Questions that Sell

by Paul Cherry

  Here’s another possible scenario:

  Salesperson: Assuming we can address your needs regarding ________ and stay within your budget of ________, tell me what you see as a next step.

  Prospective Client: Well, I would bring you in to meet my boss and our team leader.

  Hearing this response should immediately signal that there is interest here. By asking the legitimizing question, you learn the next step in the process, as well as who else will be involved in making the decision.

  After you have used the three-step qualifying process to determine that your prospect is legitimate, you can go on to ask more questions. Especially if your prospective customer appears to want to continue the dialogue, you can use this opportunity to gain a huge amount of information and secure a commitment for the next step. This strategy saves you time, helps you focus on genuine business opportunities, and gives you more control over the sales process.

  A Chain of Questions

  The qualifying process involves three steps, but it almost always involves way more than three questions. Good questions lead to more questions. Each question in the chain gives you more valuable insights. Even more important, it helps the prospect think more deeply about the sales process and what has to happen to get what he wants.

  Here’s an example of a chain of qualifying questions:

  “Based on what I have presented to you, what do you like the most about what we’ve discussed?”

  Notice that I want to know where he stands. Is this person engaged enough to identify one or two key areas that get him motivated? Or are you going to get a blow-off such as, “I like everything,” or “It all sounds good”?

  Let’s say the prospect responds like this: “Well, what I really like about what we discussed is how it’s going to make my job easier and free up a lot of my time that could be better spent in working with my team.”

  Your next clarifying question might be:

  “You mentioned that Mike will be involved in deciding whether to go forward. From Mike’s perspective, tell me what you feel will be of most value to him.”

  The prospect might say: “Mike is all about the bottom line and generating more sales. I think that’s what will be of most interest to him.”

  At this point, take a moment to respond and validate what you’ve heard: “Great. You’re right: It definitely will free up everyone’s time so they can do more productive activities and generate more sales.”

  Next, start to “rehearse” the sales process with your buyer:

  “So if Mike raises some concerns—for example, if he says he doesn’t see how this would increase sales, what would you say to him?”

  The prospect might say: “Well, this is something near and dear to me. I spend at least fifteen to eighteen hours a week processing orders that would be off my plate. I’d point out to Mike that this is time I could devote to getting out on sales calls with my team and closing more sales. Don’t worry: I know how to sell him on it.”

  If you get that kind of answer—where the prospect is passionate, takes ownership, and has the confidence to sell the concepts internally—by all means let him or her go for it. But what if you get a response like this: “Well if Mike doesn’t see the value, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. He’s the boss, and we do what he says”?

  You’ll hear plenty of these types of frustrating responses. But consider: Your prospect has just given you incredible insight into the dynamics of the organization. You’re learning about the relationship between Mike and the prospect. You’re learning what kind of resistance may be in store, who really makes the decisions, the prospect’s level of confidence, and his ability to sell your ideas. So now you know how to work this sale. You might say:

  “Thanks for your candor. So here’s what I recommend: The three of us sit down together and go over the pros and cons with this proposed solution. I say this because questions are going to come up. It’s important that we get Mike’s perspective, how he sees things, and be able to respond to issues he might raise. And I’ll be there to support you and address them. What does next week look like for the three of us to get together?”

  So why not just ask to meet with Mike in the first place? Because you haven’t given the prospect a reason to say yes. By taking him or her through a chain of clarifying questions, you help the prospect arrive at this conclusion on their own. He or she is thinking: “Yeah, I don’t want to look stupid in front of Mike. He asks tough questions, and that makes me anxious. If all three of us meet, the pressure is off of me; I trust that you can go in with me and articulate the value. And if there’s any pushback or if the boss says no, it’ll be on you, not me.”

  As you can see, the chain of clarifying questions never explicitly asked the buyer to talk about these emotional drivers, but it revealed them all the same. And that allows you to create a powerful sales strategy.

  In fact, a big part of the legitimizing process involves motivating prospects to open doors and introduce you to other key decisionmakers in their organization. That demonstrates trust, and that they value the relationship they are starting to build with you. And it instills confidence.

  The bottom line is this: When someone gives weak responses and doesn’t want to get their boss or others who have a stake in the decision involved, a red flag should go up. It means they don’t have a stake in selling your solution internally and will fold at the first sign of push-back. Most likely, they’ll come back to you with vague objections, or even worse, stall you with excuses like, “I haven’t had time to present it to her,” or “I haven’t heard anything,” or “She’s really busy.”

  Now let’s examine some typical situations where you can use the three-step qualifying process.

  “I Need to Talk It Over With . . .”

