Questions that Help Prospects Flood You with Useful Information
Free downloads always go down quite well on these posts – so today I’ve included an absolute cracker.
As sales professionals we’re supposed to be fabulous at asking great questions, finding out what customers really want – but unfortunately my experience over the years has been the complete opposite.
It dawned on me at a foundation Selling with EASE sales training workshop a couple of years ago what the major problem was – and what it reminded me of.
Indulge me while I share a holiday memory.
I’ve just landed in Portugal – it’s Easter around fifteen years ago – I’m walking with my (now) wife and it starts raining.
Every single rain drop is huge, I mean massive. And I just stand in this downpour – amazed!
Not like the little rain drops we get back at home – oh no – this was like someone was standing on a roof just dropping water bombs, landing around us like huge balls of water.
Now I’m from the North of England – I’m used to a bit of rain – but this was awesome.
Not pitter-patter rain drops, falling like tiny diamonds from the sky – we were witnessing rain buckets falling from the sky, crashing around us.
And I was mesmerised.
Back to the foundation sales training workshop.
I was asking the delegates to use open questions to get to the heart of what their customers really required.
But their responses only nibbled at the edge of every problem
They were asking little peck, peck, peck questions – tiny rain drop, pitter-patter questions.
What they needed was big, bold – drown me in the enormity of it all – questions.
Questions that really got people thinking from the back of their brain – really catapulted us into, long meaningful conversations.
Questions that if someone asked you; could keep you talking for hours.
You know, in training courses I can put the beginning of these questions (who, what, where, when, why, how) in front of delegates on a big shiny board, and yet they still have trouble formulating a question that’s worth a damn.
Here’s an example of a biggie,
“After we’ve finished the sales training on Friday what are the 3 most important things that you want your sales team to be able achieve?”
SPLASH!
Here’s another;
“Where do you see this part of this business in twelve months time?”
SPLOSH!
I want to help you uncover the real wants and needs of your customer base – so, with that in mind, I’ve created a two sheet download for you.
Sheet 1 has the words that we all know start open questions
Put it up next to the phone or keep it in your writing pad, just make sure you refer to it when you need a reminder of how to really open up a conversation.
Sheet 2 has 30 really big open questions
Which means you can scan through before a meeting or call and remind yourself of a few huge rain drop questions during your preparation.
You can download both sheets here
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