Question-Based Selling

There's no such thing as a dumb question, as the saying goes. But according to Tom Freese, VARs need to ask some very important and intelligent questions when they're selling to customers. Freese is president of QBS Research, an Atlanta-based sales consultancy, which has become increasingly popular with both vendors and solution providers. Freese (pronounced "freeze") and this writer have spoken several times since we met for the first time at a Tech Data event last fall, where he spoke to solution-provider attendees about improving their sales approaches with his distinctive method: question-based selling (QBS). Since that event, I've run into a growing number of resellers and vendors, large and small, who have tapped Freese and QBS Research to help them with their sales strategies and practices.

So, what's QBS' secret? Well, that was the problem; I really didn't know. First, I'm not a salesman. And second, you can only learn so much from your 50th viewing of "Glengarry Glen Ross." With that in mind, I reached out to Freese once again in an effort to understand the QBS method as if I were a reseller. He asked that I read a few of his articles and book excerpts to prepare for the interview and come up with some specific topics to discuss.

A few days later, our discussion began to resemble one of QBS' training sessions. In essence, Freese tells resellers not to approach prospects with vendor products or even their own solutions or services; instead, he believes VARs should begin by asking the customer questions about their IT environments and the specific problems they face. "What's more important to the customer at that point? Your solution or their problem?" Freese asks rhetorically. I asked Freese some questions to get an inside look at QBS:

Freese: What we find often is that a company's current sales approach wouldn't work on itself. So, the question is, why do it? People are very inwardly focused today. I ask people this question all the time, and no one has an answer for it: "What is your strategy for causing prospective customers to engage in a productive conversation with you about their needs and your value?" If someone doesn't want to engage in a conversation with you, then it doesn't really matter what you ask.

Wright: So, how do you break the ice at QBS and get prospects to engage?

Freese: You need two ingredients that cause customers to engage--credibility and curiosity. Sales drive every company, and curiosity drives every sale, yet nobody talks about it. I get asked all the time if I want to be known as the guy who invented curiosity. Well, no. I didn't invent human behavior. I'm just analytical enough--or maybe anal enough--to want to understand why it works that way.

Wright: So, how do you first approach the prospective customer?

Freese: The first question I ask is always the same: "Can I ask you a couple of specifics about your current technology environment?" The word "specifics" is the key. If someone asks you if they can ask you a couple of questions, it's too general and invasive. But saying "specifics" is music to their ears. Once someone has invited you to ask specific questions, you'll get much more information that is much more accurate.

Method In Motion

I've talked with a few solution providers who have been trained by Freese and QBS Research. One VARBusiness 500 company president decided to make a major investment in sales training and brought in QBS, which he says has already made a major impact. Another, Insight (No. 24 on the 2005 VARBusiness 500), called on Freese earlier this year to help the company move to a solutions and services approach. Rather than teaching the company how to sell services, Freese, using the QBS method, trained Insight's salespeople on how to interact with customers and establish credibility. Most important, he explained how to approach customers by asking them questions about their IT problems and issues, rather than leading with products, services or even solutions.

"I can tell you that our salespeople are eating this [QBS method] up," says Catherine Eckstein, senior vice president of marketing at Insight in Tempe, Ariz. In fact, at the recent Raymond James IT Supply Chain Conference in New York, Insight CEO Rich Fennessy told attendees how the company had retrained its sales force. Fennessy demonstrated Insight's new approach with a simple question: "Can I ask you a couple of specifics about your IT infrastructure?"

Wright: Once you get the customer to engage in a discussion, how should you differentiate yourself?

Freese: The differentiator for VARs is not the product or even the services. The trend has been for a lot of VARs to offer a lot more services. And the mistake is that any service you offer, your competitor can say it offers it, too. So, the services items are becoming commodities. It's fashionable to say you're doing more services today, but the problem is the technology market is one that commoditizes.

Wright: Then what's the key?

Freese: What customers want is service after the sale. And the only way they can judge that is by getting a sense of service before the sale. So, the differentiator is service, not services. Most sales material and strategies over the past 25 years are very seller-centric, which creates more skeptical buyers. So, if you're putting people off at the front end of the sales process, you're eliminating your only remaining differentiator.

Pager Clinches Deal

It may sound easy enough, but Freese knows that providing quality service during the sales process can be a challenge. While working as a salesman at a top technology vendor in 1992, Freese was competing against a rival vendor for a major contract with one of the largest banks in the United States. It's one of Freese's war stories--a grueling dog fight over a six-month sales cycle that ended up locked in a tie. The bank decided to give each salesperson one hour with its executive decision-makers in a sort of "Apprentice"-like bake-off, and Freese went first. Not sure what new info he could add at that point, Freese showed them his pager.

"I told them that they could reach me at any time, and that this was the level of service they could expect from me," Freese says. The bank called the next day and awarded the deal to Freese's company because he had a pager.

"The deal-maker had nothing to do with technology or services. It was service," Freese says. "And the funny thing was, the only reason I had that pager was because my wife had just had a baby. I decided to keep it and use it for work." Freese admits luck was a factor in the deal, but the event helped crystallize an idea in his head that would eventually give birth to QBS Research.

Wright: Is there a discernable difference between how the large and small tech companies approach sales?

Freese: Not really. Most of the approaches [have the same flaws]. Larger companies tend to have more credibility starting out, so they spend less time building it. The real difference between the way the market was and the way it has become is [that] customers are much more cautious and skeptical today. They're much more reserved about sharing information, so it's hard to get through to the important people.

Wright: Yes. What about customer references and case studies? Do they help a customer establish interest or credibility?

Freese: No, they're 90 percent irrelevant. Let me put it this way: How many VARs are in Boston? Let's say 100. I'll bet you every one of them has a list of happy customers. So, how does that differentiate you?

Wright: Well, I noticed that you had a couple of references from big clients on your Web site.

Freese: True. But you know how many clients I got because they called a reference this year? One.

Wright: Fair enough.