While national industry figures predict market growth at 2% per year, most successful organizations are forecasting a 10% to 12% growth in sales. Obviously achieving this high growth rate must happen at the expense of competing sales organizations. The message: grow or die. Those who cannot sell aggressively, will not survive. Dramatic changes in the marketplace, will likely have a major impact in the industry. Such challenges in an already mature industry, make it even more necessary to have the selling skills, strategies and tactics, not only to retain existing customers but to consistently gain new business accounts.

Areas discussed:

1. Identify strategic reasons for penetrating competitive accounts.
2. Identify obstacles to account penetration.
3. Positioning yourself within competitive accounts.
4. Creating "Chaos" for your competition or teaching prospects how to ask the questions your competitor doesn't want to answer.
5. Identify competitive selling strategies and tactics.
6. Selling from your strengths.
7. Discover probing skills that get the prospect talking about your competition's weaknesses.
8. Develop a plan to penetrate new business accounts.

TRAINING AREAS:

Awareness

1. Exercise: increase awareness of market pressures and potential losses
   1. Identify reasons for penetrate competitive accounts
   2. Identify the obstacles to account penetration
2. Identify the potential strategies of competitors
3. Exercise: identify potential cost
   1. potential loss of marketplace base to trends (i.e. gambling, franchises)
   2. potential loss to competitors
4. Identify potential direct cost to sales representative

Strategy

1. Explain the "Chaos Strategy"
   1. Define impact of "chaos" on competitor.
   2. Identify the ways the company will benefit.
2. What corporate-driven activities that could support sales "Chaos Strategies?"
3. Exercise: Develop strategies based on the customer's perspective
4. Exercise: 
   1. Identify competitor's areas to be exploited
   2. Identify competitive selling opportunities in individual territories
   3. Identify potential impact selling opportunities on customer
5. Exercise: Identify potential impact on customers
6. Identify primary profitable new business customers

Tactics

1. Exercise: Identify sales "coaches" within targeted accounts to:
   discover concerns, dissatisfactions or needs
2. Develop probing questions to identify needs
3. Develop probing questions to identify potential consequences and the value of change to the new business prospect.
4. Develop simple closing techniques to confirm sale

Action Plan

1. Exercise: Each participant develop list of five new accounts to penetrate
2. Create prioritized list of accounts to replace originals as plan progresses.
3. Exercise: Identify potential impact on sales income
4. Develop follow-up plan for manager