C: Selling Colloquialisms

Call To Arms

Another way of describing what the Close is all about. From Shakespeare’s Henry V.

Campaign

One of the many business terms that come from the military. The actions you undertake to try and win business from a specific potential customer.

Canvassing

Finding those buyers. Usually associated with cold-calling activity.

CEO

The Chief Executive Officer. The ultimate authority?

Champion

Your kind of salesrep on the inside. Someone who has clout within your potential customer and can see a good win in your offering for themselves. Your number one contact in that case.

Cherry Picking

Where salesreps only go after the deals and names they perceive to be superior. Awesome if you can do this and hit your numbers. Only usually made possible by having a fantastic Funnel, crammed full of opportunities.

Close

The action where you seek to gain commitment from the potential customer for doing whatever it is you want them to, the most obvious being asking for the order.

Closing Silence

Shhhh! After you’ve asked a question, Pause. And Keep quiet. If it’s a tricky one for the potential customer, they are more likely to dive into the awkward silence and give you the answer you were after. Do not dive in and end the silence first. The person who breaks the silence ‘loses’. Does not tend to work well in a Japanese buying arena, as their culture determines they grow to feel comfortable within silences, shared by those with mutual respect.

CRM

Customer Relationship Management. At the turn of the New Millennium, the biggest new Management Fad. And like all business fads, there is a lot of winning ideas beneath the hype. Really another Marketing philosophy, but one that has massive implications for salesreps. Spawns many linked and similar methods, such as Relationship Marketing and One-to-one Marketing, each has at its core the sacrosanct nature of anything that happens during a transaction with a customer, as everyone is different and should be treated as such. CRM is more about how to apply such principles using technology. Look after your customers or someone else will.

Cross-Sell

The practise of selling more of a typically unrelated product or group of products to a customer that has previously not taken such offerings.

Coach

Can mean two people. They are someone who helps you along to a lesser extent than, within a potential customer, a Champion, and within your own outfit, your Mentor.

Cold Call

Picking up the phone (and on a much reduced level these days, calling in person) to someone you have not spoken to before looking for a result, typically an initial meeting.

Comedy Close

Not for the inexperienced, ways of positioning or even conducting a Close that have a touch of the unbelievable and incredulous about them.

Commission

Hallelujah! The extra in our pay packets that we get as a slice of the business we have brought into our company. It is everything over our Basic Salary.

Common 7 Objections

The Big Three of Time, Mail, Money plus Competition, Authority, Qualification and Disruption

Competition

Other people attempting to gain the business we are pitching for.

Confidence

The second most important trait for a Winner, behind Passion. Without this, you cannot sell. You must instil confidence in you from your potential customer’s point of view as well. Never, I repeat, Never cross that line into arrogance, though. No-one ever buys from someone who is arrogant.

Conditional Offer

When in Negotiation, the construct that allows you to play-off demands against each other. Never simply say, yeah okay, to a suggestion from a buyer trying to screw you to the ground.

Consultant

The traditional foe of the salesrep. Someone allegedly out to aid the potential customer through the minefield of buying your offering. Good ones may not be as easy to come by as you would hope. They nearly always have a vested interest. And it will not be to buy from you! Handle with care, get on your side early and expose and use other channels constantly.

Contact Management

The ‘diary’ that records everything you have ever said to any potential customer and prompts to tell you when to re-contact and what about.

Contact Management Software

Contact Management as above automated on your computer.

Contribution

A financial term meaning what is left over from sales after taking off fixed costs.

Corporate Overview

The presentation that tells potential customers everything that is wonderful about your organisation.

Cub-rep

A newbie, someone totally fresh to the job of salesrep.

Currency

Some aspect of the offering’s package that can be discussed and traded during Negotiations.

Currency Count

During a Negotiation, a record of what Currency appears, and when. Helps with determining relative values in the minds of your potential customers.