Selling & Marketing Skills

Course details

The need for selling skills has never been greater in the travel sector. More potential customers are booking on the internet and using travel agents for information! Staff and management need to be better prepared and up skilled for the challenging tasks ahead. Marketing is vital to attracting callers and visitors.

• Are you losing customers to competitors over price?
• Are customers using you and then booking on the internet?
• Are there missed opportunities for cross selling other products and services that would make a bottom line difference?
• Are your staff order takers or sellers?

Benefits to company

Proven selling skills are vital for a business in these challenging times! There are considerable benefits from training your staff in presentation skills, selling skills and up selling:-

• It is inexpensive to implement
• Delighted customers return
• Good experiences are passed on to potential customers (word of mouth)
• Easier to sell more to an existing customer than to attract a new customer
• Staff need to be motivated – training gives that opportunity
• Champions and leaders are needed to encourage others to reach these high standards

Staff need to sell more to each customer if you are going to survive! It is not easy to change that culture but it is necessary if you are going to survive. With fewer customers, more sales per person are vital.

Up-selling can be natural to some but more difficult for others – returns (profits) from up-selling are instant! A culture change is needed!

Why staff being better trained in selling skills is very important to your business:-

• Customers are the only source of income for most companies, a point frequently forgotten within the business.
• Their demands for service, quality and value are ever increasing and must be satisfied consistently in order to remain competitive and build loyalty.
• Industry surveys show that the cost of winning a new customer can be up to nine times the cost of retaining an existing customer
• Testimonials from satisfied customers can be a source of powerful advertising while a dissatisfied customer can do a lot a damage to your reputation

Marketing activities are needed to attract and maintain customers. The challenge is to know what works and what doesn’t! A plan is needed and monthly activities to keep the agency name to the forefront of potential customer’s minds.

Course Structure

It is proposed that a full days training course will cover all the areas required. Each participant will receive comprehensive note. The training will be interactive, demanding, thought provoking and practical! Each participant will devise their own Selling Action Plan and know what is needed when they return to the office.

In addition this presenter suggests that a vital part of selling is sending distinctive and different style proposals to clients which will make a difference.

Topics covered include:-

Unit 1 What’s Marketing and Selling all about?

• Marketing demystified
• Understanding selling and the different approaches
• The challenge of the internet and how to beat it!
• Identifying customers needs
• How to research customers for their feedback
• Identifying core messages

Unit 2 Marketing Skills

• Review of suitable marketing activities
• How to put an Action Plan together
• How to track successful marketing activities
• Implementing core marketing activities
• Use of Social Media to attract and keep customers

Unit 3 Selling Skills

• Probing techniques
• Features and benefit selling
• Trial close
• Closing the sale
• Handling price objections – “Pricitisis”
• Up selling
• Charging a service fee
• Differentiating us from competition and internet
• Using person skills and empathy - “people buy people first”
• Using customer care to influence the sale

Unit 3 Dealing with complaints

• Identify why we lose customers
• Handling complaints and keep customers happy
• Valley of Excuses” –dealing with staff objections to change
• Set up complaints procedures – unique DTA system – “+1”

Unit 4 Presentation Skills

• Identifying challenges in delivering presentations
• Coach on different Presentation styles
• Confidence to make winning presentations

Unit 5 Business Writing and Quotation/ Proposal Skills

• Assess current standards of communication and proposals
• Devise company style
• Ensure standards are agreed and delivered
• Devise new proposal standards and set up internal systems to support staff
• Suggest completion between staff to raise standards

Participants will receive comprehensive notes and leave motivated and energised.

Each participant will devise a personal Sales Action Plan on the course.