3 QUESTIONS to uncover your PROSPECT’S NEEDS

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When you ask the right questions from the prospect, the discussion will lead to closing a sale. On the other hand, when you ask the wrong questions, the prospects shut down the doors forever. Hope you agree with me. Asking the right questions have two main benefits.

 #1 The person who asks the questions has control over the other.

#2 When you ask questions you can get valuable information.

They will help you to close sales and build strong relationships. What questions you must ask the prospect? No matter whatever the industry you are in, use these 3 questions. They will take your prospect in the right direction in closing sales.

As per my own experience, the biggest mistake many salespeople do, they keep on talking without allowing the prospects to talk. But the smart salespeople let the prospects talk. Then they attentively listen to them. Smart salespeople are people who create listening environments rather than talking environments.

Listening is very important. When you listen to your prospect attentively and diligently, you build a strong emotional bond with the prospect. He/ she will be having a feeling of admired and respected. Selling is all about building relationships and giving value. Then the question is; "How can you create more listening opportunities?" By asking questions. Asking more open-ended questions. Questions which’s answers are not ending up YES or NO. got it? Will go through these one by one.

#1 Could you please describe your problem/ Challenge?

Although you see customers buy your products or services, In reality, they buy solutions for their problems. You can understand this if you carefully analyze each of your sales. Therefore, you need to unveil the customer’s problems or pain points. The questions help you to do that. You have to actively listen to him and ask encouraging questions for him to continue. Most importantly if you don’t understand his problem, ask him again. Get it clear. Don’t feel embarrassed. Because if you mess up this stage, you will never get the sale. Have a notebook and pen with you. If you provide solutions for complex problems, record the conversation but with one condition. Necessarily get permission from the client. If he doesn’t like that continue with pen and book.

#2 Did you find a solution for your problem earlier?

If the prospect’s answer is NO! its’ great. That means you are the first person providing the solution. No competition at all. Then your skill is to become the one and only person who provides that solution to him. This is very important. The one and only person! 

When you ask the prospect, 'Did you find a solution for your problem earlier?' If the prospect’s answer is ‘Yes, but I am not happy, then you can go to the next question. Mr. Prospect What challenges did you face in the past? From the answer to this question, you can understand all the faults and mistakes done by your competitors. Maybe the reason, your competitors have not delivered what they’ve promised, maybe the reason they had service issues, may be the reason they have not provided the solutions on time. Once you have clearly identified the mistakes done by your competitors, you have to make sure these kinds of problems will never happen in the future.

#3 How much does the problem cost you?

This question doesn’t mean necessarily the financial cost incurred for your client. The answer to this shows the gravity of their problem. The higher the gravity, they need faster the solution. You can assess the gravity of the problem through the answer. For example, if your prospect says "our productivity has been drastically gone down, our profitability has significantly gone down, our cost has been increased significantly", that means they need faster solutions from you.

You should not restrict only to these questions. You can ask many questions to uncover the problem and to build a relationship. But these questions are a necessity.

Good luck