SUMMARY
1. Discuss the distinguishing characteristics of trust-based selling. Trust means different things to different buyers. It can be defined as confidentiality, openness, dependability, candor, honesty, confidence, security, reliability, fairness, and predictability. It is the salesperson’s job to determine what trust means to each of their buyers. Salespeople must question their buyers as to what trust attributes are their areatest concerns.
2. Explain the importance of trust. In today’s increasingly competitivemarketplace, buyersypically find themselves inundated with choices regarding both products and suppliers. Buyers are demanding unique solutions to their problems, which are customized on the basis of their specific needs. This shift toward relationship selling has altered both the roles played by salespeople and the activities and skills they exercise in carrying out these roles the selling process itself. Today’s more contemporary selling process is embedded within the relationship marketing paradigm. As such, it emphasizes the initiation and nurturing of long-tern buyer-seller relationships based on mutual trust and value-added benefits. The level of problem-solving activity common to relationship selling requires deliberate and purposeful collaboration between both parties. These joint efforts are directed at creating unique solutions based on an enhanced knowledge and understanding of the customer’s needs and the supplier’s capabilities so that both parties derive mutual benefits.
3. Discuss how to earn trust. Buyer are constantly asking themselves whether the salesperson truly cares about them. Salespeople can answer this question for the buyer by demonstrating trust-building activities. Trust can be earned by demonstrating expertise, dependability, candor, customer orientation, competence, and compatibility.
4. Discuss how knowledge vases help build trust and relationships. Salespeople do not have much time to make a fist impression. If a salesperson can demonstrate expertise in the buyer’s industry, company, marketplace, competitive knowledge, and so on, then buyer will more likely be willing to listen to the salesperson if he or she brings valued experience to the buyer.
5. Understand the importance of sales ethics. Salespeople are constantly are involved with ethical issues. A sales manager encourages his or her salesforce to pad their expense account in lieu of a raise. A salesperson sells a product or service a customer that the buyer does not need. A salesperson exaggerates the benefits of a product to get a sale. The list can go on and on. How a salesperson handles these situations will go a long way in determining the salesperson’s credibility. One wrong decision can a salesperson’s career.
6. discuss three important areas of unethical behavior. Three of the more popular areas of unethical behavior are deceptive practices, illegal activities, and noncustomer-oriented behavior.
• Deceptive practices: Salespeople giving answers they do not know, exaggerating product benefits, and withholding information may appear to only shade the truth, but when it causes harm to the buyer, the salesperson’s has jeopardized future dealings with the buyer.
• Illrgal activities: Misusing company assets has been a long-standing problem for many sales organizations. Using the company car for personal use, charging expenses that did not occur, and selling samples for income are examples of misusing company assets. Sone of these violations discovered by company probing also constitutes violations of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) law and are offenses that could lead to jail or heavy fines.
• Non-customer-oriented behavior: Most buyer will not buy from salespeople who are pushy and practice the hard sell. Too much is at stake to fall for the fast-talking, high-