Like it or not, the global pandemic we have experienced over the last many months has transformed the nature of B2B business, and the after-effects for businesses and salespeople are not going away any time soon! Much like when the twin towers came crashing down on that fateful September morning in New York City, our sense of what ‘normal‘ is has likely changed forever.

If you recall, the initial reaction to the 9/11 tragedy was to shut everything down. Flights were grounded, businesses and schools closed, events canceled, and daily life as we knew it came to a grinding halt. However, once we began to come to grips with our new reality, people came up out of their proverbial bunkers to reclaim some semblance of normalcy. Nonetheless, the world had changed forever and many of the new security protocols that were implemented back then remain in place today.

The pandemic has had a similar effect on businesses and sales organizations. Having endured the shock of the initial shutdown phase, businesses are subsequently reopening and innovators are actively looking for ways to adjust, adapt, and modify their approaches to what many are calling “the new normal.”

I have no doubt we will overcome the Coronavirus, with therapeutics to treat the disease, and a vaccine to eradicate it altogether. But from a sales perspective, many of the traditional approaches for creating new prospect new opportunities, competing in your respective markets, and protecting your margins has changed forever.

While the basic objectives of the sales process are still relevant, from qualifying to identifying needs, positioning your solutions, and closing, it has become clear that to succeed in this new normal, sellers must evolve and adjust in order to execute on these objectives.

Gone are the days when sellers can rely on ‘wine-ing and dining’ potential buyers in order to create new business relationships or fend off the competition. Likewise, buyers and sellers alike are realizing they can often accomplish more in a 45-minute Zoom Video conference, as opposed to all the time, effort, and expense that would otherwise need to be invested over the course of the typical sales process.

There’s a familiar adage that says, “Out of adversity, comes opportunity.” Selling in the midst of a pandemic certainly qualifies as adversity, however, selling under these circumstances is NOT how salespeople have been trained over the last 30+ years. Thus, the proverbial bandaid has been ripped off exposing a skills gap where engaging new prospect opportunities has become even more difficult. Furthermore, just because a salesperson initiates a bunch of cold calls or asks lots of questions doesn’t mean potential buyers are open to sharing information with someone they don’t yet know and trust.

Going forward, it’s unlikely that traditional sales practices will move the needle or enable sellers to thrive within this new normal. Consequently, now that businesses can no longer rely on their previous experiences for future success, infusing sales teams with engagement skills, conversational techniques, positioning strategies, and navigational tools has become critically important.

Ironically, superior navigational skills, engagement techniques, and positioning strategies have always separated top-performing salespeople from the rest of the pack. But, knowing “how” to execute more effectively throughout the sales process has unfortunately been the least talked about topic in traditional sales training. That’s why I created Question Based Selling!

—Thomas A. Freese, President, QBS Research, Inc.

Selling was almost “easy” just a few months ago–back when the economy was booming and potential customers were available to meet with salespeople in their respective office locations.

Lo and behold the world has changed, where an organization’s ability to develop next-generation selling skills and leverage them into competitive differentiators is more important than ever.

Getting potential buyers to return telephone calls or respond to email when the typical success rate when reaching out to new customers has plummeted to less than 1%, is only one example of the challenge sellers now face since a recent global pandemic has completely upended traditional business practices.

Meanwhile, with Internet search capabilities and social media becoming so prevalent, sellers can no longer rely on face-to-face interactions to convey value, create loyalty, or protect margins.

Ironically, we’ve seen this before. The raging bull market that abruptly ended in 2008 due to a historic financial crisis forced companies to recalibrate their sales approach to adapt to tectonic shifts that created a totally new business landscape.

Fortunately, Question Based Selling is just as relevant and effective today as when I published my first (of 5) sales books in 1999. Where customers tend to focus on Return on Investment, sales teams should focus more on five letters–R.O.I.S.E. (Return on Invested Sales Effort).

Thus, I am pleased to announce that QBS Methodology Training Programs are alive and well, delivered via virtual teleconference technology!  And, in many cases, the virtual experience can actually be more effective than cramming courseware into the more traditional multi-day marathon learning sessions.

“Thank you for a very impressive virtual QBS Methodology Training last week. I believe our entire team will benefit greatly as Question Based Selling continues to be the most impactful sales training I have ever experienced!” 

Jeremy Lawrence, Director of North America Sales, USP Technologies

Please contact us directly for information about training options, potential impact on your sales results, and the associated costs. Thank you for your continued interest in QBS Research, Inc.

Companies rely on forecasted revenue for many reasons, including inventory management, support resources, to project earnings. And as long as there are sales teams, salespeople will be expected to forecast the probability of pending deals.

