Better Sales Questioning Strategies Julia King Tamang LERN

Better Sales Questioning Strategies Julia King Tamang LERN P TACE P 2009

The importance of listening • Over 90% of today’s sales are made after the 5 th attempt. • Only 10% of today’s sales people will go that far. --Sales Management Association

Sales questioning strategies • Open-ended questions & closed-ended questions – Open-ended can be answered with • • • Feelings Attitudes Beliefs Philosophy Opinions Values – Closed-ended are answered with ‘yes’ or ‘no; or a specific fact

Examples • Closed-ended – “Who is your current provider of ESL training? ” • Open-ended – “How do you feel about your current provider of ESL training? ” – What do you look for in an ESL training provider?

Directive questions • Directive questions are used when you want to guide the prospect to a response you want -- a yes or no answer -- to move both parties to a quick understanding. – For example: "Is a money-back guarantee on our product important to you? "

Directive questions • The following two questions are extremely valuable – 1. "May I ask what you like the most about. . . ? " – 2. "Would it be fair to ask what you liked least about. . . ? "

Two other kinds of questions • Information gathering – Open-ended – Probing – Confirming • Anxiety raising – What’s the cost of not taking action soon? – Are you confident that cutting the time in half will get you the result you want? – I have other clients that are having high turnover this year. Are you?

Questioning strategy • Start the info gathering process with open-ended questions • If you have to ask a close-ended question, follow it with an open-ended question • Ask more open-ended questions than closed-ended ones

You can develop a ‘personal questioning strategy list’ • Why should you have a list of questions? • They help you get control of the sales process • They help you maintain the prospect’s attention • They help you avoid rejection • They help you uncover opportunity and resistance

You can develop a ‘personal questioning strategy list’ • They help keep you from talking too much • They help you discover buying motives • They help you discover the prospect’s personality and buying style

The BEST questions • Keep the CLIENT talking, not you • Generate 3 pieces of data or more – “Can you say the top 3 things you hope will be accomplished with this training? ” After you ask, restate what you heard so you can verify accuracy…or… “What if I capture our conversation today in an email and get back to you so we can be sure I have understood? ”

Creating your own questions list