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BEP 288 – Sales English 4: Dealing with Doubts

Advanced, Business English, Sales English / May 29, 2016

Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on dealing with a customer’s doubts about a proposed solution during the sales process.

Customers rarely agree to buy after an initial pitch. Sales typically involves a lot more work than just the initial approach. You need to get to know the customer, understand their needs and offer them good solutions. And somewhere along the way, you’ll have to deal with their questions and doubts. After all, people want to be sure they’re making the right choice, and that they’re spending their money wisely. And even when you’ve shown them all the right reasons to buy from you, they might still be on the fence. So what can you do?

Well, there are a few useful techniques that can help you deal with a customer’s doubts. We can ask about reasons, and propose solutions. We can also relieve their fears and anticipate their concerns. And finally, we can show them why the other alternatives are not good choices. In today’s lesson, we’ll learn how to use these techniques.

In the dialog, we’ll rejoin Aaron, a salesman at a commercial refrigeration company. He’s been talking with a hotel about providing cooling systems for their restaurant and bar. Aaron has taken the time to get to know his customer, and he’s submitted a proposal that he thinks matches their needs. But now the customer has some doubts. Besides Aaron, you’ll hear Eva, the hotel manager, and William, the contractor who’s renovating the hotel.

Listening Questions

1. What is Aaron’s solution to Eva’s first concern?
2. What other concern of Eva’s is Aaron able to guess?
3. Why does Aaron think that not choosing his solution for the freezer is a bad idea?

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BEP 287 – Sales English 3: Matching a Solution to Needs

Advanced, Business English, Sales English / May 22, 2016

Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on matching solutions to customers’ needs during the sales process.

Have you ever been frustrated by a salesperson who tried to sell you something you didn’t need? Yes, we all have! And so if you’re the one doing the selling, remember that a one-size-fits-all approach isn’t likely to work. Instead, you need to build a relationship and learn about your customer’s needs. Only then can you provide the right solution.

In our last two lessons on the sales process, we looked at how to make your initial approach and understand the customer’s needs. So in this lesson, we’ll look at the next step in the process: matching a solution to those needs.

There are several techniques we can use to offer a solution to a customer. We can warn them against doing things a certain way. That is, we can advise them against solutions that don’t match their needs. We can also emphasize cost benefits or quality, and ask hypothetical questions in order to persuade them. And finally, once we’ve used these techniques, we can finish by summarizing agreement.

In today’s dialog, we’ll rejoin Aaron, a salesperson with a commercial refrigeration company. He has been talking to customers at a new hotel who need equipment for their bar and restaurant. Aaron has visited the hotel to meet them and talk about their needs. Now Aaron is putting together a proposal, and he calls the hotel manager, Eva, to talk about some of his proposed solutions.

Listening Questions

1. What does Aaron advise Eva against doing at the beginning of their conversation?
2. What point does Aaron emphasize when he recommends the Coil-Pro unit?
3. At the end of the conversation, how does Aaron introduce his summary of their discussion?

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BEP 280 – Sales English 2: Understanding Customer Needs

Business English, Sales English / December 6, 2015

Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on understanding your customer’s needs in the sales process.

As a salesperson, you can’t just walk up to a customer and start pitching your products. How do you know the customer actually needs your products? And why would the customer buy from you without knowing anything about you? No, the sales process doesn’t start with a pitch. It starts with making your initial approach and getting to know your customers, which is what we looked at in our last lesson.

So what come’s next? Well, once you’ve made your initial approach, you can move on to understanding the customer’s needs. And that’s what we’ll focus on in this lesson, because if you understand what the customer needs, then you can offer them the right solutions.

What are the techniques we can use to learn about a customer’s needs? Well, today we’ll cover several, including how to ask direct questions, present alternatives, and ask about priorities. We’ll also look at proposing the next step and asking about buying authority. Once you’ve done these things, you can move on confidently to matching your solutions to their needs.

In today’s dialog, we’ll rejoin Aaron, a salesperson with a commercial refrigeration company. He’s talking to a couple of potential customers at a new hotel: Eva, the hotel manager, and Robin, the head chef. Eva and Robin have just given Aaron a tour of the hotel’s restaurant, bar, and café. Aaron has learned a bit about their plans and now he wants to know more about their specific needs.

Listening Questions

1. Which area of the hotel does Aaron present an alternative option for?
2. What are Eva and Robin’s two major priorities?
3. What does Aaron say he is going to do next?

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BEP 279 – Sales English 1: Making your Approach

Business English, Sales English / November 28, 2015

Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s business English lesson on making your initial sales approach.

Sales is right at the core of business. It’s how you connect people with products, and turn products into profits. But most sales aren’t made with a single conversation. There’s a process involved. This process involves many different steps, and at each step, a good salesperson has to use their skills to keep the process moving forward.

In this lesson, we’ll focus on the initial step of the sales process: making the approach. This is when you talk to the potential customer for the first time. You want to establish a good rapport and ask some questions to start learning about their needs. We’ll learn how to compliment a prospect and ask open-ended questions. We’ll also cover how to show interest to get more information, show that you’ve done some background research, and reference other business connections. With these skills, you can get off to a good start with your prospect.

In today’s dialog, we’ll hear a salesperson named Aaron, who works for a company that sells refrigeration and cooling equipment. Aaron is visiting a new hotel in Thailand and talking with Eva, the hotel’s manager and Robin, the head chef. He has arranged to visit the hotel and hopes to start building a relationship and finding out about their needs.

Listening Questions

1. How does Aaron compliment his prospective customers?
2. What does Aaron show interest in to get more information?
3. What business connection do Aaron, Robin, and Eva have in common?

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BEP 246 – Product Presentation in English (2)

Business English, Presentation in English, Sales English / February 16, 2014

Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on giving a product presentation in English.

There’s no better way to show off a new product than talking to a group of customers directly. You can teach them about the product and gently persuade them that they need it. And you can adapt your presentation for specific audiences. Whether you’re at a trade show, a corporate event, a conference, or a customer’s office, you can learn to work the crowd in front of you.

Working the crowd during a product presentation is probably familiar to anyone who works in sales and marketing. But the techniques involved are useful for anyone in a company who has to talk about products or deliver presentations. In this lesson, we’ll cover many of these useful techniques, including relating changes to customer feedback, highlighting user benefits, and demonstrating a feature. We’ll also look at anticipating concerns and encouraging questions from the audience.

In the dialog, we’ll rejoin Jenny, who’s presenting a new software upgrade to a group of customers at a trade conference. She’ll also be joined by Tony, who works for a partner company called PaySys. Together, Jenny and Tony are explaining how their products work together.

Listening Questions

1. What does Tony say customers have asked for?
2. Tony mentions a few benefits of the recent product changes. What are they?
3. What does Jenny think that some people might be concerned about?

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