Why Questions are so Powerful in Sales
What are the 3 Most Powerful Questions in Sales?
So, you got a face-to-face meeting with your client, you want this meeting to be successful and lead to a sale. What are some of the things that you could say to make this meeting magic? In short, what are the most powerful questions in sales?
Like all people, salespeople have habits, just like your morning routine or your exercise routine, you have habits. You do the same thing repeatedly. I bet you wake up and do 5 similar things each morning. If you do repeatable things they become a habit, and we do them innately. For instance, you brush your teeth with the same hand, the same toothpaste, and eat the same thing for breakfast etc.
The big problem with habits is we do them repeatably without awareness
The big problem in sales is that we do the same thing repeatedly and expect different results. So become aware of what you are doing, and record yourself on the phone. Record and review, then make a note of what you want to change and repeat the process. By doing this you will reach high performance and get more sales.
3 habits that salespeople do repeatedly that kill a sales meeting
- Talk too much about themselves, their product, their company
- They don’t listen
- Sell and pitch far too early even before they understand the client’s problems.
Find out the Most Powerful Questions in Sales in my Video Below
Find out Their Pains and Gains
Today I’m going to teach you the three most powerful sales questions ever that you can use in your sales meeting. When we are client-facing multiple facets come into play for instance body language, how you present yourself, tonality etc but today we are going to focus on questioning.
The most important thing to do is find out all the information at the early stages of the sales process, sit and listen, and gather up as many details as you can, especially if the customer is a right fit for you and should you spend your valuable time with them.
The best salespeople sit like a cat, they take in all the information, why because the information is power especially when you use it.
So just think of it, what are you selling? A nail sells a hole, what problems do your products or services fix. That’s what you ask questions about.
Note I said ask, and ask again, then listen and write down what keeps this customer up at night. What is nerve-striking with your client?
Most salespeople make this mistake, they let their guards down and consequently think this is a done deal. Do not just feed data to a client, make sure to dig deep and find out their pains and gains, and what is important to them.
The 3 Most Powerful Sales Questions
1. So, what motivated you to have this meeting with us today? Or why did you agree to set aside the time to meet today?
Then keep quiet, let the prospect do all the talking and you take notes. Let them talk and show interest by nodding and saying yes. Do not interrupt.
2. So, Name XXX, in relation to XXX (their problem or need) what exactly are we trying to accomplish here today?
That’s a very powerful question. It is very goal-oriented and outcome-driven. What are we trying to accomplish here today? Make sure to let them talk 75% of the time and you pipe in 25% of the time.
For consultative and discovery calls you can ask where are you today with this situation? and where would you like to be?
Now that question is so powerful because it tells me exactly, what’s the status of the company, right? Where they are, what are their frustrations, and what are the pain points? And then where do they want to be? Where do they want to be a year from now?
You must present your product and service as a bridge from where they are (pain) to where they want to be (solution). Use your product as the bridge, or system to the problem to fix it. Ask them how long they have had this problem and go into the details of what this is costing them
Remember, as salespeople, we are problem-solvers.
If it’s a good fit, we go for it. If it’s not a good fit it’s okay to say no. Hone in on their frustrations and what keeps them up at night, but remember if they are not a fit you need to move on. Remember, if there’s no pain, there is no sale!
Another good question is how long have you had this problem? At this point, you must get them to own the problem, so XXX with this XXX (problem) what would you like to happen?
Let them say…
- We need to solve this problem
- We tried XXX before and it did not work
- We have tried to get a solution
- We have tried many vendors but never followed through
- This problem has been ongoing
- We couldn’t solve the problem
The next question to ask is this:
3. If this meeting accomplished everything you could hope for, in terms of a solution to your problem XXX what would that look like?
Listen, as they will give you exactly what they want. Make sure you feed this back to them in your pitch, matching all the major pains with solutions. Make sure to take notes at meetings as you will forget relevant points.
This tells you how you need to sell … now start your high-level pitch!
Simple Questions are So Powerful
So next time when you’re in a face-to-face meeting talk less, ask questions and listen.
Simple questions are so powerful they are designed for one thing and one thing only, to get a deep understanding of what your prospect is looking for.
Use what, when, why, and where.
Adrienne is a Business Growth Advisor. On a mission to elevate your company’s growth, through building sales and leads blueprints that work time and time again. Do you want to find out how to build your own sales blueprint, to get more leads and sales for your company?
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