  Do you ever feel as if no one wants to make a decision, or that you are always talking to the wrong person in a company? Even though selling to buying groups, boards, or committees is a common scenario today, you must remember that companies do not make decisions—people do. Yet, because of competing interests within an organization, it is often difficult to determine who really has the final say on a purchase and who has the greatest influence during the decisionmaking process.

  When you are offered a response such as, “I need to talk it over with Mike,” you can use the three-step process that we outlined in the previous example, asking questions that will help clear up some of the confusion.

  Agree. Respond to this statement with something like, “Great, I’m happy to hear that you will discuss this with him.” You need to remember, however, not to end the call there. As in the previous example, continue the chain: If you fail to secure a time for that follow-up call or meeting, it is likely that this prospective client may not be motivated to pass your information along to the decisionmaker.

  Clarify. Get some more information from your prospective customer. Make sure that you obtain a time frame within which the action will occur, as well as some specifics about the impending interaction.

  If your prospective customer cannot or will not answer your clarifying question, this is probably not a legitimate business opportunity.

  “Call Me Back in Three Months”

  Unfortunately, there aren’t prospective customers sitting at their desks this very minute waiting for you to call. It should not surprise you, then, that many people are busy when you call them out of the blue. What is important to remember is that you cannot assume anything from this response.

  “Call me back” is one of the most difficult answers to decipher. Sometimes a prospect might really be busy, maybe even in the middle of a crisis, and she has absolutely no time to talk. If you get this response, ask for a specific time to call back. If a prospect is willing to give you that consideration, then there might be a business opportunity. If not, you might want to move on to the next prospect.

  When you hear “Call me back in three months,” do you know whether or not the prospective customer is interested in your
service? No. In most cases, the response is a knee-jerk reaction by a buyer who wants to avoid a decision or is assuming what you are selling is of little or no value. It’s easier than giving you an absolute no, or thinking about whether this is something they might need. “Call me back” creates the illusion that they’ve kept their options open. But with few exceptions, nothing will happen over the next three months that will make this decision any easier. In fact, you’ve probably experienced numerous times that when you do follow up at the time they suggested, you get the same canned reply, “I’m busy, call me back.” And that’s if you are lucky enough to have even got a hold of them. Right?

  So you need to find out more information from this person to evaluate whether you should spend your valuable time calling him again or cut your losses. Here is how the three steps help you do this:

  Agree. Whether it’s a prospect or a current customer, when you hear, “Call me back at a later date,” common sense dictates that you first go along with this request. Although it may sound trivial, make sure that you agree to that request and set a specific time for your return phone call. This minimizes the risk of calling back at a time when the prospect has other commitments or is away from the office. Otherwise, you’ll get trapped in voice mail phone tag and might spend another two months calling him back.

  Clarify and legitimize. “Call me back” is a great example in which you do not always have to follow the three-step approach systematically. Responding to “call me back” allows you to combine your clarify and legitimize questions, giving you flexibility on how to engage your prospects.

  Here are some additional qualifying questions to ask:

  “So that I can best prepare my follow-up call, what exactly will we be discussing?” [assuming he knows who you are].

  “As I plan my next call with you, what will be occurring between now and the next three months?” [or the time frame he gave you].

  “So that I am attentive to you when I follow up, what do you have in mind that we should be prepared to talk about?”

  You must now quickly evaluate whether or not the answers to your clarifying questions suggest a legitimate business opportunity or a vast black hole in which you would be wasting hours of your time. A prospective customer who can cite specific problems he wants to address, such as low productivity or troubles in human resources, shows that he recognizes the value of your service and should be classified as a legitimate opportunity. His answer would be something like, “When you call me back, I would like to discuss how we can streamline our shipping process because we have been losing business owing to delays in this area.”

  Another legitimate opportunity would involve a situation in which an important person who should be involved in evaluating your proposal is currently on vacation or on a business trip. A prospective client might say, “John, our shipping supervisor, who needs to assist me in making this decision, is traveling, but he will be back within the next few weeks and I would like his input.”

  You can continue to clarify and legitimize at this point, with questions like these:

  “What do you perceive will be of most interest to John?”

  “What key points will you be stressing to him?”

  “What concerns do you think John will have?”

  After asking any of these questions, follow up with a legitimizing question to evaluate how committed your prospective customer is to going forward. Some options include: “Assuming John likes what he hears, what do you think will happen next?” or “Imagine John is not receptive. How do you think you would respond?” You can have a little fun with this and propose some potential objections to test how solid the contact’s support is for your proposal—for example, “Do you think John is going to have time to work on this problem when he gets back?”

  These questions should provide you with enough information to conclude that the call has potential.

