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“Sellin’ ain’t
tellin’, askin’ is.” I heard
this simple but true homily years ago when working in Texas.
Merrill Lynch spent thousands of dollars and six months in California and
New York on sophisticated courses and seminars to train me to sell stocks and
bonds. Yet, over the years this bit of country wisdom from Texas has been one of
the most powerful and useful lessons I’ve ever learned: To be successful in
sales, you must master the art of asking questions. WHY?
One of the most obvious reasons you ask questions is to acquire
information. The conscientious
professional will spend a great deal of time and effort to learn about their
client. The person asking
questions is always in control of a discussion. This control can be used
gracefully to lead and direct the client to a successful outcome or it can be
abused. As a professional, it is your responsibility to serve the client in a
thorough and proper manner. It is impossible to do this if you do not have
enough accurate information. The most efficient way to get the necessary
information is to ask questions. There is a big
difference between efficient and effective communication. Some sales people
believe a day of golf is a great way to solidify a new relationship. It's not.
Your goal should be “frequency of contact.” Frequent short contacts
and encounters will build stronger relationships and make you more memorable to
your client. If you are new in business a good way to develop this habit is
using a checklist:
e-mail,
fax, letter, lunch, appointment, racquetball, golf…the list is endless.
There are numerous software programs that will help you.
How often should you
make contact? That depends on the relationship and the nature of your business.
Everyone in your database should hear from you at least quarterly.
Clients get very annoyed if they only hear from you when you want to make
a sale or collect a check. Obviously, the goal is
to graciously ask questions during these encounters.
Art comes into play in the manner that you ask the questions. No one
likes to feel like they are in a deposition. Remember, you are striving to build
long-term profitable relationships. The real key is to
understand how the client FEELS about certain issues and what are the emotional
dynamics of the decision making process. How do you get to this next level of
understanding? The answer is, asking more questions. Questions are the keys
to unlock the vaults of information, needs, wants and emotions. As you master
the art of asking questions you will gracefully control the discussions with
your clients. As Martha Stewart would say, “It’s a good thing.” WHO ARE YOU? It’s time to go from
preaching to meddling. The most important person you have to ask questions, is
yourself. Why do you do what you do? What are your motivators? How can you
improve? What are your values? Is your behavior consistent with the things you
say that you believe? The best test of ‘who
are you’ is the quality and quantity of referrals you receive. As you build
relationships with others are they able to determine your beliefs by how you
behave? They don’t need to have a
long explanation about the history and values of your company. They just listen
to what other people say about you and your reputation. Clients will TRUST a
person who they believe has integrity. Without trust it is impossible to elicit
honest feedback from a client. To
learn a specific process on how to build trust on purpose, refer to Values-Based
Selling; The Art of Building High-Trust Client Relationships by Bill Bachrach
(at this time it is written for Financial Services Professionals). WHO CARES? There are at least four
groups of people who are critical to your professional development. They are
co-workers, centers of influence, vendors and your clients. How much do you care
about each of these groups? 1. Co-workers Your co-workers are a
vital part of your professional team. If
you don’t have time to show your co-workers that you care about them, in time
they will show you that they don’t care about you either. The best way to show
interest and concern is to ask them questions. The depth and quality
of the question you are comfortable asking a co-worker will be a reflection of
the quality of your mutual relationship. As you become astute at listening you
realize how much you can tell about someone by the type of questions they ask.
Peter Drucker spends a major part of his time during lectures at Claremont
Graduate School teaching students the value of “asking the right question.”
The depth of the question shows the depth of understanding a person has of a
problem. 2. Centers of
Influence Centers of influence
are those people who respect you and whose position or experiences naturally
enable them to send you a continual flow of referrals. 3. Vendors and
Colleagues Vendors and other
professional colleagues are also critical to your development. Do vendors and
sales representatives from your suppliers refer you accounts?
Sure, it helps to refer them business too, but develop the habit of
asking good questions and listening well. 4. Clients The fourth group is
clients. Surely you have heard of the “silent close.” Well, as a
professional speaker I have learned a new appreciation for silence. It is not
effective to talk nonstop and at a fast pace. People need time to process
information. After you have said something significant or asked a good question,
be silent, let them process the thought. When dealing with your clients, or any
one else, you must mentally control your impulse to fill long pregnant pauses of
silence with your own voice. Silence is a beautiful thing. Attorneys are trained
to never ask a question unless they already know the answer. The more you study
people the better you will get at making accurate assessments. A new book that
discusses this idea is Reading People, by Jo-Ellan Dimitrius, Ph.D. and Mark
Mazzarella. They make the following observation. “We have to watch the
way people behave toward others if we want to get the fullest sense of who they
are. All the other factors covered in this book-appearance, body language,
environment, voice, even the words people speak-must be viewed alongside their
actual behavior in the real world.” To master the art of
asking questions you have to become a student of people.
This takes time. It’s not a matter of memorizing a few good questions.
It’s the ability to read or see what is going on and have the confidence to
ask the big question. One of the tricks to help you in this area is to do your
homework before you meet with a client. Basic information
gathering can go on for a good 15 to 20 minutes. Examples of these types of
questions are below. Needs assessment-How do you manage your
business/clients? What have you done in
the past that’s been most successful? Any mistakes you’d
like to avoid in the future? What are you looking
for in a _____________? Wants assessment-How do you feel about
________________? (Use the word
‘feel’ with women & they’ll tell you what they think) (Use the word
‘think’ with men & they’ll tell you how they feel) Are you comfortable
with your current growth plans? (If yes or no, ask-How
come? Tell me more? Could you explain that to me?) Tell me a bit about
where you plan to be in ten years? Understanding of motivators in a business environment-How did you get to this position? What do you enjoy most
about your job? What do your people do
especially well? What’s working well
for you? Why do you work here? The pace slows and
specific questions are asked about areas where known problems existed.
By being patient,
asking simple questions that directly related to their situation and then using
the power of silence and intently listening, Listen, Listen,
Listen There are many types of
questions. Open ended versus closed, leading questions, hypothetical and the
list goes on. Then there are the levels of questions. You need to get to a
person’s emotions and prejudices. As you study people you
will continue to develop more understanding. Additionally, there are two
critical ingredients you will want to master. The first is trust.
You have to build a pattern of behavior that will allow a person to trust
you. Trust comes from asking good questions, consistent behavior and keeping
your commitments. The second is
empathy. This relates to how much
you really care. It does not matter what level of education a person has they
seem to know if another person is real or not. Most decisions are made
from an emotional frame of reference. Emotions are the trigger in the decision
making process. Emotions and feelings are not right or wrong. Feelings are based
on past experiences. The good news
is that feelings can change when a person goes through new experiences. Your questions can be
powerful. The way you use questions is important. What are your intentions with
asking the questions? Do you have personal integrity? Can you be trusted? How
well do you understand and read people? How well do you listen? Your ability to
put all these elements together will determine if you are an artist. Effective communication requires more than talent. It involves trust, understanding, empathy and resolution. It is an art that can be learned and developed. |
