Following on from last week’s tip about active listening, this week we are going to discuss the importance of asking great questions.
Your meetings should always be all about your customer, so don’t drone on about your products and services. Never assume you’ve heard it all before because you haven’t.
Your job, should you choose to accept it, is to ask sufficient in-depth, needs-oriented questions, that fully uncover your customers’ needs. It’s like painting a painting, you wouldn’t stop painting your painting half-way through and think you’ve finished, so don’t get half the story when exploring the needs of your customer. This is how most salespeople operate. We think preparing questions to ask is a great way to avoid it.
Remember that 80% of customers say that salespeople DO NOT sell to meet their needs. Most salespeople ask 1 or 2 questions, get the sniff of a product then go into a product dump about which the customer is not the least bit interested, because the salesperson hasn’t fully understood their needs.
Keep
asking questions until you’ve got the full story. The only stupid question is
the one you don’t ask!