Last week, I shared how important it is to write out your questions before you meet with your customer.
Equally important is what happens AFTER your meeting.
Immediately after your meeting (as you sit in your car or back at your office), write down 3-4 questions you will ask this customer NEXT time you meet.
It’s easy to make notes on the big stuff — or I should say, it’s easy to remember the big stuff. The challenge is we tend to overlook far too many things that if used properly could easily wind up assisting us in not only closing the sale we’re working on, but also the next sale.
One of the best ways to demonstrate leadership and competency with your customer is by being able to link each sales call you have with the previous sales call. When a salesperson is able to follow up with the customer regarding something the customer may have shared during an earlier meeting, it shows that the salesperson listens and cares what the customer says.
The best way to do this is when you immediately leave the customer’s office, take a couple of minutes and write down a few questions you would like to ask the customer the next time you see them.
Doing it right away prevents you from forgetting what the customer may have shared with you.
By developing a couple of questions right away, you’re not only starting to prepare yourself for the next sales call, you’re also giving yourself some great material you can use in an email or a phone call.
The beauty of questions is in how they can get the customer talking. This means if there is value in asking questions, make sure they are ones that include information that the customer finds valuable. If you touch upon something they mentioned in a previous meeting, you are likely to pique their interest.
The majority of salespeople bypass this simple activity, and in so doing, they give up the opportunity of connecting with the customer in a way that allows the customer to see them in a different light than the average salesperson.
If you’re looking to take full advantage of this step, the best way to do it is by doing the following:
1. Immediately write down 5 questions you want to ask the customer the next time you see them.
2. In your follow-up note / email to the customer summarizing the meeting you just had, be sure to ask one of the questions you wrote down. Objective is to get the customer to engage in a conversation with you.
3. Next, when you are calling to arrange the next meeting, mention one of the other questions as one of the reasons you want to meet with them again.
4. When you call to confirm the meeting, ask another question.
5. When you start the next sales call, ask still another question very early on. This question in particular should link directly back to something the customer shared with you previously.
Do you see why it is so important to write down questions after you meet with your customer?
You just can’t rely on your memory to do the work alone. You must write things down.The power of timely questions — not only do they open doors, but they help to make the open doors even bigger. Your sales motivation is worth it.
Copyright 2011, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog.
