by Paul Cherry
Lock-on question: Could you give me some specifics of what you mean when you say partnership?
Partnership is one example of business jargon that has little real meaning. As a salesperson, you might think it means your customer is looking for a win-win, where you provide real value to the customer while improving your business. But to many customers, it’s simply a term to force vendors into price concessions—as in, “We want our vendors to partner with us to impact our cost structure.” So it’s important to lock on to these vague and often misleading terms and get customers to define them more precisely. That’s the only way to discover how—or whether—you can help your buyer.
Here’s another:
Customer: My company has been experiencing problems with our current vendor and we are looking for someone new.
Lock-on question: Can you give me an example of the problems you have been experiencing? [What better way for your customer to relive a painful situation created by a vendor?]
The power that comes from asking for examples cannot be overemphasized. There’s a vast difference between a customer who says, “Our vendor doesn’t bring anything new to the table” and one you can get to give you an example: “We were desperate for them to give us some new marketing ideas—and we would have paid a lot to get them—but instead we got a warmed-over version of last year’s program.” A customer who reveals a past problem experiences the emotional trauma of that problem again. He not only confides in you but also provides details of his business and his criteria for a vendor. In this example, you now know exactly what you have to do to win the business.
Lock-on questions work by providing answers that help you hone in on a certain aspect of a customer’s statement. You can then either clarify the words she is using or direct the conversation according to your needs. Here are some words and phrases that can be easily used to create lock-on questions:
Trying to
Dealing with
Problems
Concerns
Hopeful
Unclear
Stressful
Seeking
Needs
Improvement
Struggling
Having difficulties
Challenges
Afraid
Frustrated
Doubts
Searching
Looking for Goals
These words and others like them reveal emotions and indicate that there is a problem to be solved. They signal that a customer’s needs are not being completely met. When you lock on to them, you focus on the areas of concern and can begin to uncover ways to address those concerns.
Yet another example:
Customer: Our goal for this quarter is to reduce costs by 10 percent, but we have found this to be very challenging.
Lock-on question: When you say it has been challenging, what exactly do you mean?
See how simple it is once you get the hang of it? The word challenging connotes negative emotions and frustration owing to unattained goals. A lock-on question will help the customer vent those emotions and supply specifics that you can use to get the sale.
There are other indicators customers use that can be locked on and turned into great follow-up questions. One example is the use of the terms we, us, or ours. These pronouns tell you that there is more than one decisionmaker and more than one person affected by the problem. You can lock on to these words by asking, “I noticed you mentioned the word we. Who else is involved in this problem?”
Remember, when your customers give you these key words, they have opened the door for you to enter their minds. You should not feel like you are prying or being nosy. Customers want to talk about problems, frustrations, and concerns but often they do not know how to bring them up in conversation.
After identifying these words and using lock-on questions to discover the underlying problem, you can begin to present yourself as the solution provider. Your customer will be grateful that you have isolated the right problem and helped to create the solution. As was the case with the educational question, after you’ve used a lock-on question, you will be seen as a valuable partner in business, rather than someone who simply sells a product or provides a service.
Diagnosing Customer Problems
Lock-on questions are especially useful for diagnosing customer problems. Often, buyers are unaware of the true nature of their problems, or they’re reluctant to share that knowledge with you. A customer may tell you, “We need a product that does x, y, and z.” That’s a conversation that goes nowhere. Either you have a product that does x, y, and z, or you don’t. End of story.
A customer problem is a much richer vein to tap. Maybe your product doesn’t do x, y, or z, but it’s still the best solution for the problem. Maybe the buyer’s problem isn’t what she thinks it is. Maybe it’s bigger. Or more urgent. Or more costly.
Lock-on questions allow you to quickly move the conversation in that direction. Here’s an example:
Customer: We need a product that does x, y, and z.
You: Sure. May I ask why you need it?
Customer: We need to process incoming orders more quickly.
You: More quickly? Tell me more.
Customer: Well, we want to be able to deliver orders by the next day.
You: So next-day delivery isn’t something you’ve offered in the past, but now you feel you have to? How come?
Customer: Our competitors are offering it and we have to keep up. Our sales have been down for the last two quarters and the CEO is breathing down our necks to get the numbers back up.
As you can see, a few lock-on questions have taken the conversation in a much richer direction. The customer’s problem isn’t finding a product that does x, y, and z. The problem or motive is how to keep up with the competition and eliminate pressure from his boss. Once you understand what the buyer’s real problem is, you’re in a much better position to help. And the buyer is thinking, “Wow, this person really seems to understand my situation.”
