Questions for a selling meeting
If you spend your sales appointments giving a lecture about your product and how great it is, you’re using a presentation style that will cost you a lot of sales. A much more effective approach is to ask questions that draw your prospect out. When you ask the right questions in the right way, you can end up getting your prospects to do all the selling for you! At the very least, you’ll learn a lot about what the prospect wants from your product, which means you can laser-focus your presentation on just those points that will sell most effectively.
But there’s an art to asking sales questions. Which is why we’d like to share the following 5 tips for asking more effective sales qualification questions.
1. Ask permission
In some situations, it’s understood that you’re there to gather information. In other situations, it’s appropriate to show respect by asking permission to ask questions.
Example question: “May I ask you some questions about your business?”
This may be a rhetorical question, but it’s worth asking anyway.
2. Keep questions simple
If you want useful answers, ask useful questions. Convoluted or two-part questions should be avoided. Ask straightforward questions that cover one topic at a time. It’s best to ask for one answer at a time.
Example question not to ask: “What do you think about the marketing plan and will the new ad campaign confuse customers and would that confusion actually be beneficial to the long-term product growth?”
This will not produce a meaningful answer. If you ask a two-part question, people tend to either answer the second part only or only the part they were interested in or felt safe with. Ask one question at a time!
3. Use a logical sequence for your questions
Prospects like to know where your questions are headed. If they can’t tell, they may suspect you’re manipulating them. By following keywords and asking sales questions in a logical order, you will keep your intent clear and build trust.
4. If a question is sensitive, explain its relevance
It makes sense to justify a sensitive question to your prospect. After all, she/he has a right to know why you are asking, but then again, don’t be afraid to ask your prospect tough questions.
5. Maintain a consultative attitude
Remember, you’re a liaison between your company and your customers; you are a consultant. As such, you want to question your prospect in a way that will yield the maximum amount of information with the least effort. To do so, take the pressure off the questions. Ask them in a relaxed tone of voice. Give time for the answers, even if it means sitting quietly and waiting. Don’t be in a hurry to get to your next appointment. The investment you make in time now will pay off handsomely when the prospect evolves into an annuity.
