Table Of ContentCOMPELLING
SELLING
Philip R. Lund was educated at Harvard University
and the London Business School, and originally
worked as an economist in the USA and UK textile
industries. He joined Rank Xerox and won their top
salesman's award in 1966--7, before moving into the
management of a company selling capital equip
ment. He has since been active as a sales and market
ing troubleshooter for a wide range of industries. He
now runs his own consultancy practice and has
written numerous articles and two previous books
entitled Sales Reports, Records and Systems and
Confucius & Co., Thoughts of the Chairman.
COMPELLING
SELLING
The framework for persuasion
Third Edition
Philip R. Lund
M
PAPERMAC
Copyright © Philip R. Lund 1974, 1979, 1987
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission
ofthis publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied
or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance
with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended).
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to
this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and
civil claims for damages.
First published 1974 by The Macmillan Press Limited
Reprinted 1975
First published in paperback 1979 by
PAPERMAC
a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
4 Little Essex Street London WC2R 3LF
and Basingstoke
Associated companies in Auckland, Delhi, Dublin, Gaborone,
Hamburg, Harare, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, Kuala Lumpur,
Lagos, Manzini, Melbourne, Mexico City, Nairobi, New York,
Singapore and Tokyo
Reprinted 1984,1985 (twice)
Revised edition published 1987
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Lund, Philip R.
Compelling selling: a framework for
persuasion. --3rd ed.
1. Selling
I. Title
658.8'5 HF5438.25
ISBN 978-1-349-02127-7 ISBN 978-1-349-02125-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-02125-3
Typeset by Text Generation Ltd, London
To all those who help
a good salesman make
money ...
· .. and to Tessa, Daniel,
Adam and Freddy, who showed
me the best way to spend mine.
Contents
Introduction xi
1. THE FRAMEWORK OF THE SALE
The sale as a sequence of interrelated
and logical steps 1
The steps in the sale 2
The use of questions in selling 5
Selling as a logical process to achieve
an emotional objective 8
2. PLANNING TO SELL
Personal preparation 11
Product knowledge 15
The sales plan 18
The territory plan 22
The sales pattern 25
The sales cycle 27
Control procedures and documentation 30
3. IDENTIFYING THE CUSTOMER
What are the markets for the product? 37
Which customers should I sell to now? 40
Which man should I see? 42
The human motivational factors 47
4. OPENING THE INTERVIEW
Setting the objective 52
Cold calling 57
Telephonetechnique 61
Creating interest 70
The physical conditions for the sale 73
Mailshots 75
Leads and enquiries 79
vii
viii CONTENTS
5. GETIING INFORMATION
I nformation as the basis for the sale 82
Questioning techniques for control
and information 86
Summarising information 88
Defining the customer's problem 90
The salesman's statement of intent 91
6. ESTABLISHING THE CRITERIA FOR
ORDERING
Establishing the criteria for ordering 93
The customer's compromise 97
Matching the customer's decision criteria
to the product features 99
Assumptive selling 103
Summarising the criteria for ordering 104
The trial close to establish commitment 105
7. PREHANDLING OBJECTIONS
The role of objections in the sale 110
The objections to prehandle 113
Prehandli ng objections 114
8. HANDLING COMPETITION 125
9. SUMMARISING FOR AGREEMENT
Summarising as a sales technique 128
The letter 129
The quotation 132
Summarising to establish decision criteria
-a special technique 135
10. SELLING BENEFITS
Relating benefits to product features 138
Benefit chains 141
Relating benefits to customer criteria 144
The demonstration 148
Visual aids 155
Third party reference 157
CONTENTS ix
11. OVERCOMING OBJECTIONS
Objections as signposts in the sale 160
Sincere and insincere objections 162
Overcoming emotional and facetious
objections 163
Overcoming reasoned objections 168
Competition as an objection 172
Price as an objection 175
You are as good as your proposition 179
12. SUMMARISING PRIOR TO CLOSING 181
13. CLOSING THE SALE
The second call 182
Knowing when to close 185
Knowi ng how to close 189
Six closing techniques 194
Provisional order close 200
Handling the contract 202
After the signature 203
14. KEEPING THE CUSTOMER SOLD
Pre-delivery 205
Post-delivery 206
15. THE SALE: A SUMMARY 210
Index 219
Introduction
Most people sell every day in their lives. Sometimes what they sell
is a product. Sometimes it is an impression they want to give.
Usually it is an idea or a course of action. Foremen sell to workers.
Managers sell to employees. Directors sell to colleagues on the
Board. Husbands sell to wives. Accountants, brokers, dentists and
lawyers sell to clients. School teachers sell to students. And sales
men sell to customers.
Most people use sales techniques their mothers taught them
when they were children. They learn through experience that it is
better to do and say some things than others, without really under
standing why. Strangely, in our society, only salesmen are formal
ly taught how to persuade. Consequently, most people spend most
of their time upsetting each other, an effect which is usually the
exact opposite of the one they are seeking to achieve.
This book attempts to show that all forms of persuasion follow a
logical framework; and it is necessary to learn this framework in
order to learn the process of successful persuasion. Moreover, a
real understanding of the framework helps in interpreting re
sponses correctly and provides a rational medium through which
experience can be converted into future action.
All products are either tangible or intangible, and they are sold
either directly to the consumer or indirectly to the consumer
through a third party.
Product matrix Direct Indirect
Tangible I
:======:=====:
Intangible
Whether you are selling a tangible or intangible product directly
or indirectly to the consumer, one basic fact remains constant: the
common objective in selling all products is to meet your immediate
customer's requirements. The skills involved in defining these
