Thomas A. Freese's Blog, page 11

Sharpening What Saw…?

Ever since I was a neophyte in sales, I’ve consistently heard the expression, "You have to continually sharpen the saw." I suppose that means one must periodically maintain the sharpness of their skills because working with a dull tool can take a lot more time and energy to accomplish the desired objective. Makes sense to me.

But, why is it that nobody every talks about the rest of the tools in your tool belt? It stands to reason that people who actually do use saws n their line of work would also use a host of other tools as well. And you don’t have to be a brain surgeon to assume that those other tools should also be in good working order to do the job was well. I remember reading a book one time where the author made a point of saying, "if your only tool is a hammer, then everything will look (to you) like a nail." He’s right, and if you’re in sales, that’s one of the best ways to squander lots of good opportunities.

I think you would agree that rarely are two sales conversations exactly the same. If that were the case, all you’d have to do is create a robotic script and ‘bam,’ you would presumably make the sale every time.

Instead, I’d like to know a little bit more about how and when I’m supposed to use this newly sharpened saw. Is it going to get me into new accounts? Is the sharpness of the saw going to help me understand customer’s needs, or convey more value? Is it going to differentiate my products and services from the competition? Maybe the saw can be used as a closing tool, in the sense that if you don’t buy from me, the saw will threaten to cut you the prospect to pieces. Seriously?

Here’s my question. What about all the other tools in your conversational tool belt? When does a tape measure come into play? You wouldn’t ever sharpen a tape measure, but people who use tape measuring devices in their respective vocations seem to use them a lot–usually before they start cutting with a sharpened saw. They also use a craftsman’s pencil to precisely mark where to aim before they just start hacking away.

Sometimes the job doesn’t call for a saw at all. Perhaps that’s when a screwdriver, or pair of pliers might come in handy. And a skilled craftsman would know whether he wanted to use needle nose pliers or a pair of vice grips. Of course, the craftsman’s tool belt would be filled with a variety of tools that might be needed not only get the job done, but to get it done right in the most expeditious and professional manner.

If we map this concept of "sharpening the saw" to sales, isn’t it true that without any warning, sales conversation can spin off in any number of different directions. Therefore, having multiple conversational tools at your disposal just might give you an ‘unfair’ advantage over the competition?

When you begin a sales call, for example, some customers immediately focus on much your product or service costs without even knowing what it does. Of course, this isn’t good for the salesperson because it’s always going to cost too much if it doesn’t address a recognized need. Thus, we need some initial conversation (and a “tool” that will help us navigate there) that will enable us to deal with the cost question in the appropriate context. So, how about this: Next time the first thing the customer asks is, “How much does it cost?”, you reach down into your conversational tool belt and pull out the following words:

Salesperson: “Mr. Customer, I’d be happy to tell you about all the different options we offer, the impact they will have on your business and the associated cost. Can I ask you a couple specifics in order to give you relevant information?”

Unless, the customer is in an unusually bad mood or they are just playing games, there’s a 99.9% chances they will say “Yes” to your comment. With their permission, you now have the opportunity to ask a series of what QBS would call Diagnostic Questions that will accomplish a host of objectives (including skyrocketing your credibility) in less than sixty seconds. That’s a pretty good investment I’d say, just by using the right conversational technique.

Another example happens as the sale nears the closing stage. Sellers are famous for bumbling to find the right words that essentially ask, “Are you going to buy from me or not?” The QBS salesperson simply pulls the appropriate closing question out of their conversational tool belt and delivers the question in a way that makes it easy for potential buyers to say yes. For example:

Salesperson: “Well, Mr. Customer, if this is what you need, and that’s what we do well, would it make sense to get the appropriate people together in front of a piece of paper so we can map out your options, the impact on your business, and the associated cost?”

Bingo! This is the least threatening way to find out where you really stand in the sale. And if you notice, you don’t have to use a saw or hit the customer over the head with a hammer to accomplish the desired outcome.

That’s essentially what the Question Based Selling Methodology is all about. Providing sellers with a host of strategies and techniques that can be used throughout the sales process to piques their curiosity, establish credibility, differentiate your value proposition, justify any differences in price, and secure the customer’s commitment to move forward in a way that is mutually beneficial.

