Handbook of Business Communication

Ruth Albert

7Sales talk and sales training

1.Introduction

2.Types of sales conversations

3.Process

4.Sales-advisor and practical-rhetoric training

5.Recommendations for training based on discourse analysis

6.Conclusion

1Introduction

Sales talk is understood here as conversation intended (by at least one party) to lead to the exchange of money for goods or services. Ideally the interests of the partners in these conversations will coincide, at least to some extent. Salespeople can achieve their goal of selling something if and only if customers achieve their goal of buying something. Nonetheless, the goals are often not entirely complementary. For example, there may be different interests regarding the price to be paid. Alternatively, considerable ...