Listening carefully, letting your conversation partner do the talking, and asking plenty of questions. These are basic rules for every salesperson. Not always easy, especially if you mainly want to talk about your own proposition, but crucial for closing a successful deal.
But what questions are best to ask? Based on the experience all our trainers have gained throughout their careers, we have listed our top 8 for you.
How did you come into contact with us?
Your name and image in the market are worth their weight in gold, especially within the highly competitive and knowledge-based business services sector. Marketing your company takes a lot of time and effort. Networking, knowledge sharing, building trust, establishing authority: it is no small feat.
That is why it is very smart to simply ask at the beginning of an introduction how your conversation partner came into contact with you. Through a shared contact, via a blog, via LinkedIn, via Google... it is all possible.
What are your short- and long-term goals?
To determine how you can best serve the prospect, it is of great importance to understand what the goals are, both short-term and long-term.
Understanding short-term objectives can help you identify quick wins and priorities, while understanding long-term objectives gives you a sense of the horizon you need to work towards.
How can we make your manager/board happy together?
Your conversation partner is usually 'merely' one of many players in the game. Someone who has received orders from above. For example, from the manager or the board.
So, ask the question of how you can make the client happy. What needs to be done to satisfy the primary stakeholder? That ultimately reflects on your conversation partner as well, so mapping out the manager's interests benefits you both.
What do you think of the current situation, what is going well and what could be improved?
Orientation towards a (new) supplier often arose from dissatisfaction with the current supplier or the current situation. Discuss openly with your conversation partner what is currently going well and what could be improved, so that you can determine for yourself which offer gives you the best chance of success.
How can I convince you to do business with us?
A rather direct question that many salespeople shy away from. But why? What is wrong with taking the plunge and simply asking straight away what it takes to establish a partnership?
What do you need to deliver to convince your prospect? Then you start working on that.
What are you looking for in the relationship with a supplier?
People work with people, not with brands. A customer-supplier relationship is not a collaboration between company X and Y, but between two or more professionals.
Therefore, ask early in the process what your conversation partner is looking for in a collaboration. How can trust be built, and how do you ideally interact with each other?
Who are the stakeholders in this process, and who decides?
As a salesperson, you often have contact with only a limited number of interlocutors and contacts. The web of stakeholders involved in the background, which can be decisive, is often not visible. It therefore undoubtedly pays off to ask thorough follow-up questions about this.
Who has a say in the decision and what is the division of roles? But above all: who decides!
What is your budget (range)?
This is also a question that is often avoided, because it is quite direct and confrontational. However, without an indication or approximation of the available budget, it is very difficult for you to draw up a good and suitable quotation.
Moreover, your conversation partners almost always have an idea in advance of the (approximate) available budget.
So it certainly doesn't hurt to ask for a range. Of course, it doesn't have to be accurate to the euro. You have nothing to lose by asking.
In addition to these 8 tips, would you like to learn more from our extensive sales experience? Then take a look at our expansion sales training offer!