TCOM 469

Selling Experience Report Instructions

Objective: Consolidate and reflect on the media sales/donation solicitation experience with the selling techniques and tools learned from the course.

The selling experience report should report a real selling experience that includes the complete sales process of prospecting to presenting/closing to a customer in a face-to-face context. Although you should strive to succeed in the sale, the success or failure of the sale is not a determinant of your grade. More importantly, the report should reflect your knowledge of the selling techniques for your medium, explain how you used the techniques you learned from the course and applied them in a real selling situation. If you made more than one sale, you should report the most important one and compare it with the other ones that you had. You will orally report your selling experience with your classmates on the due date (11/17) of the report for 2 minutes.

Structure of the Report

Selling Experience Report

Your Name: _____________

Your Media outlet/organization’s Name: _______________

Name of Business: ____________________

Type of Business (Industry category) :___________

Prospect’s Name: ___________________

Prospect’s Job Title: ________________

Meeting Date/Time: __________________

Meeting Duration: _______ (hour/minutes)

I. The Prospecting Stage

1. Describe the prospect (e.g., age, gender, temperament, personality, etc.)

2. How did you reach the prospect? Describe in detail the procedures you took to reach the prospect (e.g., identifying the prospect, cold-calling, making appointments). Explain which specific techniques taught in the class you used during this process (refer to Chapter 2 and the chapter relevant to the medium you are selling) and why you used or not use the techniques.

3. Evaluate the experience that you reached the prospect (e.g., Did you make the prospect comfortable? Did you get the prospect to talk? Did the prospect like you? Did the prospect want to hear about your media outlet/organization? Did the prospect show interest in the medium? Did the conversation flow smoothly? Do you know what the prospect wants or needs?).

II. The Sales Presentation Stage

1. Did you use your media sales kit and sales proposal in presenting to the prospect? Did they help you to structure your arguments and make you looks more professional and convincing to your prospect?

2. Evaluate your sales presentation performances in 1) arousing excitement, 2) professional manner, 3) focused on the prospect’s needs, 4) intelligence in your answers to questions and objection, 5) confidence shown to the prospect, 6) persuasiveness to the prospect.

3. How did you handle questions and objections

- Report the two important questions your prospect asked.

- Report the prospect’s main objections to your presentation.

- How did you reverse/handle their objections?

III. The Closing Stage

1. Describe how did you close your sale (specify the technique you used) and how did the prospect respond to the close?

2. Did the prospect buy? If he/she bought your proposal, what factors did you account for your success? If you didn’t clinch the sale, why do you think the prospect didn’t buy?

IV. Conclusion

What did you learn from this experience? Which areas do you think you need to improve? If you were to sell to the same prospect again, would you change your strategy? If yes, why? If no, why not?

Grading

Completeness of the Report 10 points

Specificity and examples used in the report 10 points

Insights and observation 10 points

Organization and clarity 5 points

Oral Presentation 5 points

________

Total 40 points