Sales Process | Marketing and Sales for Class 10 PDF Download

 Page 1


42 
 
 
UNIT-III 
SALES PROCESS 
LEARNING OBJECTIVES 
After reading this unit the learner would be able to: 
(a) Describe the Sales Process. 
(b) Appreciate the importance of Process of Selling.  
(c) Understand how Prospecting is done. 
(d) Know how an Approach is planned.  
(e) Learn the ways to Handle Objections. 
(f) Identify the various methods to Close the Sale.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Page 2


42 
 
 
UNIT-III 
SALES PROCESS 
LEARNING OBJECTIVES 
After reading this unit the learner would be able to: 
(a) Describe the Sales Process. 
(b) Appreciate the importance of Process of Selling.  
(c) Understand how Prospecting is done. 
(d) Know how an Approach is planned.  
(e) Learn the ways to Handle Objections. 
(f) Identify the various methods to Close the Sale.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
43 
 
Introduction  
Every product produced has to be sold. There are a wide range of products being sold in the market. 
Right from a biscuit to a ship or an aeroplane, everything has to be sold by whichever way. Of all the 
tools available to a seller, Personal selling is an important tool to sell the products to the 
consumers.That means for selling the product, the company has to hire sales people who do the job of 
selling the product. As the value of the product increases, so does the rank of the salesperson. For 
example, one can find peddlars/ vendors (Pheriwalas) selling their products on a cart or a cycle or 
sitting on a pavement; a shoe is sold by a simple salesman at a retail outlet; while a CT scan machine 
is sold to a big hospital by the marketing head of an organization along with a team.Here, the period 
of completion of sale may range from six months to one year.But for completing a sale, a salesperson 
has to go through a complete selling process.  
 
Sales Process Overview 
The sales processincludes the five steps to conclude a sale. These are - 
 
This process is not a rule of thumb but a better way of handling a sale based on the experiences of 
various salespersons. It is a recommended process. The salespersons can use them in their own way. 
Each step in the process overlaps the other or may go simultaneously and their sequence can be 
changed as per the demand of the sales situation by the salesperson.For cheaper products, the process 
may shorten and for valuable products the whole process may be followed step by step. In the 
following sections we will discuss and understand the various steps in the selling process in detail. 
 
Session-1 
Prospecting- 
In order to sell a product, a sales person has to find new customers on a continuous basis. Hence, the 
first step in the selling process deals with finding prospects who will buy their product. Through 
Prospecting
Qualifying
Placing Presentation
Objections and handling objections
Closing Sale
Page 3


42 
 
 
UNIT-III 
SALES PROCESS 
LEARNING OBJECTIVES 
After reading this unit the learner would be able to: 
(a) Describe the Sales Process. 
(b) Appreciate the importance of Process of Selling.  
(c) Understand how Prospecting is done. 
(d) Know how an Approach is planned.  
(e) Learn the ways to Handle Objections. 
(f) Identify the various methods to Close the Sale.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
43 
 
Introduction  
Every product produced has to be sold. There are a wide range of products being sold in the market. 
Right from a biscuit to a ship or an aeroplane, everything has to be sold by whichever way. Of all the 
tools available to a seller, Personal selling is an important tool to sell the products to the 
consumers.That means for selling the product, the company has to hire sales people who do the job of 
selling the product. As the value of the product increases, so does the rank of the salesperson. For 
example, one can find peddlars/ vendors (Pheriwalas) selling their products on a cart or a cycle or 
sitting on a pavement; a shoe is sold by a simple salesman at a retail outlet; while a CT scan machine 
is sold to a big hospital by the marketing head of an organization along with a team.Here, the period 
of completion of sale may range from six months to one year.But for completing a sale, a salesperson 
has to go through a complete selling process.  
 
Sales Process Overview 
The sales processincludes the five steps to conclude a sale. These are - 
 
This process is not a rule of thumb but a better way of handling a sale based on the experiences of 
various salespersons. It is a recommended process. The salespersons can use them in their own way. 
Each step in the process overlaps the other or may go simultaneously and their sequence can be 
changed as per the demand of the sales situation by the salesperson.For cheaper products, the process 
may shorten and for valuable products the whole process may be followed step by step. In the 
following sections we will discuss and understand the various steps in the selling process in detail. 
 
