Time to Make Selling FUN Again!

“Why do companies all over the world spend millions of dollars telling salespeople what to say, but they invest almost nothing when it comes to teaching them what to ask?”    - T. Freese

I still can’t figure out why most of the sales training that’s being offered today is geared toward teaching people to sound the same as “everyone else.” Back when I was a salesperson, I wanted to do everything in my power to differentiate myself from the competition, as opposed to commoditizing my company’s value proposition with industry buzzwords.

Ironically, the effectiveness of the individual salesperson has become increasingly more important than the products they sell or the company they represent. All you have to do is glance around your industry and you will quickly notice that some salespeople are more effective than others, selling the same types of products to the same target audience.

The real challenge sellers face on a daily basis is less about defining the sales process, and instead, has more to do with figuring out “HOW” to execute more effectively. Things like: How can you pique the prospect’s interest to penetrate more new opportunities?  How do you earn enough credibility to compete for mindshare from key decision makers within important target accounts?  How can you create the sense of urgency needed to move deals forward? Or better still, How can you cause skeptical customers to "want to" share information with a salesperson they don’t yet know or trust?  Also, How can you increase your Return On Invested Sales Effort, enough to secure an ‘unfair’ advantage over the competition? Ultimately, the goal in terms of more effective execution is understanding How to close more deals, at higher margins, in reduced time and with less effort. Ultimately, it’s about winning in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

“If you want to ‘challenge’ the customer’s thinking in today’s increasingly competitive business environment, then you might want to take some steps in order to challenge your own.”          -T. Freese

Honestly, you don’t need me to come in and tell your salespeople that Step 1 in the sales process is to Identify New Opportunities, Step 2 is to Uncover Needs, Step 3 is to Qualify, and so on. They already know this, and so do your competitors. What sellers really want to know is How to execute more effectively.

Especially in this economy, it’s exciting (even FUN) to discover that a few small adjustments in strategy can produce a significant upside in results. That’s where Question Based Selling comes in. Strategic questions are the key to becoming more effective in today’s marketplace. Trust me, I wrote the book on it!

“Question Based Selling is a proven sales methodology and Tom Freese is a sales phenomenon. He will show you how to differentiate yourself and your product and he will increase your sales results.”      -Steve Huey, V.P. of Marketing Communications, HP

Wouldn’t now be a good time to have a conversation about replacing some of the ‘old school’ tactics that no longer work with a more current and proven sales methodology? If so, a host of QBS programs are available and we are definitely ready when you are!  Let us know how we can help.

Question Based Selling vs. Traditional Sales Approaches

This QBS LIVE clip features Tom explaining the differences between Question Based Selling and traditional sales training, including some of the more well known programs like Solution Selling, Strategic Selling, Power Based Selling, SPIN Selling, and Target Account Selling.

Having a defined internal sales process is fine. But just having a process in place no longer gives you a competitive edge. I bet your competitors have a sales process in place too, and it’s probably strikingly similar to yours. 

“If you look around any sales organization you will quickly notices that some salespeople are significantly more effective than others, using the exact same process. This enables us to conclude that just following the steps of the sales process isn’t want defines success in sales. Rather, it’s HOW you execute each of the phases of the sales process that will ultimately determine whether you are chosen as the selected vendor, or you are consistently coming in second place.”   - T. Freese

2011 QBS Methodology Winter Summit: January 6-7

“Given the ongoing shifts that will continue to occur in the business marketplace, sellers must do everything possible to make themselves invaluable to their customers, colleagues, and company.”         -T. Freese

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 January 6 - 7 for the 2011 Kick Off QBS Methodology Summit.

The boot-camp style event, featuring QBS Research founder Tom Freese in Atlanta and will be held on Thursday, January 6th and Friday, January 7th.

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.

2010 QBS Methodology Mid Year Summit: May 6-7

“Given the ongoing shifts that will continue to occur in the business marketplace, sellers must do everything possible to make themselves invaluable to their customers, colleagues, and company.”         -T. Freese

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.

