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Tom Freese’s first book, Secrets of Question Based Selling, represents a tectonic shift in traditional sales thinking. While sales training programs have historically focused on defining the steps of the sales process, it turns out that just identifying “what to do” provides no advantage over competitors who also have a sales process in place, as it’s likely their process is very similar (if not identical) to yours.
So, rather than just rehashing the sales process, the QBS methodology was specifically developed to teach salespeople and entire sales teams “how” to execute more effectively. There’s a reason top salespeople in every industry (and within every company), are outperforming their struggling counterparts, even though they’re all following the same sales process steps.
In a strategic sale, companies cannot offer valuable solutions until the potential buyer recognizes the existence of a need. Identifying more needs also gives you more opportunities to provide value. But, just because a salesperson wants to ask a bunch of questions, doesn’t necessarily mean today’s skeptical buyer is going to openly share information with every salesperson who comes calling.
Read: “The Best Sales Experience… I Hope You Never Have.”
While customers tend to focus on ROI (return on investment), sales teams should be equally focused on their ROISE (return on invested sales effort). It’s no longer enough to probe for needs or ask a series of qualifying questions on the way to fulfilling a customer’s goals and objectives.
Asked strategically, questions become a salesperson’s best tools for piquing the customer’s interest, gaining credibility, navigating to the right people, increasing the customer’s sense of urgency for making a decision, and securing next steps in the sales cycle.
Table of Contents
Part I: A Short Course on QBS Strategy
Chapter 1: Selling Intangibles
Chapter 2: Expanding Your Value Proposition
Chapter 3: Gold Medals™ & German Shepherds™
Chapter 4: The Herd Theory™
Chapter 5: Mismatching™: The Avoidable Risk
Part II: Leveraging the Most Powerful Tool In Sales
Chapter 6: Conversational Layering™
Chapter 7: Leveraging Curiosity in the Strategic Sale
Chapter 8: Establishing Your Own Credibility
Chapter 9: Escalate the Value of Your Sales Questions
Chapter 10: How to Solicit More Accurate Feedback
Part III: Implementation: Putting Methods into Practice
Chapter 11: Navigating the Sales Process
Chapter 12: Turning Cold Calls into Lukewarm Calls
Chapter 13: Getting to the “Right Person”
Chapter 14: Re-Engineering the Elevator Pitch
Chapter 15: Building Value in the QBS Presentation®
Chapter 16: Closing More Sales…Faster
Epilogue: For Sales Managers Only
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These days, the skill in selling is NOT just asking questions. The real skill is knowing HOW to cause potential buyers to “want to” engage in a productive conversation (with you) about their needs and your potential solutions. By ‘arming’ sellers with a conversational toolbox filled with proven QBS techniques and strategies, you can empower your sales teams with the highest-rated sales effectiveness training they will ever experience.
QBS is the culmination of a 27+ year journey where I discovered that strategic questions are more than just staples of everyday sales conversations. Perhaps this marks the beginning of a new journey for you as well, as a student of Question Based Selling.
—Thomas A. Freese, President, QBS Research, Inc.
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QBS® is a registered trademark of QBS Research, Inc.