Session-1 
Prospecting- 
In order to sell a product, a sales person has to find new customers on a continuous basis. Hence, the 
first step in the selling process deals with finding prospects who will buy their product. Through 
Prospecting
Qualifying
Placing Presentation
Objections and handling objections
Closing Sale
44 
 
prospecting, the salesperson tries to find out the people who need the product and can afford to buy it, 
that is, they try to create a database of prospective customers also known as Prospects. 
Who is a Prospect? 
As already explained, Prospects are the „potential customers? ( persons who might become your 
customers). They are the ones who need the product and might buy it. A prospect can be an individual 
or an institution. For example, atta is required by an individual household also and a bakery and a 
hotel also. Hence, they are all the prospects for an atta manufacturer/producer.  
Characteristics of a good prospect- 
A prospect can be considered a good prospect only if he possesses certain characteristics. These are:
 
1. He should feel the need of that product. This can be pre-existing or can be created as well. 
2. In some cases, the prospect needs a licence or legal capacity to buy the product, for 
example, a medical prescription is required to buy the medicine, licence to buy a gun, and 
only a major can buy alcohol. 
3. He should also have the capability to pay for the product. 
4. He should also have the ultimate decision-making power to buy the product. 
Figure-know your customer 
 
In this step of prospecting, the salesperson tries to obtain the database of prospective customers 
through various sources both internal and external to the organization. Such sources can be- 
 References given by customers. 
 References from sales managers 
 Networking 
 Obtaining the database from outside agencies that deal in providing such data. 
Qualifying or Selecting the Prospects 
Qualities 
of a 
prospect
Needy
Legally 
capable
Paying 
capabillity
Decision-
making 
power
Page 4


42 
 
 
UNIT-III 
SALES PROCESS 
LEARNING OBJECTIVES 
After reading this unit the learner would be able to: 
(a) Describe the Sales Process. 
(b) Appreciate the importance of Process of Selling.  
(c) Understand how Prospecting is done. 
(d) Know how an Approach is planned.  
(e) Learn the ways to Handle Objections. 
(f) Identify the various methods to Close the Sale.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
43 
 
Introduction  
Every product produced has to be sold. There are a wide range of products being sold in the market. 
Right from a biscuit to a ship or an aeroplane, everything has to be sold by whichever way. Of all the 
tools available to a seller, Personal selling is an important tool to sell the products to the 
consumers.That means for selling the product, the company has to hire sales people who do the job of 
selling the product. As the value of the product increases, so does the rank of the salesperson. For 
example, one can find peddlars/ vendors (Pheriwalas) selling their products on a cart or a cycle or 
sitting on a pavement; a shoe is sold by a simple salesman at a retail outlet; while a CT scan machine 
is sold to a big hospital by the marketing head of an organization along with a team.Here, the period 
of completion of sale may range from six months to one year.But for completing a sale, a salesperson 
has to go through a complete selling process.  
 
Sales Process Overview 
The sales processincludes the five steps to conclude a sale. These are - 
 
This process is not a rule of thumb but a better way of handling a sale based on the experiences of 
various salespersons. It is a recommended process. The salespersons can use them in their own way. 
Each step in the process overlaps the other or may go simultaneously and their sequence can be 
changed as per the demand of the sales situation by the salesperson.For cheaper products, the process 
may shorten and for valuable products the whole process may be followed step by step. In the 
following sections we will discuss and understand the various steps in the selling process in detail. 
 
Session-1 
Prospecting- 
In order to sell a product, a sales person has to find new customers on a continuous basis. Hence, the 
first step in the selling process deals with finding prospects who will buy their product. Through 
Prospecting
Qualifying
Placing Presentation
Objections and handling objections
Closing Sale
44 
 
prospecting, the salesperson tries to find out the people who need the product and can afford to buy it, 
that is, they try to create a database of prospective customers also known as Prospects. 
Who is a Prospect? 
As already explained, Prospects are the „potential customers? ( persons who might become your 
customers). They are the ones who need the product and might buy it. A prospect can be an individual 
or an institution. For example, atta is required by an individual household also and a bakery and a 
hotel also. Hence, they are all the prospects for an atta manufacturer/producer.  
Characteristics of a good prospect- 
A prospect can be considered a good prospect only if he possesses certain characteristics. These are:
 
1. He should feel the need of that product. This can be pre-existing or can be created as well. 
2. In some cases, the prospect needs a licence or legal capacity to buy the product, for 
example, a medical prescription is required to buy the medicine, licence to buy a gun, and 
only a major can buy alcohol. 
3. He should also have the capability to pay for the product. 
4. He should also have the ultimate decision-making power to buy the product. 
Figure-know your customer 
 
