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Asking Questions For Problem Solving The other night on TV, I saw an ESPN special on the Football Hall of Fame. Just before the final commercial break, the announcer said something like, "When we get back, you'll have a chance to learn what we asked these Hall-of-Fame-errs." Then they showed clip after clip of the most famous football players ever, all shaking their heads saying things like, "Wow, that's a tough one" and "I don't have a clue." Of course, I stayed glued to the television to find out the question that elicited these incredulous responses. When the show returned, the announcer posed the following question: "If you were the captain of a football team composed only of Hall-of-Famers, who would be the first person you would pick to be on your team?" What a great question! Every single person had to really think before they answered. Did they want an offensive or a defensive player? Someone they'd played with or against? Perhaps even a player from an entirely different era? What qualities would they want in that first pick?
Great Questions Are Provocative! They force you to look beyond the obvious, to analyze, assess and make decisions. In selling, your ability to ask great questions is highly correlated with sales success. Great questions demonstrate your expertise and enhance your credibility. The best questions you can ask are highly provocative ‌ ones your prospect can't possibly answer without seriously considering their business situation. So how do you come up with provocative questions? First of all, it's virtually impossible to come up with them when you're in the midst of a sales call. Provocative questions require pre-planning and a significant investment of your time before you meet with prospective customers. To develop them, you need an in-depth understanding of your own offering from a customer's perspective. Here's what you need to consider before developing your questions: Determine how your prospective customers are meeting their needs if they are not using your product/service. Identify the 3 to 4 most likely scenarios you encounter. These scenarios may include competitive offerings, older systems, or even "doing nothing." Define the primary problems, difficulties and concerns prospects likely experience in each of these scenarios. State these in your prospect's words. Clarify the business implications of these problems. How do they impact productivity, time-to-market, legal issues, profitability, costs, operational efficiency, decision-making and more? Determine the value a customer gets if they replace their current methods, systems or processes with your offering.
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Customers are living with a less-than-perfect system. They know it has its drawbacks but they've learned how to work around things and get by. Besides, they're much too busy to analyze every aggravation or potential problem. Most customers have no idea about the total cost of continuing to do things the "same old way." When you ask questions about the business implications or the value of change that are provocative, they get your prospect thinking about why change is necessary and why it's needed now. Better yet, these provocative questions create a reason to do business with you today not in some undefined distant future. These questions demonstrate your knowledge and expertise making you an invaluable resource. To ask provocative questions, it also helps to frame them with the knowledge of your customer's business and market trends. Frame your questions with statements such as ‌ "In a recent study on new product launches, 75% of executives felt a poor value proposition and launch process were major factors in their lack of success." Then ask questions such as: Are you comfortable that your value proposition is strong enough to deliver the projected sales revenue? What gaps or problems do you see in your launch process? What is the impact on your company if your new product/service isn't successful in the projected timeframes? If the product takes an extra 3-6 months to ramp-up sales, how does this impact time-to-profitability? Lifetime profitability? Competitive inroads? What benefit would it be to your company if your salespeople didn't have to create their own proposals and presentations? Provocative questions are related to the problems you can solve and their resulting business ramifications. They are focused on critical issues facing your prospects and framed with your own personal knowledge and expertise. They always get your customer thinking and they move the sale forward. Investing time developing provocative questions will have an immediate impact on your sales results. Are you willing to do what it takes to excel? In case you're interested - Johnny Unitas was selected most often as the number one pick by the Hall-of-Famers.
Asking Who Questions Bring people into the frame, connecting them with actions or things. Key people to identify are those who will pay for and receive the benefits of the action. You also may want to know who is going to do the work and whose neck is on the line. Who is this work for? Who will benefit most from what you propose? Who else would be interested?
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Asking What Questions Asks for noun responses, seeking things that are or will become. They may also seek verbs when they seek actions. What are you doing? What do your customers want? What shall we do next? What is stopping you from succeeding? What is the most important thing to do now?
Asking Why Questions Seeks cause-and-effect. If you know the reason why people have done something, then you gain a deeper understanding of them. Why did you do that? Why did that happen? Why is it important for us to try it again? Why not give it a try?
Asking When Questions Seeks location in time and can imply two different types of time. When will you be finished? When will you give me the money? When are you taking your holiday? (next Summer)
Asking Where Questions Seeks to locate an action or event in three-dimensional space. If something is going to be delivered or done, then asking 'Where' is a very good companion to asking 'When' to clarify exactly what delivery will take place. Where will you put it? Where will they be delivered?
