Description
This is the sixth book in a special series of books for the upcoming professional salesperson wanting to take their selling to the next level and grow as a superseller salesperson. Over the years very few books have been written that reveal so much as these six do.
Many salespeople do not understand the power of asking question. In fact, most were never taught how, and/or have no inclination to be taught. And that’s a shame, simply because, until they get to understand them, their selling will never come close to reaching it’s true potential. On the other hand, most don’t care, yet constantly winder how they can earn more, more often, from selling.
It may be a conundrum to many, but it’s truth to those that are earning 2, 3, or 5 or even 10 times more than their average counterpart in sales.
Selling today is a lot more challenging than it used to be. Every business today faces more competition than ever before. That’s why it is so critical you ask high-quality, thought-provoking questions instead of the average run of the mill ones so many rely on. Or worse still, not ask questions at all.
Many salespeople today seem desperate to talk about their product or service or to present a quick fix solution, they end up talking too much, or too soon. Now let’s get something straight, the average seller will agree that’s it’s difficult to NOT discuss a solution, simply because they feel that if they are not talking, they are not selling. On the other hand, the most successful salespeople understand this approach costs them money. They know that presenting a solution too early will not address all of the key decision-making criteria and that only by asking a few more well positioned questions will they fully uncover the buying motives of each prospect or customer.
Professional salespeople stand out from the competition by asking appropriate questions at an appropriate time. Questions that require the prospect to think. Questions that the average salesperson won’t ask or are too afreaid to ask, or worse still, didn’t know the question existed in the first place.
Well positioned appropriate questions demonstrate the expertise of a sales superseller. They know the questions to that will help better present appropriate solutions to every targeted prospect that would find the product or service they are selling to be of exactly what the prospect wanted – after a good presentation encased in many of the question concepts found in this book. Questions that are designed to unveil relevance.
COMMUNICATION POWER
Salespeople in general, are very good communicators. Over the years I also believed I was a good communicator, and still do, but I’ve also learned to diligently keep my eyes and ears open, because life can become a real learning experience beyond what we can learn from text books.
Say if you are on a building site and have instructed to workmen to offset the window frame 10 cm from the wall line, then the workman offsets the top of the window at 9 cm and the bottom at 11 cm. The supervisor then comes along and passes it at 10 cm (being the average) because that’s the way it had always been done.
Whenever you instruct workers over and over, the work will improve bit by bit. But the better way was to instruct is to have the worker repeat the instruction back to the instructor, and then have the worker tell the instructor how he (or she) would then instruct another co-worker on the same project. The work correction experienced using this method can be immediate (rather than gradual) and the work remained the same for the remainder of the project.
Interestingly enough, over time I had often used this technique in my selling, but had stopped at two stages, believing the job was done satisfactorily, but had never considered using it over the three stages Charlie suggested. Yet when I did, it was almost like watching the prospects face illuminate with understanding.
For the full document concerning Communication Power, refer to Book 1 of this volume.
SELLING IS LIKE A GAME OF CHESS
Selling is similar to a game of chess. There are certain moves and strategies that you need to learn in order to succeed. You also need to pay close attention to your prospect. You need to study them closely in order to assess what your next move will be. Every single person has human needs that want to be filled. It is your job to zero in on what wants your prospect has. You then play your part accordingly.
Most prospects simply want either, Money, Security, Status, Power, Praise or simply to benefit from Personal growth and transformation. Did I just add they simply want to benefit from . . . ? Yes I did, and what’s more, that was included on purpose.
People buy benefits and solutions to their problems. So, if they are poor they want a way to be rich; if they feel that they have no control over their life, they will want a way to feel in control. It’s all about them, and it’s all about what benefits them. That’s what a professional works on prior to, during and while closing down the sale, yet far too many average are oblivious of the importance of this one point.
