Your approach ~ should be one of helping your prospects…not interrogating them. Handled right, your questions will reinforce your genuine interest in them and a desire to help them and do what is in their best interest.

As further support for asking open-ended power questions to uncover a buyer’s true needs and desires, Xerox Corp. did research, as cited in the article, How To Bridge Higher Sales by Kerry Johnson:
Xerox Corp. discovered that if you can get a prospect (or client) to identify needs, there is a progressive chance that a sale will occur.  The stats are:

• If you can uncover one need, there is a 36% chance of a sale closing, depending on your skills.
• If you can uncover two needs, there is a 52% chance of a sale.
• If you can uncover three or more needs, a sale occurs nearly 100% of the time.

Here are the absolutely indispensable Power Questions that should be in every sales consultant’s repertoire: (You can print these for future reference and use what is appropriate for your sales)

• What would you like me to know about your organization…and yourself?
• What do you value most in a relationship with a _____?
• What causes you the most headaches/worries/money?
• If you could change one thing about ______, what would it be?
• What do you like about your current situation/partner/provider?
• What would you have them do differently?
• If we worked together, what would we have to do for you to feel great about hiring us?
• How would you feel if we helped you fully achieve that outcome we just discussed?
• What issues are consuming most of your days? What ____ project is driving you crazy?
• If you could wave a magic wand, what would you do different that could help you save money/make more profit/be more efficient?
• What are your most important priorities?
• What prompted you to start this project/contact me now?
• What can you tell me about your decision-making process? Who else is involved in your decision-making process?
• How do you handle your budget considerations?
• What other options are you looking at?
• What can you tell me about the other people involved in the process?
• What challenges, concerns or obstacles are in the way of moving this forward?
• How will you be evaluating different options? What’s most important to you?
• How will the funding for the project be justified?
• How much support does this have at the executive level?

Closing Questions

• Based on what we discussed, I fully understand your situation and know we can help? When can we get started?
• What else, if anything, do I need to address before we get started together?
• How would it feel if you started getting help with ____ right now? Then, let’s get started
• How do you feel about what we discussed? How does it sound so far?
• Where would you like to go from here?
• What do you feel should be our next steps together?
• I would love the opportunity to help you How do you want to proceed?
• Get the answers to these questions, and take action based on those answers, and you’ll impress the prospect that you care about them and likely get the sale.

Want to learn more? Watch a movie or contact us for more strategies to increase your sales conversion rates in ANY economy.

www.Sales-Advantage.net
info@Sales-Advantage.net
239-337-2667

But 2010 is different.
Here’s what I believe…

I believe that our economy has bottomed out.  The worst is behind us, and we will only get better from here.

I believe that business people are tired of the doom and gloom…and are ready to make things happen. 

I believe that the humbling experience of the last 2 years has made us all wiser, more fiscally conservative and less arrogant.

I believe that fear and apprehension with give way to courage, strength and new attitudes.

I believe that the American spirit of Democracy and hard work drive innovation, endurance and prosperity.  We will innovate to create ways to succeed.

I believe we will see companies move from a defensive “survival mode” to offensive “take ground” mode.

I believe new small business will spring up to think outside the box and fill needs that have been overlooked and create jobs that didn’t exist.

I believe in the power of Faith, Hope & Love.

What do you believe?

(Hint:  What you believe will determine what you achieve)

What’s the best way to sell right now?  Find a legitimate, painful, real need … and fill it.

Stop and honestly evaluate your company’s offerings.  Ask these questions:

• Do we currently fill a legitimate, painful, real need that people have?
  • If not, how can our offerings be retooled, repackaged or re-communicated to do so?
  • If so, identify and articulate specifically how you fill that need.
  • How do we approach a sales opportunity now? 
    • Are we still touting our offerings and talking about how wonderful our company and offerings are?  Do you only see $$ signs when you look at your prospects?
    • Or are we starting from a position of “what are your needs right now in this area?” and asking questions honestly designed to help our prospects?  Do you provide solutions to your needs?
    • What are the objections we are getting right now?
      • If so, what are they and how can our offerings be retooled, repackaged or re-communicated to address, reduce or remove the objections?
      • Are you backing up your claims with proof?

I can tell you that in this economy so many companies are struggling just to make ends meet. 
One of the biggest needs (if not the biggest) right now is money – making money and saving money.

Can you prove and quantify how your offering makes your clients money or saves them money?

If you can, your job is easy.  You might just need to tweak your approach, message and language to make sure that is your emphasis.

If you can’t, you have some work to do.  Go back to the questions above and ask yourself those questions honestly in light of that need.

Need more proof?  Read this study of Fortune 500 companies and note the trend.

• Of the Fortune 500 Companies – 35% had started their business in a recession
• Of the Fortune 100 – 46% had started their business in a recession
• Of the Fortune 50 – 52% had started their business in a recession
• Of the Fortune 25 – 64% had started their business in a recession
• Of the Fortune 10 – 70% had started their business in a recession

In our next article, we’ll explore proving and quantifying more in depth.  Here are the elements of proving and quantifying  your offering:

• Increasing sales numbers
• Lowering costs of doing business
• Low risks of doing business with you

Consider that all CEOs ask 3 questions directly or indirectly.

1. How Much?
2. How Soon?
3. How Risky?

Want more?  Contact us.  We’ve spent years analyzing sales and marketing practices, helping clients maximize their sales and marketing and building systems to help companies squeeze results from their sales and marketing operations.  That’s why we are called the “Sales and Marketing Experts”.  And we are delighted to share that wealth of information with you.

Genesis Global Technologies, authors of

Sales Advantage:  www.Sales-Advantage.net

Developers Advantage:  www.DevelopersAdvantage.net

Medical Advantage:  www.Medical-Advantage.net

239-337-2667