TRUTH #5 – Asking questions is our finest selling skill, but the weakest skill applied!

There is an art to probing.  Again, why do so many reps get trapped starting out with “close-ended” questions, giving the customer an easy out to say, “No?”  Question like a servant and not like an attorney.  My Dad was a master at probing.  He could carry on a conversation just by probing, allowing the customer to respond freely and willingly.  He developed a concept that I call the “layering technique” in probing:  OPEN – OPEN – CLOSED – OPEN – OPEN – CLOSED.  He got the customer accustom to saying “yes” by creating the right selling environment with probing.  Sales Leaders, develop your top open and closed-ended questions, document them and provide them to all of your sales reps.  Their calls made to calls closed ratio will improve.

TRUTH #4 – Understand customer needs first, before providing recommendations!

When I train “rookie” salespeople with the “deer in the headlights look,” I simplify this statement, “Listen first, talk second and you never go wrong!”  Why do salespeople continually violate this practice?  How can we make recommendations without doing a diagnosis first?  We’re no different than doctors today.  So as a “Doctor of Selling,” no more sales malpractice!  No more recommendations without doing an analysis first.  It’s our due diligence or rite of passage as a Sales Professional.  Leaders, please continue to coach and reinforce.