issues in more detail
1. Shifting priorities and crisis management. Management guru Peter Drucker says that "crisis management is actually the form of management preferred by most managers" The irony is that actions taken prior to the crisis could have prevented the fire in the first place.
2. The telephone. Have you ever had one of those days when you thought your true calling was in Telemarketing. The telephone-our greatest communication tool can be our biggest enemy to effectiveness if you don't know how to control its hold over you.
3.Lack of priorities/objectives. This probably the biggest/ most important time waster. It affects all we do both professionally and personally. Those who accomplish the most in a day know exactly what they want to accomplish. Unfortunately too many of us think that goals and objectives are yearly things and not daily considerations. This results in too much time spent on the minor things and not on the things which are important to our work/lives
4. Attempting too much. Many people today feel that they have to accomplish everything yesterday and don't give themselves enough time to do things properly. This leads only to half finished projects and no feeling of achievement.
5.Drop in visitors. The five deadliest words that rob your time are "Have you got a minute". Everyone's the culprit-colleagues., the boss, your peers. Knowing how to deal with interruptions is one of the best skills you can learn .
6.Ineffective delegation. Good delegation is considered a key skill in both managers and leaders. The best managers have an ability to delegate work to staff and ensure it is done correctly. This is probably the best way of building a teams moral and reducing your workload at the same time. The general rule is -this; if one of your staff can do it 80% as well as you can, then delegate it.
7. The cluttered desk. When you have finished reading this article look at your desk. If you can see less than 80% of it then you are probably suffering from 'desk stress'. The most effective people work from clear desks.
8.Procrastination. The biggest thief of time; not decision making but decision avoidance. By reducing the amount of procrastinating you do you can substantially increase the amount of active time available to you.
9. The inability to say "no!". The general rule is; if people can dump their work or problems on to your shoulders they will do it . Some of the most stressed people around lack the skill to 'just say no' for fear of upsetting people.
10. Meetings. Studies have shown that the average manager spends about 17 hours a week in meetings and about 6 hours in the planning time and untold hours in the follow up. I recently spoke to an executive who has had in the last 3 months 250 meetings It is widely acknowledged that about as much of a third of the time spent in meetings is wasted due to poor meeting management and lack of planning If you remember your goal is to increase your self management, these are the best ways to achieve.
