Thomas A. Freese's Blog, page 18

Developing Highly Effective Sales Teams

Who's responsible for developing your team's sales capabilities? It's a fair question, but one that doesn't seem to have a very consistent answer.

There's one school of thought that the key to having effective salespeople is to simply hire the top performers in your respective industry. That is easier said than done. Successful salespeople are probably already making a hefty living as is, and oftentimes, they feel very comfortable and secure with their current job. Why give up a good thing?

Even if you are able to snag a perennial top performer from another company, there's a catch. Performance, when measured by numbers alone, can be very misleading. For example, a salesperson who achieved their goals because they happened to be the rep on one giant account, or because they inherited a ripe territory, doesn't mean they know how to build a book of business from scratch. 

If 'ready-made' top performance isn't available, the other option organizations have is to bring solid people aboard with a commitment to then develop those people into quality sales professionals. 

Actually developing top performance then becomes the challenge.

When I was asked to speak to a group of seniors at Clemson University earlier this year, I asked them this question: "How many of you (who are about to graduate) have ever taken a sales course?" Not surprisingly, zero hands went up as sales continues to be the least taught profession in the world.

Sure, there are lots of sales trainers and speakers who would love to have a shot at motivating your people to achieve their true potential. Ironically, many of the sales training content that's available contradicts the course you brought in in previous years, in which case, salespeople are usually left to their own devices to figure out how best to proceed.

I can relate to contradictions in content because Question Based Selling is often brought in to "un-teach" approaches that no longer yield positive results. 

Whether you saddle up with QBS or choose someone else's methodology, I encourage clients to enable a full implementation. The assumption that sellers are already capable of being highly successful has led to a 'one-&-done' mentality (that's what we call it in the training business) where companies looking for an instant results end up diluting their sales team's effectiveness by changing to a new trainer at each subsequent sales meeting, whose only link to the previous model can be seen in the use of common buzzwords.

The questions for developing productive salespeople are pretty simple:

Q: "What are you doing to leverage curiosity in the sales process?"

Q: "How are you differentiating yourself from your toughest competitors?"

Q: "What are you doing to earn credibility rather than just trying to claim it?"

Q: "What's your strategy for causing prospective customers to 'want to' share information with a salesperson they don't yet know or trust?"

Q: "How can you lessen the effects of increased customer skepticism toward vendors to actually close more deals faster?"

Putting the answer to these questions into practice and becoming a student of the sales process may require a little effort mixed with some honest introspection.

The only question now is… When would you like to get started?

2012 January QBS Summit: January 5-6

[image error] "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 happy to announce our next QBS Summit! 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 January 5 - 6 for the 2012 January QBS Summit.

The boot-camp style event, featuring QBS Research founder Tom Freese in Atlanta and will be held on Thursday, January 5th and Friday, January 6th.

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 &  SUMMIT DETAILS.

Coaching: Backwards & Forward

When a QBS salesperson runs into an obstacle or roadblock within one of their accounts, they tend to gravitate to thinking, "What should I do now?" Or, "How do I deal with this situation moving forward?"

Of course, whenever someone gets into a tough spot, it's perfectly natural to wonder, "How can I get out of this predicament?"

I am often asked about specific scenarios, like: "Tom, the customer has discounted our value as being the same as our competitors', so what should I do now that they are only focusing on price?" Or, another weekly favorite, "Tom, I have called and called and have left many messages for the decision maker, but they won't return my voice-mail messages or emails. What do you suggest I do now?"

Part of coaching is to evaluate the situation and decide what the person being coached can do to increase their probability of success. And, that's where most of the coaching in sales ends, with everyone trying to figure out what to do next.

The more important part of sales mentoring is identifying what it was that brought your salesperson to this place, in order to prevent it from happening in the future.

Theoretically, it is possible that a salesperson on a certain account has done such a poor job that the sale is unrecoverable. That happens, and in reality, you are not going to win each and every sale anyway.