The question we are now left with is, how many conversational tools do you currently have in your tool belt? I can promise you that everything is not a nail, so you’re going to need more than a hammer to be successful moving forward. And, while I do agree with the concept of keeping your tools sharp, just because you have an sharp saw, still means that it must be used appropriately and at the right time, or you could end up cutting yourself to pieces.

                                                                                                                         –Thomas A. Freese

Sharpening What Saw?

Ever since I was a neophyte in sales, I’ve consistently heard the expression, "You have to continually sharpen the saw." I suppose that means one must periodically maintain the sharpness of their skills because working with a dull tool can take a lot more time and energy to accomplish the desired objective. Makes sense to me.

But, why is it that nobody every talks about the rest of the tools in your tool belt? It stands to reason that people who actually do use saws n their line of work would also use a host of other tools as well. And you don’t have to be a brain surgeon to assume that those other tools should also be in good working order to do the job was well. I remember reading a book one time where the author made a point of saying, "if your only tool is a hammer, then everything will look (to you) like a nail." He’s right, and if you’re in sales, that’s one of the best ways to squander lots of good opportunities.

I think you would agree that rarely are two sales conversations exactly the same. If that were the case, all you’d have to do is create a robotic script and ‘bam,’ you would presumably make the sale every time.

Instead, I’d like to know a little bit more about how and when I’m supposed to use this newly sharpened saw. Is it going to get me into new accounts? Is the sharpness of the saw going to help me understand customer’s needs, or convey more value? Is it going to differentiate my products and services from the competition? Maybe the saw can be used as a closing tool, in the sense that if you don’t buy from me, the saw will threaten to cut you the prospect to pieces. Seriously?

Here’s my question. What about all the other tools in your conversational tool belt? When does a tape measure come into play? You wouldn’t ever sharpen a tape measure, but people who use tape measuring devices in their respective vocations seem to use them a lot–usually before they start cutting with a sharpened saw. They also use a craftsman’s pencil to precisely mark where to aim before they just start hacking away.

Sometimes the job doesn’t call for a saw at all. Perhaps that’s when a screwdriver, or pair of pliers might come in handy. And a skilled craftsman would know whether he wanted to use needle nose pliers or a pair of vice grips. Of course, the craftsman’s tool belt would be filled with a variety of tools that might be needed not only get the job done, but to get it done right in the most expeditious and professional manner.

If we map this concept of "sharpening the saw" to sales, isn’t it true that without any warning, sales conversation can spin off in any number of different directions. Therefore, having multiple conversational tools at your disposal just might give you an ‘unfair’ advantage over the competition?

When you begin a sales call, for example, some customers immediately focus on much your product or service costs without even knowing what it does. Of course, this isn’t good for the salesperson because it’s always going to cost too much if it doesn’t address a recognized need. Thus, we need some initial conversation (and a “tool” that will help us navigate there) that will enable us to deal with the cost question in the appropriate context. So, how about this: Next time the first thing the customer asks is, “How much does it cost?”, you reach down into your conversational tool belt and pull out the following words:

Salesperson: “Mr. Customer, I’d be happy to tell you about all the different options we offer, the impact they will have on your business and the associated cost. Can I ask you a couple specifics in order to give you relevant information?”

Unless, the customer is in an unusually bad mood or they are just playing games, there’s a 99.9% chances they will say “Yes” to your comment. With their permission, you now have the opportunity to ask a series of what QBS would call Diagnostic Questions that will accomplish a host of objectives (including skyrocketing your credibility) in less than sixty seconds. That’s a pretty good investment I’d say, just by using the right conversational technique.

Another example happens as the sale nears the closing stage. Sellers are famous for bumbling to find the right words that essentially ask, “Are you going to buy from me or not?” The QBS salesperson simply pulls the appropriate closing question out of their conversational tool belt and delivers the question in a way that makes it easy for potential buyers to say yes. For example:

Salesperson: “Well, Mr. Customer, if this is what you need, and that’s what we do well, would it make sense to get the appropriate people together in front of a piece of paper so we can map out your options, the impact on your business, and the associated cost?”

Bingo! This is the least threatening way to find out where you really stand in the sale. And if you notice, you don’t have to use a saw or hit the customer over the head with a hammer to accomplish the desired outcome.

That’s essentially what the Question Based Selling Methodology is all about. Providing sellers with a host of strategies and techniques that can be used throughout the sales process to piques their curiosity, establish credibility, differentiate your value proposition, justify any differences in price, and secure the customer’s commitment to move forward in a way that is mutually beneficial.

