Questions are your Sales SuperPower.
Great questions, asked in the right way (next week’s email) open up the buyer to share with you their world.
If the buyer lets you inside their world or through the layers of their onion (last week’s blog)
and
the buyer truly believes that you are there to help them rather than take advantage of them then you then your sales world opens up.
Your Sales SuperPower becomes real.
But many get this wrong.
Like the Shop Assistant last week. Or the person who spammed me on Linked In this week.
The question he has asked (I’ve circled it below) is a NO.
The question is terrible on 2 fronts.
Firstly it’s the wrong time in a relationship to ask it.
Secondly, it’s closed.
If (and there are more chances of me starting a new career as a Jockey than engaging with this type of awful Linked In approach) I was to reply to him, it would just be a simple 3-word response ‘No I don’t which then shuts the conversation down.
When this happens, you simply have nowhere to go.
If you want to build the Sales SuperPower then understand there are levels of questions.
And that different questions will need to be used in different scenarios.
First contact outreach, First call, first meeting, networking meeting, second call, demo, dealing with objections, closing etc.
You need ALL of them in your toolbox. Each situation will require a different set of questions.
As a general rule though, focus on 3 layers of questions.
We need some ‘starter’ questions which are focused on engaging and building initial rapport. These are questions to try and break the first few layers of the onion. Such as:
- How’s your week going?
- How was your weekend?
- I see you guys are based in xx. It’s been a while since I have been there. How far from x do you tend to work and do business?
- I came across your podcast interview with x. I especially loved the point you made about xyz. How did that experience come about?
The next questions are ‘warm up’ questions which start to dig into the world of the other person. To try and understand their current position:
- Out of curiosity, what intrigued you to have a conversation with us in the first place?
- How many people do you now have working with you in the business?
- Tell me more about the typical customers that you work with?
- Where do you see the business in 1-3 years from now?
The final questions are more ‘detailed’ and you could argue more personalised. More emotional. You have to earn the right to ask these.
- What is taking up most of your headspace at the moment?
- What are your priorities over the next 3-6 and 6-12 months?
- What impact does this have on you personally?
- How will you feel if you are in the same place this time next year?
You must ask questions in the right way, with the right tone and approach (next week’s email) to wear the SuperPower cape though.
And this is where SO many people get it wrong. Oh so wrong.
If you went on a first date with someone and said ‘Shall we have kids together’ or ‘Where shall we book to go on holiday next week’ the majority of people would think ‘What a weirdo and get me out of here’
Sure use it on date 5 or 6 when you have fallen for each other but on date one? No.
When we sell, we want to get to the endpoint where the buyer has said yes to our solution.
That is our destination. But we have to go on a journey to get there.
We know that we have to get inside their mind to find out what stops them.
We get inside their mind by asking questions. By learning something new about them and their situation.
- What concerns them and what excites them?
- What worries them and what gives them comfort?
- What starts their engines and what stops them from starting?
Tom Freeze was right above. When we talk we repeat what we already know. When we listen we learn something new.
The Sales SuperPower comes from listening and asking the right questions.
Become an EXPERT in asking the right questions, at the right time in the right way and you will win a LOT OF BUSINESS!!!
As I said at the start. Einstein was right.
