Questions that Sell

by Paul Cherry

  Need is also a way to gain insight into what different people within the decisionmaking process value most, and the criteria they’ll be using to assess your proposal. For example, a purchasing agent may need a low price, because it’s how he or she is measured. An engineer or IT person, by contrast, may need quality, reliability, and performance. The CEO needs growth, profitability, and increased market share.

  You have to determine whether these various stakeholders’ needs add up to a sufficiently compelling reason to buy. And you have to determine which needs take precedence. You may not be able to deliver the quality that the engineers want at the price that purchasing demands. So what happens then? Whose needs prevail?

  Here are some questions to ask:

  •What exactly are your needs?

  •Can you prioritize them for me?

  •Who’s driving this initiative and why?

  •What led you to call me/take my call today?

  •Tell me what’s changed in your organization that’s prompting you to address this issue now?

  •How will you determine a successful outcome? How will you measure success?

  •You mentioned that price, quality, and service were three important criteria. Why those three? Which is most important? Least important?

  •Let’s assume you are looking at three potential vendors who meet all of your criteria (including price). How would you then make your decision?

  •You mentioned that the most important thing for you is price. How does that compare to what others (dealers, end-users, engineering, manufacturing, design, production, marketing, fulfillment) think is most important?

  •If you can think back to when you first chose your current product, what were your selection criteria? Based on what you know now, how would those criteria change?

  •If you think ahead to three years from now, what do you anticipate will be most important about this purchase? The initial price? The performance over time? The opportunities it opens up for you, your organization, and/or your customers?

  •Which characteristics are “must haves” for you, and which are optional?

  Time-Frame

  Time frame is closely related to Need. If a buyer really, really, really needs something, they’ll have a clear timetable for acquiring it. If they say they really need it but are willing to live without it for now, you will be facing an uphill battle. Other priorities are likely to intervene. Meanwhile, your buyer will continue to insist that they really do want to get started, just as soon as this other thing gets squared away.

  Timing questions are also closely aligned with questions about Authority. For example, your immediate contact may feel great urgency to get something done. But do the ultimate decisionmakers or other stake-holders feel differently?

  Sometimes buyers will be hoping that you can light a fire under management when they’ve been unable to do so themselves. Good luck with that. If the boss is comfortable saying no to your contact, why would she say yes to you, an outsider? When you ask the time-frame question, you find out how committed the organization really is to moving forward.

  Here are some examples of time-frame questions:

  •How quickly do you want to move forward?

  •What’s your time frame for getting this done?

  •How urgent is this issue? Does it have to be addressed right now, or are there more urgent priorities?

  •Do you have a date when you need to get started?

  •What might be some roadblocks that could get in the way of getting started by that date?

  •Would you say this is a priority? The top priority? One of the top three? What’s a higher priority?

  •Who else sees this/doesn’t see this as a priority?

  •What happens if you don’t get started by . . . ?

  •Do you have a schedule or project plan in place? What are the decision points in that plan? Are there dates assigned?

  Budget

  The “What’s your budget?” question is often the most difficult of the BANT questions, so we’ll spend more time on it. It can seem intrusive, nosy, or blunt.

  And most of the time you get a response like this: “I don’t know. Why don’t you put together a proposal so that I can present to my team and we’ll see where things go?”

  In my early days of selling, I would consider that a buying signal and go back to the office to spend hours working up a proposal. I’d submit it, and more often than not one of three things would happen—the first one bad, and the second one worse, and the third one worst of all.

  Here’s the bad scenario: Things would go silent. I’d never hear from the prospect again. My proposal scared them off, or they never had any interest or money to begin with and didn’t want to tell me.

  The worse scenario: The prospect reviews my proposal and says, “Wow, that’s a lot of money.” All of a sudden they become the most educated consumer ever about how much they want to spend. Invariably, their number would be far less than what I’d proposed, or what I was willing to charge. Another wasted effort.

  The worst-of-all scenario: The prospect would get back to me with all sorts of questions about the budget. They’d ask me to “sharpen my pencil” and have another go at it. But they still wouldn’t tell me whether they had budget allocated. More time invested, same outcome.

  So what is my point here? If your time is valuable (and in sales it’s all you have), you have to pin the buyer down before you invest more in the opportunity.

  Here are examples of respectful, yet direct, ways to get an answer:

  You: So I can put together a proposed solution that’s going to meet you and your organization’s needs, what’s your budget?

  Prospect: Well, I don’t know yet. It’s really going to depend on what you propose.

