Thanks again to everyone who attended the Workshop today. Here are the slides as promised.  { CLICK HERE }

It was certainly fun to interact and role play with you all! Thanks again! Let’s do it again soon!
Here are some of the books we recommended today:

Question Based Selling by  Thomas Freese

Spin Selling by Neil Rackam

Endless Referrals, (Third Edition) by Bob Burg

After many years in sales and marketing most of my associates and I agree that one of the toughest, persistent problems we face is getting through to decision makers. Nothing happens until the decision maker is engaged.

Various sales training groups offer almost countless ways for getting in touch with those well-guarded people. Over my career I’ve found three sales approaches that give specific advice that actually work. One is Selling to VITO by Anthony Parinello. Another is SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham.

But my favorite approach, and the one I’ve found most effective, is the sales approach taught by Thomas A. Freese in his “Question Based Selling,” aka QBS approach. Tom is not only a great person. He’s been extremely successful as a quota carrying sales person in the software industry, and over the past decade, as a sales trainer teaching QBS to major international companies. QBS is not just a series of tips; it’s an entire change in strategy which, by the way, truly respects the prospect and builds great relationships.

Tom talks in one of his books, Secrets of Question Based Selling, about the “Herd Theory,” and tells a great story about bringing 119 people together for a software sales presentation, including people from IBM, US Sprint, Hallmark Cards, American Express, Master Card and other top-ranked Fortune companies. The conventional approach for getting out invitations to the event would have included mailings and cold-calls that might have gone something like this:

“Mr. Prospect, we develop CASE software and I’d like to get together with you to discuss how our products might assist you in your software development.” To which, in most cases, Mr. Prospect would say “No thanks.”

Yet by using the Herd Theory Tom achieved the highest turnout for any event the company held that entire year. What is the Herd Theory? Basically, getting everyone moving in the same direction. The step Tom took was to let everyone know that “everyone else” was going to be there and he “didn’t want Mr. Prospect to be left out.” Mr. Prospect followed the herd. Of course you’ve got to read the whole story and I suggest you get the book, which you can find at Amazon or at Tom’s web site: http://www.qbsresearch.com.

Another major take-away from QBS is the importance of asking questions that build curiosity with your prospects. Rather than telling them about you, your company, your outstanding products, the benefits and value they’ll derive by using them…and on and on…it’s far more effective to ask a question that builds curiosity and furthers the conversation. People who are curious will engage, those who do not will say “No Thanks.”

Which brings me to a thought about how sending a personalized, hand-stamped note to the person you want to reach is a great way to stimulate curiosity and get something started. How would you respond if you got a personalized, “handwritten” note in the US Mail that asked you this question:

“Joe, I met one of your sales people, Bob Smith, last week. He told me some interesting things about your company and I’m just curious to learn more about your widget confabulation process. I understand you’re the expert and wonder if you’d have time for a phone call or a cup of coffee sometime next week? I’ll call to see if we can setup a time to talk. Many Thanks!”

Sincerely,

Les Falke

Sending a personal note is a dozen times more effective than just firing off an email, or leaving a voicemail. It shows Mr. Prospect that you’ve taken an extra step beyond what other sales people do. In a sense, it “formalizes” that critically important first contact. After all, you’ve taken time. You’ve spent money for a card, an envelope and a stamp. The bad news is that people don’t really take much time to personalize their first contact in this multi-tasking e-world we’re all part of. But the good news is that sending a personal note will set you well apart from the crowd who rely on cold calls and emails.

Take-aways for you? There are two.

1. Visit www.QBSResearch.com to learn more about Tom’s powerful approach to building relations and closing sales. Get one of his books or CD sets. I’ve spent hours reading and listening and it’s helped my sales and marketing life in countless ways.
2. Take a minute to visit www.InkaNote.com and take the Test Drive. See for yourself how easy it is to send a personalized hand-stamped note to the decision maker you need to reach.

]]> http://salesandmanagementblog.com/2008/04/09/book-review-secrets-of-question-based-selling-by-thomas-a-freese/ Wed, 09 Apr 2008 12:19:51 +0000 Paul McCord http://salesandmanagementblog.com/2008/04/09/book-review-secrets-of-question-based-selling-by-thomas-a-freese/

How do you connect with and engage prospects and clients?  How do you gather the basic information you need in order to create interest and curiosity?  How do you find and highlight their needs or wants?  How do you determine what your prospect is thinking and what concerns they might have?

More than likely you use questions, at least to some extent.

Since you’re already using questions and since you’ve been taught to never ask a closed-end question and you’ve mastered the art of the open-ended question, why should you pick up Thomas A. Freese’s, Secrets of Question Based Selling: How the Most Powerful Toll in Business Can Double Your Sales Results (Sourcebooks, 2003)?  Because much of what you’ve been taught about questions and questioning is just flat wrong according to Freese.

Secrets of Question Based Selling (QBS) is obviously a book about questions and the art of using them to engage your prospect.  But it is far more than a book about questioning; it’s a book about effective selling and how to use questions to prick interest, discover information, engage and feed the needs of multiple participants in the decision making process, get past gatekeepers, get a return call when you leave a voice mail message, and to close the sale.

QBS isn’t just a book about questions.  Naturally, Freese discusses questions and questioning in great detail.  He lays out a number of types of questions and their uses.  He gives examples of both effective and ineffective questions.  He relates stories of question success—and question failure.  He addresses erroneous traditional question training such as to ask open-ended questions only.  He demonstrates the power of a well-crafted question–and how ill conceived questions lead to self-inflected wounds.

However, if you look at Secrets of Question Based Selling as a book about questions, you miss the power and essence of Freese’s message.  At its core, QBS isn’t really about asking questions.  It’s about understanding human nature and formulating a sales process that emanates from understanding who people are, how they think, how they respond, and what captures their attention and addresses their needs.

Secrets of Question Based Selling is one of a long line of books written over the past two and half decades that tries to set out a rational, workable, effective sales process for the complex sale.  The complex business-to-business sale has been the primary focus of sales process trainers for the last decades with little attention given to the less complex business-to-business and business-to-consumer sale.

Although designed for and directed toward the complex sale, many of the strategies and techniques in these sales process books are applicable to other types of sales situations although the authors seldom, if ever, address those situations.  Freese, to his credit, doesn’t ignore the vast majority of salespeople who are not engaged in complex solution selling.  He gives examples from the less lofty world of sales and even an example or two from the world of the one-time close sale.

The sales process Freese sets forth covers the gamut of prospect contract, from initial call to the close of the sale.  The primary tool used is questions but the foundation is an understanding of how people respond during the process of considering a purchase of any type, any size—and that basic human nature is the same for the company contemplating a twenty million dollar purchase as the couple contemplating a twenty thousand dollar purchase.

Whether you sell health insurance in a one-time close sale to mom and pop or the most sophisticated high tech services to Fortune 50 companies, Secrets of Question Based Selling is filled with gems that will help you connect with your prospects.  You may not choose to adopt the entire sales process Freese presents—the process in its entirety isn’t right for everyone or every situation, you cannot read the book and not walk away without having improved your ability to engage your prospect and your clients—and earn more money.