Lisa Thal is an Author, Speaker, and Life Coach. She wrote the book, "Three Word Meetings" for you. A Simple Strategy to Engage, Inspire, and Empower Your Team. Lisa helps provide fun and interesting 3-word topics to get your sales team motivated and inspired. It is guaranteed to save you time and have your team more engaged during the sales meeting. Make an impact on those you lead by using three words!
This episode is about asking the right questions to ensure that you clearly understand what your team or client is trying to communicate. Learn how to question your way to the sale.
In sales, asking the right questions help us create new clients and learn more about our existing customers' needs.
The first question you need to ask yourself is this client worth your time? Your time is valuable! Have you determined what you're looking for in a potential customer? What type of investment does this client need to spend to be successful?
Every great sale starts with great questions - these questions are essential for qualifying each step of the customer's journey. One of my favorite questions is to ask the client to walk me through their customer's eyes. How do their customers find them? Why do their customers do business with them versus a competitor? Which of their products or service have more profit margins for them? I need to understand all aspects of their business so that I can provide better recommendations.
In today's high-tech world, we are moving fast and looking for ways to close the sale more quickly. But you must slow down and take the time to ask additional questions so you can make the best recommendations for their challenges. It would help if you also encouraged your team to ask more questions so they can fully understand what the client's needs are, and then offer a better solution to win the business. You and your team have the opportunity to question your way to a sale.
Are there questions you should be asking to gain a better understanding of your clients' needs? Yes!
Probing questions can help uncover the real intent behind what is said. Many of us don't ask probing questions because we tend to make assumptions and think we understand what the client means. Effective probing questions help to get the person to talk about their personal opinions and feelings and promote critical thinking.
Here are a few of my favorite probing questions:
" Let me ask you a question?"
"What is the most important factor to you when working with a vendor?"
"What are your biggest priorities this year?"
"What are your biggest challenges this year?"
"One of the most common issues I keep hearing about ( fill in the blank). Is this an issue for you?
I love, "Can you tell me more?" when I need more clarity to understand what they are trying to communicate.
Adjoining questions explore related aspects of the problem that are shared during your conversation.
Some examples:
"How would that impact your business?"
"What else would you need to do to accomplish your outcome?"
"How would these insights change the landscape of your business?"
"How urgent is this issue?"
"How will you measure the success of this program?"
"What is your timeline for seeing results?"
Elevating questions raise broader issues and look at the bigger picture.
So you can ask, "Taking a step back, what are the larger issues?"
"Are we even addressing the right question?" For example, a discussion on issues like profit margins and customer satisfaction could turn into a broader consideration of corporate strategy.
"Instead of talking about these issues separately, what should we focus on first? How do they all fit together?"
These questions put you on a higher playing field where you have the opportunity to stand out from your competition and can better see connections between the individual problems.
Become a kid again! Keep challenging yourself to ask better questions. Keep questioning your way to the sale!
