Tales of a QBS Student

It’s always to nice to hear when former QBS students who put the QBS methodology into practice. . .

Tom,

Until last November I was a salesman in the Dallas office of a large deregulated energy provider. . I started my sales career January of 2006 (only 3 years ago) and have been through your material numerous times. In December I was selected, out of 60 people who applied for the position, to start a sales channel for Oracle Elevator.  Frankly, I was selected because of your training. In this economy, with the amount of people looking for work, that speaks volumes.

My current manager told me that many of the people he interviewed had 10+ years sales experience. My interview included role playing, I talked about diagnostic questioning, issues and implications, Gold Medals, German Shepherds, phone messages, e-mails. The next guy didn’t stand a chance.  With no experience at all in the elevator industry I closed 3 deals in my second week on the job.

If there is one important aspect…it’s that I’ve learned to separate myself from the noise. There’s a million people all running around trying to sell something and using Question Based Selling, I’ve been able to distinguish myself from the pack.

Thanks.

Adam B. Prescott, Business Development Manager
Oracle Elevator

Secret #156: In today’s business culture, there is an overwhelming demand for proven sales talent. . .

Secret #156:
In today’s business culture, there is an overwhelming demand for proven sales talent, but there is an underwhelming infrastructure for teaching salespeople how to succeed.

Does anyone else think it’s strange that the sales function drives every company, yet selling continues to be the least taught profession in the world?

Given enough time and tribulation, some of the most creative and diligent salespeople will figure out for themselves what works and what doesn’t—through trial and error, just like we did in the old days. Unfortunately, one thing companies and sales managers don’t have today is the luxury of time.

My advice to any salesperson who wants to improve their performance in today’s competitive marketplace is simple: Do everything you can to become a student of the strategic sales process. Whether your goal is to raise your individual effectiveness, or the effectiveness of the entire sales organization, there’s no need for you reinvent the wheel.

Let me know how we can help (tfreese@QBSresearch.com).

It’s NEVER A Good Time for Training

More than any other time since the industrial revolution, companies and individuals in all industries are feverishly looking for ways to retain customers, boost top line revenue, and maintain overall profit margins. To survive and ultimately flourish in this new environment, we must reexamine the way we deal with customers; and frankly, some of the necessary adjustments are long overdue.

(Click the image to the right to download the entire document.)

(Click here to download the entire document.)

QBS Methodology Summit: April 2-3

The time has come…to open the QBS Training experience up to everyone. For the last twelve years, we have been training sales organizations all over the world. With the recent tightening of the economy, the number of requests we are now receiving from individuals who want to attend a QBS training course has increase significantly….so I say, "Uncle…let’s do it!"

I am especially excited about this event because it will be happening in conjunction with the release of my new book, The Compete Guide to Selling Yourself.  Each person who attends the summit will receive a signed copy of my new book, hopefully hot off the presses, and the content will focus on adjustments sellers need to make in order to boost sales in the current economic environment.

I would definitely recommend that you bring extra paper as the playing field on which we now work and play has changed dramatically, and your ability to succeed is going to have a lot to do with the customer’s perception of YOU.

Click Here for REGISTRATION AND SUMMIT DETAILS.

Offer to Write the Customer’s RFP

Have you noticed that by the time a request for proposal (RFP) is sent out by a prospect account, the sale is pretty much over? Before the RFP goes out, the customer has developed criteria that will likely determine who will win the business. Even so, the ritual ensues, where competing vendors invest countless hours and dollars preparing proposal responses that they hope will win the sale. In nine out of ten opportunities, however, the vendor who actually gets selected is the one who helped write the customer’s RFP.

Request for proposals are compilations of the criteria that will be used to make a buying decision. It stands to reason, therefore, that sellers have a much better chance of winning when the criteria being used for the decision closely matches their solution. But who is responsible for establishing the criteria for the evaluation and decision? If you leave it up to your prospects to establish their own criteria, the RFP may not reflect your areas of strength, or it could be so generic as to invite more competition. Worse yet, if you don’t help prospects define the criteria for their decisions, your competitors will.

Read more

Complaint Letter to Office Max

Here’s a letter I recently wrote to the president of Office Max.  Still waiting for a reply!

January 2, 2007

Mr. Sam K. Duncan
Chairman and CEO
Office Max Corporation
263 Shuman Blvd.
Naperville, IL  60563

Dear Mr. Duncan,

Most customers have little recourse against large corporations. I, on the other hand, having published three business books, I have a decent following and make my living speaking to audiences all over the world about sales and customer service. Ironically, OfficeMax has recently provided me with some excellent content for my next book, called “how not to deal with customers.”

