You Gotta Ask Questions (This is the first lesson in 5 part series. Read them on FrogPond.com.)
Here are five phenomenal questions to help you get the business.
1. What are your responsibilities?
This is a terrific question to get a measure of your prospect's ego, self-esteem, and self worth. Most salespeople skip this question. What and how a decision Maker thinks about his position can help you cinch the deal later on in the selling process.
2. What are the biggest challenges you face in . . .
Most salespeople try to uncover problems instead of focusing on challenges. Logically, people you barely know may be reluctant to share their problems with you. It's been my experience however, that most people are willing to open up and discuss their challenges.
3. What qualities are you looking for
(Insert the appropriate product or service). The key to asking this question is listening carefully to the answers. For example, if somebody responded with reliability as a quality, you should immediately follow up and get the definition of the word reliability. How they define reliability will enable you to relate more specifically to that reliability factor.
4. What are your criteria for making a decision?
This is a tricky question - but only for the unprepared. You see, many times a prospect will respond by saying pricing is the bottom-line. When you ask the question:
· What are your criteria for making a decision and get a response like - for us it's the bottom-line pricing.
· Be sure to follow up with this additional question.
· In addition to pricing, what other criteria do you have for making this decision? They will always give you something else.
5. Describe the decision-making process.
You should only ask this question for Big sales opportunities. You need to know who's going to be involved, what the time frame is, and what the natural progression for this organization's decision-making process will be.
Here are two bonus questions for you:
6. How do you measure success when using these products?
There's no way you can accurately anticipate the response to this question which is why it's so important to ask the question. Imagine trying to close a sale without knowing how your prospect/customer will measure the success of working with your company or using your product. It's like trying to drive your car with the Windows all steamed up. When you ask a good question you'll often be complemented on the quality of your question. This question will create lots of compliments for you . . . because it’s a seldom asked question.
7. What would it take to win your supplier of the year award?
The purpose of this question is to get them to tell you what they value in a supplier or in a supplier's product/service. Whether or not they have a supplier of the year award you still get their opinion when you ask this question. Once again you should listen carefully to their response.
David Frost, the noted British commentator, once said this about questions,
“You can judge the quality of your questions by the quality of the responses you get.” I believe he’s right on that point.
Not asking intelligent and prepared questions trips up salespeople more than anything else, in my humble opinion.
