Sherwin William Paints

To create an insightful and useful Sales Resource Manual (SRM): a detailed, internal document that outlines
key company selling procedures, systems and resources. Build for a small to medium size local Business to
Business (B2B) company where outside sales activities are integral to the business model.
It has been said that successful selling is 90% preparation and 10% presentation. Planned presentations
tailored to the needs of the client enjoy a much higher success rate than unprepared and/or canned
presentations. This document should be highly customized to the company chosen, not a recitation of
textbook content with cut and pasted content from the company website.
As a salesperson you are required to know detailed information about the company you work for, the product
you are selling, the marketplace, the competition and, of course, your customers. This information can come to
you in part via a sales manual provided by your employer. The balance you acquire from training and on-thejob experience. Often though, very little or nothing is available, so the onus is on you, the salesperson, first to
find the information and then to prepare your own manual. Even if a company prepared manual is available to
you, it may be out of date or focuses on a selling model that is dated. In order to be successful, you must add
your own information about clients and techniques that work for you.
COMPANY CHOICE AND FORMING GROUPS
This manual must be prepared for a professional, complex product or service, business to business
sales situation. It can be written around a product or service that you feature in one of your sales
presentations, a company you work for, have contacts within or that you solicit and explain the benefit of what
you can do for them.
Chose a company and approach them letting them know what you are doing, the value this document may
bring to their company and internal processes and finally ask if they would be available to answer some
questions.
• This project should be completed in teams of up to four
• The SRM Project Plan provides me with an opportunity to review your proposed SRM company and
provide feedback before starting on the project
• The SRM should follow the format provided in this document
The process of collating all the information will be beneficial to you – first as a means of re-enforcing classroom
concepts and secondly to better understand the sales process for a real company. Work on your sales manual
should begin early in the term and should become part of your weekly work assignment.
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SECTION DETAILS TO INCLUDE
1. Company: • Brief description of the company.
• History – how long in business.
• Organization – what differentiates this company and their
product in the marketplace/competitive advantage?
• General information to provide a context for the size of the
company ie: number of locations, number of employees, any
financial information, projected growth, credit policy if relevant
and company values.
2. Product: • Describe what product or service (line) the SRM will be
focusing on. Include a brief history on the product ie; how has
it evolved.
• Provide three primary features and the associated benefits
(see Tables 6.2 and 6.3 on Features and Benefits)
• What is their pricing strategy, discounts offered?
• Explain distribution channels
3. Target Market: • Using B2B segmenting variables, provide a profile of ideal B2B
customers. If more than one ideal group, explain.
• Customer Buying Process – briefly explain what needs the
product fulfils for the customer
• Customer Journey Map: outline typical path or steps (from
initial contact to becoming a loyal customer) a prospect would
follow when looking for a new supplier like your company.
• Include what staff are involved (touch points) guiding prospect
through this process.
• Use a flowchart to visually show this path and provide
explanations where helpful.
• Explain everyone within the organization that may be involved
in the decision to purchase your product or service.
• See Ch 8
4. Competition: • Name two primary competitors to your company and two
strengths and weakness of the companies.
• For each of the above, provide three primary features and the
associated benefits of their product that will be directly
competing with yours.
• List any indirect alternatives to your product.
• See Table 7.1 Competitive Analysis Worksheet
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5. Prospecting: • Provide a list of four specific qualifying criteria that should be
used in building a prospect list.
• Provide a list of the five best sources of prospects for this
company. Be very specific! Include relevant info ie: website
links, names of associations, networking groups etc and why
you feel this source is so valuable.
• In the appendix include 12 qualified leads/ideal prospects.
Include decision makers name, company website, contact
information, the source and why you think they are a good
prospect.
• See Ch 9
6. Social Selling • Complete an audit of what they are currently doing on their
social media channels; LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
and others if relevant. This to include; frequency and quality of
posts, analyzing the value of the content posted, how they are
engaging with prospects and/or customers via social channels,
what groups they belong to and level of activity.
• Provide the following to improve their social selling systems:
o Create headlines for three LinkedIn articles they should
write along with a short paragraph about the article and
how it would be of value to their prospects or customers
o Ideas for three regular posts on each; LinkedIn and two
other social channels of your choice. Explain why you
feel these ideas will help their social selling efforts i.e.,
how it will reach target market and why they would
engage with it.
o Description of four specific groups they should consider
joining; two on LinkedIn and two industry related.
7. Need Discovery
Questions:
• Develop ten thought provoking questions:
o For each question, what resulting information will be
useful in the sales process?
o These questions should help build a deep
understanding of what challenges prospects face and to
uncover opportunities.