Increase Voice-mail/Email Responses by 1000%

Voice-mail and email are very effective communication tools. As such, your target list of prospects and customers is being inundated with voice-mails and email messages from your direct competitors, in addition to any number of other vendors who compete with you indirectly—for budget dollars.

The are only two reasons people respond to voice and email messages—obligation and curiosity. If your boss calls and leaves a message, you will likely return the call. If your largest customer calls, you will surely return their call as well, because that’s what you do when you have important customers, or a boss.

But, what about decision makers who don’t feel “obligated” to return cold calls from vendors? Besides obligation, the only other thing that causes people to return voice-mail messages or email is curiosity.

The challenge is, most voice-mails and email messages that get lobbed into potential decision makers do more to satisfy their curiosity than create it. Oops! As a result, the average return call rate on voice-mail has dropped below 5%, and the odds of getting replies to email can be just as bleak.

Sample messages of Curiosity Inducing Voice-mails:

i.) “Hi, George, this is Pat Wilkins calling from Dynamic Systems—I’m on the team that works with industrial accounts in Central Florida. I was on a conference call with one of our products managers last Wednesday afternoon just after lunch, and two issues came up that I thought might impact your current manufacturing platform, one of which is time sensitive. I wanted to be proactive and try to catch you in the office this afternoon. If you get a chance today, could you please call me back at (770) 123-4567? I should be here until around 5:30pm.”

ii) “Hi, Dale, this is Lane Patterson with HLM Corporation. I’m on the team that supports healthcare accounts for the Midwest region. I was hoping to catch you for a minute because we’ve had 13 new announcements in the last three and a half months, two of which I believe might impact your diagnostic assessments under the new legislation. If you get a chance today, could you please call me at (770) 123-4567?”

(iii) “Hi, Steve, this is Joe Tomlin calling from Templeton Partners. I manage a team that works with financial brokers in the tri-cities area. A note came across my desk yesterday morning that caught my eye regarding (insert something relevant) and I wanted to try and catch up with you today if possible. When you get a chance, could you please call me at (770) 123-4567?”

Key Point: If I sent 5 different voice-mails or email messages, they would have five different sets of words depending on what information I had about the account, my purpose for calling, and the objective of the call. But in every case, my intention would be to leave (or send) a purposeful message, that was specific and relevant. Do that in your business, and you can easily realize a 50%+ response rate, which represents a whopping 1000% increase over industry averages.

Try Using Humbling Disclaimers

Sellers are encouraged to ask specific qualifying questions, most notably about decision makers, timeframe, and budget. A fine line exists between appropriately qualifying an opportunity and probing too invasively.

To minimize the risk of being shut down by a defensive prospect, and to maximize the quality of the information you receive, you simply precede your most delicate questions with a humbling disclaimer.

A humbling disclaimer creates a permission of sorts which makes it easy for the salesperson to ask, and also paves the way for the other person to be more receptive to the question. For example:

Salesperson:  “Mr. Customer, I don’t want to overstep my boundaries and ask too many questions, but I would like to understand the big picture before recommending a solution. Do you mind if I ask a couple of specifics about how this project might impact your long-range growth plans?”

Other examples of humbling disclaimers include:

           Salesperson:   “I’m not sure the best way to ask, but would you mind if…”

                                       “Without stepping on anyone’s toes, would it be okay if we…”

                                       “I don’t want to step out of bounds, but would it be too forward to ask…”

Key Point: If you are respectful of someone else’s right to not to share with you, it’s amazing how much information you can get. Humility is a very attractive human quality, and one that people are naturally drawn toward. Thus, you can significantly enhance the value of the responses you receive by strategically preceding your most sensitive questions with a humbling disclaimer. Simply put, causing people to “want to” share more information with you gives you a strategic advantage over other sellers who are just out there probing for needs.

