How will you know what your customer is looking for if you don’t ask them questions? Questioning Skills are critical for top-performing salespeople. There are 3 types of question:
1. The Open Question: “How do you feel about…?” “What is the problem you have encountered?” Hows, whats and whys drive this style of questioning and they are designed to open up the conversation and to learn about your customer. Make sure that you throw in a “Am I right in saying that….?” throughout this process. Another question but designed to confirm your understanding of the situation and to obtain the customer confirmation that it’s OK to move forward.
2. Reflective Questions: Here you pose questions about what you might be able to do/make happen for a customer and you’re asking for their thoughts. “What would you think if I was able to do this?” “What would you do if we offered the following deal?”
It’s a style of ‘fishing’ that shows if your customer is buying in to your service/product offering but moves you forward towards an end game.
3. The Closed Question: There’s no way around this! Sometimes you have to ask a question that just requires a yes or no answer. “If we do all of this, can we have an order?” If you get the ‘yes’ you’ve been working towards, good job! If it’s a ‘no’ then you’ll be asking more questions to understand where things need to be improved.
What are you waiting for???? (Open Question!)