30 Open Ended Sales Questions

30 Open Ended Sales Questions

PLAN TO WIN - NEVER ASSUME

I found these about a year ago, when I was looking for training material you probably already know most of them, but I find it useful to have lying around. They were generated by Give More Media Inc, The "Plan to Win" is all me!

Information Gathering

What prompted you/ your company to look into this?

What are your expectations/ requirements for this product/ service?

What process did you go through to determine your needs?

How do you see this happening?

What is it that you’d like to see accomplished?

With whom have you had success in the past?

With whom have you had difficulties in the past?

Can you help me understand that a little better?

What does that mean?

How does that process work now?

What challenges does that process create?

What challenges has that created in the past?

What are the best things about that process?

What other items should we discuss?

Qualifying

What do you see as the next action steps?     

What is your timeline for implementing/ purchasing this type of service/ product?

What other data points should we know before moving forward?

What budget has been established for this?

What are your thoughts?

Who else is involved in this decision?

What could make this no longer a priority?

What’s changed since we last talked?

What concerns do you have?

Establishing Rapport, Trust and Credibility

How did you get involved in…?

What kind of challenges are you facing?

What’s the most important priority to you with this? Why?

What other issues are important to you?

What would you like to see improved?

How do you measure that?

Source:  Give More Media Inc. This was written by Sam Parker. Of JustSell.com

The day I realized I was not perfect…

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The day I realized I was not perfect was the first day I actually started growing. I remember the day very clearly. I was 2 months off being 20, I was running my own business and had for the best part of 18 months been selling my ass off making what I thought was amazing money.

I thought “I am s@#t hot, I’ve got this whole business thing nailed, I am going to be a millionaire by the time I am 25!”

Tax time came. My first since I had started generating good turnover (damn I am going to being paying through the nose), bloody tax man.
Then came the reality check – my business was running at a loss with expenses and operating costs higher than revenue.

The realisation hit me hard, my ego was severely bruised and it took several discussions with mentors and friends before I truly accepted the reality.  However once I had, I finally started to grow as a businessman.

The following year I actually made some money, but what I learnt in that moment of enlightenment is that the moment you think you know everything, you start going backwards.

Every year since, I have made it a habit to sit down, at least twice a year, and self-assess. Every time I do so I find “opportunities for growth” and remind myself I am NOT perfect… But I am little closer then I was last time!

Have you had a moment of enlightenment and when was the last time you self-assessed?

Questioning

The most important part of the discovery/ uncovery process is questioning. The right questions get you the right answers, the answer you need to build the perfect pitch for the client.

So here are some tips on asking the right questions

·     Before you start make sure you’re ready to listen, no point asking questions if you not going to pay attention the answers.

·     Be very clear on what your objectives are – questioning should identify and establish the strongest needs/ challenges and objectives of the client.

·     There are two main sorts of questions: open and closed questions 
open questions gather information and build rapport; closed questions filter, qualify and seek commitment. (Most articles focus on the importance of open question, so I will spend a little more time on closed in this post).

Open and Closed Questions

o   Open Questions 

§ Typically Open questions begin with Who? What? Why? Where? When? and How?

e.g “what are your core objectives this year”

o   Closed Questions 

§  Used correctly closed questions are very effective, closed questions are used to qualify and confirm your interpretation, and can be answered with a yes or no.

eg."So your key objective is to drive footfall?” or

“So if I can add $XX in value are you happy with everything else in the proposal?” 

§  Closed questions can also help you regain control of the meeting if at any point it starts losing focus, or stagnates. They are also useful to get an agreement or buy in on each section of the meeting before moving on; 

e.g. “I can see we have some further concerns here. Can we agree to move forward with the rest of the proposal and then review this particular point in greater detail once we have the whole picture?”

§  Closed question are also very useful during closing as they can be used to move the buyer through their decision making process and help cement in their mind that you have meet their needs. 

e.g. “So as discussed you agree that the proposal meets your XXX needs.”

So next time you are on your way to a discovery meeting, give yourself some time to plan your questioning, and make the best of your time with the client.

If you have favourite question I would love to hear them. 

101's FOR DISCOVERY MEETINGS

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With a modern consultative selling approach, the ability to conduct a successful discovery meeting is imperative. The discovery meeting is where you get the initial information from which you will build your proposals and show how you can add value to your prospects business. Over the next 3 post I will be sharing some tips on how to run a successful discovery meeting, from preparing for the meeting to the types of question you need to ask, and even how to listen to the answers. 


So here a few 101's for setting up and framing the initial meeting 


Make sure you are dressed appropriately, greet the client with a smile, be professional, and be confident.  

·      Plan your meeting – YES that’s right, plan your meeting. Before you walk into a meeting, you need to have done some research on the client. You should have a clear goal as to what you want, at a minimum, to get from the meeting and you should also have a good idea on how you can add value to their business.