Ironically, the accuracy of corporate sales forecasts has declined in recent years, though this trend has been somewhat masked by favorable economic conditions. For example, check out the dialogue below, which will likely play out many times. For example, check out the dialogue below, which will likely play out many times in upcoming account strategy calls:

Sales Mgr: “Is this a 30% opportunity…or 90%?”

Salesperson: “Well, I have a feeling it will close this month.”

When someone says, “I have a feeling,” or, “The customer gave me the impression that…”, that’s a pretty good indicator that there has been little (or no) direct conversation about the timing of the deal, or other factors that may influence the outcome of a forecasted opportunity.

A vague interpretation of what customers “may be” thinking, or how a rep “feels,” is called guessing. The considerable amount of guesswork these days may be directly related to an ever-increasing reliance on electronics for back-and-forth communication, as opposed to speaking directly with customers.

The question about how best to communicate with potential buyers comes up all the time in QBS training events. To illustrate a point, I sometimes ask participants to indicate the length of a typical prospect email message by holding their fingers apart.

Most folks adjust their fingers between one and four inches apart, which represents four to five meaningful sentences—maybe six. That’s just email. Text messages are even shorter.

Conversely, if someone transcribed the typical customer conversation, it would likely fill multiple type-written pages. As a bonus, “live” conversations allow you to pick up on non-verbal cues like voice inflection, tone, and the customer’s level of eagerness (or reluctance) to move forward.

I sometimes get pushback from sellers wanting to try and convince me that customers nowadays prefer email and text. Nope! While I agree that email and texting are useful tools, they were never intended to replace the value that comes from engaging in “live” sales conversations. Mutually beneficial business relationships and building customer loyalty are not the product of hand-held electronic devices.

Put it this way, prospects and customers are going to be talking with someone. It might as well be you. Sellers who engage in more productive customer conversations will have a clearer picture of where they stand in the sales process, and what else needs to happen to close deals.

The net result of superior communication is a more accurate forecast as companies and salespeople strive to achieve their goals.

Have you ever been on a prospect call (or delivered a presentation) where everything seemed to be going well, until the very end, when the only sound that could be heard was total silence? Then, in an attempt to elicit some sort of feedback, you ask, “Does anyone have any questions?”, only to find yourself looking at a sea of blank faces, as if you’re staring at the world’s largest oil painting?

One of the harsh realities salespeople face in today’s increasingly competitive marketplace is the fact that customers who are not truly engaged are unlikely to buy from you.

Picture the newly hired salesperson, trying to rationalize his lack of production during the first month on the job, explains to his boss,“Sir, I can lead the ‘horses’ to water, but I can’t always make ’em drink.”

“Make ’em drink?” the sales manager sputters. “Making customers drink is not your job. Your job is to make them thirsty!”

The sales manager in this anecdote makes a great point. It’s not the salesperson’s role to try and force people to buy. Instead, the sales function starts with piquing the prospect’s interest, so customers will want to know more about the products and services being offered.

It has become far too easy to encourage sales teams to reach out to more prospects, ask more questions, probe for more needs, and let’s not forget to qualify the opportunity—yet none of these actions constitutes real engagement.

True engagement occurs when the customer begins to inquire about you, your company, and how your products and services might be able to provide value. Wouldn’t you rather engage potential buyers in an interactive back and forth discussion about their needs and the value of your offerings, than deliver a one-way monologue?

What if it were possible to sustain 30%, 40%, or even 50% response rates on your social media outreach efforts, or when sending emails or leaving voice-mail messages? Imagine the impact that would have on your Return on Invested Sales Efforts (R-O-I-S-E).

These results are absolutely attainable, but only for those who are willing to step outside the boundaries of traditional sales thinking.

Successfully engaging more prospects in more productive sales conversations starts with your ability to make them curious. Whether you’re calling customers directly, or reaching out via email, or leveraging social media, curiosity is the initial spark that causes potential buyers to “want to” engage, and curiosity is also the catalyst that fuels the rest of the sales process. It’s a simple formula, really. Prospects who are curious will want to engage further, while those who aren’t the least bit curious, won’t.

Throughout Question Based Selling, we want people to become more curious. We want customers to ask questions, and we want them to “want to” engage in a more productive dialogue about their needs and your ability to provide value. But, successfully leveraging curiosity requires a fundamental change in strategy. Rather than launching into an ‘elevator pitch’ filled with a bunch of buzzwords or industry catch-phrases, in the hopes of piquing the prospect’s interest, piquing the customer’s interest is actually the first step to engaging more prospects in order to create new business opportunities.

So, dare I ask, what are you doing to leverage curiosity throughout the sales process?