New QBS Website – Very Cool!

Attention, friends of Question Based Selling! A new day has dawned and the QBS website has been completely overhauled for your enjoyment and ongoing sales education. In addition to sending periodic newsletters and updates, our new blog-based website literally went live last night, and so far the feedback has been great.

The genesis of this project was simple—to deliver more QBS content to our rapidly expanding audience that is also more current. Particularly given the recent shift in the economy, Question Based Selling can be a valuable resource for sellers who want to upgrade their approach in order to adjust to the changing market conditions.

The new site is also highly interactive, complete with:

• Postings of recent QBS articles
• First ever open-to-the-public QBS course
• Free downloadable training excerpts and audio MP3s
• Blog Comments and an “Ask the Author” page
• Automatic Registration for QBS OnLine
• OnLine Proposal Request
• A “Hall of Shame”
• Sales humor

The new site even has a section for “Job Hunting Tips” with several excerpts from my next book, The Complete Guide to Selling Yourself.  It turns out that a job interview is a pure sales situation, as you can’t blame the product, price, or someone back at headquarters in the corporate marketing department if you can’t close the “deal”. In your next job interview, you will be totally responsible for selling yourself.  And just like every job interview is a sales situation, it turns out that every sales call is also a mini job interview. How you project and position yourself will definitely impact the customer’s perception of your product and company, as well as the potential value you bring to the table.

Thanks to Scott Whitney and his team at PodWorx, Inc. for their technical expertise and social media guidance.

So. . .what do you think about the new site?  We’ve put a ton of work into it and I would love to hear your feedback.

My Favorite Lead Generation Source: The Competition

When I sold superservers for NetFrame Systems, our arch rival competitor was a company called Tricord Sytems. The people at Tricord despised NetFrame! In fact, the local Tricord rep hated us so much that he made preemptive strikes in all his accounts, by telling customers how “awful” NetFrame was.

Doing their due diligence, customers wanted to find out for themselves why NetFrane was so incompetent, so they called me. Of course, once a customer discovered that what Tricord was saying was untrue, Tricord’s credibility was shot and we would usually win the business.

The only reason I didn’t send “thank you” notes to my colleague over at Tricord was because I didn’t want him to figure out what was happening and stop sending us leads.

Anyone Have a Degree in Sales?

Sales continues to be the least taught profession in the world.

After graduating from the University of Florida with a degree in Finance, one of my options was to pursue a career in banking. I never really saw myself working in a bank, so I went into sales.

To get hired, I suppose it was necessary to have a decent personality, but you didn’t need any specific industry certifications. You just had to "want to" sell. By the time the first year passed, I had accumulated some on-the-job trial by fire experience, but the amount of official sales training I received was negligible. There was this unwritten feeling among managers that salespeople should already know how to sell.

I didn’t. I knew how to pick up the telephone and keep dialing until my fingers bled. I also knew that everyone was focused on results, and my manager told me that sales was simply a ‘numbers game.” For a neophyte like myself who was struggling to scratch out a living, selling was hardly a game.

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No Wonder the Auto Industry is in Trouble!

I now know why the car companies are not doing well. A few months ago, I went car shopping because my teenage daughter suddenly has ‘nomadic aspirations’ having reached the magical age where she can now drive. Mind you, she’s a good kid, but I’m not one of those parents who subscribes to the notion that sixteen year-olds deserve a car just because they come of age, so my intention was to buy a car that Sarah would have moderate use of as long as her ‘train stays on the tracks’ relative to schoolwork and other responsibilities.

My first stop was Dyer & Dyer Volvo in North Atlanta. On the internet, I spotted a used Saturn SUV that would have been perfect, so immediately called the dealership on Friday afternoon and got connected with a salesperson named Sid, who was pleasant and helpful. Sid encouraged me to hurry over to the dealership before the car got sold. Since I had a conflict Friday evening, I made an appointment with Sid first thing Saturday morning at 9am sharp.

