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Experienced sales professionals already know that asking questions is the best way to uncover customer needs. However, you can be good at asking questions and still never be highly successful, and here is why:
A lot of sales professionals only ask questions so they can steer the customer to the solution they already had in mind when the conversation started.
This approach to using questions may lead to a sale, but it may not create the level of trust, intimacy and understanding that is necessary to build a long-term relationship. That is because it is grounded in the sales professional’s needs and goals, rather than being concerned with wanting to uncover all of the customer’s needs or create a complete understanding of the customer’s situation. Remember, the question you must keep asking yourself is not “what can I sell the customer?” but rather, “how can I help the customer?”
At Cloud Coaching International (CCI), we have over 35 years of experience collaborating with the world’s most respected corporate sales organizations, and that experience has demonstrated over and over again that the difference between a simple one-time transactional low margin sale and an ongoing strategic partnership that keeps growing year after year is the ability to use two simple skills. These skills will dramatically accelerate your ability to close more business at higher margins as you earn more and more of the customer’s trust and respect during every conversation.
A highly successful sales professional has learned that it doesn’t help to take short cuts when trying to understand the customer. It is not enough to just ask questions. You have to ask the right questions and you have to ask enough of them to get the full picture of your customer’s situation. How many questions is that? However many it takes. It is like peeling an onion. Each time your customer answers a question, this automatically prompts an opportunity for a follow up question.
The options are endless; it all depends on the answer you received to the previous question. Remember this: every time you ask a thoughtful, insightful, supportive question, you are demonstrating your desire to help, and most of the time you are also subtly showing off your expertise without ever calling attention to it, because you are asking the right questions in the right way. But be careful; this is a conversation, not an interrogation. Be careful to adapt to the customer’s pace and style of interacting.
Open and closed questions
Customer-centered interaction uses two distinct types of questions. They have different functions and are used at various times to accomplish different purposes. The first type of question is referred to as an open question, because of its open-ended nature. The structure of this question invites the listener to speak freely and share his feelings, insights or opinions on a variety of subjects without limiting him in any way.
Open questions usually start with words like:
Using more open questions will help boost your sales performance because these questions help you uncover more information about the customer’s needs, problems, concerns, or experiences. This, in turn, helps you craft product and solution recommendations that are better aligned with the customer’s needs and goals.
Also, open questions are very effective at building trust because they establish rapport between you and the customer. The more the customer trusts you, the more likely they are to do business with you, and that also helps drive more business for you. Most people like to talk about themselves and their situation. Open questions give them permission to do just that. All you have to do is sit quietly and pay attention. Don’t interrupt, distract or correct; just be quiet and soak it all in. Once you receive his answer, you can use this new information to construct a solution that better suits his needs.
The second type of question is the closed question, so called because it tends to close off conversation by eliciting a short, clear, direct answer – sometimes as simple as yes or no. Some examples of closed questions are:
Closed questions are useful when you need to receive quick, basic facts from the customer about some aspect of his situation. They can also help get the conversation moving when the customer appears reluctant to respond to open questions, or when he replies with only vague, confused answers. Either way, closed questions keep the conversation moving and help you better understand areas of customer pain, which can help you uncover new opportunities that will boost performance and drive new business for you.
Our experience at CloudCoaching International (CCI) over the years indicates that most sales professionals don’t ask enough open questions, especially if they are more interested in selling than they are in helping. If you are not happy with the size of the deals you are getting, or if too many of your deals get stuck in the pipeline and die, asking more open questions will uncover better opportunities and drive more business. For this reason, as a part of our Sales Mastery program we work with our clients to develop customized tools and processes that will help them differentiate their questioning skills from the competition by asking the questions no one else is asking, and demonstrating a level of expertise that will inspire confidence in the customer.
It is not enough to just ask good questions. You must actually listen to the answers and make sure you understand exactly what the customer is trying to say to you. Again, sales professionals too often only ask the questions that will give them the answers they want so they can sell their products. Therefore, they tend to not really listen to what the customer is saying, unless it takes them in the direction they have already decided they want to go. Of course, failing to really listen will limit your ability to help the customer and grow the relationship. A highly successful sales professional listens to ALL aspects of the answer – the words, the tone of voice and the body language – to glean important clues that will help understand the problem and frame the possible solutions that will meet the most needs in the best way.
Clarifying and confirming says you are here to help
Never assume that you fully understand what the customer is telling you until you have clarified what you have heard and confirmed that you understanding is what the customer meant. After all, what does “as soon as possible” really mean?
Asking good questions and listening carefully to the answers seems like a no-brainer, but too many sales professionals are programmed to only ask so they can sell. Customers recognize when they are being manipulated by questions instead of being helped by them. So make sure you are focused on helping instead of selling, and your questions will not only sound authentic, they will really help you help your customer.
Customized Questioning and Listening Skills is just one component of the Sales Mastery processes and tools developed by CCI. In future articles we will share additional strategies to help you differentiate your organization from your competitors by creating a strong brand based on collaborating with the customer to help them achieve their most important objectives.
