Plan and ask questions that take the buyer through the entire buying process. Many salespeople ask many need questions at the beginning of a call and then move to advocacy for the balance of the call.
You may find that the questions that you use most often are to uncover or create need. It is important to have questions for each step in the customer needs analysis.
You may find that the questions that you use most often are to uncover or create need. It is important to have questions for each step in the customer needs analysis.
Our research indicates that top performers balance between inquiry and advocacy. Too many questions feel like an interrogation, too few questions will disengage the client.
Develop provocative questions – they are the most powerful of all questions. Provocative questions start with What, Why and How. They help bring the prospect or customer to create a vision of a preferred future or identify what they most want to change. Ultimately, they create new thinking. Review the list of questions you have planned for your call, ask yourself: Which of these questions will require my prospect to reflect on what they most want to gain or avoid?
Information-based questions are typically questions that extract information from the prospect on what they are currently doing. While these questions are important to confirm your research or to gain insights, they are best used sparingly at the beginning of a sales meeting. While some information-based questions may be open ended, many are closed ended. Too many of these questions may feel interrogative or make the prospect feel you didn’t do your research before the meeting.
Binary Questions are closed ended questions, such as yes/no, this or that. They are essential questions and must be asked at the right time. Sequencing and timing are crucial with binary questions. While there is a lot of focus in sales on asking open ended questions, binary questions are essential to the buying and selling process.
Follow-up or Probing Questions typically come natural to us if we are listening actively. It is natural to ask a probing question to ensure we fully understand what our prospect is saying. Yet we may find we miss the opportunities to probe further when we are too focused on our own agenda. This leads to us jumping in with our own point of view and losing the opportunity to truly understand what the prospect was sharing. Artfully used probing questions help to uncover underlying motivation.
Sequencing Questions is an important skill in a sales dialogue. Use protocols of communication and sequence questions to help the buyer through their buying process. Ask provocative questions, probe and move to binary questions to check for agreement throughout each step of the customer needs analysis.
Develop a list of questions you might use for a target account. Once your list is completed identify how many questions are provocative, information based, binary and probing.
Continually add to and refine your list of questions, it will impact your ability to use the questions effectively in the moment.
