I have a couple of young businesspeople that mentor. One of the topics we discuss a lot is the sales process and closing sales.
Because the sales process and closing sales is a topic that requires books and books, I want to touch on one topic today…
Asking Better Questions and how to do it and why it is important.
Why Do You Ask Questions During a Sales Presentation: I learned sales in the old school, ABC world. I wasn’t successful at that. And, I was fortunate enough to have a chance to take corrective measures to help me learn the right way to handle sales and to make me a more effective sales consultant.
But..to answer the question, you ask questions during a sales meeting because you want to uncover needs.
Too many salespeople have still become stuck in the dynamic that they have to always be closing, and pushing their sales script. It is wrong and it probably burns out any number of potentially great salespeople.
You are asking questions because you need to know why your client or potential client finds themselves in a position where they aren’t having the success they desire.
You are asking questions to see if you have a product or service that will be helpful in achieving those goals.
You are asking questions because you want to make sure that the thing your client or potential client is asking about is the real problem or the real answer to their problem.
How Do You Ask Better Questions:
There isn’t a formula to this. You can’t quantify better questions. You can’t use big data to formulate a perfect question.
You can listen though. The first key is that you ask questions that encourage your prospect to discuss their business situation.
That means an open ended question…not something that only needs a yes or no?
As the person talks, you can ask questions that are, again, open ended, but which allow you to gain greater insight into someone’s thinking process.
I could go on about this, but if you take these lessons into your sales process, I feel confident you are going to get some pretty good results.