How to Make More Sales by Asking the Right Questions

Would you like to connect to your customers, would you like to relate to them, help them and make a difference for them?  Consultative selling or question based selling allows you to do just that, especially in this rapidly expanding telecommunication world.

According to the book Secrets of Question Based Selling, How the Most Powerful Tool in Business Can Double Your Sales Results by Thomas A. Freese. “…asking questions is the best way to peak interest, discover insights, elicit information, engage and feel the pulse of the customer and get to the decision making part faster than ever”.  If you ever wanted to sell more and do it effectively, you should learn to ask the right questions, the right way.  Here’s how you can do it:

Make that connection before asking away

No amount of questioning, sales techniques or anything else would compensate for the all too important, golden word: rapport.  When focusing on technology, you have to somehow make a connection with your customer.  This is the starting point of everything else that follows.  Bring in the best of everything you have to make sure that you hit the pulse of your customers, get them to like you, talk to you and trust you.  The trust you develop here will pave the path for you to do more and eventually recommend your solutions to your customers problems.  This is where it begins; it’s the foundation.  Don’t miss it.

Master the art of making small talk

If you get right down to business, you’d come across as pushy and if you don’t get off the small talk, you’d come across as chatty.  The key is to find a balance.  Plan your small talk into asking your customers gently what their needs are, what their problems are and how you could possibly help them.  Step 1 leads to step 2.  Often times, it might not always be the case, but it’s usually this way.  When promoting technology, Indulging in small talk exposes your human, gentle side to your customers and lets them know that you care for them.

Learn to ask the right questions – QBS (Question-based Selling)

Here’s the solution, after developing a reasonably good rapport with your customers and than leading them on to small talk, lead the conversation by asking the right questions.  It isn’t about the questions being closed-ended or open-ended; it’s about constructing the questioning in such a way that it leads you to the crux of your customers’ pain points – the problem you will need to address in the best possible way you can.

Selling by asking questions is quite a departure from the ubiquitous “push and sell” ways that people or entrepreneurs adopt.  When you begin to sell in this manner, not only do you see better results but you will also begin to make relationships with your customers that last longer based on value, trust and faith.

Are you asking the right questions?

Share This

---

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•