  You: I appreciate that. In fact, I face a similar dilemma. I can’t create a proposal unless I know how much you can spend. So here’s what I suggest: Why don’t you find out what your company is prepared to invest? Too often I’ve seen clients end up spending more money and resources than necessary because they didn’t have budget numbers to begin with. So how soon can you get back to me with those numbers?

  Here’s another approach:

  You: I understand and here’s what I recommend: Let’s find out what budget numbers you have to work with. Because the last thing I want to do is to recommend something that is not in alignment with your goals, needs, and budget expectations. Why put you through that? How soon can you get back to me with some budget numbers?

  Some prospects are just shopping around. They really do know what they can spend, or at least have an idea; they just don’t want to reveal it. That’s not fair to you or to them. How can you help them if they won’t tell you what they can spend? I can’t tell you how much time and effort I’ve wasted putting together a quote or proposal and later been told it didn’t fit the budget. In other words, there was a budget, but someone decided I couldn’t be trusted with that information. Not a good way to start a relationship.

  That said, there are situations where the prospect is gathering information to help them scope a project. That’s a very different situation. It’s not a qualified opportunity, so you don’t want to spend a lot of time on it. At the same time, it could become an opportunity somewhere down the road, so you want to be helpful. The questions might go something like this:

  Prospect: Well, we really don’t have a budget yet.

  You: I see. So let me ask, where are you at in your process? Is this something you’re just thinking about? Or are you putting together a budget and need some ballpark figures?

  Prospect: Yes, my boss asked me to get some general numbers so we could see if this is something we’d consider.

  You: Got it. Of course, since there’s a lot more I’d like to know about you and your company, I can’t offer any hard-and-fast numbers. But in my experience, companies your size generally allocate somewhere between $ ________ and $ _________ a year. Anything less than that and you probably
won’t get the impact you need. The high end may be more than you need. But that gives you a range to work with. Does that sound like numbers you could work with?

  Prospect: Yes. Would you like to send us a proposal?

  You: It sounds like that would be premature until you have a budget approved. Why don’t you share these preliminary numbers with your boss, and if this is something you’re prepared to invest in, let me know. In fact, the three of us should get together and come up with a proposed plan. What do you think?

  What if you are selling basic products such as a tool, a chair, a drill, a forklift, a book, etc., where you don’t have to create a proposal? You just look up the product and the price appears. Do you just give the buyer a price?

  It depends. In exchange for the information, you can ask a question. You might say, “We have a variety of nice options. So that I can recommend the right one that’s going to fit your needs, let me ask you: What budget are you looking to work with?”

  Here are additional ways to ask about budgets:

  •Share with me the budget parameters you want to stay within.

  •What are some budget numbers you’re working with?

  •Budgetwise, where are you looking to be?

  •Walk me through your budgetary approval process.

  •How do you go about getting a budget approved for a project like this?

  •So what’s a low end versus a high end where you need to be in terms of a budget?

  •You have told me that your company has allocated $ _______ for this product. How was that amount determined?

  •Do you think the allocation of funds is sufficient for the project at hand?

  •Can you give me a sense of how much the company is prepared to invest?

  •We’re not right for everyone. If a company can’t invest at least $5,000, we probably can’t offer an effective solution. So is that in line with your expectations?

  If a prospect won’t give you any budget numbers, you can also try feeding them numbers until they respond. It’s sort of like poking them with a needle (and how often do you get to do that with prospects?). For example:

  You: What’s your budget?

  Prospect: I don’t know.

  You: You have a lot of options that might suit your needs, which are in the range of 10 to 40k. Where are you looking to be?

  Prospect: Oh, the most we’re thinking is around 12 to 15k, max. [Surprise! He did know after all.]

  You: So just to make sure I understand, you’re thinking your budget is going to be from 12 to 15k. Is that what I am hearing?

  Prospect: Yes.

  You: And what if you and your organization find the ideal solution that is the perfect fit not just for the short term but for the long term? How much wiggle room do you see beyond 15k?

  Prospect: Well, if we found the ideal solution, yes. We’d have some flexibility to go beyond that number

  You: And how would you define the ideal solution?

  Prospect: If we found a product with long-term durability and no quality or safety concerns, so we don’t repeat that costly mistake we had six months ago, then yes, we’d be open to spending more—maybe 20k.

  Authority

  The next part of BANT is Authority: Who makes the decisions? Who are the champions, naysayers, influencers, and so on?

  You won’t find out what you need simply by asking your prospect, “Who’s the decisionmaker on this?” It’s never that simple. Few buyers have absolute authority. Even in the simplest sales—say a couple shopping for a new car—the decisionmaking process is complicated, and it’s not always clear who has the final say. In complex sales, that’s even more true. In addition, the question comes across as a bit offensive—suggesting that you don’t have time for this person unless he or she can buy from you. And it may encourage a prospect to be less than forthright about how much authority he or she really has.