But, if history keeps repeating itself with the same predicament occurring over and over again, then the real opportunity to better performance is to look backward and figure out what got you into this predicament in the first place. 

For example, if a salesperson delivers their best elevator pitch that's chock full of the same buzzwords all of your competitors are using, then let's not be surprised if the customer discounts the value of whatever claims are being made, and instead fixates on price. The solution here is not to figure out some way to recover from customers fixating on price. Rather, the solution to this situation has more to do with not commoditizing your value with a standard 'elevator pitch.'

Likewise, if you have salespeople who are frustrated because decision makers are not returning their calls, the solution is not to figure out how to recover from this. In fact, my first question to the frustrated salesperson would be, "What do the messages you are leaving look (or sound) like?" If they are not compelling, in a world where skeptical buyers are quick to discount sales callers anyway, let's not be surprised if you don't get a call back. Also, let's upgrade the messages you are leaving in order to boost your call back rate from a measly 2% to 50% plus.

Most clients who train their sales teams on Question Based Selling truly want the methodology to work. Similarly, most students who participate in a QBS training session want it to work just as badly. But in my experience, most people are fairly realistic in their expectations that positive change doesn't happen overnight. That said, your ongoing coaching efforts need to have two components–some thoughts about what the sales person can do next. But even more importantly, some forensic insight into what (specifically) brought you to this point in the sale?

I can tell you with absolute certainty that being proactive and preventing a sales issue from arising is much easier than having a difficult circumstance pop up and then try to figure out how to make it go away. 

This proactive thought process also fosters the benefits of self-coaching on an ongoing basis. Once reps start asking themselves questions like, "What could I have done differently to prevent this?", or, "How might I tweak my approach in the future?", you will win more than your fair share of deals. And so will your reps! 
                                                                   —Thomas A. Freese
                                                                       President, QBS Research, Inc.

QBS has Finally Gone Social…!!!

"Tom, is there a forum where devoted readers of your books, QBS advocates, or students of the Question Based Selling methodology can confer, collaborate, and share their experiences in using the QBS Methodology?"

To date, my answer to questions like these has been, "That's a great idea, if I had the time and know-how to make it happen. Well, just last week I received an unsolicited email from a dedicated QBS'er who has created a Alumni Group on LinkedIn specifically for QBS Alumni (readers & students). It is definitely true that some of the best implementation ideas over my last 14+ years of teaching QBS have come from students of QBS, especially since they are on the front lines of the sale and interface directly with clients.

To add value, I will commit to logging on at least once a week to answer questions and offer insight. Bottom line, if you are willing to invest the time and effort to share your experiences with others, then I am too.

A well-deserved shout out goes to John Rhind for making this happen. Thank you, John, and I hope this is the beginning of a very productive (and much needed) tool for furthering your results with the QBS methodology.

To join the QBS Alumni Group on LinkedIn, simply click Here .

Check Your Eyebrows for Sincerity

Relationship building has always been an important aspect of selling. But, just because an eager salesperson comes calling doesn't necessarily mean key decision makers in target accounts will want to spend quality time with them.

What's the key to building effective relationships? Great Question! Unfortunately, however, the notion of establishing relationships has traditionally revolved around the idea of building rapport–befriending people in the hopes that they will be more likely to purchase your product or service.

The problem is most customers are already being pursued by tons of vendors who all want to become 'buddies' in order to make a sale. If you are selling to your best friend, then your relationship may help make them more comfortable. If not, then projecting [image error]a false sense of 'friendliness' actually causes people to be even more standoffish.

For example, here's a simple exercise I often do with students in our LIVE QBS training courses. Just for fun, hold your index fingers up to your two eyebrows. Now, raise your eyebrows up and down and you will feel movement under your fingers. Alas, you have eyebrow muscles!

Next time you meet with a customer, or if you are the customer, the next time you come in contact with a salesperson, watch what happens to their eyebrows. For some mysterious reason, they shoot up into the rafters as the salesperson's face instantly lights up, clearly excited about the possibility of making a sale. 

