MKT 341 Sales Sales Presentation Instructions

Objective Applying what you have learned in MKT 341, your team will deliver a polished sales presentation to a targeted customer. Your presentation should put into practice many of the concepts/skills/ideas we discussed including: y Trust development y Value driven reasons for buying y Benefit statements tailored to customer needs y Active listening y Visual communications y Competitive knowledge y Understanding potential buyer objections y Team selling y Adaptive selling techniques y Post-sales follow up and service plan y Securing commitment/closing y Developing sales strategy Format Your presentation should be no longer than 20 minutes. You can use any visuals you deem compelling. Keep in mind, however, that your audience is a busy, corporate customer. Your presentation should include a written proposal that can be left with the customer in order to summarize the main points of your solutions based selling strategy, including benefits to the customer, basic pricing information/options, and relevant postsale support/follow up. The proposal should be around 3-5 pages max and can incorporate visuals and graphics for added strength as a post-presentation selling device. The proposal is a sales tool, not a paper. With that said, it should still be carefully worded, professionally written and appropriately constructed as a reflection of your selling team. You will also be expected to produce a brief account plan that summarizes your selling strategy by identifying relevant products or services that represent solutions to customer needs. The plan should follow the format attached.

Grading The presentation is worth 100 points. You will be graded based upon your team as well as individual contributions to the selling effort. Points awarded will be allocated from following elements: 1. Persuasiveness of delivery 2. Product knowledge 3. Customer knowledge 4. Quality of proposal 5. Sales strategy and account plan

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The presentation is should reflect a true team effort. You cannot simply divide up the work, regroup two weeks later to present and expect to succeed. Your team will be expected to act like a sales team. That means brainstorming on all of the areas above and functioning as a cohesive unit to create a presentation that everyone would be capable of delivering either together or individually. Each team will have a debrief where the instructor will act as your sales director while asking questions that will determine the success of the sales call. During that time your team will also be expected to discuss its sales strategy and account plan. If you successfully worked as a team you will most likely all receive the same grades. If there is a clear lack of team focus, and each of you operate as individual presenters with no cohesiveness or commitment to each others success, that will be reflected in the grades received. You will be evaluated according to the evaluation sheet attached. Categories 1-3 (Delivery, Product knowledge, Customer knowledge) will result in individual grades. The last two categories (Quality of proposal and Sales strategy and account plan) will be a rating the entire team shares. Failure to attend your teams presentation will result in a grade of zero. Also, keep in mind that there is no set organization of, or sections for, the presentation. Each of the grading elements as well as the list of things each presentation should contain are not divisible sections. Each team member should have something to contribute in each area. This is not an exercise that allows for three people to each present one after another with the idea that a sales presentation will result. If that is your team approach you will necessarily fail in the exercise. Select a Company and Product or Products Below is a list of companies that you can choose to represent as a sales team: Verifone Oracle Intel Coremetrics Oce Verizon Siemens Cisco Google IBM SAS Phillips

Once you choose a company, you must choose a product/service or set of products/services you wish to pitch to that customer. Be as specific as possible especially when you talk about the benefits, pricing options and follow up that your proposal will include. Find this information on the companys website as well as through general searches in ABI Inform and Business Source Premier. The bulk of your information will come from the companys website. I specifically chose companies that provide significant information about their products and services so that you can put together a proposal for a business customer. Select a Customer You cannot sell without a customer. As far as prospects, choose one from the list below. Make sure you choose logically. For example, if you choose a healthcare organization as your customer and Coremetrics (a provider of website analytics) as the company for which your team sells, you better have a solid strategy in terms of your sales focus that would logically allow for a healthcare organization to purchase a service on website metrics in response to a business problem or need. Specifically, one that is based upon

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matching your selected companys products/solutions to the specific customers problem or need. Assume you are selling to the entire company and not simply one division or portion of it. Potential customers are: Target Tenet Healthcare Fedex McDonalds American Eagle (AEO) Wal-Mart JetBlue