I rolled into the dealership about three minutes after 9am, with a cashier’s check in my pocket and ready to buy. Strangely, no one came out to greet me, which was okay. I didn’t need to be hounded. Three other couples were milling around the showroom, but strangely, I didn’t notice any salespeople. So, I walked up to the counter and told the nice looking receptionist that I had an appointment with Sid.

“Everyone is in the regular Saturday morning sales meeting,” she said. I asked her how long this meeting would last. “It usually starts at 8:30am and probably will last another 30 minutes,” she responded. I explained to her that I had a 9am appointment with Sid. “Yes, we know, you are on the VIP board,” she said, pointing to a prominent whiteboard in the showroom that listed client appointments, and my name was tops on the list with a 9am appointment. I said, “Can you slip a note under the door and tell him I’m here?” She did and came back saying he couldn’t come out. With that, me and my cashier’s check left the building.

Wait, it gets better.

Since the Saturn SUV had caught my interest, I drove to the nearby Saturn dealership, figuring that they would probably have some pre-owned vehicles on the lot. This time, six Saturn salespeople wearing the company uniform (red shirt and khaki pants) were standing around and one eagerly stepped forward to greet me. “I’m Steve,” he said. “How can I help you?” I explained that I wanted to buy a safe but inexpensive vehicle for my daughter to use. We walked around the lot to survey the various options, and I actually stuck my head in a couple of them. We even took a quick test drive around the block.

After I had been there approximately twenty minutes, the sales manager came over—a tall former football player with his gray hair dyed blonde. “Sir, are you planning to buy one of these cars?” he asked abruptly. I hedged, giving him a definite ‘maybe’ type of response. “Well, Saturday is our busiest day, so if you’re going to buy a car, we’re happy to help. But, we don’t want to wear Steve out because he has to work tonight until 7pm,” he said. You just can’t make this stuff up. I glanced back into the showroom, and at 10:15am in the morning, there was only one other customer in the showroom along with a bunch of salesmen standing around with their hands in their pockets.

I politely excused myself, saying, “I’ll come back when you’re not so busy.” My cashiers check and I were on the move once again.

Perhaps for spite, I whipped into the Kia dealership directly across the street from the Saturn reception desk. The folks at Kia couldn’t have been nicer or more attentive. I test drove a couple options, went back and forth a reasonable number of times, and with 90 minutes, we had a deal. The salesperson passed me off to the in-house finance minister who painlessly facilitated the legal mumbo-jumbo. After signing my life away, we shook hands and I turned to leave in my new Kia. “You’ll be getting your tickets in about three weeks,” the finance guy said.

“What tickets?” I asked. He told me, “You get two season tickets to all the Falcon’s 2008 home games when you buy a Kia.” “Why are you giving away free tickets?” I asked. He explained, “It’s a promotion to sell more cars.”

I have never been in the car business, but it seems to me that if you are going to offer a promotion to sell more cars, it might be smart to use the special offer as carrot or incentive to close deals, as opposed to mentioning it after the paperwork has all been signed and the customer is literally walking out the door.

No wonder the car business is in trouble…

Crazy Forecast Math

Why is it that deals forecasted with a 50% probability of closing rarely happen before the end of the month, while deals that are forecasted with a 90% probability, only close 50% of the time?

Secrets of Question Based Selling

I initially thought it would be easy to crank out a sales book…and it was. The tough part was writing a book that people could actually use to increase their effectiveness.

After five rewrites and nine rounds of editing, I am pleased to say that my first book, Secrets of Question Based Selling is just as relevant, applicable, and accurate now, as the day it was first released.

From my perspective, executing the ‘softer skills’ like establishing credibility, piquing the prospect’s interest, or differentiating your value proposition will be just as important and relevant fifty years from now, and they are today.

Secrets of Question Based Selling contains the core concepts of the QBS Methodology.

Hope you enjoy!

Negotiate Like a Dentist

You don’t need to be defensive on price—we already made this point. Very few people buy the product or service that has the absolute lowest price. What they buy is value, seeking the biggest bang for their buck. This includes evaluating their solution alternatives and making the best decision.

