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and LISTEN Forget tough! Today, competition is fierce. You need to practice consultative selling if you want to influence customers to do business with you. One way to demonstrate consultative selling and enhance your ability to close more sales, is to develop the habit of asking questions first and listening before you speak. It is the most effective way to learn about your customer's needs. Asking questions and listening also helps to gain your customers confidence, and shows them you care. Why is it that so few companies train their people on listening skills? All too many salespeople jump at the opportunity of being in front of a live customer. Instead of taking the soft approach, they start their conversation by stating how great their product or service is. Or, they'll ask one quick question such as "How are you?" and start selling, instead of asking questions. This could be due to the fact that these days, it's incredibly difficult to get an appointment or speak on the phone to a real live buyer. Do you think you might be losing business because you're talking when you should be listening? If you do, you need to remember that your customers need you to listen to them about what is important to them. They want to make sure that you understand their needs, concerns, priorities, problems, and expectations. If you dont listen, theyll go to one of your competitors who will. Refrain from the impulse to start selling until youve asked a few questions. You need to be able to direct your prospects thinking to uncover their needs.
In your initial meeting or when a customer walks into your store, make it a habit to ask questions like the following "How's your business doing?" Ask open-end type questions — How, What, Why, Who — and take careful notes. Asking questions is highly beneficial for these reasons: Questions lead to answers.
Stay "YOU" Focused It's not about you and how great your company and product is. It's about them. Always be sure to use the word YOU in the questions. "Shaun, from what you've just told me, I can see you've worked hard to get where you are. How can I help you do better?" To gather additional insight, and even better information when interacting with customers, you may want to personalize your questions. For example: "Harry, I'd like your opinion on the new..." Here's a technique to keep customers talking so you can listen more. Ask a question for clarification. Here are a few of the most effective questions to ask that will help you control the conversation: "How do you mean, exactly?" It is almost impossible for your customer to not answer these. Then, you can follow up with other open-ended questions and keep the interaction going. Whenever you ask for their personal feelings about an idea or situation, you're more likely to learn more and sell more! Questions That Get Passive Customers to Talk Many times, people won't readily respond to your sales pitch. They may simply be passive, and not very talkative at all. In this case, you'll simply have to draw their thoughts from them by asking questions to learn what's on their mind. Following are examples: "How do you feel about our plan?" Train Yourself to Be a Good Listener Below are a few tips to remember when listening: ![]()
You'll never listen yourself out of a customer. Make it a habit to ask questions to learn about your prospect's desires, needs, opinions and fears, and you'll know how to position your product or service where it will be perceived as being critical to your customer's success Need a great speaker on this topic? Join thousands who receive Christine's ideas, solutions to problems,
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