The question we are now left with is, how many conversational tools do you currently have in your tool belt? I can promise you that everything is not a nail, so you’re going to need more than a hammer to be successful moving forward. And, while I do agree with the concept of keeping your tools sharp, just because you have an sharp saw, still means that it must be used appropriately and at the right time, or you could end up cutting yourself to pieces.

                                                                                                                         –Thomas A. Freese

To Qualify…or Not to Qualify?

That is the question!

When it comes to qualifying leads, whether it’s a new account or within an established client, is there really any question whether or not qualification is important? Unfortunately, there is. There are instances where more accurate qualifying could have saved you or your company significant amounts of time, effort and trouble in terms of managing resources and maximizing your opportunities.

Another way to make the point is this: Have you ever seen a deal on the forecast with a 95% chance of closing this month, only to find there is some excuse that causes the deal to drift into the following month? And then it slips again and again into the ensuing months… until the same deal has been forecasted at 95% for so long that managers either get frustrated or they assume it’s a lost cause and take it out of their numbers completely?

I was recently offered an opportunity to get in on a business deal that had a seemingly “phenomenal upside,” in a marketplace that was “rapidly growing,” and I was assured this person’s Internet-based product was virtually “bulletproof.” The deal was simple—where I basically agreed to trade my negotiation experience in working with large corporations in exchange for a small percentage of the company’s earnings. Granted, I wasn’t putting any of my own money at risk, but still, the time I would ultimately have to spend bringing the opportunity to fruition would require a significant investment in time on my part. But, the potential payoff definitely would have been easily worth it—a cut of 20+ million dollars. Yes, you read that correctly. That was twenty million…with seven zeros!

Although some people consider it annoying at times, part of my personality is to listen closely and hold people accountable for what they say. For example, when my partner in this deal told me that he would have his attorney draw up a contract that documented our verbal agreement, I expect it will be done within the week, as promised. When that didn’t happen, it wasn’t the end of the world, but missing verbal commitments registers with me—strike one. In the meantime, we strategized about the business plan several times but it became clear that the opportunity was not moving forward according to the expectations set by our main contact in the account—strike two. Now if my years in sales have taught me anything, it’s that at some point, you either hang in there and keep chasing what could be a pipedream, or you pose some tough questions to reveal where you really stand in the process.

Well, I chose the latter, and my tough questions initiated an uncomfortable conversation to say the least. I wasn’t upset that things turned out to be much less "baked” than had originally been communicated. But even as a minority partner in the enterprise, I wanted to know the real scoop. And that’s where things started to unravel. It turns out the attorney on the deal wasn’t being forthright, and the actual product is still miles from completion as opposed to “on the verge” of being finished, as was originally communicated. Strike three! Net/net, I broke off whatever partnership existed, wished my friend well in his endeavors, and I believe saved myself a great deal of time and hassle.

In my experience, when the planets are not aligned and you get the feeling that something isn’t working, you’re intuition is probably right. In this case, I concluded that this opportunity had little or no chance of success. Thus, continuing to chase a pipedream as if it had a 95% probability of success would have costs me a lot more than simply walking away. “Chasing ghosts,” I call it—where situations like this create one of the biggest drains on a salesperson’s time not to mention other valuable resources.

That said, is it possible that a deal you take off the forecast can come back from the dead, so to speak, in spite of a whole history of negative buying signals? Sure, that’s happened to me several times. And when it does, I am ready to jump back in with both feet if the status of an account actually changes. But, just because you forecast a deal with a high probability of closing doesn’t mean they are ready to move forward.

Just telling people that it’s important to qualify opportunities doesn’t provide sellers with enough information, however. It’s important to provide a strategy for “how” to effectively qualify in order to have a more reflective and accurate forecast. That’s where Question Based Selling comes in.

One of the old-school adages I often hear from sales managers is that sellers should qualify ‘early and often.’ I agree, with the caveat that it’s possible to qualify yourself out of an opportunity by asking inappropriate qualifying questions too early in the sales process. Here’s one for example, “Mr. Prospect, do you have $150K budgeted for an emerging technology solution that you’ve never heard of, but might save your company significant time and money?” The answer to that question is likely to be “No.” Of course they don’t have money budgeted for a product or service they haven’t even heard of yet. Thus, it’s possible to disqualify an opportunity before the need has been developed and your value has been appropriately conveyed.

