‘Coaching Up’ the Softer Skills

Tracking deals on the forecast is important part of any sales role. But, so is managing your sales effectiveness. Managing your selling effectiveness presents some challenges, because it tests your understanding of the softer skills and your ability to adjust to different selling scenarios. The payoff potential is huge!

Sample QBS Coaching Questions:

Q: What are you doing to leverage curiosity throughout the sales process?

Q: What’s your strategy for causing prospects to “want to” share information with someone they don’t yet know or trust?

Q: If the decision comes down to a virtual tie, what makes you different than your competition?

Q: How have you adjusted your sales approach given that prospects and customers are increasingly more standoffishness toward vendors?

Q: What are you doing to increase the prospect’s sense of urgency for moving forward?

For many years, our sales culture has put way too much emphasis on asking lots of questions, as opposed to giving salespeople a clear strategy for what causes prospective customers to “want to” share with someone they don’t yet know or trust.

It’s simple, really. If someone doesn’t want to share with you, it doesn’t matter what questions you ask. On the other hand, as they become more curious and begin to pereive greater value, facilitating productive conversation with potential customers is not difficult at all.

Clarify Vague-O-Nyms

Do you remember synonyms from high school English class? Synonyms are words that have similar meanings, like big and large. Homonyms are words that sound the same, like sense and cents. Antonyms are opposites. So what’s a Vague-O-Nym?

The English language is highly interpretable, as are most types of communication. A vague-o-nym, therefore, is a word or phrase that without additional information or context, doesn’t mean much because it could mean different things.

Suppose for example, a salesperson says to the boss, “We’re gong to get the PO soon.” The sales manager replies, “What do you mean by soon?” A little defensive, the salesperson says, “Hey, I’m just telling you what the customer told me.”

When a customer says, “We plan to make a decision soon.” Are they saying it will take a few days or several weeks? When they say “we,” to whom are they referring? When they say “decision,” are they talking about a technical recommendation or a purchase? Does “plan” refer to a high level strategic plan or an action item for moving forward?

I’m not suggesting that you should dissect everything that’s being said. But, the next time a customer says “quality” or “cost” is very important to them, a good salesperson will realize that without clarifying specific vague-o-nyms, the customer could be referring to any number of different things.

“How do you mean?” vs. “What do you mean?”

Can changing one word in your question really make a difference?

When people share information, they tend to share fractionally. As a result, there are many opportunities in your everyday conversations to say, “Tell me more.” When interacting with best friends, saying, “Tell me more,” will generally cause people to expound on whatever the topic is that’s being discussed.

For salespeople who are forging new relationships, however, it’s a little different. Notice that the phrase, “Tell me more…” is actually a command. But, if you don’t yet have an in-depth relationship, commanding a prospective customer to “tell you more” can sound a bit presumptuous.

Instead, ask, “How do you mean?”

Try this experiment. Next time someone says or asks you something, simply respond by saying, “How do you mean?” If you button up, they will share two, three, four, or five paragraphs of additional information. That’s a pretty good return on investment in response to four words, don’t you think?

Of course, a grammarian who sits through our training will often point out that “What do you mean?” is more grammatically correct. That’s true! I’m just more focused on increasing the productivity of my conversations than conforming to grammar rules.

Here’s the difference. Asking, “What do you mean?”, generally causes people to go backwards in the conversation, by revisiting or justifying what they just said. But in sales, we’re not wanting to go backward. Rather, we want the other person to share more detail.

By asking, “How do you mean?”, you won’t have to worry about grammar. Whenever you deliver these four words, what people really hear is: “I am very interested in what you just said, can you please tell me more?”

Do people like it when you’re interested in what they have to say? Yes, absolutely!

Avoid Overly Rhetorical Probing Questions

Salespeople have been taught to probe for needs, because they want to find out what is important to the customer. While focusing on the customer’s concerns is a noble goal, be careful because asking questions that are overly rhetorical is one of the quickest ways to erode your credibility and end the conversation.

For example, here are some DON’Ts:

            “Mr. Customer, is value important to you?”

            “I bet quality and integrity are also important decision factors, aren’t they?”

            “Most customers want to make a smart choice, wouldn’t you agree?”

To all of these, I say, “Duh!”

Instead of asking questions that seem rhetorical, salesy, or patronizing, try asking:

“Mr. Customer, knowing that most customers want to make the best overall decision, besides the obvious goals of quality, integrity, and securing the best value, what specifically are you wanting to accomplish with this purchase?”

Transitioning into Needs Development

To provide value, sellers must first identify a need. Pretty much, everybody knows that! The difficult part is transitioning the conversation into needs development.

For example, suppose a customer says, “Tell me about your company and product.” Although it happens quite frequently, it’s a mistake for a salesperson to respond by saying, “First, I’d like to ask you some questions.”

This response creates a logic problem, where the customer wants the conversation to go in one direction, yet the salesperson responds, essentially by saying, “I rather pursue my own agenda.”

The easiest and best way to transition a conversation into needs development is as follows:

Customer: “Tell me about your company and product.”

Salesperson: “I’d be happy to. Can I ask you a couple specifics about your project so I can give you the most relevant and accurate information?”

Customer: “Absolutely!”

