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Information Versus Ammunition - Are You Asking The Right Questions?

Written by: Will Turner

Article Overview: Most salespeople ask the wrong questions and they ask them the wrong way. They apply pressure to their prospects without meaning to which results in fewer sales. Learn how to ask the right questions the right way to build relationships and understanding without sounding like a typical salesperson.

Information Versus Ammunition - Are You Asking The Right Questions?

Research indicates that four out of five salespeople ask the wrong questions when meeting with prospects. The problem is that most salespeople have been taught to ask ammunition questions. These are questions that lead your prospect down a path to “yes” by finding out the buyer’s hot buttons.

The dilemma with ammunition questions is that savvy prospects, and most of them are these days, know what you’re up to. They know that if they share too much information, you’ll use their words as ammunition against them later. Consequently, they are reticent to share concerns with you, because they know that their words will come back to pin them in a corner. Let me give you some examples:
• What do like best about your current vendor? What do you like least?
• Do you think that saving money is important?

Some are even more direct like:
• If I could save you money, would you buy my product?
• Do you know anyone else that could use my services?
• Is there any reason why you won’t do business with my company?

The cold, hard truth is that people don’t like to be sold and they don’t like sales pressure. Instead of asking presumptive or leading questions to be used as ammunition, you should consider changing your approach. The reasons for this are simple. By taking the sales pressure out of the sales process, you will distinguish yourself from your competition and get out of Vendorville. You will also be able to truly engage your prospects and gain a deeper understanding of what’s important to them. By seeking information, not ammunition, you establish credibility and trust which are fundamental for developing long-term relationships.

Let’s do some comparisons:
Ammunition Question: What do you like most about your current vendor?
Information Question: What is critical to your satisfaction with _____ service?

Ammunition Question: What do you like least about your current vendor?
Information Question: Do you currently have areas of concern that are not being handled to your satisfaction?

Ammunition Question: Do you think saving money is important?
Information Question: If you had to make a choice between getting better results or buying a less expensive product, which would you choose?

As you can see, the differences are subtle but important. The proper use of information questions will catapult your sales success. Prospects will open up to you and share vital information because they want to. The bottom-line question you need to answer is “Do I want to be a trusted advisor to my prospects and clients or just another salesperson hawking his or her wares?”

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Related Forum Posts
Re: What Sells Online? - I agree with topeyinka, Information products(how to's) are whats selling right now.
Re: Quick Ways To Utilize SEO Effectively - There are many different types of content: blog content, website content, newsletter content, audio & video content, the list can be endless. I'll just list 10 types of website content here: * Index/Introduction * Product Descriptions * Testimonials * Reviews * Resources * How-to Information * Downloads * Contact Information * Navigation/Site Map About/Company Info Anchor text as the others have said is the hyperlinked words on a web page - the words you click on when you click a link. Anchor text is important because it tells the search engines what the page is about. Used wisely, it boosts your rankings in search engines, especially in Google.If you use "click here" as the words people are going to click on, you're telling people the page is about the subject "click here", which is not the phrase you want to rank highly for, the text you need to use is a keyword that you have chosen for your website, blog or article. Take care, Carol
Re: Marketing ideas? - Questions will set you free... And make you Rich [quote="KH_Global":349pds7c]Just ask ask ask. That is it.[/quote:349pds7c]
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: Get Improved Sales Optimization - Great Information Jason! As per the online business perspective, every user looking for relevant information and user friendly website structure. You can also provide 24hr customer support to make your customer reliable and easy.


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