1. CBTG Meeting
Tucson - May 2008
Thursday PM Session

2. Updating Your Sales Approach
Rob Haislip
Vice President – Franchise Support
U.S. Structures, Inc

3. Why does it need updating?
Show of Hands - How many of you have made changes / improvements to the following within the last 12 – 18 months:
Your GDS Systems?
Your Profile Management Systems?
Your On-Line Booking Systems?
Your Preferred Vendor Relationships?
Your Sales Approach?

4. Enough said….. Thank you for your time.
Questions?

5. You need to update your sales approach because:
The sales process is more complex
Buyers are more sophisticated and have access to tremendous amounts of information
Competition is intense…especially among internet based travel companies
You are selling value, not price…you are selling a high $ volume item (a travel program) and not a low $ volume one (an airline ticket)…more on this later

6. Much of today’s session is based on information contained in these two books:

7. The Stages of the Sales Process
1) Preliminaries
2) Investigating
3) Demonstrating Capability
4) Obtaining Commitment
Neil Rackham, “SPIN Selling”
Prospecting Fact Finding Presentation Closing
Sales Lead / Research / Sales Call / Proposal / Demo / Close / Service

8. Findings from Neil Rackham’s research at Huthwaite, Inc for “SPIN Selling” (based on numerous studies involving many thousands of sales calls)
While competence at all 4 stages is important to sales success, success in the “larger sale” depends upon how the Investigating stage is handled
Closing skills are important in smaller low dollar sales, but are much less important in more complex and expensive sales
Questions persuade more powerfully than any other form of verbal behavior
There is a clear statistical association between the use of questions and the success of the interaction
The more you ask questions, the more successful the interaction is likely to be…to a point
Some types of questions are more powerful than others
And we are not just talking about “Open” vs. “Closed” questions

9. What types of questions do you mean?
SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham
Situation Questions
Problem Questions
Implication Questions
Need-Payoff Questions
QBS by Tom Freese
Status Questions
Issue Questions
Implication Questions
Solution Questions
High #
Low #
Low #
High #
Unsuccessful
Successful

10. Escalating the “Focus” of your questions
High Mutual Value
Solution
Emotional
Decisions
Need-Payoff
Implication
Implication
The Value Line
Issue
Problem
Status
Analytical
Decisions
Low Mutual Value
Situation
“The Secrets of QBS” by Tom Freese

11. Needs – The gap between “what is” and “what could be”
Implication questions
Pain
German Shepherds
Needs
Solution / Need-Payoff questions
Desire
Gold Medals
“The Secrets of QBS” by Tom Freese

12. Active / Explicit Needs
Needs can be strong or weak: Active or Latent (QBS) / Explicit or Implied (SPIN)
Total Market Opportunity
Active / Explicit Needs
Latent / Implied Needs
“The Secrets of QBS” by Tom Freese

13. The Stages of the Sales Process
1) Preliminaries
2) Investigating
3) Demonstrating Capability
4) Obtaining Commitment
Neil Rackham, “SPIN Selling”
Putting what you have learned to use in the Demonstration /Presentation stage requires the use of FAB’s:
Feature Advantage Benefit
(What it is) (What it does) (The Solution it offers)
the client

14. In closing…let me leave you with two OTHER key thoughts
Spend more time asking questions during the Investigating stage of the sales process
Ask a limited number of Situation questions to build credibility
Ask more Problem questions to uncover client issues
Ask more Implication questions to discover the consequences of those problems on the client
Ask Need-Payoff questions to focus the client on your solutions to their problems
Focus on how your solution benefits the client and meets their Needs during the Demonstrating stage of the sales process
To alleviate Pain, clients will seek a solution that provides relief
To satisfy a Desire, clients will attempt to improve the status quo

15. Thank you for inviting me to speak at your meeting!
Do we have any questions?