The best sales people go beyond knowing the ins and outs of their products and services. The best figure out how to get into the minds of their prospects. So what does it take to do this? No matter what level sales professional you are, it bears repeating:
Walk in their shoes. To go from being a solution provider to a trusted consultant, you’ve got to see life from your prospect’s perspective. Listen to your pitch as if you are the prospect. Ask tough questions such as “Who cares?” and “So what?” Are your answers rehearsed gibberish or truly tailored to the prospect’s business issues? Evaluate your answers objectively. From this vantage point, you can find ways to tweak your existing sales pitch, integrating your solutions into the context of your prospective customer’s business.
Be curious. The most successful sales people are the most curious. They are interested in learning about the companies and clients they work with. In How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie outlined six ways to make people like you. His #1 way? Become genuinely interested in other people. You often demonstrate more value to prospects through the questions you ask rather than the answers you give. When you want to steer the conversation, ask engaging, relevant and powerful questions.
Diagnose before prescribing. Good sales people are like good physicians. Before prescribing treatment, a good physician fully diagnoses the patient’s condition. Similarly, good sales professionals first diagnose the situation, raising questions and concerns that may have not yet been considered. After mulling over the prospect’s answers, the good sales person determines and presents a solution. Or in this case, a remedy.
Gain trust. There’s an art to asking questions naturally versus making the prospect feel interrogated. Learning about your prospect involves asking the right questions at the right time while actively listening to their answers. This allows you to start a meaningful conversation. There are three types of questions to ask at every phase of the prospect qualification process.
- Open-ended questions. Gives you the prospect’s perspective, their view of business issues/problems/solutions, what you need to do to be convincing. Establishes your credibility and interest in them. Like a high diver, think of open-ended questions as the springboard for the whole conversation. Sample open-ended questions:
“Can you explain why…”
“Would you tell me more about…”
“How would you describe the problems related to…”
- Probing questions. Allow you to dive deeper into details and uncover more specific conditions based on the information gathered so far. Establishes your knowledge of the company, industry or problem and solution, and positions you as an expert problem solver. Sample probing questions:
“Is it because…” (business issue and problem probe)
“Do you find…” (business issue and problem probe)
“Have you ever experienced difficulty with…” (problem probe)
“What if you could…” (solution probe)
- Confirming questions. Verify that you understand, and give the prospect an opportunity to clarify and elaborate on what they have said. The art is to use reflective listening – playing back the actual words the prospect used in their answers to your open-ended and probing questions. Confirming questions can also serve as trial closes and checkpoints throughout the process. Don’t assume meaning. Ask for understanding. Sample confirming questions:
“So, what you’re saying is…”
“Is it correct to say that…”
“Did I hear that…”
Mastering this questioning process will help you successfully differentiate, develop trust and rapport, and win the sale with your prospects. It will allow you to move from pitching products to prescribing customer-specific solutions. The key to your success lies in your ability to listen and understand what the prospect is telling you, thereby, effectively moving the sale forward with each and every conversation.
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