Business Development and Sales are funny games. The common thread in high performing selling professionals is that they follow a process, they have a system and they try to improve it day-in, day-out. As a management consultancy we help with that.
The other common thread is that they know how to ask the right questions so that the customer, client or prospect feels at ease in answering their questions and do not at all feel pressured. A simple measurement that indicates if a sales person is good at their job is – in a conversation with a prospect or customer, who is doing the most talking? A high performing sales person talks 20% of the time, the prospect 80%. Good management consultancy works on improving that.
Before anything, ask yourself have you completed any research on your prospect or customer? If not then you cannot go to a sales call.
So what are the stages of the sales meeting and what questions could you ask:
Rapport Building:
Introduce yourself
Try and get association with their favourite sport, a picture on the wall in their office, a certificate they have displayed, maybe something you heard on the radio or newspaper that was about them or their industry.
Investigation:
How is there business going this year?
What has been the change since last year?
What challenges do they currently face or might face in the future relevant to your company offering
What keeps them awake at night, what is a constant worry for them?
What one problem if solved would make their job so much easier?
There are countless other questions you could ask so have them ready in your arsenal to use as needed. Be under no illusion that asking the right questions will allow you to see the exact problem that your products can solve. If you don’t ask the right questions, you will never get to the issue you can solve. A management consultancy can help identify the right questions to ask.
Click on our next article “It’s All About The Questions – Part 2” to get the next part of the puzzle.
