plus 6 tips for how to ask them.
by rob nixon
i am blessed to be working with the accounting profession for 20+ years. i love the influence that you can make and the difference to a client’s financial position.
more on strategy: sales is about trust | marketing must generate leads | be an ‘object of interest’ | marketing must be about sales | turn your knowledge into products | why clients really stay | 8 ways to build team engagement | how to create 4 new billable hours per day | do you know what clients want? | is your business by design or default? | the world is flat
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you are very loyal to your clients, your vendors and your team. you are sometimes obstinate on parting with money but that is not the most annoying thing. the most annoying thing in dealing with you is that you don’t ask enough questions. sometimes none at all. it is so frustrating.
i am unsure why you don’t ask questions. i am unsure why you are not more curious. i have a feeling that you think you need to know the answers and that asking questions is a sign of weakness. quite the opposite. it’s like you want to give the answers all the time rather than coax the answer out by asking quality questions.
the challenge with this behavior in a sales situation is that you jump to conclusions too fast and you do not unearth the real issues or opportunities. you end up talking more than your client and you are prescribing too fast without enough diagnosis. you have to remember to zip it in a sales situation and not give the answer right away.
you have to ask quality questions in a structured way without giving away the answers. to simplify the types of questions to ask you just need to remember bpomvct:
- you need to be asking questions to establish the situation and understand the background.
- you need to dig deep to find all of the problems.
- you need to understand the short- and long-term objectives.
- you need to establish the measurement metrics.
- your prospect needs to tell you the value proposition when they implement your suggestions.
- your prospect needs to understand the consequences of not doing something different.
- you both need to establish the timing of getting started.
asking questions with confidence and truly listening is the absolute best way to get sales. but it is absolutely pointless unless you listen.
the way you ask questions is just as important as the question itself. here are some simple question asking tips:
- conversational not interrogational – not rapid-fire, pause and listen
- use question softeners. the softener proceeds the question – e.g. so that i can help you best… could i just ask… that’s interesting, have you…
- answer a question with another question, e.g. yes, we can do that, tell me, what else are you looking for help in?
- give positive strokes. it shows you are listening, e.g. ahh ha, i see. really, i understand. tell me more about that.
- feedback what the client says, e.g. so what you are saying is… so you said your objectives are…
- always be confirming, e.g. just to confirm… ok, to confirm you are …
as you go into a meeting with a prospect or a client you should be ready to ask some great questions. here are 17 killer questions you can have in your toolbox and pull out when needed.
- i am curious. you started this business 10 years ago. when you started it where did you think you would be today?
- what’s been the progress of your revenue and profit for the last three years?
- what are some of the best decisions you have made in the last three years?
- what are some of the worst decisions you have made in the last three years?
- how many customers do you have?
- how many times do they buy from you?
- what is the approximate average transaction value?
- if you could wave a magic wand what would be some of the problems you have in business that you would like to go away?
- let’s look at the next five years – where would you like to be with your wealth creation?
- what would it mean to you if we could help you achieve your objectives?
- how would you know if we have helped you get there?
- how would you handle the volume of sales that might come from our work with you?
- what’s your plan b?
- what are the consequences of not doing something different?
- we are really good at fixing what you have explained. how would you like us to help you?
- what’s stopping you from getting started right now?
- what is your decision-making process?
do not ask dumb questions like “what keeps you awake at night?” it is so stupid to ask that one. you’re going to get answers like snoring, baby, the train, loud music – rather then what you are looking for.
you want to ask questions that invoke a response and help you move closer to a yes. when you look at human behavior we buy professional services for only five (or a mix of) reasons:
- to make money
- to save money
- to save time
- to achieve pleasure
- to fix pain
your products and services can help in most of those areas. you just need to find out what is most important to them right now. you could ask the following question to flush out the highest motivation right now:
“our work with business owners like yourself is focused on five key areas. we are helping our clients to 1) grow revenue and wealth, 2) dramatically increase profit, 3) minimize tax, 4) protect assets and 5) improve cash flow. which of those are most important to you right now?”
then let them talk. you are flushing out the core objectives at the outset by asking questions like this. people typically buy additional services from accountants to move away from something (pain-related) or move toward something (pleasure-related).
it’s human nature that people will tend to buy more to solve pain than to achieve pleasure. the pain in a business could be:
- cash flow-related
- people-related
- client service
- losing revenue
- profitability-related
- competitor-related
when the level of “pissedoffness” (technical term for really annoyed) is high they will buy. you need to find that pain in the conversations you have with your clients or prospects. when you find the pain, you then exacerbate the pain (powerful sales technique here) by asking more questions about the painful area. you keep asking and probing and provoking the pain area. you “poke the bruise” until it hurts.
based on my observation of thousands of sales meetings, the decision to buy or not can be broken down to the following:
- 50 percent of the decision is based on their reasons why, their objectives, their motivation and the benefits the solution will offer them.
- 40 percent of the decision is based on the credibility of the seller, the relationship with the seller, the trust of the seller and the likeability of the seller.
- 10 percent of the decision is based on the product, the process, the content or the methodology.
make sure you spend 90 percent of your time on them and only 10 percent on what you can do for them. you will increase your credibility and trust as you ask more and more questions.
as you go through your sales meetings you’re ultimately looking for a resolution to the conversation. there are only three final answers in a sales process – yes, no or not now. you might get a maybe from time to time but that is typically a smokescreen for an objection.
if you get a maybe then you have not found out the pain points enough. you haven’t found out the true objectives.
asking quality open-ended questions is at the heart of a sales conversation. to remain relevant in the future you’re going to need to get good at sales. asking questions will help you get there. go ahead – ask me one!