One mistake I see a number of b2b sales people do is asking simple questions a prospect can answer without any thought. Really, they go on auto pilot – usually because every reasonably trained b2b sales person will ask the same type of question.
An example of these “simple” questions are the knee jerking…
What problems are keeping you up at night these days? Or worst, how many plants do you have now? Or, is your current vendor / supplier meeting all your needs?
These questions do not get the prospect thinking about anything other than a knee jerk response usually at a minimum information flow to you. The other point – and more important point – is it shows you have done NO HOMEWORK regarding this prospect.
So what do you do?