All sales training experts and sales gurus alike, myself included, extol the virtues of asking good questions. Asking the right question can develop rapport, increase credibility and turn a sale around.
As part of my Real World Sales Tips project I thought that it would be fun to find out what your favourite questions are to ask your clients and prospects.
To get you started here are a few from Real World Sales Skills…
- How do you currently go about…?
- How long have you been operating that way?
- When you considered the options why did you choose that solution?
- How has that solution performed against those criteria?
- What issues have you had with…?
- How often? Who was involved?
- What effect did that have on…?
- Who / what else was effected?
- What options have you considered to resolve this?
Scroll down the page to see other people’s questions and to post your thoughts and ideas.
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About Gavin Ingham
Gavin,
There could be hundreds : depending on circumstances.
Three spring to mind :
1) If there's one aspect of your current recruitment process that you wish you could improve – what would it be ?
2) Can you highlight what are the main qualities you are seeking when dealing with your suppliers ?
3) Would you be prepared to pay more for 'quality service' or happy retaining 5 Suppliers on a lower margin with an acceptable service level ?
Gavin,
My three favourite questions are:-
What top three problems cause you the most grief on a day to day basis?
Can you explain which duties take up most of your time?
If you could suggest methods for cost savings what would they be?
If your current supplier/provider is performing as well as you say and you have no real problems then why exactly are we having this meeting?
With no clear defined budget in place does this mean that this project is not a critical priority for right now?
If you had three wishes that you could use to improve your service what would they be?
Hello Gavin,
1, What is your time scale/schedule relating to this purchase?
2, What do you need to be able to do?
3, Do you have any extra requirements?
Hi Gavin
I always find that the question "When can we do that?" often obtains a positive response.
It's to the point, it clearly determines the purpose of what it is you are looking for and it closes the conversation for an answer.
Gavin,
3 question's that tend to add value to my customer's are…… Please be aware I work in IT sales, mainly hardware.
1. How do you like to be dealt with in terms of contact if I don’t hear from you for a while?
2. I don’t want to hound you for business, how do I keep myself front of mind without becoming a pain?
3. I want to win your business, what do I need to do?
I think being more specific works, it puts a different angle in the pitch, it makes my customers (and new leads) think that I care about them in a different way.
Keep sending the tips, they go a long way!
All great questions. I like question 3 in particular Mark. Getting the prospect or client to state their preferred solution is a powerful sales technique and one rarely used by sales and business people.
This is because by this stage in the process most already know what they are going to “sell” and have been talking for some time.
I always tell people to remember the old saying…
If you say it,
they will question it.
If they say it,
they will believe it.
I'm a rookie, commercial recruitment consultant in East Yorkshire. We have a great trainer who has helped me learn to use some of the following questions.
What would you look for in a recruitment consultant before working with them on your next vacancy?
What do you like about (_____)? Usually referring to the job centre or local press or any other recruitment method that isn't my company.
When can you see _______ ? Trying to close an interview or visit usually. I like asking this one because the call must have gone well.
What are your thoughts on ________ ? or adding What are your thoughts? as a tag question to avoid asking a closed question.
The fourth is, When would be a good time to call? But I would like a really good alternative to this much used phrase
Hi Gavin,
1/ What is the name of the person who deals with? That makes sure I get to speak to the right person, hopefully decision maker
2/How do you currently deal with or achieve New Customers?
3/What would you most like to achieve from what you do?
Julie
…will you sign before lunch or are you not hungry ?
How did you go about choosing your current solution?
Who was involved in making the decision?
What is it about your current solution that you like?
What would you like your current solution to do that it doesn't do currently?
Matthew
Hi! Reference your question about asking, "When would be a good time to call?" and is there a better question…
For years sales training experts have stressed the importance of agreeing call back times with clients. This is of course good advice as it keeps things moving forward and, theoretically anyway, stops your sales pipeline clogging up.
The problem with this line is that it is often a "push" sales line used when the salesperson is trying to gain commitment and the client doesn't really want to agree to it i.e. the client does not see as much need for setting a time to speak as the salesperson does.
So this is not a bad question per sae and it is certainly better than a lot of salespeople who do not ask at all but there is a better approach and it's more about what has already happened (or not happened) than the actual question itself…
In my No Fear Cold Calling and Professional Selling Skills programmes I talk about how we can really connect with our clients and get them to be more honest and open with us as salespeople.
We want them to want to speak with us again as much as we want to speak to them. To be able to do this we need to have asked better and more powerful questions before we ever get to this point so that the client sees massive value in speaking with us at an agreed time thus making this a low stress and joint gaining of commitment rather than something that we are trying to do to the client!
When you do it this way what you say is less important as this gaining of commitment is in both of your interests. With your question in mind it could look something like, "John, given the urgency of this situation it sounds like we need to speak again in the next couple of days. Like yourself I'm really busy so it would be a good idea to scedule a convenient time for both of us. When would be good for you?"
Basically the answer to the question is that selling is not a step process – when I was taught it, it never worked as constructed so I very quickly lost confidence and left the call as I thought it was me (and it was)!
I needed to understand before I could be understood and that demanded flexibility (if what you're doing isn't working do something else – but I didn't as the step process had been broken and therefore I couldn't sell!)
