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Situation Questions Example: "Would you describe your current projects?" Every good seller begins the sales call by assessing the terrain, by asking questions to clarify the client's current situation. So Situation Questions are essential, but here's the surprise. Situation Questions also can be overused, and often are by inexperienced salespeople. In fact, one characteristic of unsuccessful sales calls, they found, is that they contain a higher than average number of Situation Questions. Their advice: Do ask Situation Questions, but be sure they're necessary ones. Don't ask a question to elicit information that you easily could have obtained before beginning the call. And know that, when overused, these questions bore the client.
Problem Questions Example: "So you're having trouble placing qualified people in project roles?" Questions that are designed to identify a client's problem are more often asked -- and asked more often -- by experienced salespersons. The reason seems obvious enough. Inexperienced reps hope to "sail through" the call; they are tempted to see the client's problems as a distraction or threat. The more experienced you become, the more you want to uncover difficulties: The more you realize that client difficulties present you with an opportunity to be of service.
Implication Questions Example: "What kind of problems are created by having a gap in your project team?" These are questions about the "effects, consequences, or implications of the client's problems." They are strongly linked to success in larger-ticket sales, and yet they're more difficult to phrase than either Situation Questions or Problem Questions. But they are essential to moving larger sales forward, because they help to make the client (and the seller) conscious of hitherto hidden complications or of potential difficulties that may arise if steps are not taken to remedy the immediate problem. The virtue of this question is therefore also the risk: They make the problem seem more acute to the buyer.
Need-Payoff Questions. Example: "Just suppose we had someone on our database with the qualifications you are looking for, how valuable would this be to you?" Like Problem Questions, which they naturally follow, Need-Payoff Questions are linked to success in more complex sales. They can be especially useful when you're talking to top decision makers (or those who will influence them), and they increase the likelihood that your solution, if accepted, will provide the payoff that answers the need. These questions focus the client's attention on the solution rather than the problem, and they encourage him or her (with your assistance) to outline the benefits that your solution will provide his or her company. Thus a good Need-Payoff Question both pre-empts objections and enlists client buy-in.
Using Situation Questions to establish a context leading to Problem Questions so that the buyer reveals Implied Needs which are developed by Implication Questions which make the buyer feel the problem more clearly and acutely leading to Need-Payoff Questions so that the buyer states Explicit Needs allowing the seller to state Benefits which are strongly related to sales success.
The best salespeople are like expert detectives searching to find the exact needs of their customers and prospects. These needs are not exactly clear, so the detective looks for clues and puts the pieces together to...
Taking a company public for the purpose of raising equity capital is not just for large corporations, it’s great for start-ups, foreign companies and expanding medium size companies seeking to raise from one millio...
Taking a company public for the purpose of raising equity capital is not just for large corporations, it’s great for start-ups, foreign companies and expanding medium size companies seeking to raise from one millio...
Dave Kurlan
Dave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development.
Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit.
He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine.
He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball.
He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website
George Ludwig
George Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance.
Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson.
His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more.
George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website
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Colly Graham
(Visit Colly's Website)
Colly Graham CEO of salesxcellence After
graduating from college, Colly entered the
field of accountancy however after five
years decided to change his career
direction in sales. First working for a
Fortune 500 company in fast moving
consumer goods, his career progressed from
selling capital equipment, financial
services to internet services, with a wide
management experience in both telephone
and field sales, concentrating on the
recruitment, training and development of
sales people, in this role he gained
experience in designing and building a
number of successful sales teams. Colly
brings thirty years of practical
experience of selling and his ability to
empathize with sales people and establish
immediate rapport and credibility as a
trainer, (the accolade Colly receives from
most sales people is “that he has carried
the bag”). A licensed practitioner of NLP
Colly trained with Richard Bandler in
1998. When I entered the field of sales,
back in 1969, with local franchise holder
for Pepsi Cola because of my lack of
knowledge of any selling skills I set a
goal, to one day, start my own training
company. As my career in sales progressed
becoming a sales manager, group
Colly Graham Video - Colly Graham discusses Creating Customers on the Telephone -The importance of the telephone in selling is now well documented. This training DVD focuses on getting in front of more prospects by teaching the skill of telephone appointment setting. The workshop demonstrates the connection between daily activities, the sales cycle, and the number of sales necessary for a consistent flow of qualified appointments. Based on practical skills that get results fill your diary with qualified appointments.
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