The challenge for salespeople is getting prospects to compare products in an equitable way. Selling professional services is a good example. Why would anyone want to pay in excess of a hundred dollars per hour for a good accountant, when they could have their taxes done at the local H&R Block office for $69.95? Likewise, why would it make sense to pay two or three times as much for an experienced software analyst when you can hire a bench technician from a local computer outlet for cheap?

It’s especially difficult to quantify benefits with intangibles. From the prospect’s point of view, is it better to pay less money for a less valuable resource, or to pay more for the appropriate level of expertise? Since customers cannot actually see the intangible (in this case, a service) before it’s delivered, they often struggle with making the best decision. That’s why, when my QBS clients ask me to help their salespeople justify the premiums they charge for a higher level of expertise, I suggest they should negotiate like a dentist. Here’s a cute little parable that illustrates my point.

One day, a dentist is examining a new patient in the chair.

“Hmmm,” the dentist says after reviewing the x-rays.

“What’s wrong?” asks the patient, sensing the dentist’s concern.

“It looks like we need to pull a bum tooth,” the dentist answers.

“Oh no!” the patient grimaces. “How much will that cost?”

“About a hundred dollars,” the dentist responds.

“How bad will it hurt?” the patient moaned.

“Not bad. It only takes a minute,” the dentist replies.

“Wait a second. You’re going to charge me a hundred bucks for something that only takes a minute?” the patient challenges.

“Well…how long would you like it to take?” asks the dentist.

To justify the value of your product or service, sometimes it’s necessary to change the prospect’s perspective. Would you rather pay a little more to have a tooth pulled quickly and painlessly, or some other alternative that is less expensive, but comes with a much higher personal cost?

Your Next Job Interview

Professionals are constantly enhancing their resumes in continuous preparation for their next job opportunity. Even if you stay with the same company, you will likely change positions, either moving into a new role or by being next in line for a big promotion.

In the role of customer, hiring managers evaluate candidates in an attempt to find valuable employees. And, even if you are indeed the most valuable candidate applying for a position, you still have to say and do things during a job interview (or sales call) that enable you to be perceived as such.

(Click here to download the entire document.)

The Complete Guide to Selling Yourself

 Most of the salespeople we train are veterans. Once in a while we encounter a group of ‘newbies’ fresh out of college, but for the most part our target audience on a weekly basis is filled with experienced professionals who are looking for something constructive and practical that will enable them to take their respective games to the next level. Even if you are not a career salesperson, you will be selling yourself throughout you career, from your very first career opportunity to every interaction your have afterward.

Given the recent shift in focus toward cost effectiveness and profitability, your involvement in business will surely touch the sales process at some point, thus creating an opportunity for you to positively influence customer relationships. Whether you manage a small business or are a high-ranking executive in a Fortune 500 company, or if you support the sales organization in a technical or customer service role, you are definitely selling yourself every day.

This is both an exciting and scary time for salespeople, and you can be sure that the current competitive environment will test the mettle of every sales organization. But, as the saying goes, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going."

Have you ever noticed that the best athletes in virtually every sport always want the ball in their hands when the game is on the line? I have noticed that the same thing is true in sales—the best salespeople are the ones who step up and make good things happen whenever a sale is on the line.

If you aspire to be "a gamer" in the profession of sales, this book is definitely for you.

Secret #19: The harder you push. . .

Secret #19:
The harder you push, the harder your prospects and customers will tend to push back.

In high school physics, we learned that for every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction. In sales, pushing harder and harder increases customer resistance and causes decision makers to be even more standoffish. Of course, this is the opposite of what we are trying to accomplish.

Consequently, Question Based Selling is not just about asking questions. If you want to be effective in selling, it’s more important to know how to cause potential customers to want to share information with you.

Put it this way: If someone doesn’t ‘want to’ share with you, it doesn’t matter what questions you try to ask.