Sales Tips: How To Sell More By Asking Less
By Thomas Murrell MBA CSP, International Business Speaker
Having worked in the media for more than two decades, the one thing I've learnt is that good questions produce good answers.
Bad questions result in poor answers unless the person being interviewed is exceptionally skilled.
Usually the most skilled media interviewers ask the least amount of questions.
The reasons for this are because they have done their homework and are well researched and briefed.
They also ask open and not closed questions.
Their questions also probe deeper into their subject matter.
So how do you apply this experience to improving sales?
Well by working out what questions your customers are likely to ask in the sales process, and providing answers to these, will help you sell more.
Just like doing your homework prior to a media interview, you need to do your homework when meeting with a prospective customer.
Put yourselves in their shoes and work out what questions are they likely to have?
Jeffrey Gitomer provided these questions when sharing a case study in his Sales Session column in the WA Business News newspaper on March 24, 2005 page 27 on questions customers ask before buying.
What do you offer?
What do you offer no one else does?
What do you offer of value?
Does it really fill my need?
Is it real world?
Will it work?
Will it work in our environment?
How will it impact on our people?
How could it impact our success?
Will senior or executive management buy in?
Will my people use it?
How will we produce as a result of the purchase?
How will we profit as a result of the purchase?
Do I trust the people I'm buying from both as people and for their ability to deliver what they promise?
How will it come together?
How do we buy it?
Do I have control to sign off?
I've just about to meet with a client and have gone through this list prior to the sales meeting.
How did it go?
Well, I'll let you know in my next post.
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