ARE YOU ASKING ENOUGH RIGHT QUESTIONS ?

This week I'm going to share (again) some insights from another one of my mentors, Dorothy Leeds.

I'm reminded of this almost every time I go through the results ( or lack thereof ) of a face to face call by one of my clients ( I call them post-mortems - cause the opportunity is dead after you leave the appointment ).

Ms. Leeds wrote the book "7 Powers Of Questions" and has her own admirable success with other books and resources plus being a great public speaker.

Some of the obvious results from asking questions in a selling situation are ( let alone how questions can bring success to your life outside sales also ):

1. Questions allow you to learn more about your customer and their organization to find avenues for a sale ( called discovery ).
2. Questions allow you to listen well and allows your customer to talk and most buyers love to hear themselves talk.
3. When the buyer ( or buyers ) are talking they should be sharing things that they don't normally share ( depends on how good your questions are ) and that leads to respect and relationships ( especially when they recognize that you are asking questions they have never been asked before).
4. Questions allow you time to gather your thoughts, truly show interest in what they have to say, and present yourself as something other than the typical feature / benefit dumper !
5. Your numerous well thought out questions generally prompt questions from the buyers and that's a good thing !
6. Good questions usually prompt the next step in the relationship - like the next appointment or a follow-up call and / or something you will do as a result of what you've learned.


Think about it - it's another powerful insight to improving your closing ratio.