When to Use Lock-On Questions
Just like the other question types introduced in this book, lock-on questions are not designed to be used continuously in a meeting. A conversation generously peppered with lock-on questions would seem false and uncomfortable to a customer and would not allow you to follow the logical progression of the meeting. Owing to their personal nature, lock-on questions should be used cautiously at the very beginning of a relationship. A customer faced with lock-on questions after just meeting you might think you are being insincere or even sarcastic. For example, if you’re cold calling and get the standard “We’re happy with our current vendor” brush-off, it would be presumptuous to respond, “When you say happy, what do you mean?” And used too frequently, lock-on questions can make a customer feel as if he or she is being cross-examined.
So you must understand the conditions and rules before you engage in lock-on questioning. Use lock-on questions when:
•You have a good rapport with the customer and have demonstrated empathy toward him.
•You have a sincere desire to connect with the customer.
•You respect the level of information your customer feels comfortable sharing.
•You avoid problems to which you cannot offer a solution.
•You focus on problems your competition is not addressing.
•You avoid problems that you or your company may have created in the past for this customer.
Also, if you feel lock-on questions will be viewed as too direct, you can use buffer statements to preface your question. Some examples of buffer statements include:
“Help me understand . . .”
“When you say the word . . .”
“Could you clarify for me . . .”
“What is an example that comes to mind . . .”
Exercise 1
After each customer statement, lock on to some of the words or phrases in that statement and use them to create possible lock-on questions. In the first example, I have gi
ven you a little help by putting in italics some of the words you could use to form your questions. Write as many lock-on questions you can think of.
1. “We have been looking at a few options to better meet our needs.”
How many lock-on questions were you able to formulate from that simple statement? Let’s hope you managed to come up with at least five or six questions for this opportunity. See “Suggested Responses” below for some ideas.
2. “Most of us agree that we should improve quality and performance while reducing overhead, all the while finding a vendor who can listen to our needs.”
3. “My department has been reprimanded for not meeting our profit goals.”
4. “At this time, we are struggling with a newly competitive market driven almost entirely by price.”
Suggested responses:
Here are some possible responses to the first item in Exercise 1:
1. “You mentioned you were looking. For how long have you been looking?”
2. “What prompted you to start looking?”
3. “What options have you considered?”
4. “What options have you eliminated?”
5. “You mentioned have been. Does that mean you are still looking?”
6. “What needs are not currently being met?”
7. “For how long have your needs not been met?”
8. “What criteria are you using to determine who can best meet your needs?”
9. “Which of your needs are most important?”
10. “You mentioned we. Who else has input into this decision?”
11. “How will the decision to pursue a new option be made?”
12. “Let’s assume your needs can be met. What do you hope to accomplish?”
By now you should be able to appreciate all of the opportunities secured when you use lock-on questions. It is important to remember, however, that lock-on questions cannot be effective if you do not listen carefully to the responses. The worst thing you can do is to get your customer to open up and reveal his emotions, and then ignore or misinterpret what he says. We all get impatient; we’re all eager to move to the next step. I know I have made this mistake myself. Instead of listening, I am thinking of my next question! Lock-on questions not only force you to listen, they also take the pressure to think of another question off of you. The question will appear right in front of you—if only you listen to your customer’s words.
The lock-on questioning technique is difficult for many salespeople to embrace. So many sales professionals are focused on their own agendas. They want to provide a solution without really listening to the problem. The truth is that every situation is different. Even if you are thinking, “I’ve heard this a dozen times before,” in reality the customer has specific concerns and individual motivations that you cannot possibly know unless she tells you. Lock-on questions not only provide a tool to use in your meetings, they also force you to take the time to listen to your customers.
How to Manage a Conversation Using Lock-On Questions
Now that you have learned how to focus on a customer’s emotions using the lock-on technique, you can begin to appreciate other ways it can be used. Many salespeople are wary at first about my system of questioning because they’re afraid of losing control of the conversation. What they do not realize is that by asking the questions, they are the ones in control. The questions give you the power to direct a meaningful conversation, instead of a monologue where you simply present your product and hope the customer becomes interested.
Let’s look at how good questions can guide a conversation:
Katherine sells clothing to department and discount stores, but she has been on the job for only a few months and has yet to have real success. She spent the last week calling different stores to discuss her company’s clothing line and still does not have a client to call her own.
