What questions are you asking your prospects?

In the world of sales we get asked a lot of questions and dish out a lot also. Questions are vital for us to find out what our prospects want, get them into a "YES" frame of mind during your presentation and to close them on the product. So what questions are you asking and why are you asking them? Lets break down what we should be asking and when to ask it.

2 Types of Questions

Before we look at where and when to use them, lets breakdown the types of questions there are.

Basically there are 2 types of questions, open ended and close ended. Open ended questions let the customer talk about what they want or need.

• What brings you in today?
• What’s important to you?
• What do you want?
• What are you looking for in…?
• What is your budget or what do you want to spend?

Closed ended questions are more direct to get the prospect to give a YES or NO answer or to ask them to make a decision.

• Wouldn’t you agree?
• How does that sound?
• Make sense?
• Are you the decision maker?
• Can I write this up for you?

Why should I ask questions?

I am a "why" guy. I don't like to blindly take orders without first knowing why it is you want me to do "this". Since this is how my brain works I trust that you might be asking yourself the same question. Allow me to explain. By asking questions you are doing the following:

1. Eliminating information that doesn’t pertain to the prospect.

2. By the end of the questions you should be able to show 2-3 solutions to solve the prospects problem.

3. You are also getting their “HOT BUTTONS” to bring back up during the presentation.

4. The questions asked should make the customer think about their current situation and make them feel uneasy about where they are today. I know this sounds harsh and you might think that there is no way I am going to make my prospect uneasy. The fact is that people buy what they want and have to be sold what they need. If they are comfortable with where they are currently, no matter how amazing your product is, they have "no hurry" to buy it today. By asking the right qualifying questions, this will line up your close when you are ready to ask them to sign on the dotted line.

Why are you asking that???? 

You would be surprised at how many times I sat with agents who asked the most off the wall questions to a prospects. After the call I would ask them why they asked about that and most times it would be "I got nervous or I had a mental block and couldn't think of what else to say. Not only did they add on extra time to the meeting but they wasted the prospects time and their own by talking about nonsense. The biggest mistake you can make during a sit is to as a question just to make conversation. If the prospect thinks that your presentation is taking too long then you are not going to get the time to close them on the deal.

The reason to ask questions up front is to find out what the customer wants. The majority of us sell a variety of products that are similar but have different working parts. Perfect example of this is a car salesman. He/she sells vehicles but there are probably 50 different variations of vehicles that they can present. Do you want a car or truck? Do you want standard or automatic transmission? Do you want leather or cloth seats? Do you want red or blue? So by finding this out a head of time it is going to whittle down the choices until finally you present the prospect with 2-3 choices. Some choices are not going to be options for the prospect so those can be crossed off the list immediately (If they want a car you are not going to show them an F150). The chart below explains this scenario.

I usually don't recommend showing the prospect anymore than 3 choices. If you give them too much to think about then they need time to process it and you wont get the sale that day.

Needs Assessments

• What do they do?
• What do they want?
• When do they need it?
• Are they the decision maker?
• Are they deciding TODAY?
• What is their budget?
• Are you a fit for them and are they a fit for your business?

Once your prospect sees VALUE in you, your organization and the questions you are asking them they will feel more comfortable with you and start to open up. They will see you as a professional in your field with THEIR best interest in mind. At this point you are no longer the “sales person” trying to take advantage. You are a professional trying to advise them and help them make the best decision for their business.