“Proper questioning has become a lost art. The curious four-year-old asks a lot of questions — incessant streams of “Why?” and “Why not?” might sound familiar — but as we grow older, our questioning decreases. In a recent poll of more than 200 of our clients, we found that those with children estimated that 70-80% of their kids’ dialogues with others were comprised of questions. But those same clients said that only 15-25% of their own interactions consisted of questions. Why the drop off?” - Tom Pohlmann and Neethi Mary Thomas

 Quote from Relearning the Art of Asking Questions on Harvard Business Review

ASKING GREAT SALES QUESTIONS

Overview of key learning objectives

by Jeff Bloomfield

Overview of key learning objectives text

In the old hit TV show 24, the lead character, Jack Bauer, was famous for his interrogation techniques. He had a limited amount of time, 24 hours, to prevent some worldwide disaster, so when he questioned the bad guys, he was aggressive, to say the least. Unfortunately, in my years as an executive sales leader and coach, I found that salespeople can often adopt the same approach. Asking sales questions turns into an interrogation of epic proportions, and leaves the prospect feeling as worked over as though they themselves had spent time with Jack Bauer. Yes, there is a fine line between asking effective sales questions versus this all intrusive interrogation approach. My name is Jeff Bloomfield, and I've spent my entire career coaching and developing salespeople. What I've found is like anything in life, the best salespeople tend to do things in a very specific way, and it always starts with the right mindset. If we truly understand that our role as a salesperson is to solve our customer's problems, we handle our sales questions as part of a larger business conversation, rather than an interrogation. The goal in this course is to first help you understand the world through the lens of your customer. Then use questions to create connection, drive credibility, increase urgency and confirm value clarity. This approach helps the prospect understand where the questions are leading, and makes the questioning process seem more like part of a conversation for their benefit, rather than that interrogation. What you will find if you follow the techniques in this course is that you will end up gathering more information than ever before, drive urgency to change and develop lasting relationships with your prospects. Let's begin.

"The goal in this course is to first help you understand the world through the lens of your customer."

Understand your customer's business

by Jeff Bloomfield

Understand your customer's business text

After decades of helping companies retool their sales processes and build rebuild their sales messaging, I'm still amazed that the prevalence of what is known as the needs analysis. Now on it's surface, the needs analysis would appear to make perfect sense. Ask the prospect a series of questions to uncover the opportunity for your product or solution, and then present your product or solution. Simple enough, right? Wrong. The needs analysis is tan amount to an interrogation to your prospect. The main reason for this is biology. They are operating, just like you, from a position of self-preservation. Their brain is hardwired for risk aversion and protection. They've been programmed through experience to view your needs analysis as a precursor to your data dump. They've seen that movie before and they know that it ends in a sales pitch. In addition to their self-preservation orientation, there's also the practical notion that the questions asked in most needs analysis are simply not very good questions at all. They're questions that you, the salesperson, had you done even 15 minutes of research prior to the sales call, would've had and should've had the answer to already. The key to avoiding the dreaded needs analysis trap is to be prepared. Do your homework on your prospect. There's so much information available today at the touch of your fingertips. Information like the prospect's name, title, work history, education, peer group, that's just to name a few. Much of this can be obtained simply through leveraging tools like LinkedIn. In addition to the actual person or people, you can also find information on the company. Things like company size, revenue, employee count, the company vision, mission, industry trends, markets they sell or serve, and in many cases, transcripts or recordings of shareholder meetings, 10K filings, reports like that. Arming yourself with this information is key to asking more specific, problem-centric relevant questions when you're actually in the sales meeting. To take this preparation to the next level, I encourage you to do one more simple exercise. See if you can uncover the selling message that your prospect's company is telling to their customers. Understanding what they sell and to whom they sell it to will give you a great deal of insight into some of their goals and challenges. Understanding a 360 degree view of your prospect by putting yourself into the shoes of the employees that you plan to meet with will naturally create questions that are more personal and relevant to your prospects. This approach will demonstrate empathy while at the same time, drive up your credibility by coming to them with topics that they already care about and then tailoring your questions around those very things. Now it may sound intuitive, but I've seen enough examples across multiple industries where sales professionals fail to take this approach and only show up armed with basic, superficial knowledge, which causes them to ask basic, superficial questions, and don't be that salesperson. Take the time to prepare, plan and structure meaningful questions around your knowledge of your prospect and their business. It'll make all the difference in the world.

"Do your homework on your prospect."

"See if you can uncover the selling message that your prospect's company is telling to their customers. Understanding what they sell and to whom they sell it to will give you a great deal of insight into some of their goals and challenges."

Understand your customer's role

by Jeff Bloomfield

Understand your customer's role text

If I ask you the question, how well do you know your customer's role? You might likely respond that you know them quite well. If I ask you to tell me about them, you would likely give me their name and title within seconds. You may even be able to quickly tell me how long they've been in their current role or with their current company due to your expert analysis on LinkedIn. The question is, however, how well do you really know your customer's role? For example, do you know how their role fits into the bigger strategic plan of the company? Do you know how their role supports the growth of the company? Do you understand the pressures that are associated with their role from their bosses and their bosses bosses perspective? The good news is, for most roles within the same industry, most of your customers will have very similar goals and challenges. The more you understand their role, the more you'll be able to relate to their day to day activities. This will give you greater insight into the things that they think about. How they think about them and how they use that information in order to make decisions. This will greatly assist you in the types of questions to ask. Questions that speak to the things your customer actually cares about and thinks about, not just questions that you care about that lead to opportunities for you to pounce with your sales message. Here are the five benefits to really understanding your customer's role. Number one. It's about clear focus. Knowing your customers inside and out helps you focus your energies on creating desired solutions and services. Strategic customized solutions will steer more clients to your business. Number two. Understanding your customer's role helps keep you problem-centric. Your customers and your prospects likely have uncertainties, challenges and fears. They're not looking for your product, they're looking for solutions to problems. Understanding their role will give you insight into those very problems that you can eventually help them solve. Number three is language. When you learn more about your customer's role, you'll also learn the right words, phrases and questions to use for maximum engagement and impact with your questions. Fourth is empathy. If you take the time to really understand your customer and your prospects, you'll start to understand what it's like to be them. To walk in their shoes. The more you empathize with your customers, the more your questions will come across as meaningful and personalized to them. Fifth is about positioning. By taking the time to understand your customer's role in depth and by delivering solutions to their problems, you will become positioned as the expert to whom they'll likely turn to for all their future business as well. You'll be that trusted advisor that every sales professional aspires to be. In the end, what it really comes down to is your willingness to do the extra work necessary to understand your customer in depth. When you put in the time to understand them and their role, you'll naturally become a more empathetic salesperson who asks better, more focused empathetic and problem-centered questions. This will drive your connection and your credibility, which will not only help you sell more, but you'll feel better about how you're actually helping make a difference for your customers as well.

"Do you understand the pressures that are associated with their role from their bosses and their bosses bosses perspective?"

"They're not looking for your product, they're looking for solutions to problems."