This morning, she lands a call with the vice president of purchasing for a major discount store. Katherine hopes that this potential sale will be the one to finally put her on the map. The vice president confides that the store’s executives had recently held a meeting to discuss problems with their current vendor. This is the perfect moment for Katherine to use a lock-on question to uncover the exact nature of those problems. Katherine asks, “You mentioned your current vendor was not meeting your expectations. Could you give me an example of exactly what happened?”
Once the vice president starts talking, Katherine can easily find other questions to ask regarding the store’s situation. She can then use this information to tailor her presentation to meet the specific needs of that store.
Katherine could assume that this is her lucky day—she’s found a customer who’s ready to buy. But she needs to go deeper. She needs to determine whether the store executives are committed to make a change or just blowing off steam. As all of us in business know, there are hundreds of meetings a year about changes that should be made but never are.
Instead of assuming that a company has committed to making a change, Katherine has to examine her customer’s words and actions to determine where that customer is in the decisionmaking process. One of the initial ways to do this is to “qualify” the opportunity, using the techniques spelled out in Chapter 10. After qualifying, though, Katherine still needs to discover the stage of commitment in order to understand whether the company is ready to make a change in vendor, product, or service.
The Stages of Commitment
There are three stages of commitment: Should, Want To, and Have To. In the Should phase, the customer does not have the desire to change and does not see the need for change. In the Want To phase, the customer wants to change and recognizes the need to change but resists taking action. In the Have To phase, the customer stands ready to make a change and will embrace a solution tailored to the company’s needs. Figure 4-1 lists examples of words and behaviors of customers and their corresponding stages of commitment.
FIGURE 4-1. Customer behaviors in three stages of commitment.
By simply listening to the words the vice president uses, Katherine can learn the level of readiness of the store’s executives, and then use that knowledge to move them toward the Have To phase. She also needs to encourage the vice-president to relive the problems caused by the current vendor and explain what those problems mean for the company.
A simple way to do this is for Katherine to ask the vice president, “What have been some of the immediate effects of the problems with your current vendor?” Once Katherine brings these problems and their negative effects to the surface, she can then present herself as a sensible alternative to the current vendor. Let’s look at how Katherine can use a lock-on question to achieve these goals:
Vice President: Well, this is a pretty big coincidence. We just had a meeting two days ago to discuss how our current vendors were not exactly meeting our expectations. Would you be willing to come out for a presentation?
Katherine: I’d be delighted to put together a presentation for your company, but before I do that I need to know a little more about your situation. Could you give me an example of how your current vendor hasn’t met your expectations? (Lock-on question)
Vice President: Something happened just last month, as a matter of fact. We were supposed to get shipments of ten thousand bathing suits to our stores nationwide. Our supplier failed to get us the shipments on time—in fact, the swimsuits did not get to our stores for four weeks! Obviously, we expect our vendors to deliver the promised goods on time.
Katherine capitalized on a few comments made by the customer. She used a lock-on question and benefited in two ways: She found out more about the customer’s business, and she succeeded in having the customer verbalize a problem with the current vendor.
The Impact Question
Once you have gotten a customer to articulate a problem and offer an example, it’s time to move beyond the lock-on questions and enter a new phase: the impact question. In this phase, you will be using the information you’ve lear
ned so far to get the customer to focus on the impact of the problem.
Everyone has problems. Some we decide we can live with, because we’re not willing to invest the time, effort, and resources needed to solve them. To elevate these problems to the Have To level, begin by helping your customer quantify these problems. A customer who does not appreciate the size of the problem will not be motivated to change. The way to achieve this motivation is through the use of the impact question.
Impact questions take customers through the problem, asking them to relive it and calculate how it affects the company and themselves. The impact question often begins with coaching a customer into calculating how much money is lost by staying with the current vendor product, situation, or service.
Let’s look at an example of this approach that Katherine can use with the vice president and then we will discuss the second part of impact questions.
Vice President: Something happened just last month, as a matter of fact. We were supposed to get shipments of ten thousand bathing suits to our stores nationwide. Our supplier, Shag Clothing, failed to get us the shipments on time—in fact, the swimsuits didn’t arrive for four weeks!
Katherine: What effects did this delay have on your company?
Vice President: The shopping season for swimsuits is surprisingly short, so missing out on four weeks is equivalent to missing half of the season. Plus, we had empty swimsuit racks right in the front of our stores!
Katherine: How much do you charge for these swimsuits?
Vice President: About thirty dollars per suit. This year we missed half of the season. We expected to sell ten thousand swimsuits but we sold only about twenty-five hundred.
Katherine: This means that seventy-five hundred swimsuits were left in inventory and you lost approximately $225,000 in revenue. Does that seem correct?
