The open-ended questions most business owners are not asking their prospects
Or, why sales skills are important and if you don’t have a sales background, you should probably head over to Amazon get a couple best selling sales books today.
Even as a sales professional, I continuously have to remind myself to ASK MORE QUESTIONS when I speak with prospects throughout the sales process. It’s so easy to talk about your business, to focus on “you” instead of “them”. To tell people what your company does and how it sounds like you’re exactly what they need. For the love of God, please stop.
Seriously. Do me a favor, do us all a favor. Don’t do it anymore. If you want to gain some serious momentum & generate more new business this year, to expand and grow and make more money, something has to change. It could be your business model or your product or service. But chances are, the answer is much simplier than that.
If you can figure out how to stop word vomiting about yourself all over the place (in conversation, in email, on your website) and instead focus on how you can engage with people who would be interested in your products or services in a personalized way, based on their specific situation, you’ll set yourself up for success. More clients. Faster growth. Increased revenue dollars. That shiny new thing you want to buy and that trip you’ve been wanting to take. All that jazz.
It starts with questions.
Ask them. More of them. When I speak with a new prospect for the first time, regardless of if I find them or they find me, I typically ask these really freaking generic questions:
1) Tell me about your business.
2) Tell me about your current marketing efforts.
3) And what about your sales approach?
4) What are you trying to accomplish with all of this anyway?
5) Based on your goals, what challenges do you anticipate?
6) What would it mean for your business if you can accomplish these goals?
7) Why is this a priority now? What happens if you can’t figure this out?
The key is to come up with a few questions that make sense for your business. And then ask them. Every single time. It’s very, very easy to stray from a list of even three questions, because after all — these are live conversations. You’ll be tempted to respond right away, to draw correlations to what your company does, to turn control over to your prospect if they push back and don’t answer you. I’m telling you, don’t do it. Write down your questions. Commit them to memory. Save them on a sticky note on your laptop’s desktop background, or use a real sticky note, whatever you have to do. And then ask them, all of them.
Actively listen to their answers.
The beauty of open-ended questions, is that you’ll uncover the information you need to know — you’re giving your prospects the ability to steer the converstion by interpreting the best way to answer the question. You’ll find they will point you in the right direction, and you’ll figure out, quickly, why you’re having the conversation in the first place.
By slowing down to ask questions, you’ll actually speed up your sales process & shorten your sales cycle.
Once they answer a question, ask them to tell you more:
1) Oh, interesting — tell me more about that.
2) Hm, what do you mean exactly?
3) Well, what does that look like to you?
4) Makes sense, how do you see that working?
5) So why did you decide that?
When in doubt, just spit out the word “How” or “Why”. Start a sentence, even if you don’t know exactly what to say. For example, say “How….” and by the time you say that word & pause, the rest of the question will roll of your tongue.
Don’t feel obligated to sell sell sell during the first conversation. Think about how YOU make purchase decisions. Chances are, you aren’t selling a gallon of milk or a cookie. If you don’t expect your prospects to make a decision during the first convesation, don’t expect that they want to be sold on during the first conversation, either.
Take all the information they give you & write it down, organize it in a way that makes sense to you. Thank them for helping you get a better understanding of what they are looking for, and then explain that you think you might be able to help. That your company does A, B, and C (your elevator pitch, also memorized) and you’d like to take some time to draft a plan that matches their needs. And then schedule a time to follow-up. The next conversation, an in-person meeting, a online screen-share/webinar, whatever makes sense. Just be sure to get a specific date & time before ending this first conversation.
You don’t have to talk about your company to gain your prospects trust. In fact, gaining trust & establishing yourself as a resource is easier when you’re talking about them, not you. You just need to listen to them — to make them feel like you have a good understanding of what they are trying to accomplish. And, if it is important enough for them to solve, they will make the time to hear what you have to say.
And now I ask you: what are the tried & true questions that you ALWAYS ask during sales conversations?
Ellen Zehntner, Sales & Marketing Conversationalist startupwardly.com | My facebook page has 1 like (me) | Twitter