• See Ch 11
8. Dominant Buying
Motives:
• State two dominant buying motives of target prospects.
Describe how the buyer is positively impacted by the motive.
• See Ch 8
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9. Demonstration
Details & Quantify
Benefits:
What to demonstrate, what to say and do…
• Create a step-by-step checklist of what an ideal demonstration
includes ie: visuals, props and other selling tools.
• List three of the most important features and at least two
benefits for each of those features.
• State three methods of engaging client.
• See Figure 12.4 Demonstration Worksheet for ideas
• Create a sheet that quantifies a solution with a cost-benefit
analysis. See Table 6.1 pg 134 for ideas.
10.Objections: • List three primary objections you anticipate encountering in
the marketplace and how they can be handled, include the
language that would be used to overcome the objection.
• See Figure 13.3 Negotiations Worksheet
11.Closing: Clues and successful closing techniques.
• Suggest two closing “clues” that may be encountered by a
salesperson this industry.
• Suggest a closing method and statement the salesperson
might use.
• See Figure 14.3 Closing Worksheet
12.Servicing: What actions/plans are necessary to service and maintain accounts
over the long term?
• List two recommendations to service and maintain the account
over time.
• See Figure 15.3 Servicing the Sale Worksheet
13.OTHER Other information you believe is relevant in selling this product.
For example:
• Interview with a company sales representative
• Sales Journey Map to map out all touch points from the sales
person’s perspective:
o supporting rolls other staff play in sales process.
o How long is the typical sales cycle?
o A flow chart or list of steps along with explanations is a
good method of mapping.
14.References • All listed research sources
• All citations in APA style
• Include copy of Project Plan in appendix
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TECHNIQUES FOR GATHERING INFORMATION
• Personal interviews with salespeople and/or sales executives
• Researching trade journals and professional articles related to industry
• Personal calls to suppliers and distributors
• Personal observation of sales people at work, trade shows, exhibitions, etc.
• Create what you do not know, but make it realistic/logical
It is important that work on the manual begin early on in the semester. Not every choice works out and you
need to know early on if things have to be changed.
FORMATTING
• The manual should be professional in a format and of a size useful to you when making sales calls
away from the office. The information in it should be succinct and pragmatic.
• Focus on one product (line) or service, not everything the company sells.
• This is an internal document, not for customers to see.
• Grammar, spelling, and punctuation must be free of errors. Craft your sentences to convey your ideas
clearly. Use marketing terms and knowledge learned in the course. If the text is ineffective, if you use
poor word choice and minimal sentence variety, and if there are frequent and distracting grammar,
spelling, and punctuation errors, you will lose up to 20% of the mark given.
• Use a creative, pleasing presentation format including; graphics, headings, (i.e., an appropriate binder
or portfolio).
• Use a Table of Content and number the pages.
• References uses APA Citation format. See Library Resource page
https://guides.douglascollege.ca/APA-6 .
• The sales resource manual should use a 12 point font (Arial or Calibri) with 1” margins.
• You are encouraged to use worksheets from the text for ideas. Do not include any of the worksheets.
DELIVERABLES
• Submit a hard copy of the SRM at the beginning of the last class unless otherwise noted.
• Submit Confidential Peer Evaluation in hard copy at the beginning of last class.
• Send me soft copy via Blackboard and to Turnitin.com before beginning of last class. See
Blackboard for Turnitin access information.
If you have any questions on the manual, be sure to ask early in the course – do not leave it to the
last week!
EVALUATION AND GRADING CRITERIA
See Sales Resource Manual & Participation Grading Chart / Rubric for marking criteria. Group members may
receive different marks based on Peer Evaluation and back up information provided.
The Sales Resource Manual term project contributes 25% of your total course grade. Failure to hand in
a Sales Resource Manual will result in a grade of “F”.
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SRM PROJECT PLAN
This document will provide me with an overview of the proposed company you plan to build the SRM
around along with details that will help me during the marking process. Include the following:
• Title of paper include course number and section
• Names and student numbers of all those in the group
• Company name & website address, brief description of company
• What product or service (line) you plan to cover with the SRM. It should be complex product in
the B2B market.
• General description of who an ideal prospect is; what market they are in, who in the
organization is responsible for purchasing the product or service
• Task allocation; who will be responsible for what sections, research, editing, printing final
version. There should be an even distribution of tasks.
• Include deadlines for your project including: initial research, rough draft, full edit, final version.
• Hand in hard copy – see course outline for due date.
**Do not proceed with your SRM research until you receive approval and/or feedback from me