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Guest post by: Jim Meisenheimer Become an Author

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The "No" is a logical response when there is little or no interest in your product or service.

Look, if you can't relate to the salesperson and don't see the need for his product/service the automatic response is generally a "No."

The "Yes" is an emotional response when there is a great deal of interest in the salesperson and his product/service.

On the other hand, if you like and can relate to the salesperson, it's easier for you to become more receptive to his product/service.

I didn't always understand this. In fact, early on in my sales career and working in New York City, my focus was on being persuasive and convincing. It must've worked because I was reasonably successful.

I had my "Dog and pony show" down pat. My mouth was the center of my universe. Unfortunately, I used to get mugged by my own mouth periodically. While I never considered myself to be abrasive, I was pretty good at not listening, interrupting, and even quite good at completing other people's sentences for them.

Back then I was running on pure intuition and instinct, which by the way, didn't differentiate me from other salespeople. Sure, intuition and instinct have a role in a successful sales career, but I discovered they shouldn't have a leading role.

Not all prospects will say yes! The key to getting a qualified prospect to say yes instead of no, depends less on what you say and more on what you ask.

Entrepreneurs and professional salespeople can increase your business significantly by asking intelligent, provoking, probing, and open ended questions. These questions get people talking. These questions get people talking about themselves which is more important than you talking about yourself.

These questions clearly demonstrate your interest in your prospect. These questions help you help your prospects. These questions help you to understand the pain, the suffering, the challenges, the wants, and the needs of your prospects.

When you ask really good questions people will often times say, "That's a good question." What do you think it means, if during the last 30 days, no one has said that to you about the questions you're asking?

Not only do you get to know your prospects better when you ask good questions, the answers to these questions will help you frame and deliver a more personalized presentation. A presentation that "Delivers the goods."

Stop and think. Here's the scenario. You ask a bunch of really good questions. You take a lot of notes. When you know enough about your prospect and how your product/service can help him - you can begin your presentation.

When you finish asking your questions, it's time to begin your sales presentation.

Imagine beginning your presentation like this. "Based on what you just told me, I'd like to show you how we would work with you on . . ."

When you begin your sales presentation with these 19 words your prospect hears that you've been listening and you're now prepared to deliver a very tailored presentation.

I've always said, "The road to selling success is paved with really good questions." You don't determine if the questions are good, your prospect does.

David Frost once said, "You can determine the quality of a question by the quality of the response you get."

Action step: develop a list of 8-10 open-ended questions. Continue to rework your questions until you start hearing, "That's a good question," from your customers and prospects.

Getting to know your prospects makes them more agreeable and more receptive to what you're selling.

My guess is that most of you can come up with a list of 8-10 questions without any help from me.

For the those of you, who don't have either the time or the patience to develop a list of these questions, my book, "The 12 Best Questions To Ask Customers" will be a good resource for you.

It comes in two formats, paperback and eBook. Go here for details:

http://www.meisenheimer.com/products/salesquestions.htm



Jim Meisenheimer publishes The Knockout Selling Tips
Newsletter, a fresh and high content newsletter dedicated
to helping you grow your business and multiply your income.

Use this link to sign-up for Jim's F-R-E-E Knockout Selling Tips
Newsletter and to get your copy of his Special Report titled,
"The 12 Dumbest Things Salespeople Do."
http://www.meisenheimer.com

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