Long day after a long time 
I started off with a training this morning for the communication team of the American Business School Paris, that was led by a sales communication trainer. So yes, he knew what he was talking about.
The training was very interesting and grouped together what has already been heard before but has not yet been applied. It was all in French and I have to say, I understood everything and followed from beginning to end (almost).
We were given the basic structure of seller and buyer and what the seller needs to provide to fulfil the buyer's needs. You have to listen, observe, anaylse and adapt. We talked about the two/three types of questions that can be asked: Open, closed, alternative/positive. We were given some examples for open questions in order to make the buyer talk and also given argumentative examples of what we could say when being asked questions that destabilise us.
A little memo "MASTER" (maitriser, auditer, séduire, traiter, engager, réussir) was given. The steps to success, before, during and after the communication.
After the training, several of the team were able to apply what was taught in the morning. So we went to the Salon adrep and met loads of prospective students whom I used to practise new techniques And sometimes it was working, sometimes not. But, well, it's only the beginning, right? It was fun, but very tiring, standing under neon flashlight and not knowing where time goes.
Fri, 2008-01-25 09:38
Communication in French
that's really difficult, I guess, because of the special terms. For me, it would be interesting to know if there are some cultural differences between the English/German and French world. Do you have any materials about your training?
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»Sat, 2008-01-26 15:55
Cultural differences and training material
I did not quite understand in what way cultural differences play an important role. Did you mean in the way of communicating with the people? Or the way, the training was conducted?
I have some material from the training. But what exactly would you like to have?
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»Sat, 2008-01-26 20:49
Selling
You are being taught how to exploit and manipulate innocent, naive, unaware people! Goodness me...
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»Sun, 2008-01-27 10:09
What makes you say that? I
What makes you say that?
I don't agree that we exploit nor manipulate innocent, naice, unaware people. What we do is, in fact, to make people aware and let them take their own decisions after they have received information about the American Business School. We stressed especially the fact, to make the people talk, rather to sell at all cost our points, and therefore respond to their needs.
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»Mon, 2008-01-28 00:15
Selling 2
You said: "We were given the basic structure of seller and buyer and what the seller needs to provide to fulfil the buyer's needs."
What do you need to provide? In terms of information? How can you know what the needs of the buyer are in 5/10 minutes?
You said: "and also given argumentative examples of what we could say when being asked questions that destabilise us."
What do mean destabilise you? Does that mean ask questions which might unveil negative aspects of a product/service you are trying to sell?
You said: "A little memo "MASTER" (maitriser, auditer, séduire, traiter, engager, réussir) was given."
Seduire? To seduce? You are there to seduce people to buy something. Seduction implies tactics which are emotional, underhand and not logical. Not based on facts. So part of the communication obviously involves this seductive manipulation to make the buyer make the purchase.
If you know the buyers needs, then you need to tell them ALL the positive and negative aspects of a product/service. When they have knowledge of positives and negatives, then can make an informed choice. Do you ever tell them what the product/service is missing so that maybe they'll know that the product won't actually exactly serve their needs?
All said in good heart.
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»Mon, 2008-01-28 09:31
Selling 2 Answer
I said: "We were given the basic structure of seller and buyer and what the seller needs to provide to fulfil the buyer's needs."
What do you need to provide? In terms of information? How can you know what the needs of the buyer are in 5/10 minutes?
What we need to provide is information about the American Business School, information that sets us apart from the others (facts, that other schools simply do not offer). Students are there to get informed about the different possibilities they have and we try to give that as much as possible to them. We tell them, what the school offers in terms of exchange possibilities, the programme, the majors, the teachers, the students etc. And we find out, on a simple basis of asking them questions, what they are looking for, for example an international in English teaching business school. Others might simply want to transfer from a different school, other would like to do their degree in the U.S. Based on these little pieces of information, we can give them the information they need, rather than what they won't need to take their own decisions.
I said: "and also given argumentative examples of what we could say when being asked questions that destabilise us."
What do mean destabilise you? Does that mean ask questions which might unveil negative aspects of a product/service you are trying to sell?
With that I mean questions, that we, us students, do not have the answer to necessarily. It concerns mostly the fact that the school's degree is only accredited in the United States and not in France, which is for many French people an important factor. And for that, in their eyes, more "negative" fact, we make them aware, that French enterprises will employ them, not the state, unless they wish to follow a career as a civil servant, in which case, our school would not be considered anyway.
Another example may be, that we are asked about differences among other schools and ours. We are not in a position to compare ourselves with others if we do not know the exact details of what others offer. It is up to the student to compare for him/herself.
And it does not mean to hide negative aspects.
I said: "A little memo "MASTER" (maitriser, auditer, séduire, traiter, engager, réussir) was given."
Seduire? To seduce? You are there to seduce people to buy something. Seduction implies tactics which are emotional, underhand and not logical. Not based on facts. So part of the communication obviously involves this seductive manipulation to make the buyer make the purchase.
Here you have taken one element out of the whole structure. Yes, séduire means to seduce. And seduce does also mean to point out the attractive parts of something/someone (not to manipulate). Which is, as it falls under selling and therefore marketing, what we do. Of course, we stress the positive facts first. Before "séduire" you have a word "auditer", which means to audit, that is to examine something for purposes of verification. So here, we do try to, again, verify what the student's needs are.
If a seller manipulates, I don't think, the buyer would actually come back for a second or third time.
If you know the buyers needs, then you need to tell them ALL the positive and negative aspects of a product/service. When they have knowledge of positives and negatives, then can make an informed choice. Do you ever tell them what the product/service is missing so that maybe they'll know that the product won't actually exactly serve their needs?
Yes, I do tell them, that, if they are looking for something specific, what we offer, may not necessarily be what they are looking for. Sometimes, they even realize it themselves after a minute.
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»Mon, 2008-01-28 11:30
buying and selling
To sell and to buy something is always a business of mutuality, both parties are sharing their responsibility. No matter, what seduced the buyer. And those are great sellers which never forget that. Otherwise, the client would never come back, would complain and talk about his dissatisfaction to others. It makes no sense for the seller to lie or to forget essential things only to sell something.
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