Ask, Don't Tell

Companies often hire sales trainers to teach their teams how to be better “closers.” They want the tips, techniques, tricks and secrets that will help them close more sales. Whenever I am called for one of these assignments, I tell them, if you want your reps to be better closers, they need to be better sellers. There are hundreds of closing tricks that have been used over the years, but most are either outdated or just don’t work. Closing should be the natural outcome of the sales process.
Most people think the best presenters and closers make the best salespeople. Not true. Being able to give a terrific presentation and having the chutzpah to ask for the order are both important. The best salespeople, however, are also:

1) The best question askers — as a salesperson you need to be like a reporter, digging (gracefully and without pressure) for clues.

2) The best listeners — if you ask the right questions but don’t actively listen, you might as well not have asked at all.

3) The best storytellers — people get engaged in stories if they’re well told and honest. In order to be a great salesperson you must be able to have a conversation with your prospects that includes verbal proof stories (stories that show how using your product or service has worked well for other customers). Remember that your prospect’s time, as well as your own, is precious — use the time they give you to tell relevant stories about other, happy customers. Avoid monopolizing the conversation with stories about your personal life.

Most people assume that selling is about presenting. The truth is, if you ask the right questions, then shut up and listen, prospects will tell you almost everything you need to know in order to close with them. Questioning your prospects about their business before presenting enables you to make the sales presentation about them and their needs, not you and your product. The basis of any sales process includes the following five steps.
1. Establish a rapport with the prospect and gain the right to gather information
Engage in some conversation that isn’t directly related to the sale. I prefer to not use cheap clichés like “How ‘bout those Mets?” or “Nice weather we’re having,” but if that’s all you’ve got, use it. You shouldn’t just walk into a meeting and start presenting. Asking how the company got started, how the person came to this company or how he or she got where he or she is now are great questions for engaging prospects in conversation. Develop questions you’re comfortable asking that will get prospects to open up a bit. Share some information about yourself in order to help them see it’s “safe” to share information, without taking up too much of a prospect’s time. By sharing some information about yourself and your company (this is not your presentation), you can easily move to the next phase of the sale.

2. Gather Information: Interview

Your questions should be prepared before the sales call. Think about what information you want to walk away with after this meeting and go over, in your head, a list of the questions you intend to ask to get that information. Ask yourself the following: “If the prospect gave me unlimited time and answered every question I asked with complete openness, what answers could help me close this sale?” You’ll want to find out what the potential customer has done in the past regarding what you offer, what they’re looking to accomplish, and how they currently do what you offer. A few examples of questions I ask as a sales trainer are:

“How do you currently train your new hires?”

“In the past, how have you trained your average performers to help them improve?”

“Have you ever used an outside consultant like me?”

“After I’m done training the team, what would you like them to be able to do, or do better than they do now, and how will you measure that improvement?”

Remember to interview, not interrogate. You’ll want to keep this conversation casual. I use what I call “softeners.” “By the way…” and “I’m just curious…” are two examples of phrases that tend to soften a question. For example, “Just out of curiosity, Bill, how many salespeople do you have here at Microsoft?” is softer than, “How many salespeople do you have, Bill?” It’s less of an interrogation and more of a conversation.

3. Validate the Information