Core Selling Skills

3DCSS™

Core Selling Skills

The essential skills for customer-centric selling.

For relatively new salespeople, or those transitioning to a sales role, success depends on engaging customers, building trust and rapport, uncovering their story and guiding them to a successful outcome, sometimes even within a single conversation.

3D Core Selling Skills (3DCSS) is a definitive programme designed to help build confidence and skills across the whole customer conversation. It will empower your sales teams to connect with more customers, uncover more opportunities, guide customers through their buying journey, and leave them with a lasting positive impression that will drive long-term loyalty, renewal and repurchase.

This modular course is based on more than 20 years of quantitative, qualitative and field-based sales research. It forms part of Imparta’s 3D Sales Curriculum, which helps sales professionals to create, differentiate, protect, capture, deliver and expand value around the whole customer Buying Cycle. It also includes optional, in-depth modules on time & territory management, communication styles and mastering virtual presence.

This highly interactive programme develops lasting skills and sales techniques through a comprehensive set of simulated activities, application and real-life exercises, tools and reinforcement techniques within Imparta’s continuous improvement ecosystem.

modules

Course Overview

Key training topics include:

  • Understanding why and how customers buy.
  • The elements of Imparta’s Customer Conversation Model.
  • Guiding customers through the Buying Cycle, applying the 3D Advantage to the whole sales process.
  • Handling inbound sales enquiries in an effective and efficient way.
  • Engaging customers when selling outbound, including through sales calls, videos, emails, and social media.
  • Understanding the customer by building rapport and trust, framing and signposting questions, and asking the five key types of questions.
  • Guiding the customer through their Buying Cycle, including creating urgency and momentum, recommending the best-fit solution, handling objections, and gaining commitment.
  • Making it easy for the customer by reducing customer effort, anticipating any issues, and creating a memorable, positive ending.
  • Where appropriate, asking for referrals.

Optional modules:

  • Communication Styles.
  • Time & Territory Management for effective sales.
  • Mastering Virtual Presence.
Rocket

Impact

The 3D Core Selling Skills training programme will help to accelerate onboarding in more transactional roles and give existing teams a genuine competitive advantage.

It has been shown to increase key metrics that include:

  • Success rates with outbound engagement.
  • Opportunity generation.
  • Conversion and win rates.
  • Average deal size.
  • Quota attainment.

Secondary benefits include:

  • More effective selling time and better prioritization of opportunities within a territory.
  • Shorten sales cycles thanks to increased customer advocacy.
  • An increased number of referrals.
core selling skills programme who is it for?

Who is it For?

The Core Selling Skills programme is suitable for those new to sales or sales-through-service, as well as those needing a refresher. It is also effective as part of sales onboarding.

The course works with service and product sales and is designed for both inbound and outbound sales roles, especially in a more transactional context. Modules from this programme can also be used to refine core sales skills at any level of tenure.

Multiple formats

Formats and Duration

The programme is part of Imparta’s modular curriculum.

It is available as:

  • eLearning (full modules, plus individual assets that can be embedded into playbooks).
  • A 2-day instructor-led face-to-face workshop.
  • 4 four-hour virtual instructor-led sessions.
  • Flipped learning is where the classroom is used to focus on application.
  • Modules that can be combined with other courses.

The programme also includes competency definitions, application tools, measurement, and reinforcement tools including nudge questions and manager coaching guides to make the new skills stick.

core selling skills

Application Tools

Application tools (Canvases) are available in print, editable PDF and Excel versions. They are also available as native Salesforce tools and standalone tools within our platform.

The Canvases help attendees to embed their new skills, and to apply them to winning business and improving account profitability.

core selling skills canvases

Explore the modules

3DCSS

Why and How
Customers Buy

Impact: All

Recognise the fundamentals of why customers decide to buy (the Value Equation) and how they buy (the Buying Cycle). Use the Customer Conversation Model™ as an organising framework when interacting with customers.

3D CORE SELLING SKILLS
3D CORE SELLING SKILLS
3DCSS

Engage Me: Inbound

Impact: Number of Leads, Conversion rate

Establish genuine connections with inbound prospects, reducing tension, building trust, and setting the scene for effective business relationships.

3D CORE SELLING SKILLS
3D CORE SELLING SKILLS
3DCSS

Engage Me: Outbound

Impact: Number of Leads, Conversion rate

Leverage a range of social media techniques to connect effectively with potential customers. Us Insight, Influence and Trust to engage with customers and get them to agree to a longer conversation.

3D CORE SELLING SKILLS
3D CORE SELLING SKILLS
3DCSS

Understand Me

Impact: Conversion Rate; Average Deal Size

Use a wide range of question types to uncover a customer’s story, their needs and the criteria on which a selection will be made. Signpost and frame those questions to reduce customer resistance and create trust.

3D CORE SELLING SKILLS
3D CORE SELLING SKILLS
3DCSS

Guide Me

Impact: Average Deal Size; Win Rate

Guide and influence customers through each stage of the Buying Cycle up to the Commit stage. Lead them towards an appropriate decision and manage objections in an effective and ethical way.

3D CORE SELLING SKILLS
3D CORE SELLING SKILLS
3DCSS

Make it Easy for Me

Impact: Win rate, Share of Wallet

Make sure that the buying process is as simple and straight-forward for the customer as possible. Take proactive steps to reduce customer effort and create a strong and positive final impression before following through to ensure satisfaction.

3D CORE SELLING SKILLS
3D CORE SELLING SKILLS
3DCSS

Time and Territory Management

Impact: All

Make sure that the buying process is as simple and straight-forward for the customer as possible. Take proactive steps to reduce customer effort and create a strong and positive final impression before following through to ensure satisfaction.

3D CORE SELLING SKILLS
3D CORE SELLING SKILLS
3DCSS

Communication Styles

Impact: All

Be aware of different communication styles, understand yours and learn to adapt your style and approach to your customers’ preferred communication style.

3D CORE SELLING SKILLS
3D CORE SELLING SKILLS
3DCSS

Mastering Virtual Presence

Impact: All

Understand the technology, science and psychology behind effective virtual engagement. Inspire performance and captivate clients and customers in a virtual setting, delivering value to them and to your own business.

3D CORE SELLING SKILLS
3D CORE SELLING SKILLS

The CSS training was a smash hit, well presented with great materials. We’ve seen an immediate impact in the performance and confidence of our salespeople.

Sales Manager, Financial Services

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