Are you one of those salespeople who is timid when engaging a prospect with tough questions?  Are you one who tries to gently nurture a lead or a prospect, so you don’t lose them?

You can’t afford to nurture them. You don’t have time. They don’t have time. If you want to nurture something, then go visit a retirement center. You’ll find plenty of people there who you can nurture.

From the start we have to be focused on moving the lead forward, and that includes creating value as quickly as possible.  Check out this video where I share about a sales call where understanding the value the customer desired was essential if I wanted to close the deal.

You create value by asking questions early, and I mean very early in the process.  If you fail to have a plan as to how you tie value to the outcomes the prospect desires, then you run a major risk of the prospect never going anywhere.  This means you need to ask “value focused” questions sooner than you most likely have been doing.

“Value focused” questions are ones that get the other person discussing the real issues they’re facing.  They aren’t absolute questions regarding price, but rather they’re questions that help uncover the outcome the customer wants.

In the video, I share a conversation with a CEO regarding my fees.  If I had not known the critical issues the CEO and his company were facing, I would never have been able to close the deal.   The reason I new the issues the CEO was having is because of the questions I asked.

You can’t afford to not ask tough questions early in the process.  The questions you ask will vary based on what you do and who you’re working with, but here are just a couple to get you thinking:

What is the risk if you don’t do anything?

Why has this become a problem for you?

How will this impact other parts of your business?

You see the questions are designed to engage.  Don’t think you can’t ask questions like this during the first call.  If you don’t ask questions like this, you run the risk of having the other person focus the conversation on the features of what you sell and that you’re nothing more than a low-price vendor.

Today your job is to up your game with the questions you ask. Don’t hold back.  The faster you know the outcome the prospect is looking for, the sooner you will be able to equate it to value.  In the end your customers will only pay for value.

And don’t forget that a coach can help you excel in your sales career! Invest in yourself by checking out my coaching program today!

Copyright 2018, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Results