Whether you`re an aspiring sales rep, a marketer working with your company`s sales department, or an experienced salesperson looking to refresh your vocabulary, we`ve put together 81 basic sales terms that serve as a reminder or booster. A purchase signal is a verbal or non-verbal signal that shows that a customer is ready to make a purchase, e.B sign up for a free trial or ask for details about the contract. Capturing these signals can help sales reps better focus their attention on customers who give more buy signals. Another topic of discussion is the need to align and integrate the company`s sales and marketing functions. According to a report by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council, only 40% of companies have formal programs, systems or processes in place to align and integrate the two critical functions. An account development representative develops sales strategies, identifies potential customers, maintains a solid understanding of the current market, and participates in all other activities that help a company achieve its sales goals. Prospecting is the process of finding potential buyers. This is the first step in the sales process, and the goal is to move those potential customers into the sales funnel and turn them into loyal customers. As mentioned earlier, an additional strength of face-to-face sales is that measuring marketing effectiveness and determining ROI for personal sales is much easier than for other marketing communication tools, where remembering or changing attitudes is often the only measurable effect. Personal sales also minimize wasted effort.
Advertisers can spend a lot of time and money on a mass marketing message that reaches many people outside the target market (but doesn`t lead to additional sales). In personal sales, the sales force locates the target market, establishes contact and focuses on efforts that are very likely to lead to a sale. Customer lifetime value is a prediction of profit that results from a relationship with a customer. ClV can be affected by customer lifecycle time, retention rate, churn rate, and average customer profits. There are two types of CLVs: cross-selling is about finding more than one solution that helps a particular customer. This can happen at the time of the first purchase or later, when the sales representative has established a relationship with the customer. A case involves a problem that a customer has presented to a sales representative that needs to be resolved. These files can be opened for a variety of reasons, for example. B when you need help using a product or making changes to a customer`s profile information. Sales pipeline coverage is a ratio that compares the progress of your sales pipeline with your quota over a period of time.
It`s a good indicator of the sales team`s performance and helps predict your company`s ability to grow. A sound bite is a set of words or phrases that a sales rep has prepared to help them communicate quickly and effectively with a potential customer. There are countless terms used in the field of sales, and even experts use certain words incorrectly. Mastering each sales term is not an easy task, but it is necessary to communicate effectively in your sales department. A weighted sales pipeline is a version of the sales pipeline in which each opportunity is assigned a value based on its current stage in the sales process. A custodian is a person who allows or prevents information from reaching the intended person in a business. An example of this would be a personal assistant that sends a message to a decision-maker, the intended recipient. Selling is the profession-wide term, similar to how marketing defines a profession. Recently, attempts have been made to clearly understand who is in the sales profession and who is not.
There are many articles that deal with marketing, advertising, promotions, and even public relations to create a unique transaction. A sales dashboard is a data visualization method that presents your key sales metrics in an easy-to-understand way. Sales dashboards can be created for a variety of questions related to sales service, such as performance. B, conversions and completed activities. The buying process is the step a buyer encounters in their journey to find a solution and buy a product. The buying process can be broken down into more specific steps, but they are all divided into three main steps: An essential part of understanding the fundamentals of selling is capturing customer relationship management (CRM) software. CRM is the main tool used by companies to track potential interactions and business progress. It`s helpful to draw conclusions to find the most effective ways to attract, convert, and retain customers. CPQ software, also known as Configure Price Quote software, helps companies automate the process of quoting and sending quotes to customers. This cycle begins when a customer expresses their needs to a company and ends when an offer is sent.
The purpose of using CPQ software is to speed up the process, create an accurate quote and improve customer relationships. A business development representative is a member of the sales team who focuses on outgoing leads. This means that they reach people in the hope that they will become a sales opportunity. A final drawback of personal sales is that sellers have different levels of motivation. Sales reps may vary in their willingness to make the desired number of sales calls each day. Make service calls that do not lead directly to sales; or to take full advantage of the technologies at their disposal. A person or organization that expresses an interest in acquiring the item of value offered is called a potential buyer, potential customer or interested party. Buying and selling are understood as two sides of the same “coin” or transaction. Both the seller and the buyer conduct a negotiation process to complete the exchange of value.
The process of exchange or sale has implicit rules and identifiable phases. It is implied that the sales process is fair and ethical, so that in the end, the parties are rewarded almost equally. The stages of selling and buying include getting to know each other, assessing each party`s needs for the other party`s valuables, and determining whether the values to be exchanged are equivalent or almost equivalent or, in the buyer`s words, “worth the price.” Sometimes sellers need to use their own experience when selling products at appropriate discounts. [2] ABC is an acronym that means “always close.” This is a sales strategy based on the idea that every action of a salesperson during their sales process is aimed at closing a deal. Face-to-face sales use face-to-face interaction to sell products and services. This type of communication is carried out by commercial agents who represent the personal link between a buyer and a company or the products or services of a company. Sales representatives not only inform potential customers about a company`s products or services, but they also use their persuasion and remind customers of product characteristics, service contracts, prices, offers, etc. In addition to improving customer relationships, this type of marketing communication tool can also be a powerful source of customer feedback. Later, we`ll discuss marketing alignment with the sales process in more detail.
This section focuses on personal selling as a possible tool in the advertising mix. The sales process and sales methodology are often confused, so let`s break it down visually. An account contains all records of customer interactions, including contact information, preferred services, and transactions with your business. An account is created after a customer makes their first purchases from your company. Forecasting is the act of estimating future sales so that companies can make better business decisions and predict performance. Forecasts can be based on past sales data, industry comparisons, or economic trends. Many companies struggle to get an agreement between their marketing and sales teams. [8] The two departments, although of a different nature, deal with very similar concepts and must work together to achieve the company`s objectives.
Building a good relationship between the two teams that promotes communication can be the key to success. Closed-won is when a sales representative closes a transaction and the customer buys a solution. Integration is the act of introducing your solution to a customer and getting them to use it after the purchase. It can also be the hiring and training of a new sales representative. A sales methodology is the framework that describes how your sales reps approach each step of the sales process. A sales methodology includes philosophy, values and principles. A value proposition is the presentation of the benefits that a solution offers to its customers. A good value proposition (presented during the value demonstration phase in the sales process) will meet the individual needs of that particular customer. You`ll find that many of the CRM terms listed below refer to handling a related selling term mentioned above, especially if they relate to a stage of the buying process or the sales funnel. This is because CRM is a system that allows sales reps, marketers, and customer service reps to find ways to better manage customers at each of these stages or throughout their sales process.
A final strength of personal sales is the variety of tasks that field service can perform. For example, in addition to selling, a seller may also collect payments, service or repair products, return products, and collect product and marketing information. .