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Sell More By Asking Better Questions
The ability to ask a series of targeted, probing and enquiring questions is what sets the top sales professionals apart from the rest. Asking questions rather than telling your customer what you have is the key to building both trust and rapport.
Customers may dislike dealing with sales people. They might fear that they'll be locked into a sales presentation that they'll have to say "NO" later. This initial resistance can create an overwhelming barrier to bringing a solution to your client. Customers are however open to recommendations by a consultant. This is where asking questions in favor of telling your customer about your products has a real advantage.
Consultants assess situations, diagnose problems and recommend solutions. They are in partnership with the customer and because of that are trusted and listened to. Asking questions is the key to positioning yourself in this consultative role with the customer. As a sales consultant your job is to uncover the problems your customer is experiencing and recommend a solution that will suit them.
But apart from this key advantage asking questions also performs another major function. It serves to keep your customers attention focused on you and your conversation. The average attention span of humans is short and unfocused. Did you know that at any given moment your customer only needs to give you 30% of his attention in order to keep up with what you are saying? The other 70% is elsewhere, thinking about other things.
Yet when you ask questions that require an answer you direct more than 90% of your customer's attention to you and the conversation. It's the only real way to ensure that your customer is focused on what you are saying and where the conversation is headed. Engaging the customer in this way enables you to keep control of the interaction and have it focused on solving the customer's problems.
Be careful who has control of the situation during a sales call. Whoever asks the questions has control of the situation.
If the customer asks you a series of questions and you then spin off into a sales presentation about your products before he has indicated he's ready to buy, you've lost control of the situation and the sale. The customer is keeping you busy while he is thinking of other things. To overcome this situation simply is to follow each customer's question with your question(s).
By doing this you are reassuming control of the sales situation and your consultative approach by probing, enquiring and recommending solutions. Listen carefully to the answers your customer gives you as they'll signal your customer's true problem, their critical buying criteria and their readiness to implement a solution.
Once the customer signals to you that he wants and needs what you have to offer that's when you can deliver your sales presentation and talk about the details of your products.
To find out more about our training programs and services, please contact us (02) 9411 1345 or email us at info@qec.net.au