When selling to your chosen customer, you will be expected to demonstrate knowledge about the industry as well as their individual business and their needs. You will, at the minimum, be expected to demonstrate an understanding and application of an industry report form IBIS World, SWOT analysis from the Datamonitor profile as well as recent events as disclosed in their most recent annual report (10K.) Remember, the goal of successful selling is to provide a tailored solution to a customer-specific problem or industry-wide issue. You must identify the problem and ensure that it comes through in your presentation. Complete Your Account Plan (Attached) As stated above, you will be expected to identify customer and industry needs in order to tie them to specific solutions, benefits via the products or services you are selling. The best way to begin this process is to complete the simulated and simplified (these things can be very complex in the real world!) account plan. There is no length minimum of maximum. Use bullet points to summarize relevant points. It shouldnt really read like a paper so much as a list of action items, concerns, thought-starters, points that need to be addressed etc. In order to complete the account plan you will need to spend significant time analyzing the companys Datamonitor report, their website and recent SEC filings (most recent 10K, 10Qs and 8Ks.) For industry information review the IBIS world industry survey. The inks to these resources with instructions on how to use them will be available on the course website (calstatela.libguides.com/mkt341). You should also review the companys recent financial results (Factiva is good for this) as well as recent news and industry press stories about your company that could indicate a potential problem the company is facing or area in which it wants or needs to do better. News can be gathered from ABI Inform, Business Source, LexisNexis and Factiva. If you simply Google your company to see whats new with them you probably wont get any useful data. Your completed account plan and notes from your research should provide the basis for your presentation and proposal. The best way to tackle this problem is for EVERYONE on the team to read the relevant reports and then get together to brainstorm the account plan, presentation and proposal. If you divide up the work you will not be acting as a team and will lose the benefit of multiple viewpoints and analytical conclusions. Also, you will not have the knowledge base needed to act as a team. It will show and it will adversely affect your grade. You must bring your completed account plan to class for the debrief session after your presentation.

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Create your Presentation and Proposal Your teams presentation should be presented with power point slides. It can include anything you consider valuable in terms of making your pitch. Specific elements to include are: o Introduction slide that includes team members names and affiliation/company o Agenda slide that outlines what will be covered o Overview of company (trust builder) o Product information required for customer to make a buying decision o Specify unique value and benefits to buyer o Differentiate from competition o Anticipate and overcome likely objections o Overview of support/follow up o Pricing options o Close The proposal should reinforce the presentations points and act as a voice for the sales team once they have left the customer. This should be no more than 3-5 pages and reflect a compelling summary of why the customer should choose your product/solution. Your presentation should be engaging, compelling and interesting but not frivolous or wasteful in terms of your audiences time. Creativity is good. So is humor. Just remember that these cannot overcome a lack of substance in terms of products or services that represent solutions to problems created by need. Ones that are uniquely valuable to your customer that only your company is in a position to offer. Good luck! If you have any questions or problems of any kind contact your professor ASAP in order to figure out a resolution.

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MKT 341 Salesmanship Account Plan

Account Information: (Business Description, Revenue Analysis, Company Analysis, Industry Description, Industry Analysis)

Account Opportunities: (Company and Industry Specific Needs)

Basis for Unique Value: (Specific Products that meet Needs and their Benefits)

Obstacles: (Product Limitations, Competitive Solutions, Potential Customer Objections)

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MKT 341 Sales Presentation Evaluation

Team Members 1. Final Grade:

2.

Final Grade:

3.

Final Grade:

1. Persuasive delivery y Smooth, conversational presentation y Rapport and trust established y Minimal verbal fillers y No reading y Well organized information y Consistently reinforces benefits and value to customer y Appropriate introductions, agenda setting and conclusion y Compelling visuals y Strong word choice Team Member #1 Comments: Team Member #2 Comments: Team Member #3 Comments:

Points:

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2. Product knowledge y Clear explanation of product that was appropriate to the customer y Connected the product to specific customer needs y Fully explained any tiered product offerings y Offered appropriate information choices, options or customizations y Gave enough information that encouraged a confident buying decision y No unnecessary information or burdensome detail Team Member #1 Comments: Team Member #2 Comments: Team Member #3 Comments:

Points:

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3. Customer knowledge y Demonstrates knowledge of customers business, industry and needs y Offered strong benefit statements y Conveyed unique value based upon identified needs y Anticipated objections and pre-empted them where needed (cost, product limitations, applicability etc.) y Differentiated self from competition y Gave customer a unique, solution centered reason to buy Team Member #1 Comments: Team Member #2 Comments: Team Member #3 Comments:

Points:

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5. Quality of proposal y Well written y Effective use of graphics y Organized y Clear, compelling reasons to choose offering y Appropriate pricing, benefits and differentiators included COMMENTS:

Points:

6. Sales strategy, account plan and team effectiveness y Clear level of cohesiveness from team y Operated as a unit in order to meet objectives y Interacted with one another y Shared all portions of presentation; Not three separate presentations one after the other y Account plan reflect a solid strategy that was executed as part of the presentation COMMENTS:

Points:

MKT 341 Salesmanship

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