Expect to ask questions during the sales call to guide your customer to buy. What about the questions your buyer has? Are you ready with answers that lead to sales? Your answers can guide your customer to buy, but only if you know the hidden buyer questions that lead to sales. Buyer’s Hidden Question #1: Can you help me meet my needs? Customers don’t buy from you … [Read more...]
Edward De Bono: Sales Questions for Better Sales Results
You may not know Dr. Edward De Bono and how he relates to sales questions. He’s the designer of the 6 Thinking Hats process. This process helps groups and individuals create better solutions for problem solving. Sounds like something that would be helpful for sales? It is. Use it to ask better sales questions. Here’s how I used 6 Hats Thinking to move a customer through a … [Read more...]
4 Questions to Build Trust and Shorten Your Sales Cycle
Sales is about the transfer of trust. Your prospect must have trust in you. You can make it easier and faster for a prospect to trust you by the questions you ask. Question #1. In the unlikely event of an error, how and when would you like to be notified?” Murphy’s Law exists. Things will go wrong. Do you know what your customer wants you to do when things go wrong? Here’s … [Read more...]
Ask questions to sell more
Here's a recent interview I did with the Call Reluctance Coach, Connie Kadansky. We talked about the questions to ask that sell. She asked me to discuss: 1. Why is questioning strategy so important to sell? 2. What's one of the most important questions to ask in sales? 3. Do you have a questioning strategy that you find effective? 4. How can salespeople improve their … [Read more...]
Do you work for free when you sell?
I recently wrote a column on customers who want you to work for free. I never fault anyone for asking. I do blame salespeople who get intimidated and do things they don't want to do and aren't strategic for their selling. These sales people are sometimes afraid to tell a customer or prospect no. Sometimes they don't know how to or when to move on. As I wrote in the column, … [Read more...]
What consultive selling questions do you ask to sell?
Are you wondering what consultive selling questions you can ask to sell? I have a consultive selling process that I teach that shows you how to learn about your customer, uncover business problems he cares about and motivate him to buy. Here's the process. It’s as simple as A,B,C and D. Consultative selling starts with what you know ABOUT (A) your customer. Rather than … [Read more...]
27 Key Sales Performance Drivers
In a recent AchieveGlobal report they identified 27 Key sales performance drivers. How many do you think you have mastered? This is a good topic for your next sales meeting. Your sales team can discuss how to develop more of these sales performance drivers. If successful salespeople master these sales performance drivers, you should be more successful if you do, too. Key … [Read more...]
Sell more by selling to the right prospects
Here's how I know someone is not going to make their sales goals. I ask them to describe an ideal prospect. Their response? Everyone is a prospect! Wrong. Everyone is not your prospect because you can't be all things to all customers. Here's how you can find the customers who you are most likely to sell to. … [Read more...]
How to know if your customer is ready to buy.
There are two factors that motivate customers to buy. They are pain or pleasure. Pain motivates more than pleasure. Unless your customers are experiencing enough pain there is no reason to do anything about it. Yet, just experiencing pain is insufficient to motivate a customer to do something about it and buy. You have to be very clear about how much pain he’s experiencing. … [Read more...]
Sell more when you quantify a customer’s problem.
You probably know that for a customer to buy something from you, there has to be a problem or a need. The customer can do nothing (and often does) unless there is a problem to solve or a need to fill. If you’re executing an effective questioning strategy, you are uncovering your customer’s need or pain. You might have found that your products can reduce downtime, reduce … [Read more...]