  What you’re really looking for is a way to map the decisionmaking process. You want to know who the players are, how they’re going to determine value, and how they interact with one another. You want to know who will have the most influence, who will have the least, and where everybody else falls in between.

  Let’s face it: Even in the best of worlds, you can’t please everybody completely. Not everyone’s interests are aligned. Sometimes they’re in opposition. You have to know the dynamics or you might be selling to the wrong people or putting forward the wrong value proposition.

  Asking about the decisionmaking process is also a way to find out what your prospect values and what they don’t. If you ask buyers directly—“What’s important to you and your company?”—you’re likely to get a lot of vague generalities. When you ask about the decisionmaking process, you get useful and realistic assessments of value. If you can get your customers to express the major criteria that their companies use when making their decisions, you find out what’s important to them.

  You also need to map the decisionmaking process so you can influence it when the time comes. For example, you may need to maneuver around naysayers and tailor your recommendations to the people who carry the most weight.

  And if you can’t get a clear picture of the decisionmaking process, that’s a strong signal that this may not be an opportunity you want to invest your time in. It could be that you’re talking to someone with limited or no authority (which is why they can’t tell you how the decision will be made). Or you could be talking to an organization that isn’t anywhere close to buying (which is why they haven’t established a decisionmaking process).

  Here are some authority questions to ask:

  •Walk me through your decisionmaking process.

  •How are buying decisions made at your company?

  •Help me understand your role and who else is involved. Of these people, who’s responsible for deciding what?

  •As you look at getting approval, who do you see is in favor? Who might oppose it? Of those who might not be in favor, how would you get their buy-in?

  •How committed are you to get approval on this project?

  •What are the steps that your organization has to take to reach a decision on this type of purchase?

  •How do you see the decisionmaking process going?

  •Tell me what challenges you foresee in the decisionmaking process.

  •Tell me your thoughts on this upcoming project. How does your boss feel about it? Your peers? Others on your team? The committee?

  •How can we tailor this message so everyone sees it as a win instead of a loss?

  •Share with me your personal interest in the successful outcome of this project.

  CHAPTER

  14

  For Future Sales, Ask About the Past

  DURING EVERY SALES training session, I ask salespeople to write down the questions they ask on a regular basis, whether in a first-time sales call or when renewing an established relationship.

  Without fail, about 90 percent of the questions we tally are about the present. For example:

  •What are you currently doing?

  •How many are you producing?

  •How do you use this product/application?

  •What vendor are you using?

  •What do you like about them?

  •Are you the decisionmaker?

  •What are your biggest challenges?

  •What can I do for you?

  Only a few questions are about the future, and rarely do I collect any about the past. If there is a question about the past, it’s usually a warm-up question, such as, “How long have you been with the company?”

  Why don’t salespeople ask questions about the past? Some think that dwelling on what happened last year, or even last month, is irrelevant. Salespeople have told me: “I can only make money in the present or the future. The past is dead, done, and gone. So why bother asking questions about it?”

  Here’s why: because the customer’s present problems and future responses are rooted in the past.

&
nbsp; Asking questions about the past is a wonderful way to understand your customers’ priorities, motives, and behaviors. Imagine that you are interviewing a prospective employee. You wouldn’t focus all of your questioning on the present or the future. You would want to know what the candidate had accomplished in the past and how she had made her choices. The reason you ask these questions is because they will help you understand what the candidate is likely to do if you hire her.

  It’s exactly the same when you’re talking to prospects and customers.

  Questions about the past allow you to discover how you can best sell to customers in the future. They also help you understand how they think and act. For example, they allow you to understand the nature and magnitude of problems the customer has encountered, how the customer responded, and the outcomes he experienced. You learn which players were involved. You gain insights into their former or current vendor relationships and the strength of those relationships. You learn about organizational changes, trends, or competitive threats they have weathered.

  In fact, nearly everything you need to know about a customer can be found in the past. So why not spend more time there?

  Here are some examples of questions you can ask about the past:

  •What would you say is different about your organization today from when you started with this company?

  •What originally led you to work for this company? What were your expectations when you came on board, and how have they changed since you’ve been here?

  •Since you have been with the company, what have been some of the biggest hurdles you have faced?

  •Could you tell me about the changes your department has gone through recently? What challenges or opportunities did those changes create for you?

  •As you look back on your career, what has given you the greatest sense of accomplishment? If you could do it over again, what would you do differently?