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Home Archives for implementation

Avoid Overly Rhetorical Sales Questions

Posted on January 12, 2016 Written by admin Leave a Comment

qbs tip 6 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?”

Filed Under: implementation Tagged With: QBS Coaching, QBS Methodology, Question Based Selling, Sales Coaching, strategic selling, Telephone Tales, Telesales, Thomas A. Freese

Transitioning into Needs Development

Posted on January 10, 2016 Written by admin Leave a Comment

tip 8 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.

Filed Under: implementation Tagged With: QBS Coaching, QBS Methodology, Question Based Selling, Sales Coaching, strategic selling, Telephone Tales, Telesales, Thomas A. Freese

Don’t Just Ask for a “Meeting”

Posted on December 8, 2015 Written by admin Leave a Comment

tip 16 Most sales opportunities begin when you successfully navigate to the “right person” within an account, pique their interest, and then schedule a time to meet.

But, clients are now being inundated with vendor salespeople all trying to schedule “a meeting” with key decision makers. The fact that sales calls are often wastes of time causes customers to be les eager to meet with the next caller.

To avoid being lumped into the parade of sales callers, Instead of asking for a standard meeting, ask to get in front of a whiteboard. Here’s how it sounds:

Salesperson: “Mr. Customer, given that you are looking to improve productivity, secure your infrastructure, and roll out two new applications by the end of the year, would it makes sense to set up a time when all the key people who need to be involved in the decision can get together in front of a white board, roll up our sleeves and have a more in-depth conversation about what you are trying to accomplish and how would be able to provide value?”

Everybody in sales asks for meetings, and true to form, these vendor meetings often end up wasting the customer’s time. Instead, next time, when you ask someone if it makes sense to sit down and roll up our sleeves” on a project, the message being commutated is that important topics will be discussed and real work will get done.  Sounding purposeful is much different than cold calling and simply asking for appointments.

Filed Under: implementation Tagged With: QBS Coaching, Sales Management

Implementation Tips

Posted on October 5, 2009 Written by admin Leave a Comment

QBS TipsQuestion Based Selling doe required individual salespeople and entire sales teams to understand the logic between the logic you will use going forward, versus much of the outdated training material that has plagued traditional sales approaches for the last 30+ years.

Following a ‘live’ training, salespeople often say to me, “Wow, Tom, it’s amazing that such small adjustments can produce such a huge impact with regard to how customers perceive our products.”

Meanwhile, sales managers often ask me, “What advice can you give us on how to implement Question Based Selling and make it part of our culture, so the methodology becomes second nature to our salespeople?”

Thus, I created a new section on our website called Implementation Tips. My intent was to create a virtual repository of specific QBS techniques that sellers can use to get the “creative juices” flowing, in addition to reinforcing key QBS concepts.

If you have a specific tip request, I invite you to enter a comment and I will respond. Also, I invite you to subscribe to our RSS Feed, and/or bookmark this page, as I plan to grow this data bank multiple times per week, or at a bare minimum, adding content on every flight.

Filed Under: coaching qbs, implementation Tagged With: QBS Coaching

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Tom Freese vs. Other Motivational Speakers

Best Selling Author/Trainer

Strategic Questions

The Most Powerful Tool in Sales

Besides gathering information, strategic questions are a salesperson's best tool for:
• Piquing Customer Interest
• Establishing Credibility
• Understanding Requirements
• Creating a Sense of Urgency
• Qualifying Opportunities
• Competitive Differentiation
• Negotiation / Positioning
• Escalating to Decision Makers
• Securing Commitments / Closing Deals
• Maintaining Margins
• Getting Leads / Referrals
. . .which is very different than just probing for needs.

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