Sales Tip of the Week from Mike Leeds – Pro Sales Coaching
Listen More by Talking Less
When asking business questions, it is quite common to ask "closed-ended" questions which often result in a "yes or no" answer, or a single word answer. This is the main reason that salespeople end up speaking an average of 78% of the time, and only listening 22% of the time during a conversation. If we want as much information as possible to help our customer with solving a problem or a need, we need to flip these numbers and begin listening closer to 78% of the time. The key is to ask "open-ended" questions to probe for information.
Here are some tips for asking "open-ended" questions: First, try to limit your questions that begin with the words can, do, is or are. The answers to these questions will often be a single word, forcing many salespeople to make the mistake of asking more closed ended questions (the interrogation technique.) Second, focus on questions that start with the word How or a word with the first letter of W (i.e., What, Why, Who, Where or When.) These questions will allow your customers to expand their answers so you can ask good follow up questions and accurately determine their needs. The result is your customers will be doing more of the talking, while you are effectively data gathering, actively listening, and taking notes.
Examples of some open-ended questions that will create great dialog:
- How do you measure success?
- What issues or challenges are you encountering?
- Where do you see your business expanding?
What are some of your favorite data gathering questions? Let's start a conversation.
Happy Holidays & Happy Selling!