In this step of prospecting, the salesperson tries to obtain the database of prospective customers 
through various sources both internal and external to the organization. Such sources can be- 
 References given by customers. 
 References from sales managers 
 Networking 
 Obtaining the database from outside agencies that deal in providing such data. 
Qualifying or Selecting the Prospects 
Qualities 
of a 
prospect
Needy
Legally 
capable
Paying 
capabillity
Decision-
making 
power
45 
 
After collecting the database on prospective customers from various sources mentioned above, the 
sales person has to find out which of these prospective customers would buy the product so that he 
can divert his energies only to those and filter the non-productive customers.This he can do by 
assessing whether- 
 The customer needs the product? 
 The customer can afford the product? 
 The customer listens to the salesperson with interest. 
All those prospects that qualify in these questions are the selected prospective customers. These are 
the customers for whom he will plan a sale.For this, the salesperson will gather all the information 
about the customers related to their needs, their demographics, their income level and so on. This will 
help the salespersons to build their presentations according to the specific needs of the customers  and 
also be able to provide solutions to their specific requirements in the form of their products. This 
means that the salesperson will have to conduct a detailed customer research.The salesperson can 
obtain the data for an existing customer from past sales records and other sales data available with the 
company related to that customer. For a new customer, data can be obtained from internet or from 
data-collecting agencies.  
He can also conduct an „On the spot? research when the customer comes to buy a product.„On the 
spot? research means asking a lot of questions to the customer when he comes to buy a product. This 
is done to understand a customer?s psychology and behaviour.The main purpose of this research is to 
gather as much information as possible so as to make the presentation effective. 
 
Converting prospects into actual customers is not an easy task and is time consuming as well. It can 
be well understood with the help of the figure given below- 
 
 
If you see the above figure, a salesperson collects the data of 100 personswho may be the possible 
customers (known as Leads), researches show that out of these 100 leads, only 40 will be the 
prospects, i.e. they are the ones who would actually be requiring the product. The salesperson should 
focus on these 40 prospects. Out of these only 5 will end up buying the product. 
Exercise:Assignment 
1. Try to contact a few (3-4) sales representatives of different products (e.g. medical representative, 
representative of a publisher, insurance representative etc.) and ask them how they undertake 
prospecting? Also find out how many prospects that qualify actually become the customers? Identify 
if there exists any difference in the prospecting based on the different types of products or services.  
Page 5


42 
 
 
UNIT-III 
SALES PROCESS 
LEARNING OBJECTIVES 
After reading this unit the learner would be able to: 
(a) Describe the Sales Process. 
(b) Appreciate the importance of Process of Selling.  
(c) Understand how Prospecting is done. 
(d) Know how an Approach is planned.  
(e) Learn the ways to Handle Objections. 
(f) Identify the various methods to Close the Sale.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
43 
 
Introduction  
Every product produced has to be sold. There are a wide range of products being sold in the market. 
Right from a biscuit to a ship or an aeroplane, everything has to be sold by whichever way. Of all the 
tools available to a seller, Personal selling is an important tool to sell the products to the 
consumers.That means for selling the product, the company has to hire sales people who do the job of 
selling the product. As the value of the product increases, so does the rank of the salesperson. For 
example, one can find peddlars/ vendors (Pheriwalas) selling their products on a cart or a cycle or 
sitting on a pavement; a shoe is sold by a simple salesman at a retail outlet; while a CT scan machine 
is sold to a big hospital by the marketing head of an organization along with a team.Here, the period 
of completion of sale may range from six months to one year.But for completing a sale, a salesperson 
has to go through a complete selling process.  
 
Sales Process Overview 
The sales processincludes the five steps to conclude a sale. These are - 
 
This process is not a rule of thumb but a better way of handling a sale based on the experiences of 
various salespersons. It is a recommended process. The salespersons can use them in their own way. 
Each step in the process overlaps the other or may go simultaneously and their sequence can be 
changed as per the demand of the sales situation by the salesperson.For cheaper products, the process 
may shorten and for valuable products the whole process may be followed step by step. In the 
following sections we will discuss and understand the various steps in the selling process in detail. 
 
