Sales Strategy: Questions Make You Smart

Presentations can make you stupid. When you follow a set presentation you’re presuming you know what the prospect wants, why they want it, and why it’s important to them. Sometimes you’ll be right on the mark, but most times you’ll miss the mark and actually offend the prospect.

When you ask the right questions you allow the prospect to tell you why your solution is important. Even if your question is in the wrong direction they’ll be forgiving, and tell you how it does benefit them. The whole process helps them to buy because they’re giving you a logical explanation for why they should do so.

Plus they’re telling you why your solution is a bargain considering what they stand to gain. Questions help you to help the prospect to do all the heavy lifting. And because you’re asking such great questions the prospect respects and likes you, and thinks you’re really smart.

After they’ve told you about the challenges, obstacles, or problems they have you need to ask questions that get them to tell you more about that. Your questions shouldn’t be focused on trying to steer the prospect to your solution. In fact, there is great value in getting them to share if they perceive other solutions as being more valuable than yours.

You need to have them tell you why it’s important for them to solve the problem they have. Then, because you’re really listening to what they’re saying you should be able to ask other questions that explore where or how this problem may be impacting other aspects of their lives. Those impacts should be quantifiable or highly emotional, so you need them to spell out just how big that impact really is.

As they do that it should become clear to both of you that getting whatever it is they want is worth far more to them than the cost of your solution. In other words, your selling a big benefit at a discount. At that point all you have to do is summarize what they’ve told you and ask if you could show them a way to get that now if that’s something they want to take action on.

The whole questioning process has created the environment that allows the buyer to convince themselves that they have to buy. You’ve engaged them. They’re fully interested because you’re talking solely about them and what they want. And they’ve sold themselves.

The questioning process helped them to experience the emotional impact this problem is having in their lives. And then you enabled them to develop the logical explanation for taking action to resolve the emotional reason they want to buy. Instead of being a pushy sales person selling you’re a trusted advisor working with them to help them to buy.