I have been a loyal OfficeMax customer for years. Even though the local Staples and Office Depot stores are equidistant from my office, we have literally purchased all of our office furniture, equipment, supplies, and technology from OfficeMax. Having spent hundreds of dollars per month, sometimes thousands, I should add that we have never had a problem.

Therefore, when it was time to buy a digital camera for my daughter for Christmas, the first place I thought of was my beloved OfficeMax (store #1122).

Before purchasing I asked, “What is your return policy on these cameras?” The answer was, “You have 14 days after Christmas.”

When I unboxed the camera, I’m no digital expert, but I am fairly adept at detecting poor quality. So, I carefully packaged everything back in the box and drove back to the store.

“Do you have your receipt?” the clerk asked. I did. She quickly radioed a manager who came over. He asked, “Why are you returning this?” I explained that when I got the camera home, it was clear that it was not the quality I expected. “You can’t return a digital camera once it has been opened,” the manager on duty said. I explained that the other manager (not there at the time) told me, “You have 14 days after Christmas.”

This is where the story gets interesting.

“It doesn’t matter what you were told,” he explained. “Our policy states that a digital camera that has been opened can only be exchanged for the same item if the original is defective.” “Where does it say that,” I asked. He told me that it was printed on the back of the receipt.

The manager dug in and took the position, “There’s nothing further I can do.”

When I asked for the CEO’s name and address, the manager relented and offered a store credit in the form of a gift card…mostly to get rid of me. He was obviously not happy with the outcome, and he even went on to explain that OfficeMax would probably lose money by breaking policy.

Like most customers, I have better things to do than argue with an indignant OfficeMax store manager on the day before Christmas Eve. If he had just issued the credit back on my American Express card, I would have happily continued down the path of purchasing everything from OfficeMax.

Maybe your store # 1122 should have an “easy” button.

Thank you for the time.

Best Regards,

Thomas A. Freese

Why Sales 101 No Longer Works

To me, it’s ironic that the world of strategic sales training has stayed pretty much the same over the last fifteen years, but for most companies, the selling environment has changed dramatically. Consequently, salespeople are having to work harder to penetrate new accounts, while prospective customers are working even harder to keep salespeople at bay.

Don’t blame the customer. In the past decade, downsizing and acquisitions have burdened corporate decision-makers with greater responsibility, oftentimes without the benefit of additional resources. Meanwhile, workloads continue to increase, competitors are getting hungrier, and the overall pace of business has quickened. Even if they wanted to, customers simply cannot afford to spend time with every salesperson that comes calling.

Read more

Are You an “Average” Salesperson?

The famous comedian, George Carlin, says: “If you think about it, the average person is pretty stupid!” He adds, “But what’s really scary is…statistically speaking, half the population of the world is even stupider than that!”

Relate this to business and you may find that the “average” salesperson is struggling to stay afloat in today’s increasingly competitive business marketplace. By the way, half of the salespeople in the world (or on your sales team) are having an even more difficult time than that!

Five Tips for Hiring Managers

If you are the person making the hiring decision, here are five ‘tells’ that will help you determine whether the candidate sitting in front of you would indeed be a good hire. Applicants should pay attention, because knowing what a hiring manager is looking for can provide useful insight with regard to how you choose to conduct yourself in your next job interview or in future sales situations.

1. Was the candidate interested enough to ask questions, or did they simply response to what was being asked? If they were shy about asking, was it because they felt intimidated, overwhelmed, or just didn’t seem interested in the opportunity?
2. How did the candidate demonstrate they were prepared and had put some thought into the specific opportunity?
3. Was the candidate interested in your business and hiring objectives? To what extent did they raise and explore important issues and focus on helping you accomplish these goals?
4. How much of the candidate’s pre-interview or follow up communication was person-to-person as opposed to hiding behind the electronic veil of email or the Internet?
5. What did the candidate do to differentiate themselves from other candidates who were interested in the position?

Having a good-looking, professional resume is definitely a plus if you are seeking a new career opportunity. But, any good salesperson will tell you that just having a nice ‘product brochure’ is not enough to guarantee success when meeting with an actual client. The candidate must also have a certain confidence for how to conduct a meeting, and a vision for how they are going to be successful in the position.

How’s this for Ironic?

Last summer, I trained the inside sales organizations for one of the largest and most successful telebusiness companies headquartered in Austin, TX.

This company essentially works with Fortune 1000 corporations to expand their sales coverage by outsourcing their telebusiness, customer response center, and outbound lead generation functions. With literally hundreds of in-house salespeople, making thousands of calls every day, the amount of business that this company is able to generate has been wildly impressive (to say the least).

When I arrived on-site in Austin to deliver a Two-Day QBS Methodology Training at their corporate offices, I couldn’t help but notice that there was a sign posted on the glass on their main front door that said: No Soliciting!