My strategy for qualifying opportunities is relatively simple. First, you have to be willing to ask direct questions and then be patient enough to listen for the answers. “But, doesn’t asking qualifying questions sometimes put customers on the spot?” sellers will ask me. Yes, absolutely. I want to put potential customers on the spot to some degree—because I want to find out, “Are we working toward a mutually beneficial opportunity, or is this something that might be nice, but isn’t really a priority for them at this time?” If you are respectful and sincerely don’t want to waste the customer’s time, I have found that by being direct, customers are more than willing to share their thoughts, feelings, and concerns. It’s those quick-talking salesmen with a fake-smile plastered on their face that cause customers to shy away from telling you where they really stand.

Here’s a simple two-step process for effective qualification. First, you have to know where you stand in the deal. What’s the best way to find out? Easy, just ask…and the more direct you are with the customer, the better. “Mr. Customer, do you mind if I ask where we stand in this opportunity?” Or, “Mr. Customer, can you help me with something? My boss is asking me where we stand in this opportunity. Should I tell him that it will probably close within the month or should I let him know it’s likely to be pushed out into the future?” Then, I would probably some follow up questions about what obstacles were preventing them from moving forward?

That’s the key right there. If a transaction is never going to happen, you want customers to tell you right then and there. He or she doesn’t want to waste any more time chasing ghosts, either. Likewise, if a deal is going to happen, even if the customer doesn’t know exactly when, they are likely to give you their best guess on timing, along with the issues that have to be dealt with along the way. Now you are in a position to proceed accordingly.

One last note about qualifying. I don’t ask once and assume the answer I received at the time is set in stone forever. In fact, I make it a point to ask the same questions to more than one person. If their answers match up, then you can be pretty sure the information you’re getting is correct. However, if two different people within an account give me two distinctly different responses, then more work needs to be done to understand what’s really going on.

The QBS technique for this is called Cross-Referencing. When you are collecting information about an opportunity, make it a point to verify the data with someone else. I usually don’t share who I got the information from, because I don’t want to sound like a gossip within the account. But I still might ask questions like: “Ms. Customer, I heard that this contract could close by the end of this month, but the possibility exists that it might get hung up in legal. Is that an accurate assessment from your perspective?” From there, you might find out that the intel you’ve gathered thus far is dead on. Or, you might get a second opinion that is dramatically different, which would cause me to investigate further. Either way, the goal is simply to know where you stand, in order to know how best to proceed toward the ultimate goal.

So, you may want to take a few minutes right now and assess where you really stand on some of the more shaky deals in your forecast. Are they even real? Have you qualified them to the point where you know who the decision makers and influencers are, and how as well as when the decision will be made? Doing so might just make the difference in this week’s productivity, and ultimately in this  month’s commission check!

Hunters vs. Farmers?

It is easier to file down the claws of a tiger than to teach a sheep to attack.

Hunters vs. Farmers

It is easier to file down the claws of a tiger than to teach a sheep to attack.

2014 QBS Fall Boot Camp: Oct 2-3

“There has never been a better time for sellers to do everything possible to make themselves invaluable to their customers, colleagues, and their company.”         -T. Freese

We’re excited to announce our 2014 QBS Fall Boot Camp! If you would like to renew your focus on increasing your own sales effectiveness, or give your entire sales team an unfair advantage over the competition, join us on October 2 - 3, 2014.

The program will be facilitated by five-time best-selling author Tom Freese.

The learning environment will be highly interactive, with participants from a variety of industries including technology, financial services, healthcare, consulting, insurance, real estate, manufacturing, advertising, hospitality, and retail, and feedback from previous QBS Summit events has been “off the charts.”

With limited seating, reserve your seats early since we are expecting a full house. You might also want to bring extra pencils and a stack of writing pads for note taking.

“Tom! I wanted to thank you for an amazing training two weeks ago-my head is still spinning from all of the great info. I met with our Regional Manager yesterday and he wants you to train the rest of our team. You will be hearing from us very soon…”    -Liz B., Michigan…your newest QBS groupie!

Click for Early Enrollment Discount &  BOOT CAMP DETAILS.

