6 Questions Salespeople Need to Ask Themselves
If you are a salesperson, you spend your days asking other people questions. However, there are 6 questions salespeople need to ask themselves. These questions will help you sell to people that are ready to purchase, sell from a position of power, and improve your client relationships.
3 Questions Salespeople Need to Ask Before a Call
Before a sales call, you need to ask, “Does my prospect have the need, willingness and resources to purchase what I sell?” If you can answer “yes” to each question you will know that your prospect is ready to purchase. If they want to “think it over,” you will be able to confidently encourage them to make the right decision and avoid “thinking it over.” Delaying their purchase only delays their return on investment.
If the answer is “no” to each question you are selling to the wrong person. You should not push your product, because you would be selling to the wrong product to the wrong person. That won’t end well. At best you will be able to get to know each and exchange referrals. If the answer is “no” to 1 or 2 questions there might be a chance of a sale. Unfortunately, it might be more work than it is worth for both you and your prospect.
3 Questions Salespeople Need to Ask After a Call
After a sales call, you need to ask, “Does my prospect feel that I care, know that I can help them, and do I deserve their trust?” If you can answer “yes” to each question you established the three bonds that are required before a sale can be made. People buy from people they feel care about them, know can help them, and are able to trust.
If the answer is “no’ to one or all of the questions than you failed to connect with your prospect on a meaningful level. They are likely frustrated, angry, confused, or disappointed. You might be able to recover, but it won’t be easy.
Your prospects will feel that you care if you are patient to let them get to know you, your company and your product. Too many salespeople are worried about wasting their time, but don’t worry about wasting their prospects’ time. They try to qualify during the sales call. This makes the prospect feel like they are on trail. Qualify before the call, not during. That is what the first 3 questions are for.
You can’t help if you don’t have a quality product or service. While this might be politically unpopular, operations and product development needs to involve salespeople. Salespeople can provide valuable insight, because they know why people buy their product and how they use it. If you can’t help create a better product, you might want to change companies. Unfortunately, you can only sell a quality product. If your current employer won’t provide you with a product that can help, it might be time to change empowers.
Do you deserve trust? Do you have the knowledge to actually help? Prospects can’t trust you if you can’t demonstrate enough knowledge to create the best solution for them. You need to know about your product, your industry, their industry and their company. Too many salespeople get frustrated when I ask them the “hard” questions. They don’t know who their competition is and what products they off. They can’t explain why a feature exists or how it works. They defer to their “technicians”, because they aren’t “geeks.” However, I can’t trust they can create proposals that will solve my problems.
Having spent time as a salesperson I know that these questions work. We encourage CAN’s Navigators to take the time to prepare before and reflect after each call. As CAN’s CEO, I wish more salespeople would take the time to ask themselves,
- Do they need what I sell?
- Do they want what I sell?
- Does they have the resources, time and money, to buy what I sell?
- How can I demonstrate that I care about their success?
- How can I demonstrate that my product will help them?
- How can build trust that I have the solution?
I hope this post helped you work smart.
