Questioning (part 2) – The List
Jeb Blount teaches you how to create your own list of winning sales questions.
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Questioning (part 2) – The List
Most salespeople don’t ask enough questions. Unfortunately this directly impacts their commission checks and bonuses. This week we continue our series of podcasts on questioning.
Here is a fact: the more questions you ask, the more sales you will close. Why? Because sales, at its core, is simply one person (the sales rep) solving another person’s (the buyer) problems. However, to solve a problem, you must first uncover the problem. To do that you ask questions.
The issue though is most salespeople don’t ask enough questions. In many cases, the salesperson just doesn’t know what to ask. In other words, they don’t have a good list of questions. (Of course, there are many more reasons and we’ll tackle these in future shows.)
Most salespeople have been through some type of sales training program where they were taught about open-ended and closed-ended questions. The trainer (who in many cases has never actually sold anything) admonished that open-ended questions are good and closed-ended questions are bad. From there a few general examples of open-ended questions and closed-ended questions were passed around the training room and, unfortunately, the questioning module was then concluded.
These training programs are effective in teaching salespeople the difference between open and closed-ended questions, but ineffective in teaching them how to apply questioning skills to the real world. If you were to interview 100 sales professionals, 99 of them would tell you that open-ended questions are the most important questions in sales. However, if you were to observe these same salespeople interacting with customers and prospects you would mostly hear closed-ended questions and features and benefits dumps.
Now you may be thinking that this conclusion is a rather harsh indictment of the sales profession and, if you are, you would be right. The fact is the number one complaint by customers about salespeople is they spend too much time pitching and not enough time asking questions and listening. This is the exact reason why sales pros who ask more questions, close more business.
The real key is having an inventory of open-ended questions to use and practicing those questions in real life so you develop the habit of asking solid, open-ended questions that are relevant to your customer’s position and situation. The catch 22 here is that it is almost impossible to practice and develop this habit if you don’t have questions to ask in the first place. And, unfortunately, most training programs are not going to provide you with a useful list of questions. So this is something you will have to create on your own.
The first step is to find out what is already available. It is likely that someone in your organization, at one time or another, created list of questions. When I first started out in my sales career my sales manager handed me two pages of questions. It was a good starting point but the questions were not organized in a useful way and did not match my speaking style. The list was also incomplete.
The next step is interviewing your sales manager, top sales professionals, trainers, and anyone else in your organization that is willing to talk to you. Find out what questions they ask, in which situations, to which people. Find out why they ask each question and the anticipated answer. Are there different variations of the same questions that are more effective than others? Are there situations where you shouldn’t ask certain questions? This discovery process is critical to developing a comprehensive list.
I remember starting a sales job in a new industry. I talked my sales manager into letting me spend two weeks shadowing one of the top Sales Professionals. My singular focus was understanding his questioning methodology. The questions I learned in those two weeks helped my quickly move to the top of the company’s sales rankings and shaped my career for the next five years.
Next you want to develop your own list. Organize your list into sections so that you can easily find questions based on your position in the sales cycle, the buyer’s job title, product or service type, problem, or situation. Write the questions out the way you would say them – in your style. Be sure to include possible follow-up questions.
Finally, practice. The only true way to become competent with your questions is to practice on real customers in real time. Yes it will be awkward at first and you will make mistakes. When I first created my list of questions I carried it with me everywhere I went. At lunch and in between appointments I practiced my questions out loud and tried to memorize them. Before each sales call, I reviewed my list and focused on the questions I wanted to ask. Once I was in front of my prospect I used my list as a resource to be sure I stayed on track and asked questions instead of pitching features and benefits.
At first, it was hard. I stumbled on my words, made embarrassing mistakes, and sounded like a robot. But by sticking with it, day in and day out, things improved. I didn’t have to think as hard and I started sounding like myself. Soon, I knew what to ask in just about any situation, including follow up questions. And after a few months I didn’t need my list anymore. I had memorized and internalized my questions until they were just a part of who I was. The result was the ability to uncover and solve problems, build stronger relationships with my customers, and generate huge commission checks.
This is Jeb Blount, the Sales Guy.
Salesperson image courtesy of Shutterstock