Questioning Skills

The Fine Art of Questioning

Are You Curious Enough?

Regarding sales people, one trait that I have noticed with the best sales people – including the sales superstars – is the trait of being curious. Why is curiosity important?

Curiosity is the natural need to discover reasons or just information about things we see, hear or touch during the day. For sales people, this is a very positive trait because a curious sales person is one who will ask more questions. More questions leads to new discoveries and information that can impact the progress of the sales process.

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Ask for Information You Need

Today is really a reminder more than anything else. It is a simple sales tip. You must ASK for Information that you need in order to make the right offer to your customer. If you don’t ask questions to get the real answers and information – you will be back to the traditional sales methods … Read more…

Eight Questions About Financial Health of Customers

There are eight questions that you -as a salesperson- should know the answers about your customer. An added benefit is to learn the answers regarding your own company. Then and only then, will you be in a position of strength. Where does this strength come from – understanding the financial health of your customer.

Let’s exam the eight questions that hold the answer to your customer’s financial health. The eight are as follows:

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The Best Question to Ask a Customer or Prospect

Through the years of training sales people one topic comes up on a regular basis – How do I get the Customer/Prospect to talk to me? In reality, this is the most important thing that a Salesperson has to do – get the customer or prospect to tell them about things. In response, they is a question that when used properly has the power to get customers and prospects talking about their situation. I have referred to it as the “million dollar question” because it is so effective.

Okay, here it is:

“Mr/Ms Prospect/Customer, I’m fully prepared to talk about X, yet, first I would like to understand your perspective on what is important to you and this will allow me to not waste your time discussing things that are not important to you.”

It seems corny, yet it works like a charm with even tight lipped buyers. How does this work? Well, it is due to the three parts of the question. Each part has a “meta talk” that is important to the customer and gives the salesperson more credibility.

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