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Home Archives for Question Based Selling

‘Coaching Up’ the Softer Skills

Posted on March 16, 2016 Written by admin Leave a Comment

tip 28 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.

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

Work Backwards to Move Your Sales Forward

Posted on March 7, 2016 Written by admin Leave a Comment

tip 18 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?”

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

Clarify Vague-O-Nyms

Posted on February 19, 2016 Written by admin Leave a Comment

tip 44 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.

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

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

Posted on February 1, 2016 Written by admin Leave a Comment

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

QBS tip 12 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!

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

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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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