We’re happy to announce our upcoming QBS Summit! If you would like to renew your focus on increasing your own sales effectiveness, or give your entire sales team an unfair advantage over the competition, join us on October 7 - 8 for the Fall 2010 QBS Methodology Summit.

The boot-camp style event, featuring Alan Rohrer (QBS Certified Trainer) in Phoenix will be held on Thursday, October 7th and Friday, October 8th.

The learning environment will be highly interactive, with participants from a variety of industries including technology, financial services, healthcare, consulting, insurance, real estate, manufacturing, advertising, hospitality, and retail, and feedback from previous QBS Summit events has been “off the charts.”

With limited seating, reserve your seats early since we are expecting a full house. You might also want to bring extra pencils and a stack of writing pads for note taking.

“Tom! I wanted to thank you for an amazing training two weeks ago-my head is still spinning from all of the great info. I met with our Regional Manager yesterday and he wants you to train the rest of our team. You will be hearing from us very soon…”    -Liz B., Michigan…your newest QBS groupie!

Click for Early Enrollment Discount &  SUMMIT DETAILS.

ABC Company Press Release: Our products and services are truly the world’s best. In fact, our new launch offers better features and experts say they will really change the way customers do business.

     …a few days later…

XYZ Company Press Release: Truly, we can now say that our products and services are the world’s finest. Our product offerings are better and they really will change the way customers do business.

Other words and phrases that should be stricken from the sales vernacular include paradigm-shift, industry-leading, cutting-edge, groundbreaking, touching-base, game-changer, and “coffee is for closers.”

“Ironically, Question Based Selling solves the problem that traditional sales training programs have created."

Q: What exactly is a Positioning Assessment?

Depending on the client, initiative, or impending project, a positioning assessment can range from a short 30 minute free initial consultation to an in-depth examination of how your messages resonate in the current competitive marketplace.

Common areas of focus include:

- Setting the bar too high for the competition, and plant a couple land mines in the process.

- Trade Show Strategies: How to get more leads and create a greater sense of urgency.

- Does your story build to a crescendo, where customers will “want to” take action?

- Identifying risky buzzwords or catch phrases that put people off

The bad news is, the way most sellers have been taught for decades does more to commoditize their value than differentiate it. The traditional ‘elevator pitch,” for example, is virtually identical between competing companies, which is exactly the opposite of what sellers are trying to accomplish.

More information available HERE, or contact us for information on dates, availability, and deliverables.

If you would like to renew your focus on increasing your own sales effectiveness, or giving your entire sales team an unfair advantage over the competition, join us on May 6 - 7 for the Mid-Year QBS Methodology Summit, held in dual locations.

Simultaneous boot-camp style events, featuring Alan Rohrer (QBS Certified Trainer) in Phoenix and Tom Freese in Atlanta, will be held on the first Thurs-Friday in May.

The learning environment will be highly interactive, with participants from a variety of industries including technology, financial services, healthcare, consulting, insurance, real estate, manufacturing, advertising, hospitality, and retail, and feedback from previous QBS Summit events has been “off the charts.”

With limited seating, reserve your seats early since we are expecting a full house. You might also want to bring extra pencils and a stack of writing pads for note taking.

“Tom! I wanted to thank you for an amazing training two weeks ago-my head is still spinning from all of the great info. I met with our Regional Manager yesterday and he wants you to train the rest of our team. You will be hearing from us very soon…”    -Liz B., Michigan…your newest QBS groupie!

Click for Early Enrollment Discount &  SUMMIT DETAILS.

Check out the Jan issue of Go Magazine, Air Tran’s in-flight publication. After training In Publishing’s sales team (the magazine’s publisher) in London back in October, one thing led to another and I am now being featured on a two page spread in the January issue on pages 90 – 91.

Tomorrow, I get to watch other passengers read about me on my flight to DC. Very cool, and hopefully informative. Check it out for yourself HERE.

It turns out that people respond to pressure in different ways. Some people, when they start to feel overwhelmed, fade into the background, not wanting to bring attention to the fact that they are struggling. As for me, increased pressure tends to make me more indignant. If I am going to fail at something, I would rather go down in flames.

Thus, on January 1, 1988, I made a career-changing New Year’s resolution. I had just finished yet another mediocre sales year, and damn it, it wasn’t going to happen again. So, I headed to the office on New Years Day. While everyone else nursed their post New Year’s Eve party hangovers, and watched college football, I cleaned out my office. I worked the entire day and got seriously organized.

It was no surprise that my SUV was the only car in the parking lot since it was a holiday. But by the time I left the office, I felt a very clear sense of satisfaction and preparedness. I was ready for the New Year.

Have you ever noticed how good it feels to be ahead of the game? That first week of January, everyone else was trying to catch up, while I was moving forward and feeling productive. In fact, it felt so good that it motivated me to want to stay ahead. Consequently, I often stayed at the office late into the evening and came in frequently on weekends, each time noticing that mine was the only car in the parking lot.

My strategy was simple. I was determined to outwork everyone else on the sales team. That way, if I did fail, I wouldn’t have any excuses. Besides putting in the time, I also made it a goal to work harder than everyone else. I made more cold calls than anyone else and scheduled more appointments. I also asked more questions in order to uncover more needs. I even made it a point to take the most notes at every meeting.

After a very short period of time, I had become more knowledgeable about our product offerings and target industry, which in turn, made me a much more credible resource to my prospects and customers. As the year progressed, I began to feel less overwhelmed and more in control.

It didn’t take long before I became the “go to” guy in the office. When someone had a question, they came to me for help. Lo and behold, the sales manager started sending opportunities my way, knowing they would be handled with a greater sense of urgency. By year-end, I had become the top producing salesperson in our office. Essentially, I had earned the right to outperform everyone else whose car wasn’t parked in the lot back on New Year’s Day.

*Excerpted my second book, It Only Takes 1% to have a Competitive Edge in Sales.

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2009 was a difficult business year for many. If you were fortunate enough to not among the masses who saw declining opportunities as the result of a recent back-flip in the economy, I’m sure you have customers, friends, colleagues, employees, or coworkers who have felt the impact in a very personal way.

Perhaps the economic gods with wave a wand and return everything to normalcy. Me, I’m not sure what normal is at the moment, nor have I ever been one to bet my lot on magic.

I have said before, “The best way out of any recession is to sell your way out.” The difference this time is the game of selling has changed—I call it a Darwinian-style recalibration, where the salesperson will play a more important role in their own success than ever before.

With that, I hope you enjoyed a nice holiday break with your friends and family. But, please realize that the new sales year begins tomorrow. Me, I might dedicate some time to get a jump on the competition because who knows, they might be reading this as well!

Not scheduled for an Air Tran Airways flight any time soon? You can simply download the article right here. Hope you enjoy!

When this 47 year-old unknown woman named Susan Boyle walks out onto the stage and fulfills her dream right in front of your eyes, it unleashes a spirit within to think, “If she can fulfill her destiny, then maybe, just maybe, there’s much more to be written about my own story as well.”

Whatever you’re doing at this moment, put it aside for six minutes and this video will not only brighten your day, it may change your life. Click here to start.

Tom Freese has consistently published more relevant content than other sales trainers, and the information keeps flowing. Besides being a five-time author, Tom is a regular contributor for magazines and web-based delivery, in addition to the various collaboration projects that are underway and the articles posted below. I invite you to post a comment as you enjoy the material, the goal then being to implement the strategies and techniques into your own selling environment.

More than any time since the industrial revolution, companies and individuals in all industries are 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 may be long overdue.

(Click here to download the entire document.)