Learning to ask great questions is better than learning to say great things. Initially the prospect should be doing 70% of the talking. How else will you get to know about them, their business, or if they have problems you can help with?
Unfortunately, many times this is not the case and many feel the mark of a dynamic salesperson is their ability to thoroughly answer a prospect’s questions, demonstrate knowledge and expertise, and provide detailed information about their product or service. In this situation where you’re unloading everything you have but you’re not getting qualified information from the prospect, who’s in control? After they have all your information, what happens next? Any chance they’ll take your information and shop it around, or use it to keep their current supplier ‘honest?’
Here are three reasons why asking great questions is important:
- Great questions focus on the buyer’s concerns, not on you and your product’s
- Questions help uncover the prospect’s PAIN and how critical it is to them personally
- The highest form of respect is listening. When you ask a question and they respond, ask another question to show you not only listened but are interested.
The more time you spend talking, the greater risk of doing a lot of ‘unpaid consulting’. You’re not in business to be an ‘unpaid consultant and you can’t help solve prospect problems with features and benefits that don’t fit.
Don’t get it backward. Remember. Ask great questions. Discover and understand the problems. Then features and benefits that fit.
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