[email protected]

Sales training and sales consulting to increase sales.

Call For A Sales Consultation

972-380-0200
  • About
    • What We Do to Increase Sales
    • Sales Philosophy on Hiring Salespeople
    • Clients
    • Customer Comments
    • In the Media
    • Contact Us
  • Speaking and Training
    • Sales Coaching for Performance Improvement
    • Professional Speaking
    • Sales Training
    • Sales Consultant for Business Development & Increase Sales
  • Sales Products
    • Books
    • Audio CDs
    • Webinars
    • E-Books
    • Manuals
    • Booklets
    • Merchandise
  • Free Resources
    • Videos
    • The Selling Newsletter
    • What is your Selling Issue?
    • Recommended Reading
    • Free Reprint Articles
    • White Papers
    • Sales Pro
  • Upcoming Programs
  • Membership
You are here: Home / Blog / What consultive selling questions do you ask to sell?

What consultive selling questions do you ask to sell?

August 25, 2014 By maurasf

what consultive selling questions do you ask to sell?
Do you ask the questions that 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 learn about your customer during the sales call, prepare before the meeting by reading their annual report or checking out their web site. Don’t waste your questions with acquiring basic information. A good opening question can allow your customers to talk comfortably about their business.

The next step is to find out what’s BAD (B) at the account. When things are going well, customers see no need to change so a sale is less likely to occur. If something can be improved or better yet, needs to be improved, there is a higher probability of a sale. A question like “And is that working as well as you’d like?” on an area your customer mentioned can uncover the problem areas.

Next develop CONSEQUENCES (C) of the bad situation. Figure out what the problems are costing your customers. If lack of performance skills is the problem, the consequences could be downtime, higher employee costs from turnover, lost sales or decreased customer satisfaction. A good Consequence questions is “How is (the problem) impacting your business?”  Try to quantify the consequence. You can later demonstrate your value by showing how you can reduce the cost of the consequence.

The last step is DESIRE (D). You must make your proposed solution desirable so your customer feels a sense of urgency to implement the solution and buy from you. Desirability can be demonstrated by showing how the benefits from the solution far outweigh the costs to implement.

Delivering a value-driven message rather than a product-driven message will be better received at higher levels in an organization. Given the choice of selling to a buyer, a Purchasing Manager, or a Plant Manager, always choose to sell at the highest management level. Remember, the higher you sell, the better prepared you must be with knowledge about your customer and the value of your solution.

That means you have to be prepared to ask thoughtful selling questions and know how much the problems are costing your customer in consequences.  Your consultative selling strategy will be best received at the highest levels. At higher levels, the scope of management’s responsibilities allows them to see their company’s broader needs.

You will certainly shorten your sales cycle when you know your ABCs (and Ds) to ask your customers questions to sell.  Even better, you’ll guide your customer to buy.

Best wishes for your sales success!
maura schreier-Fleming

 

Tweet
PinIt

Filed Under: Blog, Questioning, Sales Process, Sales Strategy Tagged With: consultive selling, questions

THE SELLING E-LETTER® SIGN UP

Social media

  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Selling Tips

*What was your last “mistake?” Did you make it before? There’s nothing wrong with making mistakes in sales provided you are making different mistakes. (You are learning from them!)

About the principal

Would you take auto mechanics classes when you buy a car? Maura did because she wanted to be able to work on her car. She takes that same approach to selling. She can show you how to get below the surface of selling to learn why and how different strategies work. She will show you which skills to implement that will shorten your sales cycle and increase your sales. She was Mobil Oil's first female Lubrication Engineer in the United States and one of Chevron's top 5 salespeople in the country. She knows what works for sales.

"I would recommend your work to other sales organizations who want to get better results from improved selling strategies."
Jamey Rootes
President
Houston Texans

Sales Expert at Allbusiness.com

Selling is the easiest job in the world. Just ask anyone who is not in sales. Read Maura’s ideas on “more brain…less mouth” selling to make your selling easier and more successful.

Maura’s Allbusiness blog posts

Recent Posts

  • Sales Is Not Fair
  • Less Stress Selling:  What You Can Do to Reduce Sales Stress
  • Segment Your Prospects and Customers. Are Your Largest Prospects and Customers the Most Important?
  • Women In Sales: Beware Mansplaining and other gender stereotypes!
  • Sell In A Recession

Search

Copyright © 2023 · [email protected]