Full Description

Question Based Selling ( QBS®) is a commonsense approach to sales, based on the theory that “what” salespeople ask—and “how” they ask—is more important than anything they will ever say. This technique makes sense because in order to present solutions, you first must learn your customer’s needs.

How do you uncover a prospect’s needs? By asking questions. But not just any questions. You must ask the right questions at the right time. And this book provides a step-by-step, easy-to-follow program that does just that.

With this proven, hands-on guide, you will learn to:

--Penetrate more accounts
--Establish greater credibility
--Generate more return calls
--Prevent and handle objections
--Motivate different types of buyers
--Develop more internal champions
--Close more sales…faster
--And much, much more

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Preface The Best Sales Experience...I Hope You Never Have

Introduction

PART 1: A Short Course on QBS Strategy
Chapter 1: Increasing Your Probability of Success
- The Rules of Engagement Have Changed
- Selling Isn’t About “Right” and “Wrong”
- A Methodology Based on Cause and Effect
- The Greatest Challenge Salespeople Face
- Eliminate the Risk and Salespeople Will Run to the Phones
- The Ultimate Risk
- The Best Sales Movie Ever Made
- Listen for the Return Ping
- Persistence Does Pay Off
- What If They’re Just Not Interested?
- Opening the Floodgates of Opportunity

Chapter 2: Mismatching The Avoidable Risk
- Agreement Brings People Together
- Mismatching Is a Form of Resistance
- Where Mismatching Originates
- The Mismatching Instinct Comes in Four Flavors
- What Mismatching Means for Salespeople
- Telling is Not Selling
- Five QBS Strategies That Reduce Your Risk

Chapter 3: The Herd Theory
- Problems With Traditional Reference Selling
- Why the Herd Theory Works
- Leveraging “Everyone Else”
- How it Started: A True Story
- Momentum Comes in All Shapes and Sizes
- Popcorn Credibility
- Applying the Herd Theory Throughout the Sales Process

Chapter 4: Gold Medals & German Shepherds
- Always Positive Isn’t the Most Productive
- Problems With Behavioral Selling
- Solving the Problem
- The Metaphor that Stuck
- Double Your Benefits to Double Your Value
- QBS Didn’t Invent Human Behavior
- Corporate Marketers Take Note

Chapter 5: Fueling the Sales Process
- Where Do Needs Originate?
- Perception Isn’t Everything
- When My Perspective Changed, So Did My Needs
- The Lion’s Share of Opportunity
- Increasing the Prospect’s Sense of Urgency

PART II: Leveraging the Most Powerful Tool in Sales
Chapter 6: Conversational Layering
- Introducing the Conversational Layering Model
- Jumping Ahead Increases Your Risk
- Crossing the Sales Chasm
- It’s a Paradigm Shift
- The Key to Building Effective Relationships
- The QBS Sales Forum
- The Sparks That Makes Prospects “Want to” Engage

Chapter 7: What Makes People Curious
- The Easiest Way to Make Someone Curious
- Voice Mail: Friend or Foe?
- Sending Intriguing Email Messages
- Five QBS Strategies ThatMake Prospects Curious

Chapter 8: Establishing Credibility in the Sale
- Sellers Start with Near-Zero Credibility
- Three Ways to Establish Credibilty
- Managing the Scope of Your Questions
- Crossing Industry Boundaries
- Characteristics of a Diagnostic Question
- Broaden the Scope to Expand Relationships

Chapter 9: Escalate the Value of Your Questions
- Asking the Right Questions
- Strategic Questioning is a Process
- Emotional vs. Analytical
- Status Questions
- Issue Questions
- Implication Questions
- Solution Questions

Chapter 10: How to Solicit More Accurate Feedback
- Accuracy is the Objective
- Do You Ask Hopeful Questions?
- Being the Bearer of Bad News
- Soliciting Open, Honest, and Accurate Information
- Neutralize Disposition of Your Questions
- Introducing the Negative
- The Emotional Rescue
- Humbling Disclaimers
- Asking the Hard Questions

PART III: Implementation: Putting Methods into Practice
Chapter 11 Navigating the QBS Sales Process
- The Evolution of a Sales Process
- Introducing the QBS Sales Process
- Moving the Opportunity Forward
- Who Controls the Process?
- The Paradox of Control
- How Strategic Questions Work

Chapter 12: Turn Your Cold Calls into Lukewarm Calls
- Nobody Likes Cold Calls
- Warm Up Your Cold Calls
- A Microcosm of the Sales Process
- Identify Yourself and Your Company
- Associate to Create a Sense of Familiarity
- The Transition into Stage II (Discovery)
- Narrow the Scope for Credibility
- Broaden the Scope for Relationships
- The Transition into Stage III (Value Proposition)
- What if the Prospect Says Yes
- What if the Prospect Says No

Chapter 13: Getting to the "Right Person"
- Top-Down or Bottom-Up
- The Benefits and Risks of Calling High
- The Benefits and Risks of Calling Low
- Strategic Decisions Involve Multiple Players
- Knowing Who’s Who in the Decision
- The Best Place to Start

Chapter 14: Building Value in the QBS Presentation
- Challenges Salepeople Face in the Presentation
- Breaking the Ice
- Use Diagnostic Questions to Establish Credibility
- Without Needs... There Are No Solutions
- Building a Mutual Agenda
- When It’s Time to Knock Their Socks Off
- Closing Your Sales Presentations
- Your Ticket into Phase III

Chapter 15: Closing More Sales...Faster
- Moving Away from the Old School
- Hope is Not a Method
- Five Prerequisites for Closing
- The Four Keys to Closing More Sales
- Wrapping Up the Sale

Epilogue: For Sales Managers Only
Index

Excerpt

Editorial Reviews

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