As sales professionals, you probably know a lot about the capabilities of the products and services you represent. However, being a “solution expert” alone is not enough to differentiate you from your competition. If you are perceived as a trusted advisor AND a solutions expert, you are in much better position to win their loyalty and business. And gaining that trust means demonstrating that you can listen and intelligently reflect back what you learn.
We like to compare good salespeople to good physicians: Before good physicians prescribe a solution, whether it’s medication or a treatment, they fully understand and diagnose the condition. As a matter of principle, they do not recommend treatments without knowing whether or not the patient actually has a need for them.
Likewise, skilled sales professionals will diagnose a situation, and then demonstrate more value to their prospects through the questions they ask…not the answers they give.
How do you go about using questions to diagnose? You must integrate purposeful questions into your conversation, while not interrogating your prospects. You begin by asking the right types of questions at the right time. Understanding how and when to ask the right questions is critical.
Here are three types of questions you should ask at every phase of your prospect qualification process:
1. Open-ended questions
Open-ended questions are our vehicle to learn what the customer thinks about their business issues, problems and solutions. They tell you what value means to them, who makes decisions, and what words you should use when you repeat back what you’ve learned. Open-ended questions don’t have a yes, no, or right answer. They demonstrate that you are seeking to understand your prospect’s world and perspective. An ideal open-ended question triggers an expansive response that, ideally, is wide-ranging and may cover many areas.
Sample open-ended questions:
- “Can you explain why…?”
- “Would you tell me more about…?”
- “How would you describe the problems related to…?”
2. Probing questions
Probing questions allow you to dig deeper into details and uncover more specific information, based on the information you learned by asking open-ended questions. For example, if your goal is to learn more about the issues that could put your prospect’s profitability at risk, you would begin by probing for the typical ways they lose profit.
Probing questions also establish your credibility by offering you a chance to demonstrate your knowledge of their company, industry, and likely problems. Probing with purpose can help you uncover specific areas — recognized or unrecognized by your prospect — which can showcase your ability as a problem-solving expert.
Sample probing questions:
- “Is it because…?”
- “Do you find…?”
- “What if you could…?”
- “Have you ever experienced difficulty with…?
3. Confirming questions
Confirming questions simply confirm that we understand what our prospects just told us. They demonstrate that we understand our prospect’s issues. They help to uncover what might have changed as we check in with our clients throughout the sales life cycle.
The art of asking excellent confirming questions is by using reflective listening techniques: Reflecting back the actual words our customer uses and offering them the opportunity to elaborate. Don’t assume you understand their meaning. Always ask for understanding.
Sample confirming questions:
- “So, what you’re saying is…?”
- “Is it correct to say that…?”
- “Did I hear that…?”
The most successful salespeople I know are also the most curious. They are able to influence the conversation and demonstrate their credibility and knowledge by asking good questions. The better you are at asking the right questions, the better you become at uncovering needs that your products and services can address, and the better you’ll be at integrating your solution(s) into the context of your prospects’ businesses.