successful sales questions

Whenever I buy vegetables or fruits from a street vendor my usual question “is it a good quality “

The street vendor immediate response is “super quality sir “

When I come back home my wife regular response is “even after 18 years of marriage you don’t know how to buy vegetables”

I always think what’s the question I should ask the street vendor to get a truthful answer. I have not gone deep into that because, Even if I ask the right questions, even fruit vendor gives me a truth- full answer my wife’s response is going to be the same. So I don’t break my head to find out the right question.

My thinking turned on, am I / are we asking the same type of vegetable questions with our customers

Shockingly YES.

Most of the salespeople I meet in my training sessions, often complain about unfair responses they get from their customers. Unreasonable price requests, Customer asking 50 % discount and so on…

So who pre-empts customer response …our sales questions?

Be it in sports or in sales the champions are differentiated on smaller things, an athlete loses his gold in a fraction of seconds, a sale is lost by a marginal difference in the sales questions we ask.

It’s just not the questions it’s the right questions differentiates average sellers and great sellers.

If we complain customer is unfair in their response means we asked dumb questions

Let’s see some sales scenarios

Salesperson: reveals the price

Customer: the price is too high

Salesperson: what price do you want / what is your budget

Customer: a 50 % discount

A vegetable question. Not only that, it abruptly ending the relationship there

Scenario 2
Salesperson: Are you the decision-maker?

Customer yes I am, (even if he is not)

A wrong way to ask the question ….what it says to the customer, you are not important to me, tell me who is the decision-maker. How can we expect the customer to give a truthful answer, who will tell they are not important in the sales process?

Ask smart questions, Customer thinks you are smart.

Let’s relook the same scenarios

Salesperson: reveals the price

Customer: the price is too high

Salesperson: yes sir our price is on the higher side ( indirectly indicating we are a quality people ) let’s work together how we could handle this, for all the values I summarized, how much do you think you could stretch, what additional budgets you could think you could mobilize. I will also check with my management what best we could do.

A lengthy one, but at least keeping the customer in hook, directing the customer to stretch, you come 5 meters and I come 5 meters. Also setting a serious tone in the buying process.

Let’s see scenario 2
Salesperson: Along with you who all will be involved in this decision process (not hurting the ego)
If you give the approval, what next, who else should give their concurrence?
Who will be most benefited from this purchase, whose word will be taken seriously?

Questions are powerful that set the tone and perception of buyers. Rephrase the questions, get the response you want.

To use questions successfully they must be thought and written down in advance .develop a list of 20 to 25 sales questions that really uncover the customer motive, their real pains, benefits, objections, buying process.

Tips while forming these questions
1. make the customers think in new ways
2. should differentiate the tone and the perception of the buyers,
3. Engage the customer emotionally and intellectually most importantly the opponent’s ego is not hurt.

Practice for 90 days in your sales scenarios, I am guaranteeing you see the real rewards if you are not doubling your sales write back to me, if you have doubled your sales still write back to me that’s the new year wish you are saying to me.

Wishing you a great Sales year ahead.

Regards,
Ramesh.P
Cell: +91 9841052321|9176663799