Your sales team needs to practice what questions they ask and how they ask them. That intentionality will have a dramatic impact on sales.
September 16, 2020
By Rachel Smith
We often say that sales is a lot like dating. If you spend your entire time on a first date talking about yourself, you’re not going to get a second date. Similarly, if you spend an entire discovery call espousing the benefits of your product or service, you’re not likely to make a sale.
Surely you wouldn’t spend an entire evening talking about yourself. You would be trying to get to know your date by asking questions and listening intently to what they have to say. Your sales approach is, hopefully, similar.
There are certain kinds of questions and ways of asking them that make a sale more likely. Don’t waste time letting your growing sales team learn the hard way what works and what doesn’t. Instead, let them know what works, and why it works, and then have them practice until it becomes second nature.
The purpose of discovery calls and early conversations with prospects is to get to know as much about them, what they do, and what they need as you possibly can. You need to get them talking openly and honestly. Some questions foster this kind of interaction better than others.
“Are unverified leads causing problems for your business?” The only possible answers to this question are yes or no. It leaves very little opportunity for sharing details. Compare it to this question. “Tell me, how are unverified leads causing problems in your day-to-day activities?” This question opens the door to a deeper, more informative answer. “How” invites them to give an explanation. Asking about “your day-to-day activities” activates their recollection of their experiences, where a mention of “your business” is less personal.
Open-ended questions are powerful tools in the arsenal of any sales professional for two reasons. First, they don’t introduce bias in the way that other question types can. If you ask about your prospect’s biggest pain points and provide a list of choices, they will tell you which of those is their biggest pain point. Is it their biggest pain point overall? Would they have even mentioned it if you hadn’t limited their answer choices?
By asking open-ended questions, you won’t bias any of your prospect’s answers. You will also likely get a longer, more in-depth answer. It’s these narrative answers that give you important information about the prospect. The more you can get potential clients to talk, the better off you’ll be in understanding what they need and how you can help.
Gong.io found that there is a strong connection between a buyer’s response length and the likelihood that a deal is closed. Longer responses mean more sales, so ask the questions that result in longer answers.
There’s another type of question that is especially helpful not only in getting more information, but in impacting whether or not people like you. A study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that people who ask more questions, and particularly follow-up questions, are better liked by their conversation partners.
This approach goes against many people’s instincts. Most people, upon meeting a new person, tend to talk about themselves, or maybe try and tell a funny story. One reason this might be true is because when we watch two people interact, we tend to like the person who talks more. The same study found that it’s only when you’re actually in the conversation that you appreciate the questions being asked.
Follow-up questions show your prospect that you were truly listening to what they were telling you. Furthermore, it shows that you’re interested and want to know more about what they are saying. Those who are asked follow-up questions feel respected by their conversation partner.
Even more than being asked questions about themselves, people like being asked for their opinion. In fact, questions that ask for someone’s opinion increase the neural activity in the brain associated with reward and pleasure. The more you can frame queries as opinion questions the better.
Instead of asking “Why is your current solution causing problems?” try asking, “Why do you think the current solution isn’t working?” You are getting the same information either way, but the latter question makes it clear to your conversation partner that you want their opinion.
Another great way to ask a question is to ask a prospect to think about how they would use your product. Simply asking someone to think about doing something increases the likelihood that they actually do it.
Asking questions is key to any sales relationship, but the kinds of questions and how they are asked have a greater impact on success than many realize. There is another side to all of this question-asking, because just as important as what you say is what you don’t say.
Most humans are not comfortable with prolonged silences in conversation. It varies a bit by culture exactly when people start to squirm, but in the US, four seconds of silence is when most people start to feel uncomfortable. Researchers think this is based on our instinctual need of wanting to feel like part of the group. While it’s important to use it strategically, silence can have a major impact on the success of your sales team.
What do people on your sales team do after asking a question? If they are like most sales professionals, they wait two to three seconds and start talking again. Then they either rephrase the question, answer it themselves, or move on to another topic entirely.
There are several reasons why this is a mistake. First of all, if you’re asking open-ended questions like you’re supposed to be doing, it might take your prospect several seconds to think about how they want to answer. Give them a chance to give a thoughtful answer.
The second reason talking after your own question is a mistake is that silence isn’t just uncomfortable for you, it’s also uncomfortable for your prospect. Often, by forcing yourself to wait for more than four seconds, your potential client will break the silence by sharing more information, which is what you’re after.
This technique is difficult to master. It goes against human nature to calmly wait for an answer. It takes long practice for it to become comfortable. Some people find it useful to count in their head. Others take this opportunity to take a drink of water.
The silence that many salespeople find most difficult is the most important. It’s after stating a price for their product or service. Have you seen your sales team members offer a concession or compromise before the potential client even says anything? It’s a common response, but not the right one. If you have to say something, instead of sabotaging yourself, try, “What’s your initial feeling about that offer?”
There is more power in silence than just after asking a question. Research tells us that top sales closers talk less on sales calls than do average closers, who talk less than those who close the least. It was even determined that the ideal ratio of salesperson speaking time to prospect speaking time is 43 to 57.
How much do you think most of your sales team is talking during their calls and presentations? The average B2B sales representative talks between 65 and 75 percent of the time—a lot more than is ideal.
Sales is half science and half art, and the science tells us that asking open-ended questions and follow-up questions leads to more sales. Talking less and embracing silence also leads to more closed deals.
These sales strategies likely don’t come naturally to much of your sales team. They take deliberate training and practice, but they are worth it. How do you see yourself and your team using these strategies?
(waits five seconds)
(Asks follow-up question based on your lengthy answer)
And…scene.
Burning questions? We’ve got answers. (Or, better yet: more questions.) Reach out to mastery@maestrogroup.co for more information on our trainings.
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