It is difficult, time-consuming, and often misleading during your sales prospecting when you are trying to find out your prospect’s pain points and frustrations of your prospect.
As a salesperson, you are trying to find it as soon as you can. But your prospect is under the pressure that he may get a bad deal. He is gunning to get the best deal possible.
This is because selling is often experienced by the salespeople and prospects as a competition in which they try to get more from each other.
Prospects view sales executives as some kind of conmen and hence not worthy of trust.
Salespeople are often focused on either getting the deal closed or selling more to their prospects.
The focus invariably turns to – who gets the better deal?
Wait โฆ Let us think about this situation deeper.
What is the most profitable and fulfilling outcome in any sales process?
To put it in simplest words,
The best outcome in any sales process is the salesperson โguidingโ his prospective customer,
Find the โsolutionโ that matches or exceeds buyers expectations,
Using the โproductsโ or โservicesโ that the salesperson sells,
At the “price-point” that makes the buyer feel that he or she is getting a “great deal”.
It is important to remember from the sales or business development executiveโs point of view here is that the price point in the sales process ensures at least a minimum acceptable profits for the salesperson, in that deal.
After carefully reading this, you will see that in this situation both the buyer and seller are happy.
Selling is no more a tussle between two opponents, but a journey experienced together by fellow travelers for a common goal towards the solution to the buyer’s needs and wants.
If as a business development executive, if you want to allign your prospect with you, there are 2 critical things that need to happen at the start of the sales cycle –
- Your prospect feels trust with you – because once he trusts you, he opens up and talks about the real things that bother him.
- Creation of empathy between you and your potential customer. This is when both you and your prospect start understanding what you both are really saying and what is your real intent.
This is when the conversations become smooth and productive.
Do you know which tool can help you achieve trust and empathy in your sales conversations?
It is when you use effective sales questions, right from the start of your conversations.
In sales, these questions are called the discovery question. They literally help you discover your prospects’ pain, processes, priorities, emotional impacts, expectations, and goals.
Do you know there are 2 ๐๐๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ฑ๐ถ๐๐ฐ๐ผ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ ๐พ๐๐ฒ๐๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป๐?
If you know when to use each type of these questions, can decide if you are going to win and lose your sale.
The two types are:
๐๐ถ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ Questions & ๐๐ป๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ Questions
So, what are the examples of some direct questions used in sales discovery?
โWhat is bothering you currently in your [current situation] ? “
โWhich things are creating ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ถ๐จ๐จ๐ญe for you these days?”
“๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ are you facing ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ด as of now?”
“๐๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ๐บ ๐ธ๐ช๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ๐ต๐ด ๐ฅ๐ฐ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ?โ
If you have built a solid rapport with the prospect, you can also use a question like –
โWhat keeps you awake at night these days?โ
Pro Tip – Remember that these questions can feel very direct and hard-hitting for most of the prospects you encounter. Most of us feel very defensive when we are asked about our biggest pains. It makes us feel vulnerable. Very few of us are strong and courageous enough to face the pain and explain it as it is to anyone who wants to know about it.
Also, Check- What to do if the prospect stops responding to you?
So let us have a little more empathy for the emotions of our buyers. Let us use our language more carefully with them. Let us use the โindirect questionsโ.
What are the examples of โindirect questionsโ used in sales discovery?
“๐๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ doing your [๐ต๐ข๐ด๐ฌ] ๐ต๐ฐ๐ฅ๐ข๐บ?โ
โWhy do you do this [task] in this current way?โ
โWhat happens when this [situation] happens?
“๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฅ๐ฐ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฅ๐ฐ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ [๐ด๐ช๐ต๐ถ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ] ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ด?โ
โCan you tell me ๐ข๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ค๐ฆ๐ด๐ด ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฅ๐ฐ [๐ง๐ถ๐ฏ๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ]?โ
โHow do you think this [situation] can be improved?โ
Did you observe that indirect questions are used to ask prospects about how they are dealing with their tasks and challenges in their tasks today?
These are the tasks that are related to the areas where your prospects need solutions from you.
It is always about their current painful situation and how they may be looking to get out of it.
Generally, you will use these questions based on your experience of where your prospects generally struggle.
These questions very subtly lead your prospects towards the solutions that you can provide them.
Your buyers will not feel intimidated or guarded, as these questions open them up gently.
The conversations driven with such questions can often tell you a lot more about your prospects than you ever imagined. They also put you in your prospects’ shoes emotionally and experience the struggle yourself. This ultimately leads to empathy and trust.
Finally, for the prospects, these questions open the door for the story they want to actually tell.
On the other hand, direct questions which put prospects in challenging situations may make it difficult for the buyers to describe their struggle or pains properly.
Pro Tip – You need to be and sound, genuinely interested in your prospect and his situation. You can imagine yourself as a doctor examining his patient. The best doctors always handle the emotions of patients carefully, while dealing with their pain.
When do you know that you will soon find out your prospect’s pain points?
So, if you have used these questions well then, most often come out with expressions like
“๐ absolutely ๐ฉ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ ๐ช๐ต ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ด.โ
โIt can get so confusing!โ
“Man, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ต๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ด a ton of time.โ
“๐ish we were doing that today.”
Did you see the breakthrough that you have achieved in the initial phase of your sales conversation here?
Now your potential buyer is feeling upset and emotional about what is going on.
He/she will be more than willing to explore the solution to come out of their painful struggle.
Now the ball is in your court, even without your prospect knowing it. You have a chance to be their guide or mentor.
So what do you do next? Do you start pitching the solution to the prospect?
Have you realized how using the right questions at the right time can put you in the driver’s seat in sales?