Effective selling is all about getting your prospect to tell you their story. To open up about their business, their challenges, their frustrations and concerns as well as their hopes and desires. But they won’t do that if you don’t develop rapport and a sense of trust, or if they don’t perceive you to be an expert in your field who can possibly help. They need to feel comfortable talking to you, a stranger, about their problems. And there is no way you can script those conversations, because every prospect’s story is different.
So, rather than creating scripts and pitch decks that encourage your sales reps to tell your story – to talk about your company, products, services, and the wonderful ways you’ve helped other customers – consider teaching your reps questions that enable them to engage in conversations that focus on your prospects and the problems you can help them resolve.
Why questions? Because asking relevant questions with empathy and genuine curiosity is the best way to get a prospect talking. Active listening keeps them talking and builds rapport, because they see you are listening and feel they are being heard. And questions enable reps to actively control where the conversation goes.
For introductory meetings, initial questions should be about your prospect. You want to develop a personal connection as you learn about them and their preferred communication style. Then broaden your inquiries to learn more about their company, market and industry. Your questions should reflect your curiosity about your prospect and their business and your keen desire to help if you can. Your questions should also reflect your knowledge and experience in dealing with the types of challenges they face. Presumptive questions can even prompt prospects to ask about key features or benefits related to your products or services that they may not have considered. That’s how your prospect will come to value you as a trusted adviser, not by how much you tell them but by making them contemplate issues or alternatives they wouldn’t have thought of on their own.
Good questioning never sounds like an interrogation, rather it is conversational. So, each interaction with a prospect needs to start with a strong Up-Front Contract that includes asking permission to ask questions. By asking for and receiving permission, you lower your prospect’s defenses, mentally prepare them to answer questions, and facilitate a two-way exchange of information.
How does that work? Think about the difference between these two approaches. The first is based on an actual conversation I had when looking for a printer for our office. The biggest question in my mind was should I lease, buy, or buy refurbished:
Traditional Salesperson’s pitch:
SALESMAN: “Hi Dave, thanks for coming to our showroom.”
ME: “Hi Tom, thanks for showing me around.”
SALESMAN: “Sure, no problem. In fact, we work with companies like yours all the time. They choose us because we have over 30 years of industry experience and, as you can see, we carry the broadest line of multifunction print, scan, and fax solutions in the area. That enables us to provide superior service at affordable prices.”
ME: “Great.”
SALESMAN: “When we spoke on the phone, you said you’d be printing a lot of material for your training sessions. So, I suggest you go with our model CR1850. It provides low administration connectivity via secure wired and wireless connections, smart print and scan features, print speeds up to 35 pages per minute for color documents, faster for black and white, and high capacity ink containers to reduce your cost per page. You can even print directly from your mobile phone. Do you want to see that?”
ME: “Uh, no, that’s OK, I trust you.”
SALESMAN: “Here, let me show you, it’s really cool…”
Sandler-trained Salesperson’s questions:
- I understand you just started your company, congratulations! Is this something you’ve been working on for a while?
- There are probably a lot of details you’ve got to attend to, how much time have you had to research printers, service, and supplies?
- I assume you may have a printer now, perhaps in your home office. How has that printer served you? Have you had any problems with it? Could you use that printer, or something similar, for your office?
- How many pages do you think you’ll print per month? What’s the ratio of color to black and white? Will it just be you, or will other staff use the printer?
- How would you prioritize things like cost per page, print quality, reliability and up-time, cost and frequency of service and maintenance?
- Are you thinking of buying or leasing the printer? Are you thinking of buying a new printer or would you consider a refurbished printer? I presume you’ve considered the service options would you prefer a maintenance contract or just to call when there is a problem?
In the first approach, the traditional salesperson has clearly gone through product training. He knows his speeds and feeds. He is happy talking about his products because it gives him the chance to show off his considerable product knowledge. And he believes the abundance of features, which provide a combination of cost savings and cool appeal, will prove so attractive that the prospect will purchase whichever product he puts in front of them.
On the other hand, the Sandler-trained salesperson knows Sandler Rule #14 which states “A prospect who is listening is no prospect at all.” So, their approach is to develop a series of questions to get the prospect talking, first about themselves, then about their need for a new printer. Beyond that the salesperson prepares questions related to how the printer will be used, priorities vis-à-vis cost, quality, and reliability, whether it will be purchased or leased, and service options.
These two approaches have a completely different impact on the prospect. The first leaves the prospect feeling like they are being sold to – or told what they need and why by a salesperson who wants to sell a CR1850. Probably, thinks the prospect, because they’ll get a spiff or extra commission for selling that model this month.
On the other hand, the prospect appreciates the questions the Sandler-trained salesperson asks. They don’t feel it’s an interrogation, rather the questions help them think through their needs and raise issues they may not have thought of. In the prospect’s mind, the salesperson isn’t trying to sell anything. Rather, they are trying to help the prospect to better define what they need – as any trusted adviser would.
If you were the prospect, which approach would be more appealing to you?
The key to asking good questions is preparation. You’ve got to spend time before each call or meeting to think through the information you want from your prospect and the best way to ask for it. You also need to understand the business challenges your prospect is likely facing and how your solution can resolve them. Base your questions on those challenges but restrain yourself from sharing too much product knowledge while you’re qualifying the opportunity. Finally, be prepared to listen, really listen, to your prospect’s answers. Summarize and paraphrase their responses. Ask them if you misunderstood anything or if there is more they’d like to share. As you go through this process, you’ll learn invaluable information that will help you propose the best solution for your prospect when the time is right. Or, you’ll be able to qualify them out of your pipeline because there’s not a good fit saving yourself time to work on other opportunities.
So, rather than creating scripts and pitch decks that encourage you or your sales reps to tell your story, start developing questions that prompt your prospects to talk about the challenges you can possibly help resolve. Traditional salespeople tell their prospects all they need to know; effective selling professionals establish themselves as trusted advisers by asking questions that make their prospects contemplate ideas or alternatives they wouldn’t have thought of otherwise.
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