·     Introduce yourself, what your job is (if your title does not clearly represent what you do – explain it briefly), who you work for, and what your company does (ensure this is within the context of your UPB* and VBR);

·       From the outset, take control of the meeting by setting the agenda –

• Explain the purpose of your visit, again orientate around your VBR,
• Establish how much time your prospect has and agree a time to finish
• Ask if it's okay to take notes (some business information may be sensitive,)

·    Try to focus on their business from the outset by asking if it's okay to start by asking a few questions or if they would prefer a quick overview of your own company first. If the later is the case, plan to give a quick, concise and honest overview that establishes credibility, and allows you to return the focus to their business as soon as possible.

E.g. "I'd like to learn about your business and what your key challenges and goals are, and then if appropriate, to explain how we might be able to approach these issues. Then if we feel there are some opportunities for us both, we can agree on the next steps"

·   Use questioning to establish rapport, learn about their business, including key challenges, issues, concerns, and their objectives, or goals moving forward. 

In my next blog I'll give you some tips on what questions you should ask and  how to ask them. 

* UPB acronym and concept was originated by The Marketing Guild

OBJECTION HANDLING

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I only really use the term "Objection" within the initial stages of the sales process. Like many of the more modern consultative selling approaches, once the sale moves through to the presentation and negotiation stage I consider what would be traditionally thought of as an “objections” as “Concerns”. 

When you do come across objections don't panic, remember an objection is not necessarily a NO, it's generally a "Not Yet" (you have not sold me), or "I need more information" (I don't fully understand, appreciate or agree with the benefits). So take a step back and consider these five steps to help deal with and overcome objections. 

1. Listen

To handle any objection, you really need to understand the objection, so LISTEN to what the prospect is saying – resist the urge to jump in and respond until they are done, instead use active listening methods, including both verbal, and non verbal (when appropriate) encouragement to learn as much about their objection as possible.  

2. Clarify

Clarify your understanding of their objection though questioning. This not only allows you to get more information, it gives you a little more time to think about the appropriate response.

In the response listen for tone, observe body language (when appropriate), and consistency in the body of the objections. (If the objection is not what it appeared to be initially, the prospect may either not entirely understand what they are objecting to or may well be just trying to get rid of you – it’s important to know which it is, as they require different responses)

3. Think

Think about your response, even if it’s a common objection that you deal with regularly, think about how you can tailor your response to this specific situation and client.

4. Respond

Deliver your response to the client, (be wary of your tone, body language)

5. Check

Finally, check to ensure you have handled their objection.

This is also a good opportunity to delve deeper and ask if they have any other objections as it is better to deal with all of them now then find out later they had un-resolved objections.  

Planning the Ideal sales week

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I recently posted a blog about the power of allocating “Hour of powers” throughout your day to improve your effectiveness. Today I want to touch on how to plan your ideal sale week.

Firstly, why we plan. Selling is fundamentally a numbers game with a very basic principle behind the math:

 Greater the # of prospects in the pipeline = greater  # sales. 

This holds true for all levels of experience and expertise, the only thing that changes is your conversation rate, i.e. the better you get, the fewer clients your need to convert sales.  

Setting your ideal sales week essentially revolves around allocating dedicated time to focus on core functions in order to maximise selling time, and by scheduling your weekly work load around these key selling functions.

These core activities are:

1. Planning

2. Prospecting

3. Cold Calling

4. Building Proposals

5. Sales Presentations

6. Client Service

7. Forecasting

Always prioritize client facing work within key business trading times and admin tasks outside of key trading hours.

I know what you’re thinking, “Never going to happen, too many distractions etc. in the real world!”

I agree it’s extremely hard to actually execute this plan on a daily basis, BUT it’s still better to have a plan then not, and anything that helps you be more efficient, more often is a good thing.

 Example Week:

The “Hour of Power” x 2, or 4 or 5

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What if you took the productivity of the “Hour of Power” to the rest of your day… How much more could you accomplish?

One of the first selling techniques I was taught by my father when I joined the family business was the “Hour of Power”.  Essentially it is the practice of allocating a solid one hour block exclusively for the purpose of cold calling, and setting up appointments.

You planned for this “Hour of Power” by collating your prospect list, researching the businesses, and then developing a VBR (Valid Business Reason) for calling them.  Then you lock yourself in your office (or call room), and for one hour you did nothing but make calls. No distractions, no emails, (faxes at the time), and no incoming calls. 

At the time I did not know why the techniques had proven so effective, and it was not until much later when I started to read up on the inefficiency of multitasking, that I discovered where the true POWER of that hour came from.

Scour the internet for anything positive on the efficiency of multitasking and all you will get are articles rejecting the premise of your search criteria. Yet we are in the multitasking era, I myself am a three screens man, I watch television, while checking my emails or reading on my ipad, and tweeting from my phone.

Never before has it been so easy to multitask and ironically never before has it been so important NOT to multitask.

We all have so much to process. Between our personal, work and social lives, it has never been so important to be as efficient as possible in order to actually get everything we need done.

To do that, studies have shown that focusing on a singular task can improve the brains productivity by more than double that of when we try multitasking. The issue is When people attempt to complete many tasks at one time, “or [alternate] rapidly between them, errors go way up and it takes far longer—often double the time or more—to get the jobs done than if they were done sequentially,” states Meyer.^[7] This is largely because “the brain is compelled to restart and refocus”  .^[8] A study by Meyer and David Kieras found that in the interim between each exchange, the brain makes no progress whatsoever. Therefore, multitasking people not only perform each task less suitably, but lose time in the process.