Why Sales Velocity Matters…

Have you ever noticed that there is a direct link between the customer’s sense of urgency and the size and timing of the salesperson’s commission checks? A similar relationship exists between the customer’s sense of urgency and your company’s ability to meet or exceed their forecasted revenue for the month, quarter or year.

It’s pretty simple really: customers who are motivated to move forward with a purchase decision favoring your product or service usually translates into increased revenue for the company, accompanied by some highly desirable compensational rewards that go to the sales team.

So, how many deals would you like to close next month? If you are similar to most red-blooded salespeople, your answer would probably be, “…as many as possible.” Of course you would like to close lots of sales! Who in their right mind wouldn’t want to maximize their opportunity?

When we insert the customer’s perspective into this equation, the discussion quickly changes. Customers don’t care how much money you’re hoping to make, nor are they concerned about your personal cash flow. Instead, decision makers tend to move forward when they are darned good and ready, and not before.

That said, is there anything we (as sellers) can do to increase the customer’s sense of urgency so some or all of the opportunities in your pipeline can actually close sooner rather than later? Fortunately, the answer in the world of Question Based Selling is a resounding, “Yes.”

The next question on every salesperson’s mind is, “How can you increase sales velocity without pushing customers too hard, or, without compromising the credibility and goodwill that has been established with them thus far?” This is where sales strategy and proven techniques separate top performing salespeople from the rest of the masses.

To me, an effective salesperson is someone who can understand, adjust, and respond appropriately as sales conversations take on various twists and turns on the way to securing a commitment to move forward. That’s where the QBS Methodology comes in—essentially as a conversational tool belt filled with tools and techniques that if used properly, can expedite the sales process.

For example, very few prospects open up right away and basically answer any question you might choose to ask. But, for those rare occasions where customer are open to sharing information with a salesperson they don’t know or trust, you don’t need much of a sales strategy. For all the rest who are skeptical and standoffish until you’ve earned some credibility, the question then becomes, “How can we gain more credibility sooner, as a way to speed up the sales process?”

Relative to needs development, the answer is simple—by using a technique we call Diagnostic Questions. Basically, if a conversational technique can accomplish four strategic objectives in less than sixty seconds, it will literally change the way you interact with customers. More importantly, it will change the way prospects and customers interact with you.

The Four Objectives of Diagnostic Questions:

1.) Kick off the needs development conversation in a non-threatening manner.

2.) Gather valuable information that helps guide the conversation.

3.) Establish your credibility as a valuable resource to the customer.

4.) Earn the right to get into more depth about potential issues and implications.

In Question Based Selling, this is just the beginning of a broader needs development strategy to gain more credibility sooner as a means of accelerating the sales process. This is documented in much more detail in Chapters 7 and 8 of my first book, Secrets of Question Based Selling.

Granted, this is only one of many examples of how a salesperson, by their words and/or actions, can cause potential customers to become more receptive, thereby accelerating the decision making process. Are there other examples I can give you? Sure, that’s why I published five books and deliver customized training classes every week to sales disciplines ranging from the energy industry, to pharmaceutical sales, manufacturing, financial services, healthcare, technology, etc.

Bottom line: A salesperson’s actions can impact sales velocity to create a greater sense of urgency that will ultimately speed up the sales process. How can you know if you’re on the right track? Just ask yourself this question: “How many reasons does this customer have to by from me?” The more reasons they have to move forward, the easier it is to create competitive separation, get funding, and motivate others who also need to sign off on the purchase. It’s that simple.

By the way, if you really want customers to have a greater sense of urgency, and at the same time increase your sales performance, you might also ask yourself a few other important questions, like:

- “How many reasons does this prospect have to meet with me?”

- “How many reasons do they have to return my calls?”

- “How many reasons do they have to recommend me to others within the organization?”

- “How many reasons do they have to feel confident that they are making a good decision?”

- “How many reasons do they have to ‘want to’ share information with a salesperson they don’t yet know or trust?”

Can you see a trend here? The more reasons people have to do anything makes it easier for them to pull the trigger on moving forward in the relationship, and ultimately make a favorable purchase decision. More traction with potential customers and a greater sense of urgency enabling them to move forward sooner, creates the sales velocity needed to fill pipelines and consummate transactions. Engrain this philosophy in your daily routines and success becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

And that, my friends, is how you sell lots of stuff…and boost your income in the process!