Hi Gavin,
Question #1
What is it you (customer) are looking for your insurance to cover?
Question #2
Do you want permenant or term?
Question #3
Will it be enough to cover final expenses and provide for your family at time of loss?
These are the ones I start out with, then, of course go from those answers. Thanks for all of your input!
My favourite question is only one… how can we increase the sale, what kind of steps do we have to follow for that?
Thanking u
My favorite sales question is the "status question". It goes like this, nearing the close, I ask the question, "So, is there anything that stands between you and making a decision to purchase today?"
I linked to your post in my 17th GIC Sunday Blog Carnival.
Stop by and vote for your post as this weeks best. I stumbled this post.
Hi Gavin
Hope you're well. Just a couple of jotted answers – not sure if they are more focused to my line of work but please have a quick read when you have a moment.
1. What qualities do you look for in this product/service?
Being an open ended question it requires a more thought out or thorough response than yes or no. The client tells you exactly what springs to mind first and this gives you a good base to progress your conversation, rather than rambling on about all the other benefits of a service or product that you are selling which may make the client disinterested and give them opportunity to end the call, you can focus your response directly into an area where the client is interested to hear more and give yourself a good ground to build a relationship on the call as well as selling the product/service.
2. When was the last time you looked at comparative services/products in the market place? Why didn't you look at us?
This may be focused to my line of work but again being an open ended question it requires a better response than yes or no and makes the client interact with you.
The question also makes the client think consciously about when they actually did look at comparators. They may not have looked for months or even years which places a trail of thought that they may actually NEED to look at comparators. It gives confidence to the client that you must be a good service provider or selling a product that is one of the best in the marketplace to have confidence in saying this.
If they say I looked last week or I have reviewed this recently, you can ask why they haven't contacted you or looked at your product/service which may also give you ideas on how to focus your marketing strategy (eg I used the internet, I looked at local suppliers etc).
In the right call this question is key in finding a good opportunity to progress a call to a meeting with the client.
3. What have you got to lose?
It may sound a little cocky but in the right conversation at the right time this can be a clinching question, "….well nothing" would be the answer given in 99% of cases, again giving you a clear opportunity to follow on with a meeting or further the conversation to actually going ahead with your service/product there and then.
Less than 1% of answers would include "my time" which I think I have only ever heard once in 6 years in the job.
This is my wall breaking question to seal a deal – the client has listened to what you have had to say about the service, you have been through what the client is looking for and if there is an opportunity. Therefore this question towards the end of a conversation for me is the light hearted one that brings the wall down. "We'll see you next week" or "ok sign me up" is the usual way a call would end for me after this question.
Hope one of these may be of use. Have a good day.
I like:
1) How many of these would you like to buy? (As opposed to 'will you buy it?' [singular]) Takes the edge off, and usually lightens up, the boring and far more serious 'when can I expect your order?' – to which "never" can be a reasonable answer.
2) So, what have you done about this? (In response to their description of their need/problem.) It shows me where they're at. Have they done nothing? Are they flustered trying to reply – ie there's little internal thought on the matter and no-one's sure who should answer; or 'we've done this …' so they'll understand the value of my offer clearly, 'cause they have thought about it and appreciate their own problem/need.
3) Who can veto the purchase? Which unearths any heierarchy above the person I'm talking to. Not one of mine, this, but I liked it.
Kind regards
Matt
I worked for many years selling business summit packages to MD's of a variety of Vendor companies. At these Summits a series of face to face meetings would be arranged between the decision makers who attended for the conference programme (buyers) and vendor companies (sellers). The idea being that if they sat down and had 15 qualified sales meeting with prospective buyers they would come away from the event with a great return on investment.
I always tried to ask questions targetted at the period after they had signed with us. In answering these questions their mind is already partially accepting that they will attend the event.
- Which members of your team would you bring to the Summit? Who would be most effective at selling to decision makers in this focused face-to-face environment?
- What is your contingency plan for increasing capacity/production should you come away from the event with several contracts?
After asking them who their ideal prospect company is.
- As a result of this Summit, if you succesfully deliver on a contract in X area of Y company, which other areas of Y company could you sell your products into?
Craig
Thanks for your input and for those great questions. Questions which get people visualizing actually using your product, service or solution are indeed very powerful…
One of the keys for a successful life is the realization that we get what we focus on the most…
When we ask questions of our prospects or clients we focus their mind and their train of thought. Questions like, "Do you think you'd bring your team to this summit?" get people thinking of benefits versus negatives. They can easily conclude that they won't bring their team along!
Asking, as you did, "Which members of the team would you bring to the Summit?" Focuses their mind on the positive side of the equation only and along with your later questions gets them thinking about the value of working with you and of coming to the Summit with their team.
Great tips and a great share.
Gavin
I always like to end a conversation with, “Whats the next action step then?”. It continues the flow of activity and gently commits my customer or prospect to a friendly request. If they ask and I try to comply it builds on our relationship.
Jack. You’re right. The art of keeping things flowing naturally and without any pressure is critical for sales success. Stagnant sales conversations are as unappealing as stagnant drinking water… unattractive, murky and leaving a bad taste in your mouth.