An interesting comment was recently added to our post entitled, “Professional Selling Skills Training: Consultative Selling to Morons”.
He writes:
“When you know a subject backward and forward, it can be frustrating to explain it to someone who knows very little about it. Even so, I’d add a 3rd item to your list – Want to Help. Even if you feel that your prospective client is not that bright, he/she will definitely pick up on your attitude. If they feel that you perceive them as a ‘moron,’ you’re sunk. If they feel – ‘Hey, this person really wants to help me out here . . .’ then you have established trust and rapport that is invaluable toward making sure both organizations are the right fit.”
Good stuff!
Certainly asking questions is one good way to prospect with the customer for insight to his or her needs. And, doing it in a way that strokes their smarts is essential to promoting respect — your respect for theie business acumen, and in turn their respect for your encouraging approach or manner. In this way you may also reinforce their strategic thinking by using an indirect approach through a 3-level question. It works like this:
The Three-Level Question consists of your making a factual statement, followed by a personal observation and then by you’re stating a focused question. For example:
Factual Statement: “Mr. Smith, according to Business Week magazine, medium-sized companies in your industry are caught in a profit squeeze and need to increase productivity, or risk losing money during the next six months….”
Observation: “As I talk to managers in businesses your size, I realize that many of them are taking steps to lower production costs and to increase their marketing efforts…”
Focused Question: “I was wondering, what is your company doing now – or – what will your company do to meet this challenge?”
As a result of using well-framed questions, relationships improve, discussions become more productive and sales increase!
Keep up the good work! Vern