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You are here: Home / News & Updates / Questioning Strategy Is What You Need to Sell

Questioning Strategy Is What You Need to Sell

April 14, 2024 By maurasf

questioning strategy

The best salespeople ask the most productive selling questions. They ask their questions in a way that gets results. Forget being a military interrogator! Yelling and sleep deprivation won’t work in a sales call.  Your questioning strategy is what you need to sell.  Here are a few ideas to create your best questioning strategy. 

Use persuasive words in your questioning strategy.

The word because is a persuasive word. Robert Cialdini in his book Influence:  Science and Practice talks about how using the word because gets compliance increased to well above 90% from 60%.  Experiments demonstrated that humans are more likely to comply with a request if a reason is also given, even if that reason makes no sense. The word “because” triggers the automatic compliance response.

You might have to ask tough questions about competitors or pricing information. Incorporate the word because when you ask the question and try to use a valid reason. You could ask about the price they are paying and add because I want to be sure to get you the best price I can.  The worst that could happen is a customer could tell you they can’t give you that information. Then you move on to the next question. 

A good questioning strategy is to speak confidently when you ask questions.

You might find it difficult to ask some tough questions. As a result you get nervous and your vocal pace and pitch changes. Avoid sounding nervous! Confident speaking is neither too fast nor too slow. You don’t want your voice to get too high which shows nervousness.  Preparation is the best way to counteract nerves.  Know which questions you want to ask and then be ready to listen to the answers. 

Certainly ask for your customer to tell you more when a customer tells you something that could lead you to more information.  Good salespeople will hear when it is the perfect time to probe more. They get more information than other less skilled salespeople who simply don’t dig deep enough. 

Ask questions to uncover problems or needs that you can address by selling your products. 

Ineffective salespeople ask questions that are irrelevant to the sale of their products or services. An engaging conversation with a customer about sports is not a sales conversation. Start the sales conversation with an open-ended question that requires your customer to talk about his business. An example would be “How do you select the consultants you work with?” What you are listening for are areas that might be a challenge for your customer where you and your expertise could provide a benefit to your client. 

Ask about what is difficult or challenging for your customer to achieve if you don’t hear that.   Be sure that the problem is important to solve. Learn what consequences exist for your customer and his business when he doesn’t solve the problem. That’s where selling your product is the solution.  

Listening is an important selling skill. It’s not enough for successful selling.  Your sales will increase with both effective listening skills and an effective questioning strategy. 

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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

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