By Jim Karrh
April 28, 2011
This headline might be a bit misleading. I believe that most experienced sales professionals are pretty good at anticipating objections from their prospects, and many are good at using questions to qualify opportunities. But my experience has also shown me that sales conversations frequently miss the mark because of the questions not addressed.
The questions your team is likely missing are the big, hidden, profound ones that – consciously or not – prospects use to determine whether they will buy from you.
Lately I have been able to see and learn a lot about the best practices of effective professional selling. Through my own consulting business, and particularly as a consulting principal at DSG Consulting, I spend the majority of my professional time with sales and marketing teams. nDuring the past two years I’ve been privileged to work with sales and marketing teams in Fortune 500 and Inc. 5000 companies across industries such as IT, manufacturing, software, web analytics and health care.
I mention this not to chest-thump but rather to illustrate two points: (1) my advice to you is field-tested in some highly competitive selling environments; and (2) even experienced sales professionals at some of the world’s leading companies can fall into traps and bad habits.
Let’s learn from them, shall we?
The answer to being more effective does not come from memorizing dozens of tips or giving yourself a motivational speech every morning (not that there’s necessarily anything wrong with either of those things). Nor is sales effectiveness these days a function of being a likable person who knows a lot of other people. Being prepared, motivated and likable are necessary but not sufficient for success. Instead, the key is in building the right perspective and having the discipline to keep it there.
To effectively build relationships and sell your professional services, you need to be able to answer these absolutely essential questions for your prospective buyer (DSG calls these the “3 Why Questions”):
- Why should I, the prospect, change what I am already doing?
- Why should I do that now, rather than sometime later?
- Why should I choose you, rather than someone else?
This framework is disarmingly simple. Everyone knows that for effective selling you need to be a good listener, find pain points, and set yourself apart from the competition, right?