Follow-up a Great Question with Dead Silence!
Follow-up a Great Question with Dead Silence!
As an example... Let's say you are taking a consultative approach to employee development. Here is what I mean about asking a question, and then just before the client responds... you start guessing at the answer.
"What are your current employee development initiatives?" one second... two seconds... of "uncomfortable" silence... and then you jump right back in with, "Are you focused on building a bench? ...or on retention? ...or are you developing a leadership program?" ...and then you might follow with a little rambling and rephrasing of the original question, "What kinds of things... uh... are you working on to... uh... help your employees be... uh... more successful?"
Now that you've guessed at a bunch of potential answers... the client is completely confused! They are wondering, "What was your question? ...and what were those options again?..." So the client takes the easiest path and picks one of the options you provided... they say... "yes... we would like to improve our retention."
Sales people fall into this trap all the time... without even realizing it! They think they are successfully uncovering needs, but the truth is, they are just guessing at the same old "potential" issues that other clients may have experienced.
The real problem comes when it's time to close the deal. Since the sales person didn't uncover the client's true area of need, there is no value. When the client says they are not ready to buy, the sales person is left wondering, "What happened?!!! I was probing. I uncovered their pain, and everything was going great. How can they not be ready to buy? They have a HUGE retention problem... right?"
Best Practice: Work with your manager and your sales teammates to develop a set of great open ended questions. Focus on asking only one question at a time. Practice and role-play with each other until you master it! The key is to practice "out loud." It always sounds good when you are verbalizing it in your head... but it sounds a lot different when you actually say it out loud.
The next time you are in a meeting with a client, follow-up your great question with dead silence!
Have you ever seen a sales person fall in to this "guessing" trap?
How do you keep yourself from falling victim to this temptation during a moment of "uncomfortable" silence?
Share a funny story of a time when you were in this situation!
Followup a Great Question with Dead Silence - To learn more about this author, visit Doyle Slayton's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
Ask a great question... and just listen... don't fall into the temptation of answering your own question or guessing at the answer.
As an example... Let's say you are taking a consultative approach to employee development. Here is what I mean about asking a question, and then just before the client responds... you start guessing at the answer.
"What are your current employee development initiatives?" one second... two seconds... of "uncomfortable" silence... and then you jump right back in with, "Are you focused on building a bench? ...or on retention? ...or are you developing a leadership program?" ...and then you might follow with a little rambling and rephrasing of the original question, "What kinds of things... uh... are you working on to... uh... help your employees be... uh... more successful?"
Now that you've guessed at a bunch of potential answers... the client is completely confused! They are wondering, "What was your question? ...and what were those options again?..." So the client takes the easiest path and picks one of the options you provided... they say... "yes... we would like to improve our retention."
Sales people fall into this trap all the time... without even realizing it! They think they are successfully uncovering needs, but the truth is, they are just guessing at the same old "potential" issues that other clients may have experienced.
The real problem comes when it's time to close the deal. Since the sales person didn't uncover the client's true area of need, there is no value. When the client says they are not ready to buy, the sales person is left wondering, "What happened?!!! I was probing. I uncovered their pain, and everything was going great. How can they not be ready to buy? They have a HUGE retention problem... right?"
Best Practice: Work with your manager and your sales teammates to develop a set of great open ended questions. Focus on asking only one question at a time. Practice and role-play with each other until you master it! The key is to practice "out loud." It always sounds good when you are verbalizing it in your head... but it sounds a lot different when you actually say it out loud.
The next time you are in a meeting with a client, follow-up your great question with dead silence!
Have you ever seen a sales person fall in to this "guessing" trap?
How do you keep yourself from falling victim to this temptation during a moment of "uncomfortable" silence?
Share a funny story of a time when you were in this situation!
Followup a Great Question with Dead Silence - To learn more about this author, visit Doyle Slayton's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave 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 |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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