Compare that 'raised eyebrow' phenomenon to your normal facial expression when you are helping someone or talking with them about a potential problem. You will notice that when a salesperson is truly adding value, their eyebrows are square on their face, and not elevated to the edge of their hairline.

The lesson is simply this. Next time you come in contact with a customer, and you are super-excited to meet them, there is a high probability that you will come off as fake, insincere, or even worse, commission-hungry.

Think about it this way. That super-enthusiastic person is NOT really you. "Hello, Mr. Customer, I am so so happy to meet you!!!" You might as well add, "but this is not really me, because my face has exploded into a giant fake smile, and if you give me a minute my eyebrows will come down to Earth and we can have a real discussion."

If you naturally have a super-charged, highly enthusiastic personality, that's fine–be yourself. If not, then projecting a fake smile and seeming commission hungry might not create the best first impression, especially for those customers who may already be cautious of dealing with a disingenuous salesperson.

Note that it's perfectly okay to be pleasant and cordial, but when first meeting potential customers, it's much more important to be purposeful, relevant, credible, and valuable.

Audio Book—Sell Yourself First

Ranked #20 on NY Times Best Selling Audios as of June 24th, check out TF's new book on tape: Sell Yourself First. Narrated by the author himself, Tom's fifth and latest work further expands the Question Based Selling, as a direct commentary on the fact that the perception customers form about you is often more important than the product you're selling or the company you represent.

Just look around any company and you will notice that some salespeople are more effective than others, even though they are all selling the same types of products. If you could somehow put your finger on what makes them consistently more effective, that insight alone would give you an unfair advantage over the competition.

For more information about ordering the audio version of Sell Yourself First, simply click here.

QBS Publishes Chinese Version

Question Based Selling has gone international with the release of the Chinese version of my first book, Secrets of Question Based Selling. With the exception of those words on the cover, the rest of the entire book is printed in Chinese. I'm told that someone who is fluent in Chinese can easily find it on the Internet. Funny that they sent me a box of samples which prompted my wife to ask, "Does the content match the English version?"

Since the graphics all match the English version, I assume so…but, since I'm not fluent in Chinese, how would I know?

Selling Power Magazine Puts Freese's Books on Their Top 10 Summer Reading List

Summer time is an opportunity to catch up on your rest and relaxation. It's also a good time to think about retooling your selling skills in order to gain an advantage over the competition. Selling Power Magazine's Top Ten Summer Reading List for 2011 is out and it includes Sell Yourself First, a 250 page hardcover bestseller by Thomas A. Freese, Author of Secrets of Question Based Selling.

Freese says, "I wrote Sell Yourself First, my fifth book, as a direct commentary on how a salesperson is perceived is more important than the products they sell or company they represent."

Special offer: Mention this blog post in the comments section while ordering and receive 50% off the retail price.

2011 QBS Methodology Spring Summit: May 5-6

"Given the ongoing shifts that will continue to occur in the business marketplace, sellers must do everything possible to make themselves invaluable to their customers, colleagues, and company."         -T. Freese

We're happy to announce our next QBS Summit! 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 May 5 - 6 for the 2011 QBS Methodology Spring Summit.

The boot-camp style event, featuring QBS Research founder Tom Freese in Atlanta and will be held on Thursday, May 5th and Friday, May 6th.

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 &  SUMMIT DETAILS.

On the Beach… with QBS

Do you enjoy kicking back and relaxing with a good book while on vacation? Well, whether you get a rush from the intellectual intrigue of a good mystery thriller, or you simply enjoy the pleasures of a gushy romance novel, here's one of our clients wisely investing in his future success.

While I am flattered that his lovely wife Amy would be willing to snap this photo, could it be that the book and sun glasses were just a front for watching scantly clad bathing suits stroll up and down the sand?

We may never realize the full benefits from having a QBS book on hand at the beach, but whatever the case, advancing your career while taking in the scenery is a well conceived and executed strategy.

A toast to Gregg: "Here's to always thinking like a true sales guy!"