How well do your questions push the customer’s thinking? Sales leadership is about the customer seeing you differently than every other salesperson. If all you do is ask the basic questions that they’ve already been asked a thousand times, how will you stand out?
Sales is about taking the customer to a different level. If you just satisfy their basic needs, you are not selling your service to the customer. Sales is about challenging thinking and challenging norms. You are not going to do that by asking fundamental questions; you must ask the questions that push everyone’s thinking to the next level.
Your questions cannot be ones that the customer has a routine answer for. You have to ask the questions that lead to more questions. You won’t uncover additional opportunities with your presentation but with your questions. Don’t be hesitant to ask your questions. Be confident as a sales leader, because you know you can help the customer. If you don’t push the questions, you’re doing yourself and the customer a disservice.
If you ask more questions, you’ll eliminate the curse that too many salespeople fall victim to: the curse of “bad assumptions.” This curse destroys too many opportunities simply because the salesperson made a bad assumption based on limited information. The best cure for this ailment is to ask more difficult questions.
Banishing bad assumptions is easier said than done. It can be hard, because the customer suffers from this ailment too. Customers are quick to make assumptions, and the worst one is lumping all salespeople into the same category. Customers naturally assume that all salespeople are the same. You know that that’s not true, though. You are capable of pushing them to think differently. Ask hard questions, get the wheels turning, and they’ll see that their assumptions were wrong.
During every sales call, make it your goal to ask at least one question that you and the customer cannot answer. If you do this, you’ll be amazed at the increased depth of your relationships.
Copyright 2019, 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