  Unfortunately, you will not always get to this stage in an initial sales call. There will be many times when a legitimate sales opportunity does not exist. In most cases, “Call me back” will be a blow-off, but it’s worth asking a few more questions to be sure.

  Some experts will suggest that if a prospect says he or she is too busy to talk, you shouldn’t even try to engage them. In my view, however, a prospect who’s willing to pick up the phone instead of letting the call go to voice mail isn’t that busy, and many will give you the opportunity to ask a couple of brief questions. Otherwise, good luck trying to reconnect with them at a later date.

  The important thing to remember is that by qualifying each call you will tend to spend more time on those prospective clients most likely to do business with you.

  “You Really Should Be Talking to Jeanine”

  This reply provides a convenient out for many people. The prospective customer relinquishes responsibility and passes it on to Jeanine. Although there may be some instances when this response represents the truth, many times it is simply another way for the prospect to bow out.

  You need to tailor your questions to your audience. For example, imagine you are trying to sell software to the president of a large corporation. You have to engage her on how your product will increase profits, reduce overhead, and improve communications. If you start getting into technical language and differences between operating systems, she might simply delegate the decision to a lower-level purchasing agent. A low-level manager will not be as interested in your long-term promises; rather, this person will most likely be more interested in one factor—price. You will have lost a golden opportunity to deal directly with the senior decisionmaker and be left haggling over pennies.

  By completing the following exercise, you will have the chance to practice using the three-step qualifying process to determine whether or not you are talking with a genuine prospect.

  Exercise 1

  The customer says, “You really should be talking to someone else.” Write down (or at least formulate in your head) the three steps you should follow to determine if you have a legitimate business opportunity.

  Agree. Write down a sentence that agrees with something the person has said.

  Clarify. Find out why the person thinks you should be talking to someone else, and what topic the customer feels this other person will be most interested in discussing. Write down your question.

  Legitimize. Write down a question that can help you determine whether there’s a legitimate opportunity here.

  So how did you do? At this point, you should have been able to formulate one response and two questions to elicit information from your prospective client. Here are some examples of good answers to the exercise. Check your questions against these examples to ensure that you have internalized the three-step qualifying process.

  Answers to Exercise 1

  Agree. Your answer should be positive and concise. “Great! I would be happy to talk to Jeanine!”

  Clarify. Your answer should probe the possible interest of the company in your service, the prospect’s relationship with Jeanine, or Jeanine’s possible interests related to your service: (1) “So that I can prepare for my call with Jeanine, what do you think will be of most interest to her?” Or (2), “I want to be ready for any questions Jeanine might have. What do you see as a benefit to changing your current service?” Or (3), “Based on your past experiences working with Jeanine, how receptive do you think she’ll be to considering us?” Or (4), “So that I’ll be prepared when I speak to Jeanine, what challenges have you experienced with your current service?”

  Legitimize. Your answer should include the two parts of the legitimizing question, as well as prompt consideration on the part of the prospective customer. (1) “Let’s assume I get through to Sarah and she likes what she hears. What do you see happening next?” Or (2), “Just pretend for a second that Sarah has read my proposal. Can you think of any concerns she might have?”

  Exercise 2

  Now you are on your own. Supply your solutions to the following response (one yo
u have probably encountered more than once): “Send me some references.”

  Answers to Exercise 2

  Agree: “I would love to give you a list of our references right now!” (This way you keep the conversation going and do not have to waste time and money sending the information. Also, if you agree to forward the information without any further questioning, you will run the risk of not getting a response from that prospect.)

  Clarify: (1) “So that I can have you talk to the right people, what specifically would you like to discuss with these individuals?” Or (2), “I would like to let my references know you will be calling. When do you plan on contacting them?”

  Legitimize: “I am sure that you realize that our references represent our most satisfied customers and will naturally say good things about us. Let us assume that you have talked to them and you like what you hear; what do you feel will happen next?”

  Why Qualify?

  Many books on sales and sales techniques put a great burden on the salesperson to close every deal, no matter what. This is a mistake. There will be numerous times when you’ll find that there is simply no sale to be had! By pursuing a sale that does not exist, you risk alienating a potential future customer by making yourself a nuisance. Also, you will be spending your valuable time and energy without getting anything in return. This is why the three-step qualifying process is so important. In a matter of a few minutes, and with some well-constructed questions, you will be able to evaluate whether or not a prospect has genuine interest in doing business with you. You will save time and money, not to mention enormous amounts of aggravation on your part as well as the prospective customer’s. Furthermore, the answers you will elicit by using this process will provide you with invaluable information about your prospect and her company.