So now, let’s move on to real sales motivators. The ones that the professionals works on prior to, during and while closing down the sale, yet again, the average sellers are oblivious of the importance of this. Simply put, prospects don’t want information; they want answers. It’s the role salesperson to, find their wants, then to help them understand how we can supply the things they want in order to make a certain part of their life, or work easier, or more fulfilling.
Unfortunately, so many average salespeople begin their sales conversations by inundating their prospect with all the wonderfully useful features of their product; or alternately spend too much time passing on details about the company; or worse still, bore the pants off the prospect by talking about their own belief’s and opinions. Yet none of these matter to the prospect and could be detrimental to making a sale. Let me gove you some more detail about this so that I don’t leave you guessing.
Some of the traps that are easy to fall into by an underprepared, or overzealous salesperson, is to believe they will get the prospect’s attention by revealing that their product or service is the newest on the market, or perhaps, the best value. Believe it or not, most prospects really don’t care about these things. And they definitely won’t care either if the product is the best price IF IT DOESEN’T SOLVE THEIR PROBLEM.
Prospects will only care about what you are selling if you can show them how their lives or work productivity will change because of you and your product. In other words, what it will do for them. The features of your product should only be brought up if they relate to what the prospect wants. The only other conversation you should have with a prospect about the product facts are by answering their questions. And never start your sales conversation by listing out all the wonderful things about your product. Instead, you should start by asking questions! That is the most important job the salesperson can do.
You should be asking them questions so that you can work out their problems. And that’s all. But unfortunately, most average salespeople don’t ask enough questions. Most would only ask two or three questions and then feel it’s OK to move on into their “presentation mode.”
The second most important part of sales is to listen to their answers. You need to carefully hear what your prospect is saying. If you listen, your prospect will reveal an enormous amount of information to you. Then once you understand where they are coming from, you can then plan your strategy accordingly.
Remember, sales is much like a game of chess, where you’ll need to practice and refine your moves until they become automatic and expert selling techniques. That’s why this book had been written. To provide you with the insight you will need to understand the value of the questioning styles available to you, and the power of aligning them as a selling tool both e buyer and seller benefit from.
There are six books in the series
Secrets of the Superseller – Book 1/6 – The Must Have Superselling Basics
Secrets of the Superseller – Book 2/6 – The Must Have Superselling Skills
Secrets of the Superseller – Book 3/6 – Real Change is Forever
Secrets of the Superseller – Book 4/6 – One of Today’s Greatest Challenges