Asking How Questions Seeks verbs of process. They are good for probing into deeper detail of what has happened or what will happen. How did you achieve that? How shall we get there? How will you know she likes you? How often will you see me? How much do you owe him?
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The A to Z Question As you consider your process beginning with generating a new lead and moving onto all of the interactions with your prospects … and finally, ending up with a profitable new customer. If you had to choose one part of the entire sales process that concerns you the most … as well as things are going for you at the moment … what concern would you put at the top of your list? By asking the question in this way we're pacing the customer's thinking process, giving him time to create a thoughtful response. It is designed to frame the customer's thinking within the certain process of his job responsibility. Another important element of the A to Z question is that it sounds spontaneous. It is a most effective means of getting to the heart of the issue. It sounds sincere. When asked … prospects stop and listen. Silence is good. The longer the silence lasts, the better the answer is. Notice the phrase "as well as things are going for you at the moment." This diffuses any defensiveness the customer may be feeling. Without a phrase like this, a likely response could be "things are going quite well thank you - Goodbye." By acknowledging and complimenting customers past successes, you are suggesting that with their success, they are perhaps interested in getting even better. This phrase eliminates the customer's need to defend or proclaim past successes.
Asking Indicator Questions Indicator questions bring the customer into the negative-present. They are the physical symptoms and customer profiles that provide the basis for the potential connection between the customer's realities in your solution. Indicators are the evidence that motivates individual customers to investigate a problem and attempt to solve it. Could you expand a bit on…? Could you tell me more about…? You mentioned the concern about…? Could you walk me through that? Could you help me understand…? What would be an example all…? Could you give me an example of the…? What would be an example of… ? How does...look like in your business? I'm not clear on how… works. Can you give me an example? When did you first start to experience…? When did you first notice…? Has… been happening for very long? How often does… happen? These questions help you create a diagnostic map. The diagnostic map is designed to explore issues in an accurate and efficient way and create the trust needed to elicit forthright answers from your prospects. A rule to remember in creating meaningful messages is always remember that an indicator represents a reality. Reciting a benefit only represents a speculative future. Page 4 of 8
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Asking Cost Questions Even with a solution that offers a new capability, there is still a cost that the customer chooses not to adopt. You need to use a combination of these three figure types: Direct numbers which are established or known figures. In direct numbers that are inferred or estimated figures. Lost opportunities that are figures representing the options that customers cannot pursue because of the resources consumed by the problem. When you talk about the total cost of a problem, you are not saying that you must establish a precise figure but, the cost must be generally accurate. Problems run rampant in organizations today. Some of them are not significant enough in consequence or in risk to address. Others must be addressed because their consequences or risks are too high. The fact that a problem exists is not enough to ensure change. When the customer does not know the actual costs of a problem, the success of winning the complex sale is severely compromised. Most customers simply don't have the expertise required to determine these costs. Even when they do attempt to quantify their problems, they usually focus on the surface costs and tend to overlook the total cost. Have you had a chance to put a number on…? What is your experience telling you… is costing? Can you give a ballpark number as to what… costs? How does the cost of… compared to the other issues you are dealing with? Does it make sense to go after a solution to… at this time? When you consider all the issues on your desk, where does… fall? Just as customers typically do not have a quality decision process, they even more frequently cannot accurately determine the financial impact of the situation and its proposed resolution. If you can bring that capability to engagement, you can enhance their decision in your own credibility. All businesses measure their performance in dollars and cents. A problem they are experiencing or any opportunity that are missing can be expressed in financial terms. Until you quantify that in fact, you are dealing with a highly speculative issue. All customers live with problems or conditions that could be improved. Only when they recognize the cost of a particular situation has become too high to ignore and that they can address the problem economically, will they act to resolve the problem. Cost of the problem, return a solution, investment to resolve, and the total value of ownership are the financial figures that have the power to motivate customers to consummate sales and to expand their relationships with vendors. By bringing financial clarity to their view you greatly reduce the perceived risk the decision by quantifying the risk of doing nothing as well as the risk of changing and the rewards for changing. When the customer has a balanced view of the financial ramifications of the decision, there is less price pressure. Customers seldom have a chance to solve problems they didn't know existed or to buy solutions they didn't know they need. Page 5 of 8
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If customers can accomplish these tasks without our help, or products and services would be commodities and we would not have jobs. By asking a question such as "How much does this cost you?" Is simply too hard to answer without breaking it down into manageable chunks. There will always be a few customers who are reluctant to share financial data because of past experiences. To conduct effective financial conversations, you need to consider all of the barriers and construct your conversation in ways that address and resolve them. If you don't have a cost of the problem, you don't have a problem. The best way to counter any financial situation is by creating a return on solution conversation. In this conversation, customers participate in the calculation of return on solution, and the solution is built on numbers that they themselves verify. The return on solution conversation tallies the gains that will be generated by the solution, and the total cost of the solution, in order to estimate the net financial impact of the solution on the customer's business. The return on solution conversation starts with the outcome expectations we established with the customer in the design phase. Thorough financial conversations are integral to high stakes sales to fund the level of investment that the customer can appropriately make in order to obtain the full value of the solution. The goal of the investment conversation is to establish the threshold at which it makes sense for the customer to buy your solution.