How to Succeed in Sales?

To succeed in most anything, you must first pay your dues. Olympic athletes don’t just show up in a host city once every four years in order to get some exercise. Instead, these legends in sport invest countless hours of preparation and study before the starting gun goes off. Ultimately, you can be sure that whoever takes home the gold medal at the end of the day has paid their dues well in advance.

Speaking of paying your dues, I’ve always said that I would have joined the military right out of college if I could enlist as a Colonel. Think about it, you’d get a company car, free meals, housing provided, and you’d get saluted everywhere you went. Unfortunately it just doesn’t work that way.

So, instead of joining the military, I went into sales. I didn’t really know much about selling when I first started, but they were willing to “train” me and I was willing to learn. Lo and behold, I finished my first full year on commission at a whopping 45% of my sales quota; which I actually thought was good. I was glad to be above zero, to be honest. My manager didn’t share the same opinion. Still, I hung in there year after year and I busted my butt to make the grade, but I didn’t achieve my quota a single time in my first five years in sales. Things were not going well to say the least. I did, however, come into the office two or three nights a week to completely reorganize our resource library, so putting together customer presentations and responding to RFPs became exponentially easier. I also read every magazine article I could find that had anything to do with healthcare, because I was selling into the healthcare marketplace at the time. I didn’t receive any compensation for that extra effort, though I’m pretty sure that my sheer desire to add value is why they kept me on board.

Similarly, after I had started to figure it out and finished multiple consecutive years above 200% of my sales quota, I sat down to write my first book. What did I know about writing books? Nothing—I just started putting words on paper—a purging of my strategy on selling you might say. Within 90 days, I had compiled 270 pages of written material. I decided I better read it to see if I was on track. Frankly, it was terrible. Sure, I had amassed a cacophony of ideas, but the material was hardly book-worthy. It wasn’t even editable. So, I shoved it aside and started again, this time trying to organize the concepts into some sensible format rather than a random mind dump. Eleven months later, I had completed just shy of 300 pages. So, I decided to go back and read it again. Frankly, it read just as poorly as the first time around. That was discouraging to say the least.

Nobody paid me a cent for rewriting the book five times over three years, followed by nine (count ‘em) back and forth editing passes before Secrets of Question Based Selling was eventually published. It was all on my dime, but mostly the investment involved a tremendous amount of time, effort, and personal sacrifice.

Meanwhile, while I was working on the book and holding down my day job, I was also working to organize the system I had developed into a repeatable methodology that could be customized and taught to sales organizations in virtually ay other industry. Again, it was a long hard road before I had a product that was ready for prime time. Not surprisingly, I wasn’t paid for any of these efforts either.

As it turns out, my commitment to making sure QBS would exceed expectations has paid off many times over, mostly because I was willing to invest the time, effort, and commitment (i.e. pay my dues) in advance. What have I gotten in return? Well, my outstanding student loan was paid off in six months. I haven’t made a single mortgage or car payment in the last 23 years. In fact, we have no debt of any kind. Both of our kids’ college is totally funded. I was able to buy my mother a house. We give generously to causes we believe in, and financial security is something we no longer have to think about. My intention here is not to brag about myself or boast in any way. Just making the point that none of these things would be true if I had not been willing to invest the extra effort upfront.

Do you want to know how to turn extra effort into real dollars?

It’s simple: all you have to do to be successful in sales is be willing to put in the time and effort necessary to “out-work” the rest of the pack. Think about it this way. Somebody is going to succeed in the next account; it might as well be you.

Our oldest daughter is about to graduate from the University of South Carolina next month. She doesn’t have a job lined up yet, but that’s fine by me. Instead, she completely buys into the strategy that if she can finish strong and maintain her 3.8 GPA, then she won’t have any trouble finding opportunities in the month or two after graduation. Again, pay your dues upfront and opportunities will follow.

Of course, when she does jump into the job market, she won’t get paid a dime for the time she invests interviewing, or even for hustling to set up potential interviews. At that point it comes down to her willingness to put in the necessary investment in time, effort, and personal sacrifice. She can watch Ellen, play video games, or hang out on Facebook once she lands an opportunity. But until then, the daytime hours give her opportunities to be on the phone or meeting with people, and the evening is a great time to write thank you notes or introduction letters. Somebody’s going to get the best jobs, it might as well be my daughter.