Diagnostic Questions to Initiate Needs Development

For decades, salespeople have been taught that open-ended questions are the best tools for causing prospects to “open up.” This thinking is incorrect. In fact, asking for too much too soon is one of the quickest ways to cause someone to shut down and not share anything with you.

Open-ended questions can be valuable conversational tools, but only after you have successfully piqued someone’s interest and have established some credibility. Hence, in QBS, a technique called Diagnostic Questions becomes the most effective way to kick off your needs development conversations.

Salesperson:  “Can I ask you a couple specifics about _________?”

Customer:  “Sure, go ahead.”

The first question is the easiest part. At some point in most sales conversations, there will be an opportunity for discovery. When these opportunities to ask questions arise, there is only one time in Question Based Selling where I recommend exact wording (above). Basically, you are asking permission. This is a low risk approach.

Once the customer grants you permission (99%), you ask a series of short-answer questions to understand specific facts about their current situation. Selling technology, for example, you might ask:

Salesperson:  “How many servers do you currently have installed?”

                           “Supporting how many users?”

                           “In how many locations?”

                           “Do you manage the network in-house, or do you outsource?”

                           “How many engineers do you have on staff?”

                           “How many are Microsoft certified?”

Within a short time window (generally less than 60 seconds), this technique of Diagnostic Questions enables the strategic salesperson to kick off needs development conversations in a non-threatening manner, gather valuable information that guides the conversation, establish credibility as a valuable resource, and earn the right to transition into more depth.

From here, you can easily broaden the Scope to ask open-ended questions

Utilize Broadening ‘Agents’

In the process of developing Question Based Selling, I have invested significant time and effort studying Conversational Dynamics, which refers to the science not just of ‘what’ you might choose to say, but also ‘how’ you choose to say it.

Once you have successfully piqued the customer’s interest and established your own credibility, using Diagnostic Questions, there are certain conversational devices we call broadening agents that will expand the scope of the dialogue. These include:

Q:  “How familiar are you with _____________?”

Q:  “To what extent is ____________ important to your project?” 

Q:  “What types of __________ are you focusing on the most?”

Essentially, the deliverer of the question is asking the other person to quantify, describe, or characterize their thoughts regarding a given issue or topic.

Key Point: Since you, as the salesperson, are ultimately in control of the questions you ask, how you formulate and deliver the question will likely how productively prospects and customers will choose to respond.

Work Backwards to Move Your Sales Forward

Whether it’s fair or not, salespeople are often presumed to be self-serving. Some of that reputation has been earned by the way some sellers have behaved. That said, it’s totally acceptable that a salesperson receives a bonus or commission for their efforts. Your incentive just can’t be the primary impetus that’s driving the purchase of your product or service.

Too often, sellers chase deals by focusing on the transaction. “When can we get a PO?” Or they ask, “Do you have all the approvals?” Sometimes, sellers just ask, “Mr. Customer, can we wrap this deal up by the end of the week?”

For those items where the value doesn’t get realized at the point of transaction, like in technology purchases, certain healthcare devices, or when implementing new financial programs, the actual value to the customer may not come until long after the purchase.

In those cases, the question that will ultimately determine the timing of your deal is:

Salesperson: “Ms. Customer, if we look past the purchase decision and transaction for a moment, if you do choose to move forward with this proposal, when would you like to start realizing the benefits we’ve discussed?”

Ask for Feedback and Ye’ Shall Receive

Constructive feedback can be invaluable. How else can you assess how you are progressing in the eyes of your customers, partners, colleagues, employees, or other constituents like family and friends. Asking for feedback is the hard part. Getting an accurate perspective is difficult because people don’t want to hurt your feelings.

The following three questions are guaranteed to generate valuable insight and feedback.

Q:  “If you were me, would you be doing anything differently?”

Q:  “Do you see a better way to handle this?”

Q:  “If you were in my shoes, what approach would you take?”

Humbling oneself to the point where you are able to outwardly admit that you don’t have all the answers is the quickest way to cause other people to open up and share their perspective.

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