how to sell

You what To Sell

The right sales questioning technique will write your sales presentation for you

The questioning techniques here will show you:

How to structure your sales questions to get all the information you need from the buyer.

Which questions to ask to keep the customer talking to you.

How to get the prospect to write your sales presentation for you, and give you signals on how to close the sale.

This sales training has worked for others like you, in Field Sales, B2B, Retail and Direct Sales to the public, and Telesales.

How the Sales Questioning stage fits into the Sales Process

Sales questions is just one stage of the sales process. Below is the full sales process and links to the sections of this website that cover each stage of the sale.

The Sales Process

The sales process my sales teams use to great effect follows a simple path from first introduction to closing the deal.

• Introduction of you, your company and your product
• Sales Questioning Techniques ...This page
• Sales presentation of the features and benefits
• Closing the Sale
• Overcome sales objections

...Click on any of the links to take you to the sales training page for that stage of the sales process. If you want an overview of the sales process open the Sales Process page..

Sales Questioning Techniques

Use this sales questions structure and get all the answers on how to sell to each customer.

• A question that encourages the prospect to start talking
• Open questions to encourage more detail and direction
• Specific open questions to narrow down the information
• Alternative questions for specifics
• Closed questions to confirm needs

That's the overview of the structure. Now let's look at the first step and how you can start using more effective questioning techniques.

Encourage the prospect to start talking

Start with questioning techniques that relax the buyer, and encourage them to talk to you about their needs, wants, and desires.

Traditional open questions, that start with: Who - What - Where - When - How - and Why, can still be answered by a one word answer.

For example: What type of car would you like? Answer - Convertable.

You want to get them talking.

The first step of the sales questioning techniques encourages even the lowest responders to talk.

Ask questions that are difficult to answer in less than a sentence.
Start your questioning structure with, Tell me, Explain to me, Show me.

And that’s just the basics. Once you’ve got a handle on the basics you can add motivating phrases, reciprocation promoters, and all kinds of sales skills to your sales questioning techniques.

...But let’s not get ahead of ourselves..

For now, start the sales questioning stage of your sales process with questions that encourage conversation. Use opening lines such as:

• Tell me about...
• Explain to me...
• Show me...
• Describe the...
• Give me your opinion...

Open questions for detail and direction

Now you want to guide them, keep them talking, and get more detail.

You've got the conversation going with a wide open question that encourages the buyer to start talking.

Now use, Who - What - Where - When – How, to gently guide the prospect without stopping or interrupting the flow of communication.

Once you’ve got the buyer talking you don’t want to stop them. If they’ve drifted off topic, ask them a question to bring the focus back to where it will most benefit you, and the customer.

Examples of open questions:

• When do you see the changes happening
• What is it you want from this product
• How will the services help you
• What will you get from this
• Who will use the service

Direct them towards telling you the benefits they are looking for.

...In most sales roles you should focus on benefits and not features..

The benefits are what the goods or services will do for them. In most sales that’s what the customer wants to hear about. How the product will achieve this, the features, are usually secondary.

Specific open questions to narrow
down the information

You’ve started the questioning techniques by asking them a conversation promoting question and they’ve started talking to you.

You've got more detail by using open questions to guide the conversation and keep it on track.

When they pause or meander off track, you can gently get them going again with a combination of open and conversation type questions.

Now you want more specific information to help you prepare your sales presentation.

You want to know what it is they are looking for in the products and services you sell.

This is the information you will use in your sales presentation, and a guide as to how to close the sale.

To do this you ask specific open questions

Specific open answer questions, added to the free flowing conversation, will give you more focused detail. Specific open questions such as:

• What size
• When is the best time
• Who is the person
• Where will this be going
• How will you use it

Think of this as a sales questioning techniques funnel

You start at the top of the questioning techniques process with a wide open question. As the process continues you make the possible answers to your questions narrower.

At this point in the sales questioning techniques funnel you should be thinking of what information you need, and want, from the buyer that they haven’t already given you.

Now narrow it more with
alternative questions

Now narrow the funnel that bit more with alternative questions. To gain more specific detail, and check you have all the information, use alternative questions.

Examples

Red or Blue?

Fixed interest or variable rate?

Start the service this month or next month?

Alternative questions give you precise detail down to the smallest level. This is the thin end of the sales questioning funnel. As you get the answers to your alternative questions you should be putting the final detail to your sales presentation.

Closed questions

The end of the funnel

The final part of the sales questioning techniques stage of the sale is to ask closed questions. These are questions that require a yes or no response.

Asking closed questions at this stage of the sales questioning techniques funnel achieves 3 objectives:

1. Closed questions give you precise detail about the buyer's needs, wants and desires.

2. It checks your understanding of the benefits the customer is looking for.

3. You gain commitment from the buyer that this is what they want, and that helps work towards closing the sale.

How you word the question is important. For example:

If you ask; Fixed intrest rate, Yes or No?

This sounds like you're completing a questionnaire. Use your communication skills. Ask in a natural way as you would in a conversation, for example:

Do you want the security of a fixed interest rate?

When they answer you will know if a fixed interest rate should be included in your presentation. You will know if you have understood the buyer's requirements, and you will be gaining some commitment that if you can offer a fixed interest rate you are closer to closing the sale.

Add a benefit

In the example above I have added a benefit to the question. I asked if they want the security of a fixed interest rate. By doing this you can guide the buyer to a particular type of product, and work towards closing the sale by piling on the benefits.

The buyer tells you how to close the sale

With the right questioning techniques the buyer will tell you what to sell to them.

You are at the base of your questioning techniques funnel. You have narrowed down one line specific benefits the prospect wants.

If there is more information and more needs, go back up and pick up another line of sales questioning.

Use a wide open converstaion promoting sales question to start your next funnel, then work down to the specific detail.

These are the most effective sales questioning techniques I have seen in use in my years of selling and sales management. Sales professionals use these question techniques because they work.

Add this sales training to your sales process

The sales training here on questioning techniques is one stage of the sales process. If you haven't already looked at an overview of the sales process you can open the Sales Process page.

You can have a complete sales training course, in an easy to use workbook, that guides you step by step to building your sales process.

All the stages of your sale, from the Sales Introduction through Questioning techniques, Sales Presentations, and Closing the Sale.

There's even a complete section on Handling Sales Objections.

This is the sales training I use with the sales teams I manage and train. It's been proven in real sales conditions, not just in the sales classroom.

So how much will a professional training course cost you?

Open Sales Training Course or click the Selling Success image to find out.

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