Course Description

Essential Selling Skills Session 4: The Opening Stage and Relationship Building ($20, 30 minutes, on-demand) Essential Selling Skills Module 4 on the Opening Stage and Relationship Building teaches how to get off to a great start during a sales call, with emphasis on building and strengthening relationships with current and new customers. Why is the Opening Stage so important? Because you only have one chance to make a favorable first impression and you will set yourself apart by doing this well. Several practical relationship-building guidelines will be highlighted, such as how to connect with customers by using a behavior called “expressing commonalities.” Participants will learn the factors that determine how much time to spend in the Opening Stage and relationship-building because it varies for each sales call and different types of customers. You also will receive a downloadable planning form that you can use as a resource to plan for upcoming sales calls.

What will you learn? 

The video, downloadable handout, downloadable planning form, and quiz will help you improve your ability to do relationship-building in the Opening Stage of each sales call, including how to:
  • Do research to identify areas of commonality between you and each customer
  • Use several practical relationship-building techniques
  • Determine how much time to spend on the Opening Stage before transitioning to the next few stages of each sales call
  • Apply the concepts to two different real-life sales situations
  • Set and express clear goals so that the customer knows the purpose of each call
  • Build relationships during the other stages of selling

Essential Selling Skills Session 4: The Opening Stage and Relationship Building is the fourth of twelve online learning modules in the Essential Selling Skills Series.

Your registration provides 6 months access to practical skills-based online training, on your schedule, at your location.

The instructor is available to answer questions at [email protected] or 339-832-8666.

The entire Essential Selling Skills series includes almost 6 hours of training divided into 12 sessions, each about 30 minutes in duration. The series includes a 1 year subscription for the discounted price of $175. Session 1 is free, so use it as a no-cost way to preview the entire series.

President, Peak Selling, Inc.

Bill McCormick

Bill McCormick is the founder and president of Peak Selling, Inc., a firm specializing in customized sales training and consulting. Bill has over 20 years of experience consulting managers and coaching sales executives and professionals. He is the primary author and developer of Peak Selling's customized sales and management workshops.Prior to founding Peak Selling, he was Vice President of Marketing for an international consulting and training company. Bill was responsible for managing their entire sales and marketing effort, including an international network of licensees, and doubled their sales volume in four years. Prior to that, Bill held positions in sales, sales management, and marketing for a Fortune 25 firm.Bill earned his M.S. degree in Business Administration from Johns Hopkins University and a B.S. degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He also is on the Corporate Education Group (Boston University) [email protected] 

Course curriculum

  • 1

    ESS 4: The Opening Stage and Relationship Building

    • Print Handout: ESS 4 - Opening Stage and Relationship Building

    • Print Planning Form: ESS 4 Building Rapport and Relationships

    • Play Video: ESS 4 - Opening Stage and Building Relationships

    • Download and Save: Planning Form in Word - ESS4 Building Rapport and Relationships

    • Take the Quiz: ESS 4 - Test Your Knowledge on The Opening Stage and Relationship Building

  • $175.00

    $175.00Essential Selling Skills Series

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