So, let me get back to asking: how many articles have you read about your industry in the last 90 days? Great! Now double that number in the next 90. Become an expert on your customer’s world. Sure, you could just try to be empathetic and walk a mile in their shoes. But, if you are committed to paying your dues upfront, then I would recommend that you keep walking until you’ve lapped the field and there’s an perceptible difference between talking with you and your competitors.

Similarly, with your newfound expertise, don’t wait for the corporate marketing department to create the next presentation at some point down the road. Be creative to develop your own presentations that are more detailed and much more impactful than the customer has ever seen. At the same time, learn how to work the white board, and how to visually explain how your product can impact their business more than other options in the marketplace.

Trust me. If you are willing to go above and beyond and put in the extra effort even when you are not being directly compensated, two things will happen:

a.) First, you will never have to worry about money again.

b.) Second, your services will be in high demand, so you will never again have to worry about landing a top job. 

At the end of the day, success is a choice, not a lottery. So, what if you choose to take all the resources you might otherwise spend hoping to win the human lottery and instead invest heavily in yourself? For the people who are willing to turn off the TV, suspend video games, and maybe even skip a few bowling nights, the odds are stacked heavily in your favor. Of course, this article is sincerely meant to encourage you to be part of the solution, but at the end of the day, the ball is ultimately in your court. The difference between whatever level of success you desire and where you currently are is you. The good news is, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. The QBS Methodology has already been created. All you have to do is be willing to discard old-school sales approaches that no longer work and put a series of proven strategic and techniques into practice. From there the formula for success is relatively simple. If you are willing to invest in your own skill set, the way I invested in myself when I created QBS, then to steal a line from the late Zig Ziglar, “.”

Stop Making “Cold” Calls, Please…

When contacting new prospects for the very first time, wouldn’t it be great to have a 30% to 50% success rate instead of the standard 1% to 2%? Think about it. If only one or two out of a hundred people actually chooses to engage with you, with the rest of your opportunities going down in flames, it almost seems inhumane to ask someone to continue making that many calls with such a low success rate.

It turns out that making cold calls in 2014 is a bad strategy. It’s also a colossal waste of time and energy for sales teams moving forward. Salespeople hate to make them because they incur such a high rate of rejection, and customers hate to take cold calls because they perceive them as useless wastes of time. Consequently, cold calling tends to produce an extremely low return on invested sales effort (ROISE).

Now, I‘m not saying you shouldn’t call prospective customers, nor am I suggesting that you make fewer calls or work less. I’m just saying that you shouldn’t make “cold” calls any more. Fortunately, there is a better way.

What’s the problem with a cold call? The answer is simple: Temperature. Cold calls tend to sound vague and purposeless, rather than valuable, credible or relevant to the person on the receiving end of the call. So, what do you suppose the chances of making a sale are if the customer’s first impression is that this call is probably going to be a waste of time? Perhaps I should just come right out and ask: When is a good time for you to take cold calls from a salesperson you don’t yet know or trust? I think you’d say that it’s never a good time. But, what if it was possible to change the customer’s mentality to be more receptive to your calls?

Let me give you a sample of what a cold call typically sounds like:

Salesperson: “Good afternoon, Mr. Customer, my name is Joe Smith and I’m with Equitable Real Estate Life Insurance Mortgage Company. I wanted to introduce myself and see if there would be a good time to set up a meeting so I can show you how our products could help you manage your short-term monetary goals and well as help with your longer-term financial planning.

Customer: “Ahh…no, thanks.” (click)

Sure, you can mix up the words a bit and pacify yourself by thinking that your cold calls sound much different than the sample above; but at the end of the day, we should care less about what we say, and focus instead on what the customer hears. Without being customer-focused, sellers end up leaving lots of voice-  mails that never generate return calls. Same with email—email messages are constantly being sent into the abyss of the decision makers’ inboxes, never to be heard from again. And, if you’re lucky enough to get through to a “live” person, customers have learned the easiest way to get a salesperson off the phone is to either say, “No, thanks…”, or simply ask, “Can you send me information?”

In either case, a potential opportunity is squandered because the salesperson doesn’t sound purposeful, relevant, valuable, or credible. If there was a fix for this, wouldn’t you rather convert more potential opportunities into real prospects? This entire conundrum is explained in Chapter 12 of my first book (Secrets of Question Based Selling), which is appropriately titled, Turning Cold Calls into Luke Warm Calls.

