Turning Selling into Buying® is so much more than just a book or training course. It’s a fresh new approach to influence – at work and in life.
It can be delivered and then applied in different ways, but in every case, the components will include:
- the core TSB processes and tool set
- playlets, demonstrations and videos
- training exercises
- self-development assignments that turn techniques into skills
- an active community with solid user support
Fearless Selling Workshops are one way of delivery (described here). This section focuses on the APEX seminar.
APEX Seminars™
These training courses cover the four stages involved in Turning Selling into Buying. They may be public courses, with open, local registration; or closed registration for a specific community, association or interest group. See Seminar Schedule for the next one near you.
APEX seminars take place over four separate, energetic days with gaps between to allow time for self-development assignments to consolidate what’s been learnt. Each student has a workbook in which to carry out the exercises, beside the relevant course notes. These then become a valuable resource they can refer to weeks or months later. The four steps are:
The Analyse seminar answers the question “What would motivate anyone to buy or ‘buy into’ the idea, product or service I’m offering?“
This seminar teaches the basic skills needed to do this, including how to use two types of Precision Questioning, and how to construct a more buyable ‘Offering‘. Students then use these skills to answer the question for their own individual combinations of offering and buyer. The final exercise creates ‘The Best Elevator Pitch in the World‘ – for use the next day in websites, proposals and documents, as well as in conversation.
The Prepare seminar is based around the principal ‘prepare well once and use many times‘. Students learn what they need to do before any meeting to maximise their chance of success. Once they’ve completed this preparation, it can be used over and over again, with adjustments only as the buyer varies – reducing effort and boosting confidence. They will learn how to prepare:
- their offering so that their buyer will understand it, see its value and be attracted to it
- their buyer so they have a positive desire to engage before the meeting
- themselves to deliver peak performance on every occasion – day in, day out, rain or shine
- their team so they all pull in the same direction, before, during and after a call
The Prepare seminar also tackles the biggest block to success in many sales and influence situations – justifying the expense. It includes the Where’s The Money? exercise – a powerful tool for creating the strongest possible Cost Benefit Analysis and Return On Investment for any investment or purchase. It also includes the acclaimed Four-See team exercise which delivers productive insights into the thinking and motivation of the ‘buyer on the other side of the table‘. The final exercise extends the Best Elevator Pitch in the World into a full suite of responses for use in situations ranging from a short, casual encounter through to a full ‘Dragons’ Den‘ scenario.
The Elicit seminar focuses on the person-to-person activity in any meeting intended to influence someone to become a ‘Willing Buyer‘.
It introduces the five step G.E.C.K.O. meeting structure and uses demonstration, practice exercises, feedback and discussion to develop the necessary skills. Students will learn how to engage, elicit, explore and evaluate the worth of their buyer ‘doing business’ with them. Depending on the scenario, the seminar includes either:
- a general Influence Meeting Q&A session or
- volunteers practicing in front of the class or
- a feedback brainstorm that consolidates the learnings for the whole class.
The final exercise is the creation and presentation of a personal ‘Fluency Prompter‘ by each student. Strengthened even further by the feedback received, this sheet can be used the very next day to help them to ‘create a willing buyer’.
The eXcite seminar focuses on the final step of actually turning a ‘Willing Buyer’ into an order, into money, or a clear decision to take action.
One of TSB’s strengths is that it creates a ‘self-closing prospect‘ – a person who is consciously motivated, or perhaps even excited, to take the actions to complete the process. A core feature of this module is the eight point ‘Buying Plan‘ which is openly discussed with the Willing Buyer. It’s used to drive out all of the problems, objections, practicalities and processes that stand in the way of completing the deal.
Just as usefully, the Buying Plan can be a great route to qualifying out an opportunity – and doing it early enough to save time, money and resources. The final exercise focuses on some of the techniques that make this journey successful – the presentation, the proposal and the negotiation. Student leave having committed themselves to ‘moving the furniture‘ in their lives or work in some way that will make the change stick.
Summary
The TSB book is at the heart of a network of change that can be accessed in many different ways. Some people will start by buying the book. They may then want to move their skills to the next level by attending a nearby APEX seminar. Others will attend a seminar and then join the action through buying the book. In a corporate environment, the book can be used by a team as a source of ideas and examples, with them encouraging their partners or suppliers to learn how they ‘go about business’ by attending an APEX seminar.