Every sales professional knows asking questions is important. Yet, one challenge we commonly see across the board is the quality of questions being asked by salespeople. In this article, we offer three mindset shifts that show you how to ask better sales questions.
When you don’t ask good questions, you not only fail to persuade your buyer; you position yourself narrowly in the buyer’s mind.
Here’s how it usually goes.
A salesperson starts a conversation by asking questions they feel comfortable with or asking questions they know the answer to. They are gaining facts and figures, asking “how many?” and “what are you looking for?”. The problem is those questions are not for the buyer’s benefit.
These types of questions are solely for the benefit of gaining information from which to put together ideas or a proposal.
Would you like to be on the end of a conversation like this? Probably not.
Imagine how they feel. They already know all this information so it’s not particularly interesting or insightful. How does that make the buyer feel about the salesperson?
The reason many sales professionals ask poor questions is mindset. You spend a long time trying to meet the client. There’s a lot of pressure to not mess it up. This worry leads to asking ‘safe’ questions.
To understand how to ask better sales questions, it is important to adopt three mindsets before any sales conversation. Here they are.
Adopt a mindset of confidence
You don’t need to know all the answers. When you leave this belief behind, suddenly you open up the possibility of shifting to become more to your buyer.
If you come into the conversation with a mindset of greater confidence, you no longer focus on how you are perceived.
Instead, you focus on the buyer – and ensure the conversation is of great value to your buyer.
The goal of a sales conversation should be to add insight, offer a new perspective and see their challenge in a different way.
You can only do this if you’re free of the fear of thinking you need to know all the answers.
Adopt a broader, more strategic focus
The most successful salespeople operating at the highest level are happy to ask any question. No question is off the table in their need to understand what the buyer wants.
The reason they can do this is because they take a broader, more strategic view of the challenge before them.
When you ask questions for which you already know the answer or you’re trying to fact find, you adopt a narrow view. When you consider the product and try to move the conversation towards this, you miss the bigger opportunity.
By having the confidence to broaden your remit, you can ask questions that you may not know the answer to without feeling concerned
Adopt a mentality of meticulous planning
Ahead of those early, exploratory meetings adopt a mindset of meticulous planning. Use a level of planning you would put into a final pitch.
Don’t view the meeting as a simple fact-finding mission. Anyone can fact-find. Seek to ask strategic questions with a view to gaining more insight to add value or offer a new perspective.
This may mean asking questions that challenge them or ask more of them than repeating facts. If they go away from a meeting having been asked a question they can’t answer or challenged in a way they’ve not been challenged before, it positions you differently.
When you do this, it positions you higher on the value chain. Your potential buyer doesn’t just call you when they want to talk products, they call you when they need insight or provocation.
The more you prepare, the greater the opportunity to position yourself in this way.
In conclusion, adopting the three mindsets will transform your conversations, strengthen your position with the buyer and help you win more business.
Better questions move you from a ‘just another face’ the buyer has seen, to someone they call when they need to solve bigger problems and have larger, more transformative opportunities.
Have more courage, hone your question skills and always put your focus on doing it for the client. The buyer will see you in a very different light.