Question To Sell - Global Sales Mentor | Zach Selch

22 Nov 2020 · 3 min

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2:56

In this brief video recorded at Athens airport, Zach Selch reviews Paul Cherry’s book Questions That Sell and positions it within the broader evolution of question‑based selling. He explains that early works like the Question‑Based Selling (QBS) methodology introduced the concept of using questions in sales, but Questions That Sell delves deeper and provides a richer framework. Selch describes how he has taken the book’s principles and, over the years, built highly specific, customized question lists tailored to his company’s history, products, competition, and customer base. These curated lists serve as a sales‑enablement and training tool for both internal sales teams and external distributors, with guidance on which questions to use for different meeting types. He recommends both the foundational QBS material for newcomers and Questions That Sell for sales leaders who are building processes, tools, and training programs. The video ends with a call‑to‑action inviting viewers to contact his firm when they are ready to expand international sales.

Chapters

I'm in the Athens airport, and I want to talk about a book called Questions That Sell by Paul Cherry. I've already talked about a book called QBS, Question-Based Selling, which is probably the oldest and maybe the start of the whole genre. You know, 20 years ago, 25 years ago, most salespeople weren't thinking about asking questions, and then we got into it, and it's become a big thing. And these are some of the first ones. I think QBS is probably the first real method of asking questions, of really going into it. Now, Questions That Sell is— I don't want to say it's a better book because it came after, but it goes more into depth. And what I've done with this book over the years is I've taken my company's history, my company's sales force, my company's situation, competition, customers, products, and I've developed very very specific questions based upon the stuff in this book, right, which has been very helpful. And when you're training both salespeople who work for you as well as distributors, it's a great tool. It's a great sales enablement tool to be able to give out lists of hundreds of questions that you've developed based on your particular situation, your customers, your competition, etc. And then you send them out with instructions that say, well, If you're going to such and such a meeting, these are the questions you should use. If you're going to this type of meeting, you should be using these type of questions. And this, this book, Questions That Sell by Paul Cherry, is a great tool to do exactly that. So I would highly recommend the book. It goes into detail. Now, what you're gonna find with QBS, with question-based selling, was a little bit more strategy. Probably the first half of the book explained why you should be using questions. and talked a little bit more about general sales stuff for sales managers, which is good, right? Especially for somebody who might be new to the field, okay? Who isn't doing it, who's trying to learn. But if you're convinced, you understand you want to be doing questions, you have a team to manage, or you're building up a process, you're building up a sales team, you're building up sales enablement tools, this is a great tool, a great book to work from. So in a perfect world, I'd recommend both. I know some people just don't have that much reading time or don't read that much. From a practical execution perspective, if you're a sales leader, especially a sales leader who builds up tools and training materials and stuff themselves, this is what I'd go for. Good book. Remember, when you're ready to grow your international sales, reach out to us. We can help.
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