We are being mislead by the continuous chorus of being politically correct or soft pedaling your questions. Well, throw those thoughts out the window – if you want to stay in the b2b sales game for a long time.
Okay, it is true about most b2b sales people being trained using the traditional or old school model of selling. This is one that relies upon you telling your story – over and over and over again. Unfortunately for you, your competitors are using the same stories for the most part and the customers are getting bored.
The boredom is transferred to asking you about price before you have had any time to develop a value to your sales presentation. The real reason for the price question is to stop you in your tracks.
So, how do you get the prospective customer to be patience and open up about their real situation? You must use thought provoking questions designed to show you are a b2b sales professional who wants to help them.
There are five areas you will use thought provoking questions to show your intention and drive a real conversation with the decision maker. These five areas are…
- Questions about their business
Show you are there to help them succeed rather than having a dog and pony show of your products or services. Your intention is to help you customers. - Demonstrate Your Experience and Credibility
The correct use of questions can show the level of your experience and the fact you are experienced in delivering results. When a buyer feels they are working with a highly competent sales person, they are more willing to share important information to allow you the opportunity to help them. Show your knowledge through the questions you use. - Help the Customer Think about their Problems
No more soft stuff, today’s decision makers are overloaded with work and problems. So help them think about a problem to the point they actually understand the critical nature of not changing things for improvement. If they don’t see the magnitude of the issue, well there is no sense of urgency to take an action and the status quo wins by default. Let your competitor’s play safe all the time while you get the customer’s business using purposeful and thought provoking questions. - Uncover Needs for Improvement
Here your role as detective is amplified where you are looking to uncover their frustrations, previous bottlenecks or even screw-ups or failures in the past. Then you can help them plot a course for immediate improvement with the issues. The bigger the opportunity the more seamless the transition must be for the change to occur. - Design the Right Solution with their Participation
Never come into a b2b sales solution with any predetermined or fixed ideas for a solution. You actually want the customer to feel you are offering a dynamic yet flexible solution just for their business. If it sounds like a canned presentation, well it probably is. Be creative and open, while getting continuous buy-in and agreement from the decision maker.
There you have the true basis for using the Questioning Model for B2B Sales. Harness the true power you possess by using Questions to engage your potential customer (and Customers) to learn more and then provide the right solutions for their current situations.
You will win more and larger contracts using the questioning model as you base b2b sales process. The days of telling the prospect what they need to do or babbling about everything you know are gone forever. It is time to focus upon your customer’s business needs and how to get them the results they desire faster with your assistance.
Voss Graham
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Thanks so much for the forum topic.Thanks Again. Awesome.