Apr 22 2009
Successfully using open-ended questions to power your sales process……
If you want a successful career in sales, you need to master the art of the open-ended question. We’ll start by taking a look at several keys that you need to remember about questioning throughout your sales process, which are especially applicable to the open-ended questions you’ll use during the investigation step of the process.
The most important key to remember is the reason that questions are so important - the person asking the questions is in control of the sale. You want to use questions to lead the prospect through the process in the direction and at the pace you desire.
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Another key to remember is “WHY”. Ever dealt with a four year old asking questions? You answer their question, and they ask “Why?” And then you answer that, and they ask “Why?” again. And so on. A good salesperson does a very similar thing. Each question that your prospect answers should lead to several follow-up questions to flesh out the information and make sure that you have every piece of information you need to complete the sale.
The final key we’ll discuss is often the hardest one for salespeople to get right. LISTEN. As the old cliche goes……”You have one mouth, and two ears. Use them proportionately.” You’re wasting your time with open-ended questions if you spend your time thinking of the next thing to say. Instead, you want to focus clearly on what your prospect is saying - and don’t assume you know what’s coming and interrupt with the next piece of information. When you’re wrong (which will happen), you’ll kill your credibility right then and there.
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NEXT POST: We’ll discuss some of the more useful open-ended questions.
Now go sell something!
