What are some great sales questions to ask prospects?
I think the great questions are the ones that determine if the prospect is even a valid prospect.
Far too many salespeople waste time dealing with sales prospects who are nothing more than lousy prospects. Why? The answer is because they have not determined if they are a prospect.
Here are my 6 sales questions to ask prospects which you can use to help separate the prospects from the suspects.
What is your timeline for making a decision?
How have you made decisions like this in the past?
How do you intend to pay for this?
What is the problem you’re looking to fix?
When are you expecting delivery?
Are there any reasons why you wouldn’t make a decision today?
Too many times salespeople beat around the bush and never ask the straight forward question to find out if the person to whom they’re talking is even a good prospect. The reason I like these sales questions to ask a prospect is because they are simple — and they do what they are designed to do.
The most valuable item any salesperson has is their time.
The more time a salesperson spends with a person who is not capable of buying, the greater the chance the time is being wasted. Sure, there will always be some exceptions to that, but the vast majority of the time, it does result in wasted time.
If you spend any amount of time prospecting, then you have to be comfortable asking questions of this type.
To become comfortable means you have to actually start using the questions. Take these questions and put them somewhere where you can refer to them when you’re about to start any call where you might have even a small chance of dealing with someone who is not valid prospect.
The beautiful thing about these six sales prospecting questions is they also work with a buyer who you’re trying to determine may or may not be motivated to buy. When you ask someone who is on the verge of buying a question like, “When are you expecting delivery,” it can be just the thing to throw them over the top and give you the order.
Prospecting is an art.
Those who do it well are always the same people who have greater overall success in sales.
Use these six sales questions to ask a prospect as your starting point in developing your skills to allow you to one day become a top performer.
Copyright 2011, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog.
One Response
These questions left me with one of my own: in an effort to qualify a prospect, how do you ask questions like “How do you intend to pay for this?” without insulting the customer? Do you have any advice regarding the right “touch” – is there another way to deliver the question that doesn’t cause the prospect to bristle? Also, isn’t it better to say, “How can [my company] help you?” instead of “What’s the problem you’re trying to fix?”