7/23/2024-ASK the damn question!

Customers don’t intentionally offer generic and vague statements and answers to your questions. Just to be sure, your probing follow-up questions will always keep them honest.

The buyer looks up from reviewing your proposal and says, "Yeah, it looks good." You think to yourself, "…great….WHAT looks good about it?"

Sooooo…ASK. Qualify them. Right then and there.

The buyer continues, "We might move this through the org and see what others think." You think to yourself, "WHO exactly are you gonna send it to?"

ASK.

Don’t squander the opportunity to learn what you need to know.

Speak up!

Probe. Push. Quantify.

If your buyers make statements that need qualifying, then qualify!

Today, listen closely to your buyers’ words and decide what qualifying or probing questions you must ask as follow-ups.

Focus your qualifying questions on clarifying context and weight.

Context: "I’m glad you like our proposal…what specifically is appealing to you?"

Weight: "It’s good to hear feedback about that feature you like, how important is it to you?"

The driver behind skilled qualifying is not being satisfied with anything but the specific and honest truth.

You will undoubtedly come across and work with many customers who give you nothing! …information, that is. Insights. Guidance. Context.

You should be more on guard with those who talk too much and give away the store with little prompting. (Are they saying anything of value?)

Either way, you can’t be a true solution provider and partner to your customers if you don’t have the truth. Right now, you’re muttering, "I always get the truth…my customers tell me everything."

Do they?

There’s always more insights and truth to learn…and, of course, information is worth a lot in the sales game.

Assuming you feel you can get more from each client, ramp up your qualifying and probing. This skill is not about walking around with a hammer looking for nails, it’s about gentle, easy-going probing and question layering.

Today, go further with your customers. Ask smart and strategic questions…and then listen. What’s the worst that could happen?

This entertaining "Questions Only" game from the Whose Line Is It Anyway show brilliantly illustrates the discipline needed to ask questions.

This clip is fun and funny and shows how hard it is to stay curious and probe with questions.

Certainly, your job isn’t to interrogate your customers, but how often do you give up or worse, NOT ask a question you should?