The key to transforming cold-calls into luke-warm calls is to understand that people are generally reluctant to share information with someone they don’t yet know or trust. You can easily prove this theory for yourself. Just walk up to someone you don’t know and ask, “Ma’am, what’s your biggest problem?” What do you think will happen? My money says they’ll give you a dirty look and then walk away.

So, when you call prospects, it’s okay to be pleasant and cordial, but you’ve got to realize that people want to know two things right off the bat: Who you are, and why are you calling me? If you are calling for no reason whatsoever, why bother even making the call? That’s what I mean by being purposeful. But, most sellers are indeed calling for a reason, and it shouldn’t just be to chit-chat about something as superfluous as the customer’s picks for the NCAA basketball tournament.

Instead, there are dozens of ways to sound more purposeful when targeting a specific audience. Note that if I made five prospect calls to five different people, or sent emails to five different accounts , the context of my message may vary widely from one to the next, but my strategy of coming across as a valuable resource rather than just another cold-caller doesn’t change. Here are two examples of conveying a more meaningful message:

Salesperson: “Hi, Robert, this is Chuck Miller with ABC Company, I’m on the team that works with large manufacturing accounts in the Great Lakes Region. I had a meeting with your counterpart in another account, and two issues came up in our conversation just before lunch last Friday that I though might directly impact your manufacturing process; one of which is time sensitive. So, I wanted to be proactive and see if it would make sense for us to connect. Is this a bad time or do you have a few minutes?”

Salesperson: “Hi, Susan, this is Dana Evans with XYZ Company, I’m on the team that works with hospitals in Central Florida. We’ve had a handful of new announcements in the last six and a half weeks, three of which could directly impact your delivery of patient care—at what could be a fraction of the cost. So, I wanted to be proactive and see if it would make sense for us to have a conversation. Did I catch you at a bad time?”

Both of these examples assume that you reached the person “live.” You wouldn’t have asked if it was a bad time when leaving a voice-mail or email message. With the exception of that last sentence, however, you could use these same words to increase the purposeful-ness of your electronic messages. For example, on voice-mail, you could easily say, “If you get a chance today, could you please call me back. My number is ________________.” With email, I might write something like, “To avoid a championship game of telephone tag, might I suggest that we pick a time to get together on the telephone to go over the various options, how that would impact your business and the associated costs? I should be the office until tomorrow afternoon when I have to catch a flight to Chicago. Let me know what time works best for you. Please advise.”

These calls are intended to sound pleasant and cordial, but they don’t waste the customer’s time by being vague or irrelevant. In fact, being overly friendly prospects hoping that prospects will feel more inclined to buy your product or service will more likely backfire in today’s standoffish selling environment because customer’s don’t want to be schmoozed. They want to be helped. Fortunately for sellers, when your calls sound purposeful, relevant, and credible, and you are perceived to be a valuable resource, you will have tons of friends in your accounts. That’s how you sell lots of stuff.

Mid-Year QBS Prospecting & Lead Generation Summit

“There has never been a more imperative time for sellers to do everything possible to fill the sales funnel with qualified opportunities, thus making you invaluable to your company, your colleagues, and most importantly, your customers.”    -T. Freese

We are pleased to announce the very first Mid-Year Lead Generation Summit. Whether you want to boost your own selling skills or raise the effectiveness of your entire sales team, to give yourselves an unfair advantage over the competition, join us in Atlanta on June 12 - 13, 2014.

This program will be facilitated by five-time best-selling author Tom Freese.

The learning environment will be highly interactive, with participants from a variety of industries including technology, financial services, healthcare, pharma, consulting, insurance, real estate, manufacturing, advertising, hospitality, and retail. The feedback from previous QBS Summit events has been “off the charts” positive and we expect the same this time around, too.

With limited availability, you will want to reserve your seats early since we are expecting a full house. You may also want to bring extra pencils and a stack of writing pads for copious note taking.

“Tom, I wanted to thank you for an amazing training two weeks ago! My head is still spinning from all of the great information. I met with our Regional Manager yesterday and he wants you to train the rest of our team. You will be hearing from us very soon.”     -Liz B., Michigan…your newest QBS groupie!

Click for Early Enrollment Discount & SUMMIT DETAILS.