Session-1 
Prospecting- 
In order to sell a product, a sales person has to find new customers on a continuous basis. Hence, the 
first step in the selling process deals with finding prospects who will buy their product. Through 
Prospecting
Qualifying
Placing Presentation
Objections and handling objections
Closing Sale
44 
 
prospecting, the salesperson tries to find out the people who need the product and can afford to buy it, 
that is, they try to create a database of prospective customers also known as Prospects. 
Who is a Prospect? 
As already explained, Prospects are the „potential customers? ( persons who might become your 
customers). They are the ones who need the product and might buy it. A prospect can be an individual 
or an institution. For example, atta is required by an individual household also and a bakery and a 
hotel also. Hence, they are all the prospects for an atta manufacturer/producer.  
Characteristics of a good prospect- 
A prospect can be considered a good prospect only if he possesses certain characteristics. These are:
 
1. He should feel the need of that product. This can be pre-existing or can be created as well. 
2. In some cases, the prospect needs a licence or legal capacity to buy the product, for 
example, a medical prescription is required to buy the medicine, licence to buy a gun, and 
only a major can buy alcohol. 
3. He should also have the capability to pay for the product. 
4. He should also have the ultimate decision-making power to buy the product. 
Figure-know your customer 
 
In this step of prospecting, the salesperson tries to obtain the database of prospective customers 
through various sources both internal and external to the organization. Such sources can be- 
 References given by customers. 
 References from sales managers 
 Networking 
 Obtaining the database from outside agencies that deal in providing such data. 
Qualifying or Selecting the Prospects 
Qualities 
of a 
prospect
Needy
Legally 
capable
Paying 
capabillity
Decision-
making 
power
45 
 
After collecting the database on prospective customers from various sources mentioned above, the 
sales person has to find out which of these prospective customers would buy the product so that he 
can divert his energies only to those and filter the non-productive customers.This he can do by 
assessing whether- 
 The customer needs the product? 
 The customer can afford the product? 
 The customer listens to the salesperson with interest. 
All those prospects that qualify in these questions are the selected prospective customers. These are 
the customers for whom he will plan a sale.For this, the salesperson will gather all the information 
about the customers related to their needs, their demographics, their income level and so on. This will 
help the salespersons to build their presentations according to the specific needs of the customers  and 
also be able to provide solutions to their specific requirements in the form of their products. This 
means that the salesperson will have to conduct a detailed customer research.The salesperson can 
obtain the data for an existing customer from past sales records and other sales data available with the 
company related to that customer. For a new customer, data can be obtained from internet or from 
data-collecting agencies.  
He can also conduct an „On the spot? research when the customer comes to buy a product.„On the 
spot? research means asking a lot of questions to the customer when he comes to buy a product. This 
is done to understand a customer?s psychology and behaviour.The main purpose of this research is to 
gather as much information as possible so as to make the presentation effective. 
 
Converting prospects into actual customers is not an easy task and is time consuming as well. It can 
be well understood with the help of the figure given below- 
 
 
If you see the above figure, a salesperson collects the data of 100 personswho may be the possible 
customers (known as Leads), researches show that out of these 100 leads, only 40 will be the 
prospects, i.e. they are the ones who would actually be requiring the product. The salesperson should 
focus on these 40 prospects. Out of these only 5 will end up buying the product. 
Exercise:Assignment 
1. Try to contact a few (3-4) sales representatives of different products (e.g. medical representative, 
representative of a publisher, insurance representative etc.) and ask them how they undertake 
prospecting? Also find out how many prospects that qualify actually become the customers? Identify 
if there exists any difference in the prospecting based on the different types of products or services.  
46 
 
Assessment 
E. Fill in the blanks: 
vii. Selecting the prospects by the salesperson is also called ------------. 
viii. A person who might become your future customer is called a -------------. 
ix. References obtained by the customers is an  ----------- source. 
 
F. Multiple Choice 
iii. Which one of them is not a quality of a prospect: 
i. Capability to pay 
j. Needs the product 
k. Can influence the decision-maker 
l. Legally buy the product 
 ii. A qualifying prospect means: 
i. The prospect who is selected for approach 
j. The prospect who is not selected for approach 
k. The prospect who is not relevant for approach 
l. The prospect who is not sure of buying 
iii. A sales person can collect data about consumers from  
i. External sources only 
j. Internal sources only 
k. Both external and internal sources 
l. None of the above 
C. True or False 
g. Collecting information about customers is called Customisation. (F) 
h. Ultimate decision-making power is a quality of a good prospect. (T) 
i. All the selected prospects become your customers. (F) 
 
Checklist for Assessment Activity 
Use the following checklist to check whether your students could meet all the requirements for 
assessment. 
 
Part A 
v. What do you mean by Prospecting? 
vi. List out the various qualities of a Prospect. 
vii. What do you understand y the term qualifying? On what basis are the prospects assessed? 
viii. Discuss the various sources of information used by the salesperson to collect data 
regarding the prospects.