Once someone gives you permission (a mini-invitation) to ask them questions, instead of running the risk of sounding self-serving, asking “a couple specifics” is now exactly what they want you to do. Also, note that when someone gives you permission to ask them questions, you get more information that is more in-depth and more accurate.

Neutralize the Disposition of Your Questions

Salespeople tend to listen with ‘happy ears,’ hoping to get some indication that they are making progress within their opportunities, and that they are heading in the right direction. As a result, sellers tend to ask “hopeful” questions like: 

     “Mr. Customer, does your boss like our proposal?”

     “Would next Tuesday work for a conference call?

    “Are we still in good shape to wrap this deal up by the end of the week? 

Unfortunately, asking hope-filled questions tend to yield less information that also tends to be less accurate than the alternative. In short, we live in a culture where it’s easier to sidestep the truth, or event tell a little fib than it is to share information that is different than they obviously wouldn’t want to hear.

In Question Based Selling, we leverage a strategy called neutralizing the Disposition of your questions. It’s uncanny, but if you are If you are open and willing to invite good news and bad news, instead of just thinking about your own goals, you stand to receive exponentially more (and more accurate) information about the status of the opportunity.

Therefore, it’s much more productive to invite complete information by asking questions like:   

    “Mr. Customer, does your boss have questions or see any problems in our proposal?”

    “Would Tuesday work for a conference call, or is that too soon to get all the key people together?

    “Are we still in good shape to wrap this deal up by the end of the week, or do you think it could stall once it hits the CFO’s desk?

Critics of this could argue that it gives the customer an “out.” But I believe most customers know that they don’t have to buy from you. Therefore, I will gladly trade all of the “outs” customers don’t know they have for the volumes of accurate information I receive in return.

Always Answer a Question with a Question

Well, almost always.

In the role of professional salesperson, customer’s are going to ask questions, right? In return, you want to provide intelligent responses with valuable insight or information.

When you respond, would you rather respond with what might be considered to be average value, or would you rather respond with maximum value? If you want to provide maximum value, you might want to invest a few moments to understand their real question before answering.

For example, when deliver QBS training in a remote city, I sometimes ask a local person in the audience, “What’s the best way to get from here to the airport?”  Invariably, the person gives me directions.

But, what would happen if I got to the airport and the nice person behind the ticket counter said, “I’m sorry to tell you, but you’re at the wrong airport!”

Dallas, Houston, and Chicago all have two commercial airports. There are three commercial airports that service Wash, DC, Boston, and four that service New York City. Surprisingly, no one ever asks me which airport I’m heading to before giving me directions.

Here’s how I would give directions if you asked me, “What’s the best way to get to the Atlanta airport?” I would say, “That depends, what time is your flight?” I might then ask, “Do you have to return a rental car?” I might even inquire, “How familiar are you with the area?” Now I can give specific and valuable directions.

Wouldn’t you give different directions (or product information) to someone who was very familiar with the area than someone who was completely lost?

Just as most people share fractionally, many customers won’t ask their complete question. It is, therefore, incumbent on sellers to ask a few clarifying questions to understand more specifically what is being asked, if you wish to provide maximum value in your responses.

Time to Make Selling FUN Again!

“Freese’s simple, logical approach to selling—based on being of service to the prospect—is likely to help any sales professional recognize the most effective path from that first knock on the prospect’s door to that all-important signature on the contract.” From Robert A. Markowitz’s review, New York Journal of Books (Read Entire Review)

Most of the sales training that has been available for the last 20+ years is process training. Perhaps you’re familiar with programs like Solution Selling™, Target Account Selling™, SPIN Selling®, Power Base Selling, or Strategic Selling®, a few of the more popular options.

Formalizing your company’s internal sales process was intended to provide benefits like defining the steps of the sale, having a common language, and forecast consistency. But, just defining the steps of a sales process doesn’t address the competitive pressures that sellers now face on a daily basis.

Honestly, you don’t need to hire me to 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, Step #4 is to Propose Solutions, and so on.

What do you suppose the first step in your competitor’s sales process is? Couldn’t we assume it probably has something to do with “identifying new opportunities”? From there, they’re trying to “uncover needs,” “qualify,” and “propose solutions,” just like you. Identifying the steps of the sales process is nice, but just having a process in place no longer gives companies a competitive advantage.

“Frankly, there is a problem in the world of sales training where it has become VERY unclear (to clients) as to the most cost effective program given all the generic and conflicting information that’s floating around the industry.”   -T. Freese

Traditional process training addresses the question, “What types of things should a salesperson be doing?” Meanwhile, the real challenge sellers face on a daily basis has more to do with figuring out “HOW” to do those things more effectively?

Like, How to penetrate more opportunities?  How to get mindshare with key decision makers or influencers in target accounts?  How to cause skeptical customers to ‘want to’ share information with someone they don’t yet know or trust?  How to get a significant advantage over the competition, even if the solution products and services are comparable on paper?  How to create a sense of urgency, so decision makers feel motivated to move forward sooner rather than later?  How to close more deals with less effort?

Truth be told, the effectiveness of the individual is 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.

Especially in this new economy, it’s exciting (and even FUN) to discover that a few small adjustments in strategy can produce a significant upside in results.

We’re here when you’re ready!  Let me know how we can help.

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.

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

« Previous Page