Cold-Call Questioning Your goal here is that you want to get invited into the right customers’ organization by the right people and for all the right reasons. The real secret is in approaching your first conversation from the customer's perspective and by focusing the content of your call exclusively on the customer situation. Introducing describe yourselves to the issues that you address, not through the solutions that you offer. This is diagnostic positioning. The key to being invited in is in offering customers the information they need to answer their questions, no more and no less. Any time a prospective customer picks up the telephone and speaks to a salesperson for the first time, the customer is seeking answers to a short sequence of questions. If the customer is able to answer the questions in a positive way, the result is a continued interaction. If not the conversation should be over. The questions the customers ask themselves are simple, and the answers they infer are considered only from one point of view - their own point of view. They may ask themselves: Should I talk with this person? Does this person sound and act like a professional? Is this call relevant to my situation? Does this customer understand my world? Is this something we should discuss further? How can this person help me?
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To Talk or Not To Talk That is the question in the starting point of all conversations. Great salespeople can then begin to describe the diagnostic process through which they will guide the customer point simply began and establish the ground rules for any further engagement. We want to discover if the executive recognizes the relevancy of more value assumption and whether they want to take the next step in the decision process. The engagement conversation must enable the executive to answer these questions: Who are you? Do you sound professional? Is this call appropriate? Is this call about me and my company? Is this an issue that I am experiencing? Should this be something that I want to take further? Should I continue this conversation? Should I schedule this conversation at a more appropriate time? This is a significant departure from the traditional approach that the first contact is all about you. Your introduction should be about customers and should raise questions in their mind about their business, their situation, and their performance. When you provide customers with the information they need to answer these questions, they will agree to continue the conversation. The key to this call is that the prospect recognizes that this call could not have been made to anyone else. He recognizes its relevancy. When your executive agrees to continue the engagement conversation, it is then time to test your value assumption. You can say something like: "Based on my research, I have made a couple of assumptions about your ‌ I would like to run them by you and get your thoughts. If they are on track, we could decide if we should take a deeper look. If they don't line up, that will be good to know as well. Are you comfortable with that?" When the executive agrees to this, it means that your value assumption is worthy of diagnosis. This means you have earned the keys to the elevator. When you answer a question with a question such as, "Why is that important to you?" customers will see you as a stereotypical salesperson and the trust level will drop quickly. Once you answer your prospects questions, continue immediately with your diagnostic conversation. If you answer and stop, it automatically initiates another question from the customer and then you're caught in the loop of answering questions and learning nothing. The last step in the engagement conversation is to give the executive a little homework. You ask the executive to provide additional information that will assist you either in your preparation for the meeting with him or with his staff. The issue here is to keep the executive personally involved in thinking about this issue. Most importantly, it is a test to see whether this executive has a sense of urgency that goes beyond simple interest. It will also make your conversation memorable too.
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A good idea would be instead of moving to set a presentation appointment, the better answer would be to ask your prospect to discuss how you prepare for such an opportunity. The next few minutes should be spent discussing your discovery process and pinpointing the people you would have conversations with to make an initial determination that enough value relevancy exists to pursue the sale. You are laying the foundation for the same diagnostic agreement you would construct with any other prospect. This way you get the customer moving through your decision process ‌ not their decision process. By doing this, you generate more credibility through the questions you ask. Customers who hesitate to work with you should be carefully scrutinized. If a customer refuses to work with in a sensible and high quality approach, you probably will not be able to differentiate your solutions from the rest of the competition and you are likely entering into a no-win situation. In fact, when customers are unwilling to answer these simple questions, they're usually telling you something very important ‌ that they may not be ready to take a serious look at it.
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