Part of Selling 101 is effective questioning. Salespeople believe because they have a brain and a mouth, they must have good questioning skills. Unfortunately, this is frequently not true. When we look back at the Sales Board's study results, we find that 86% of salespeople ask the wrong questions.
What questions are salespeople asking? What should they be asking about instead?
Sales expert Mark Hunter provides his answer in this video:
Selling 101 - Effective Questioning
So Mark highlights three types of questioning by salespeople:
1. Lousy - asks questions customer knows answer to, but salesperson does not
2. Average - asks questions customer doesn't know answer to, but salesperson does
3. Great - asks questions customer doesn't know answer to, and salesperson doesn't either.
What does the Great questioning approach result in? "Let's go find the answer together." I can tell you from experience this is very powerful. The chances for a profitable long term relationship, uncovering new needs, and strategic profitability are all results of taking the risk. But if you're confident in your abilities and fulfillment, there really isn't any risk, is there.
At first the Great questioning approach seems a bit scary. You are really going out into the open, the unknown. This does not seem to be Selling 101! But that's why it's so effective: you and your prospect will not find new, bigger and more powerful solutions inside your comfort zone. When your questioning leads a prospect to discovering for themselves that they have a huge problem overlooked until now which you can fix, you take a big step towards being seen as a trusted advisor.
Many sales scripts are organized around positioning and driving a prospect to a conclusion. That is Average selling, however, because it only does one thing. Either you get the result you planned for, or you don't. That result is inside the box. It's "We do this", and that's it. For those who say they "know" Selling 101 - What have you been leaving on the table?
>> Jason Kanigan is a sales force developer and business development expert. Was this post useful to you? We provide these sales tips for Free, so please Share, Like or Comment! You can also Follow this blog with the big red button in the bottom left. Thanks! <<
