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The Selling Process
Selling is a day-to-day function of contractors
and manufacturers. Specifiers, including
acoustical consultants and architects, also
do their share of selling. Specifiers sell their
design services and they also sell client
acceptance of the products specified in their
designs. Thus, selling the Atlas-Soundolier
FR Series is of interest to almost everyone
involved in design or installation of a ceiling
loudspeaker system.
In most cases, selling the FR Series will be
more of a consultive process than a
traditional “sell the benefits, then ask for
the order” kind of sale. That’s because the
FR Series will pretty much sell itself once
two things happen in a customer’s mind:
1) The customer must realize they have
a need.
2) The customer must understand how
the FR Series fills that need.
Identifying Customers and Selling
the FR Series
Who are the FR Series potential customers?
The ultimate user is usually a business or
governmental agency or a building owner,
management company or leasee in any
situation where building codes require a
fire-resistant ceiling system or UL Classified
loudspeakers.
But, it is unlikely that there will be any
single person who can truly be called the
“final decision maker”. Instead, there will be
a complex web of “buying influences”. The
seller must help each of these buying
influences analyze their needs and show
them how the FR Series fills those needs.
And, while it is likely that no single buying
influence has the ability to make the final
decision, chances are that several of them,
including local regulatory agencies, have
the authority to say “no”.
In their book, “Strategic Selling”, published
by Morrow Books, Robert Miller and Stephen
Heiman define four types of buyers, the
economic buyer, the user buyer, the technical
buyer and the “coach”. Typically, there are
many buying influences in a complex sale
but each can be put into one of these
categories, simplifying the selling process.
Part 4
Selling & Specifying the FR Series
