SALES SKILLS

Learn to sell products and services in nurseries, garden centres, horticultural service businesses and farm shops. Improve sales through better training.

Course Code: VBS108
Fee Code: S2
Duration (approx) Duration (approx) 100 hours
Qualification
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Learn to Sell Horticultural Products!
  • Be a better horticultural salesperson
  • Improve sales in a new business or existing one
  • Advance your prospects; develop your professional expertise in marketing
This course guides you through many different methods of Opening and Closing a Sale. Discover the secrets of successful salespeople and draw out the ammunition you need to take charge of your career today.
 

Lesson Structure

There are 12 lessons in this course:

  1. Presentation and selling
    • Personality. "Never judge a book by its cover." A wise old saying! but people who buy do make judgements especially about sales people. Dress and grooming are top priority in selling. As well you must learn how to develop a selling personality.
  2. Communication and Conversational selling.
    • Learn the art of written and verbal communication in easy to understand terms.
  3. Marketing (Buyer analysis and motivation)
    • Presentation of products to consumers and motivating them to buy.
  4. Management (Hierachy)
    • Dealing with upper management; learn how to get your point across. How to be assertive and positive when dealing with your superiors.
  5. Helping the Product Sell Itself
  6. Know your product and pre planning.
    • Through observation, reading and listening get to know your products (pre planning is essential in today's complex society).
  7. Selling made as simple as A B C.
    • The procedure of selling.
  8. "The Opening" (getting the attention of the buyer).
    • Creating the right atmosphere for a sale to take place.
  9. "Closing a Sale" (overcoming objections).
    • Buyers will tend to look else where unless a salesman can close a sale in an appropriate amount of time (learn the secrets).
  10. "Stress Management"
    • Learn the art of relaxation through stress management techniques, and reduce stress in the marketing environment.
  11. The Law and Selling
  12. Report Assessment Writing.
    • The majority of sales persons need to have the ability and skill to write a condensed and accurate report on which management will comprehend and act upon.

 
Good sales staff can make or break any business.
 
It doesn’t matter how good a product or service you have, if you don’t have the right people selling it, you may fail.
 
How many times have you been in a shop and the assistants are rude, ignore you, talk to each other or do not try to help. This does happen and can easily lose customers. If a person feels they have been badly treated, they will be less likely to go back to the store. New customers and repeat customers are important, so it is essential that staff are aware that good customer service is essential.
 
 
 
Ways to encourage people to buy 
 
The physical environment is important in encouraging people to buy. When planning an a retail shop, warehouse or market stall, you are trying to encourage people to buy. To buy, people need to be able to see what you have to offer or feel able to ask if they can’t see what they want.
 
 
Make sure products are well displayed, whether plants, equipment, tools or anything else.
Product display areas should be tidy and well-organised. Make sure that related products are together. For example, in a nursery, display all the cacti and succulents separate to the vegetables; not mixed together.
Make sure the prices clearly indicated.
 
It would be confusing (even dangerous) to have chocolates scattered around a shop, some with soft drinks, and garden chemicals, all together.
 
Similarly it will be a disincentive to purchase if the customer has to ask in order to find out the cost of the chocolates. Good organisation helps the customer to see what you are selling.
 
 
Shelves should be continually stocked. If someone comes to a store and wants a particular brand of fertilizer, they can’t see it, so they walk away and go elsewhere. It may be that you have more fertilizers in the stockroom, but hadn’t bothered to put it out. So stocks should always be keep up to date.
 
 
 



Course Contributors

The following academics were involved in the development and/or updating of this course.

John Mason (Horticulturist)

Parks Manager, Nurseryman, Landscape Designer, Garden Writer and Consultant.
Over 40 years experience; working in Victoria, Queensland and the UK.
He is one of the most widely published garden writers in the world; author of more than 70 books and edito

Adriana Fraser (Horticulturist)

Adriana has worked in horticulture since the 1980's. She has lived what she preaches - developing large gardens and growing her own fruit, vegetables and herbs and making her own preserves.
In 1992 she formalised her training by graduating with a certif

Denise Hodges

Promotions Manager for ABC retail, Fitness Programmer/Instructor, Small Business Owner, Marketing Coordinator (Laserpoint). Over 20 years varied experienced in business and marketing. More recently Denise studied naturopathy to share her passion for healt

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