Tweet

Six Golden Questions, winning sales people always ask

Written by: Peter Lawless

Article Overview: Have you ever met a sales person who has all the excuses? The reasons that the sale just didn’t happen; it’s never their fault is it! Many business owners make the same mistakes. This article will help, if you do the selling yourself or have to manage sales people. Any winning sales person, who is in control of a sale, will know the answers to the six questions revealed here – if they don’t – then don’t start spending your profits, just yet!

Six Golden Questions, winning sales people always ask

I have kept this article short and sweet. Just ask yourself these questions or your sales people in relation to each opportunity they are pursuing. They should know the answers. If they don’t go find them – they are the key to winning sales.

What is more important, not only do you win the sales, but you win them faster and without having to give the whole show away as a discount. The reason will become apparent.

* Who is the Decision Maker – Who makes the purchases at your company? You need to talk to the equivalent person or group at your client’s company! I have seen too many sales lost, or should I say not won, by not speaking to the guy who writes the checks.

* What is the Enablement Value – don’t tell your prospect what your product does, ask what your product would enable them to do and help them put a value on that! If you can’t get the client to express the value of ownership of your product or service, in their terms – you just become an annoying cost.

* What is the Timing of the Purchase – when do they need this by, what happens if they don’t get it by then, what will that cost them? If you go order a new car, it is due in 2 weeks just before you are going on a long journey – and it is late! – do you get upset? Well the key here is when and why will your prospect become upset if they did not have your product – because if it does not really matter that much, you will have problems parting them with their money.

* What is the effect of Organizational change – what would happen if people were to move jobs or roles would that change the decision process? Again this is about being prepared. I met a guy today who had spent six months working on a bid to a customer. The customer had agreed, they were about to sign the contracts and the customer got taken over – no sale. Could he have been prepared for that?

* What External Events could affect the sale – are there anything external to the company like large customers, their competitors or the economy that could change the decision process? Probably the most difficult to alter, but by knowing dependencies on external factors, could help you plan for change. In the most simplistic sense, a local filling station on the edge of a town, with a planned by-pass, might need to change their strategic direction.

* Who is the Competition – do you know and understand exactly what your competition could be offering and whom they are talking to? Probably the most overlooked and least prepared for competitor is called Inaction. A winning sales person will know the competition, including doing nothing and will mitigate, where possible against it.


By always asking these six questions, you will increase your chances of success hugely. You may not win every time, but at least your profits will be substantially up.

Related Articles
  How to Win More Sales
  Silence Is as Good as Gold
  Stop selling! Satisfy the Four Universal needs of Buyers, and They will buy!
  The Gooose That Laid The Golden Eggs
  Sales Secrets of the Golden Silence

Article Tags: checks, contracts, decision maker, economy, jobs, long journey, money, new car, organizational change, six months, winning sales



Related Forum Posts
Re: If you've lost a prospect - It could be that you are making the sales process too difficult... 1. Too many confusing steps... 2. Too many choices... but none of the right options for the clients needs... 3. Too much effort on securing a short term sale instead of winning long-term trust... 4...?
Entrepreneur Competition - It doesn't have to be a SEO competition. I liked the idea because it's easy to monitor who is winning and it can be tracked. I love the idea of doing something with a marketing / business plan - how can we track it so everyone can see who is winning? It should be something as easy as the search engine challenge.
Re: How to Promote a MLM Business? - I guess I was more talking about how to get leads to work. You could not just stop there. In-fact you would have to follow-up with everyone of those people that signed up. MLM is hard and I think the people that are best at it have a big personality. It is sales in every way. You have to be a good sales person and a presenter.
Re: Contact Information - Another idea would be to have an email form in place to accept "ticketed" inquires (if people are afraid of spammers seeing their email address). However, I hate how some sites try to persuade you out of sending an email by bombarding you with lists of "Frequently Asked Questions & Answers" as I find they're rarely helpful.
Re: Sales with no start up fees. - Hey Mary, Have you tried help wanted ads? There are a ton of IT & sales people out of work right now, if there is no cost to become a reseller, how about running an ad for a commission sales person that has sold advertising or software before? Set them up with a reseller website, some business cards, provide some training and get them to get your leads onto a webinar using gotomeeting or one like that? I have had success with this in other venues with sales, not software, but similar arena.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

B2B PR – Planning for Success

10 Steps to Excelling at Franchise Sales

What is an Adaptive Organization

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.