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Who's Asking the Questions Here Anyway?

Written by: Russ Lombardo

Article Overview: What often happens on an initial sales call is the prospect asks the sales rep to justify themselves. Well, not actually in those words, but they ask the rep questions such as -- Describe what you do. What do you sell? Why should I buy from you? And other probing questions that not only put the sales rep in a defensive position, but puts the prospect in control of the meeting.

Who's Asking the Questions Here Anyway?

What often happens on an initial sales call is the prospect asks the sales rep to justify themselves. Well, not actually in those words, but they ask the rep questions such as -- Describe what you do. What do you sell? Why should I buy from you? And other probing questions that not only put the sales rep in a defensive position, but puts the prospect in control of the meeting.

Now you could go ahead and answer her questions. You could spend the next 20 minutes telling her what your company does, what products or services it offers that you are trying to sell her, and why she should buy from you. But the truth of the matter is that you probably don't know why she should buy from you at all, at least not at this point. Another problem with this approach is that the meeting is now being controlled by your prospect. Once you've answered her questions, your prospect will make the sole determination as to whether she needs your product or not. You lost total control.

The conversation goes something like this:

Prospect: "So what is it you're selling today?"

Sales Rep: "Well, I have this really great widget that makes your systems run a lot faster?"

Prospect: "And what makes your widget better than the one we're using now?"

Sales Rep: "We offer quality products with very reliable service. We provide expertise in your industry and the value we offer is demonstrated by the great performance you'll get with our widgets."

Prospect: "Well, thanks anyway, but we're happy with the quality, reliability, and performance we are already getting with our current widget supplier. But thanks for stopping by."

Sound familiar? What happened here was the prospect was in total control of the meeting. What also happened was the sales rep made his product and company sound like a commodity. What was missing was an open dialogue that allowed both parties to share their concerns, issues and possible solutions. In other words, a partnership that could result in a fair exchange of goods and services.

An alternative to this otherwise waste of valuable time is to turn the conversation around to where you, as the sales rep, are asking questions of the prospect to find out if you, in fact, actually have a solution for her. When this happens to me, I usually say something like, "Actually, I'm not sure why, or even if, you should buy from me at all until I learn more about your business and any challenges you might be having. I'll be happy to answer your questions, but in order to do the best job I can, would you mind if I find out a little more about you?" When you present it this way, they always agree and let you ask any questions you want.

At this point, it's critical that you ask the right kind of questions, especially open-ended questions, to find out everything you can about their business so you can start considering how you might be able to help them. Your goal is to learn what problems and challenges your prospect may be experiencing so you can fit the right solution to their precise problem. After you asked all your questions and listened carefully to the answers, you can then explain what your company does, what you are selling, and why the prospect should buy from you. And I can guarantee that at this point, you will have a very good reason why they should buy from you because you will now know exactly what problems you can solve.

Sometimes the problem you can solve doesn't exist, or isn't very apparent. Recently, I was meeting with the president of a very large mortgage company. I quickly positioned myself as simply trying to explore the possibilities of working together instead of trying to sell something. Honestly, I did not know if the CRM product I offered would be a good fit. I did know that several of his loan officers were already using it, but it was not their company standard. He ended up giving ME a demo of the internal product his IT group developed, which actually looked very good. But I did notice some major areas it didn't cover. He asked me if I saw any problems or omissions with his product. He was clearly proud of what they developed.

I complimented the work they had done and the thoroughness of the product for what it was designed to do. But instead of answering his question about what I thought was omitted, I said, "You know, that's a really nice product that will do a lot of what your loan officers need to manage their accounts. I'm not really sure if you even need my product. Can you explain what some of your other business goals are and how you'd like to achieve them?" I was thinking about some areas they may not have addressed when he said, "Well I know your product does a whole lot more and I'm sure we can use it somewhere here." So he set the stage for me to ask about their requirements for marketing campaigns, developing long-term customer relationships with their borrowers, and other related areas. He jumped all over that and said they are the areas in which his product was lacking and wanted my product to fill the gap. He then invited me back to do a demo where he will include other members of his management team to explore the many areas in which I and my product could help. How's that for turning a meeting around?

So next time the prospect puts you on the spot and treats you like an average loser sales rep, turn the table around and start asking the questions. Who's in charge here anyway?

Good luck and good selling!
Russ Lombardo

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