In Sales, Question First- Solution Next.

Very simple to simple to complex to Too complex.

As sales people, we have sophisticated offerings developed from years of experience & expertise. But, not in all cases, the reason is same for the buyers to go for it. Some go for only or the combination of benefits, features, specific,needs, competitive advantage,price etc.

To find out that one/combination, we ask questions ranging which has just an Yes/No as the answer and others which needs days of time for the prospect to mull over,coordinate with his teams internally,talk to the management etc to answer. From these responses, we validate & estimate the prospect’s seriousness, urgency,understanding of the challenge,chances of buying, and so on.

A mix of such meaningful queries makes the prospect comfortable about the vendor’s real intention to help them. If it is of the improper combination of irrelevant questions, be ready to lose.

Overall, it is good for the vendor & the prospect to ask & to be asked so many relevant questions for decision making.

My other posts on sales are here- http://goo.gl/jMErxI