If you have been in sales for any amount of time you know that you must use open ended questions to get your prospect to talk and tell you how you should sell to him. Not all questions are the same, qualifying questions help you uncover whether there is a need for what you sell. Ask these questions correctly and you can save yourself a lot of time by disqualifying a prospect if you can identify early that there is not a fit.

The Right Questions lead to Agreement

Questions about what your prospect has bought in the past is helpful, also inquiring about what they liked and disliked about their past purchases tell you a lot about what they would buy in the future.

Every salesperson knows this but knowing it and doing it is a total different thing. In a lot of cases the sales person will think he is smarter than the prospect and feel as though the prospect is not being forthright. The salesperson will persist and ask additional questions defeating the entire effort.

The reason this happens is because people do not want to be sold and salespeople are at a dis- advantage because their prospect know what they are up to even when they are diligent in asking all of the proper qualifying questions.

So in other words the best tactics are not working even when you find salespeople who adhere to the complete process of asking the traditional qualifying questions. What now?

Well it is time to take a step back. I suggest sales interviews begin by asking for help! Most prospects are not expecting a request for help and in doing so you are disarming your prospect. Most people want to help if they can. The question you will ask next is if your prospect knows of a person maybe even him or herself who would have an interest in the benefit or the solution your product provides?

Make sure you are asking about a benefit not a feature; this is critical. This approach positions you as someone who is focused on solving problems and will increase your sales, referrals and reduce your exposure to rejection because you are only asking for help finding the right people. You are still qualifying  your prospects but this approach lightens your load and is more efficient. The leverage could prolong or even save your career.

I wish I could say I coined this approach but i did not it was first brought to my attention by Ari Galper who does a training program on the subject I am not an affiliate of his and am not selling his program. He has other techniques that are golden for handling objections as well. Just Google Ari Galper and look him up.

To your success,

Valdez Lasartemay