Are you familiar with the participation questions and how to use them? If not, you should be. They are one of the most powerful sales success secrets. When you master its use, you will be able to generate a substantial increase in your sales. Let’s start with a completely uncontroversial observation. Your main goal as a salesperson is to find out what your prospects’ needs are and find a way to satisfy them. That is not a new, unique, or momentous statement. It’s not what one would call a “paradigm shift.” They are basic things.
What doesn’t seem so basic to some in the sales world is how that observation should govern salesperson behavior. Sales professionals realize that they are supposed to find and satisfy needs, but they don’t really try very hard to do so.
That’s where the secrets to success that we call participation questions come into the picture. These are the questions you can ask a potential customer that will naturally lead him to provide the kind of information he needs to better recognize your needs and assess how to meet them.
The idea is to ask questions that will elicit a truly informative response. Good engagement questions will help you identify what’s really going on below the surface, allowing you to creatively build the perfect offer. That’s almost impossible to do when you don’t have an idea of what’s really going on in the minds of your prospects. “Why are you interested in our product/service?” That is a perfect example. Not a simple yes/no question, it opens the door to real communication and forces the prospect to give you real clues about their goals and needs.
One of the most powerful success secrets in the field of sales is the ability to ask the right question. If you’re getting your prospects to open up and provide meaningful information, you’re well positioned to close a deal. If you’re not asking the right questions, you’re not getting the kind of perspective you need to really “get” your prospect and how to treat them.
Test it. Works. Today, be sure to ask your prospects some smart questions. Explore them for information that will help you express the best possible way to help them. As a sales professional, that’s your job, right? The right questions will help you do that job like a true champion.