This summary and further research is available through Wikipedia and I highly recommend you do some further reading on the topic to completely understand the neurological reason behind the inefficiency. 

So here’s my advice… start locking in multiple “Hours of Power”, priorities your work load and then allocate several one hour blocks throughout the day to individual tasks, block out as many of the distraction as possible and give yourself and your allocated task your most effective and efficient focus.

Next week I will extend on this with a blog on planning your ideal week, which will give you some tips on how to allocate your time throughout the day / week.  

Hiring on your gut..

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I am sure that HR managers would hate me saying this, but I have had a very successful recruitment record based on my gut read of people.

For me, the most important thing I am looking for in the interview stage is PASSION and DESIRE. Show me passion, show me a desire to learn and succeed, and I'm far more likely to give you the role.

Don't get me wrong, I believe there is a real science to recruiting the right candidate, and by no means do I encourage you to hire on your gut feel alone, especially if you’re hiring sales people (the good ones tend to be pretty convincing!). You need to uncover the specific competencies and capabilities required for the role through questioning, role playing and even physiological testing if you have it available. You should also consider how the candidate is going fit with the team's and businesses culture (this is something that I feel is often over looked). Having said that, I have seen some of the best candidates on paper fail and the worst succeed, and from my experience the deciding factors have been their passion and desire. 

The way I see it, most of the people who make it through to the interview round, especially the second round, for a particular role will have similar skills, experience, and competencies.

So I want to know is: who wants the opportunity more, who is going to put in the hours and work to make themselves successful, who is going to jump over the desk and say give me the job, I'm your Man/Woman.

I have always said "I only want to work with two types of people: those who want my job, and are going to work their ass off to get it; or those who want to be the BEST at what they do".  The rest of them can earn your money elsewhere.

So what’s the most important thing YOU look for in interviews? Has hiring on your gut worked out for you?

Using technology to improve your leadership.

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I read an article on Six Sigma Training in the UK recently about using technology to improve leadership, and it got me thinking about where I have used technology to improve my leadership and management.

In the article it focused on 4 key areas:
Feedback;
Communication;
Organization; and
Learning new skills.

So I wanted to share a few ways that I have already started using technology to improve my leadership.

Feedback:

Getting feedback (constructive and honest feedback) is not always easy and in fact the higher you get within an Organisation, the fewer the people willing to give you feedback. However LinkedIn and the many groups you can join within it, are a great source of feedback.
I simply post a question about a situation and the way I handled it, and I very quickly get a raft of responses from people around the world, many of them no doubt smarter and more experienced then I. The best things about it is that it is impartial, you get responses from a veriety of industries and positions, and you get a lot of them. This allows you to get a broad range of opinions from which you can formulate a soution that suits your style and environment.

Communication:

This is the most obvious and the most risky of the above areas as technology allows us to respond and communicate quicker then ever before, but that's not always a good thing. So let's start with the positives and then a few warnings.

With devices like laptops, smart phones, and tablets, we have access online just about everywhere we go. Add to that the multiple platforms which you can access such as email, instant messenger, Skype, and of course social networking sites, it's easy to establish regular contact, and engage with your team. This can help you learn more about your staff and their lives, which in turn, can help you establish a better connection and relationship with them.

However remember this goes both ways, what you do in your personal life may no longer be personal, as many of us have work collegaues and staff following us on various platforms. So be careful about setting up your accounts and be aware of what your posting/ sharing if colleagues are going to see it. Remember also that with the speed and the reach of many of the aforementioned platforms, once something is out there, it's really out there!
So make sure you think about what your about to post, because, you could well be talking to or sharing with a massive audience.

Organisation:

I recently started using an iPad to manage my meeting notes and To Do list, the result has been a substantial increases in efficiency in both areas, which allows me to spend more time leading my team on working on my own development.
There are so many different apps to help organize your life, I recommend if this is an area you're weak in, to give it go. Every hour you save on trying to organize your self is an hour you can put to good use either for your team or for yourself, which leads to the next point.

Personal development:

I am never more than a click away from my reading list, news articles, leadership papers, and literally thousands of sources of information on ways to improve my knowledge and skill set.
It's so important if you want to grow and develope yourself, that you continuaully update your grey matter. It's never been easier to do so, so take ownership of your own development and spend some time each day to read, engage in conversation (live or online), share, and ultimately learn more.

A few places to start learning, check out News aggregation apps like StumbleUpon, or Zite, blow your mind on TED, sign up to LinkedIn and join some groups, download e-books onto your phone, tablet, or computer, and start using Twitter to follow News feeds, management guru's and spiritual leaders.

I hope you find some of these tips useful and if you have some more, please share.

Thanks for reading and remember it's Only My Opinion.

Sources and acknowledgements: thanks to Six Sigma Taining for sparking the conversation and you can read the original article here: