S: Sales Speech
Sales Cycle The procedures and steps you have taken and will take on a particular deal. Include such as Initial Meeting, Board Presentation and so on.
Sand-Bagging Not always advisable, it is the practice whereby salesreps give themselves a little protection for the next sales period by holding back with an order (or ‘dead cert’ if there is such a thing!) from the current one.
Sell-Wide Call Often part of Value Selling, it is a phone call where you discuss business with someone not ordinarily associated with input into this particular decision.
Serial Buyer Does anyone trip up salesreps more than this person? A Negotiating Buyer that gives you a beating by knocking off Currencies one by one from the unprepared salesrep until you virtually lose money on the deal. This is bad.
SFA Sales Force Automation. Using technology to make salesreps’ lives easier. Most (nearly all) SFA projects fail dismally because they are not managed or ‘owned’ by the salereps (a typical IT story, you might think…) and because the benefits they are really after can never come from the system being implemented. Contact Management software is the most common form of SFA project. What a disgrace the salesforce is at the back of the corporate queue for such essential treatment…
SFW So What? The question that a potential customer will be asking themselves after a salesrep has bundled through an explanation. Ask yourself the same thing and you may have to remind yourself to speak in WIIFM.
Shortlist When people seriously look to buy something, they endeavour to create a choice of 2 or 3 companies that can definitely supply the final solution. They probably started off with many more, but whittle this list down to such a Shortlist. By the time it is created, the eventual supplier is actually probably already determined.
Silent Close See Closing Silence.
Sitting-Duck Close Where you tee-up a potential customer for the ultimate ‘yes’ by rattling off a string of simple to answer, no brainer, indisputable ‘yes’ questions immediately before the final big one.
Sizzle As in “sell the sizzle, not the sausage”. Many connotations here. The main ones are forget features, it’s all about benefits, and don’t get bogged down with the minutiae, it’s all about the bigger picture.
Smokestacking Keep your eyes peeled for names on your travels. New offices, industrial estates and vehicles you pass can be invaluable sources of new Suspects.
SOR Statement Of Requirements. Usually a pre-cursor to the dreaded ITT. Your job is to determine who influenced its creation and modify the points and weightings to suit you in the final ITT.
Spin Two Things. First, the angle you put on a story to show why it means good things from a potential customer perspective. And Second, is (an acronym) from the initial letters of Situation-Problem-Implication-Need that is a widely used questioning technique.
Sponsor Better than a Coach, but a touch short of a fully fledged Champion. A Sponsor can grant you a licence to roam unimpeded around their organisation, setting up key meetings and trumpeting your cause. Need to actively work with you rather than cheer you own from the sidelines to become a Champion.
Steering Group Another body set up within a potential customer’s organisation to make purchase decisions. The difference with this one is that they probably have to make Board Presentations to get their ideas passed.
Suspects Less than a Prospect, there is no real commencement of activity with such a name yet, but early qualification signs are promising.
Switch-Sell The practise of offering an alternative product, that performs the same task, when asked for by a customer. Typically, the Switch helps keep that customer longer, as you are saving them money, although typically, the vendor can make more profit on the product, as the most common Switch involves premium-brand to own-label substitution.
SWOT Analysis Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats. The first and possibly only decision-making and strategy management tool a salesrep ever uses. Draw a big cross on a sheet of paper and write in bullet points. Strengths and Weaknesses refer to ‘internal’ forces within the company, Opportunities and Threats ‘external’ ones in the wider marketplace.