Secrets of the Superseller – Book 5/6 – Attention Grabbing Statements
Secrets of the Superseller – Book 6/6 – Knowing Which Questions to Ask
INDEX OF CONTENTS
KNOWING WHICH QUESTIONS TO ASK
BOOK 6 – Index
Chapter 12 – PART A
THERE’S POWER IN GOOD QUESTIONING
12A.1 – COMMUNICATION POWER
12A.2 – SELLING IS LIKE A GAME OF CHESS
12A.3 – BREAKING DOWN DEFENCE BARRIERS
12A.4 – COMPLETENESS AND ACCURACY
12A.5 – WHEN BUYERS HESITATE
Chapter 12 – PART B
THIS IS HOW GOOD QUESTIONING WORKS
5W1H
12B.1 – FOCUS WORDS AND 5W1H QUESTIONING
12B.2 – EXTRAPOLATING
ASKING FOR AN AGREEMENT
BELIEVED TO BE TRUE
12B.3 – ASSUMPTIVE QUESTIONS
AVOID COMPLEX LANGUAGE
12B.4 – BROADENING QUESTIONS
12B.5 – CAUSE AND EFFECT REASONING
CAUSE AND EFFECT REASONING VALIDATED
BUILDING RAPPORT
12B.6 – CHUNKING QUESTIONS
CHUNKING DOWN
CHUNKING UP
CHUNKING UP AND DOWN
12B.7 – CLARIFICATION QUESTIONING
12B.8 – CLOSED QUESTIONS
CLOSING DOWN CLOSED QUESTIONS
FOLLOWING ON FROM AN OPEN QUESTION
12B.9 – COERCIVE QUESTIONS
12B.10 – CONFUSION EFFECT TAGGING
CURIOUS ABOUT A CHOICE THEY’E ALREADY MADE
12B.11 – DESCRIPTIVE REPHRASING
DISUADING ACTION QUESTIONS
KNOWING IT TO BE TRUE
12B.12 – DOUBLE COERCIVE QUESTIONS
12B.13 – ECHO QUESTIONING
12B.14 – EMOTIONAL QUESTIONS
12B.15 – EMOTIONALLY BASED QUESTIONING
12B.16 – EXTENSION QUESTIONS
12B.17 – FIRST WORD DYNAMICS – OF CLOSED QUESTIONS
FOLLOWING ON FROM A CLOSED QUESTION
FOLLOWING ON FROM AN OPEN QUESTION
12B.18 – FEEL-GOOD QUESTIONS
12B.19 – FUNNEL QUESTIONING
“HOW” AS A LEAD IN TO YOUR QUESTION
12B.20 – IMPLICATION QUESTIONS
12B.21 – INDUCTIVE REASONING
12B.22 – INFORMATION GATHERING QUESTIONS
12B.23 – LEADING QUESTIONS
12B.24 – LINKED STATEMENTS
12B.25 – MISINFORMATION AND PRE-JUDGING
12B.26 – NON-EMOTIONAL QUESTIONS
12B.27 – NON-LEADING QUESTIONS
NOUN PHRASES
12B.28 – OBJECTIVE BASED VAGUE QUESTIONS
12B.29 – OPEN AND CLOSED QUESTIONS
OPEN QUESTIONS
OPEN QUESTIONS COMBINING 5W1H
12B.30 – OPINION DEMOLITION WITH ADDED TAGS
PHRASES AND PHRASING
12B.31 – POSITIVE QUESTIONING
POSITIVE ACTION QUESTIONS
12B.32 – PRECISION WORDS (FOCUS WORDS)
12B.33 – PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES
12B.34 – PREVENTING ACTION QUESTIONS
PRIMACY EFFECT CONCEPTING
PRIMARY EFFECT DOWNSIDE
PRIMARY EFFECT GREATEST EFFECT
PRIMARY EFFECT WITH AN END EFFECT
12B.35 – PROBING QUESTIONS
12B.36 – VAGUENESS AS A CHALLENGE
VAGUENESS AS A SELLING TOOL
12B.37 – PROBLEM SOLVING SOLUTION SELLING
UNINFORMED PRE-JUDGING AND MISINFORMATION
12B.38 – PURPOSE BASED QUESTIONS
PUZZLED BY A CHOICE THEY’E ALREADY MADE
QUESTIONING A CHOICE THEY’E ALREADY MADE
FOLLOWING ON FROM AN OPEN QUESTION
12B.39 – RELEVANCE BASED QUESTIONS
12B.40 – REPETITION SELLING PROCESS
12B.41- SUCCESSIVE CLOSED QUESTIONS
TAG QUESTIONS
TRUTH CAN BE A GREAT SELLING TOOL
“TELL ME MORE ABOUT IT” QUESTIONING
TESTING THEIR UNDERSTANDING
12B.42 – TEMPERATURE-TEST CLOSED QUESTIONS
UNCERTAINTY CAN WORK IN YOUR FAVOUR
UNINFORMED PRE-JUDGING AND MISINFORMATION
12B.43 – VAGUE QUESTIONS
VAGUENESS AS A CHALLENGE
VAGUENESS AS A SELLING TOOL
VERB PHRASES
“WHAT” AS A LEAD IN TO YOUR QUESTION
“WHEN” AS A LEAD IN TO YOUR QUESTIONA
“WHERE” AS A LEAD IN TO YOUR QUESTION
“WHO” AS A LEAD IN TO YOUR QUESTION
“WHY” AS A LEAD IN TO YOUR QUESTION
12B.44 – “YES” IS BETTER THAN “NO”
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