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Sales Techniques: Questions Awkward for You?

If you feel awkward asking questions it may be because you aren't asking the right questions in the right order for the right reason. Effective questioning is definitely a skill and the best sales people are masters at. But most sales people ask questions that do little to help them with their sales success. It's a big mistake to ask questions that you could easily know the answer to if you'd just done your homework. Business owners and executives have zero patience for educating you. And when you ask questions that are generally known they view you as inept and you've lost the sale from the start.

Questions that aren't pertinent to the selling conversation are inappropriate. I know you probably ask these questions because you're hoping to increase your rapport, but you are more likely to annoy the prospect than endear yourself with them with these kinds of questions. Your time is valuable and so it theirs and they didn't grant you an appointment so you can waste their time on frivolities.

Don't spend a lot of time on background questions when you should be spending your time on questions that help both you and the prospect to gain clarity about their problem. Even though you may be afraid that the prospect won't want to share the answer to these questions with you get over it and ask them. Because that's exactly why they agreed to talk to you.

In order for a sale to occur the buyer must have a perceived problem, and they must believe your product or service is the solution to that problem. The problem solution relationship must exist for any sale to occur whether it's for a high end seemingly unnecessary service or a commodity. The difference is related to the speed of the decision process as a buyer will purchase a commodity with little if any thought, but they will not purchase an expensive product or service as quickly or easily unless you help them to see your solution as being almost a no choice choice.

To have the sale happen both you and the prospect must have clarity about the prospect's perceived problem. You don't know where the prospect is in their decision making process so the prospect may have agreed to meet with you because they're just in the beginning stages of gathering information to determine if they really want to make a purchase. In that case, it's your job to help them to uncover exactly why they want to make the purchase, and why they want to make the purchase now.

After you both have clarity about the perceived problem then your questions need to take the prospect beyond the problem and expand on how your solution would benefit them in ways they may not have thought about. The prospects motivation to buy increases as you to this because this sales technique helps them to become emotionally invested in the purchase. Plus you're helping them to develop the logical reason for making the purchase now. There's one more step though that you have to make in your questioning process.

Now you have to help them to determine how your solution is more valuable than the money you're asking them for in exchange. You began uncovering this as you expanded on how your solution benefits the prospect in ways they hadn't thought about. Help them to quantitatively determine the value of your solution in terms of dollars or emotions. When they can articulate how the value of your solution is less than the money you're asking for, you have a sale.

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Author: Cheryl Clausen can help you get where you want to be. Improve your Sales Techniques, get her free ecourse. Increase your sales today through Sales Coaching, look here. Click here to get your own unique version of this article.

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