AAAW #1 - Asking Great Sales Questions

I'm trying to make the best out of the whole quarantine situation by adding some structure into my days - and work some self improvement into it as well! By posting what (I hope) would be interesting, relevant material on various topics on LinkedIn, I trust that some people may find it useful. Of course, it helping to keep me accountable, and brushing up on my writing is a huge plus.

This is the first post of what will be a weekly post on interesting material I've come across during the last seven days - An Article A Week (or AAAW).

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I've been on a 2 week break to unwind and refocus, and have taken the time to (finally) take advantage of Unity's subscription to LinkedIn Learning. I'll be tracking and summarising some of the material I've gone through over the week, to be condensed into key points which I find salient.

This week's lesson is on asking great sales questions by Jeff Bloomfield (link to content at end of article) - which extend to more than just salespeople.

In the introduction, Jeff hopes that salespeople move from the standard "intrusive, interrogation approach" to a more consultative conversation. This should lead to better outcomes by:

> Creating a Better Connection

> Driving Credibility

> Increasing Urgency

> Confirming Value Quality

Let's dive into it.

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The first stage of the sales process is to prepare before the meeting. He eschews the traditional needs analysis (guilty!) which has essentially evolved into an interrogation-style flurry of questions and ticking of boxes. Don't waste the limited time your prospect has with generic questions which could have been answered by 15 minutes of LinkedIn sleuthing or Googling.

Jeff suggests researching more into the prospect's role, and identifying threats or risks that prevent them from accomplishing their goals. One way is to chart their top three to five goals / objectives, and then determining the challenges that prevent them from achieving it. By solving the most serious problems that stand out (versus showing them the opportunities your product creates), you'll be able to create and drive urgency to resolving their issues.

Chapter 1: Preparation

> Understand the company / business (company vision, industry trends, selling message)

> Understand the prospect's role (goals, challenges) 

> Identify how your solution solves the most urgent issues preventing your client from prospering

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Now comes the meat of the course - creating, and asking the right questions.

First is building rapport. Jeff correctly states that nobody wants to listen to random small talk about hobbies. He suggests that we open up by sharing something "authentic, meaningful, and even a little bit vulnerable", and gives a pretty great example of a little story he shares about his history and value systems. The bottom line is, honesty, authenticity, and vulnerability will go a long way into building a lasting relationship.

Personally, I have my doubts - is sharing stories about your past a good way of building a connection? I would rather they get to the point and tell me what they want, versus launching into a spiel of their life story. I don't think rapport can be built up just by sharing - it takes time and effort to get to know them (and for them to know you). Plus, different cultures would probably appreciate different approaches?

He goes into the difference between professional and personal trust - which are raised by completely different characteristics. Personal trust is about how likable you are (characteristics like authenticity, honesty, and vulnerability matter here); while professional trust is more about professional credibility (knowledge, competence, skills). Ideally, of course, you want to have a high amount of both.

I did a bit of a shuffle here - Jeff talks about clarifying your customer's priorities, then goes into how to determine insights: snippets of information that help frame the issue you are trying to solve. This often comes in the form of statistics (eg. x% of companies lose money due to budget delays), and serves as a means of creating a connection and showing competency in the topic you are about to bring up (via questioning). I thought that learning how to create actionable insights come before questioning, so I brought this forward.

Jeff shares next on the power of insights - simple statistics and/or facts that you provide the customer to highlight your proposed problem before you propose a solution. It's a smart way to reduce defensiveness and increase the likelihood of getting better, more complete answers. Take a look at the two example questions below:

> Mr / Mrs customer, do you currently have an issue meeting your sales goals? 

> Mr / Mrs customer, based on information from X study, 88% of sales teams indicated that their sales calls ended in failure. Do you feel that your team has any gaps in their ability to differentiate your solutions in front of your iddeal customers? 

The question helps portray the problem as something that is fairly prevalent - and by including data that proves that your client is in the majority, not the minority, you also help frame the issue more positively. A good start is to create 3-4 questions per insight that you can then drop into conversation.

Next, you'll be looking at asking questions that help refocus your client's mind (and hence emphasise the urgency of the problem) on issues that you and your company can solve. Try to ask less questions - as that shows you've done your homework, hence driving connection and capability. After establishing the top 3-4 primary goals your customer has (from their perspective), communicate with them to establish which are their priorities. The suggested flow from Jeff is as follows:

> Outline their typical goals (eg. raising revenue, decreasing sales cycle)

> Highlight the potential problems (that your solution solves) using insights

> Clarify and confirm their perspectives on the goals and problem

> Confirm the priority of their goals

Use your questions to help quantify their problems by creating an anchor on which you can base subsequent questioning. A tangible, concrete problem (with an assigned value) helps elevate the urgency in their mind to solve it. The key here is to actually settle on a number (eg. 400,000 in missed revenue = 40,000 gain if there's a 10% improvement).

It's also important to personalise the questions to cater to their problems in a way that highlights how you can help them mitigate risk and decrease exposure. The example questions raised here (in the context of a health insurance company) are:

> Mr / Mrs Customer, regarding your employee health plan this year, would you prefer if I shared more regarding one with a higher deductible, or one with more benefits and options?

> Mr / Mrs customer, did you know that a recent survey by X showed that Y% of employees indicate health coverage as their number one priority in staying at their current job? Do you feel personally responsible and pressure from above to get this health insurance thing right?/

IMO, the latter example does a good job of folding in the use of insights, but the second bit doesn't quite sit right with me. I'm sure there's a better way of relating the topic to the customer on a more personal level.

After gaining alignment on the problem on a personal, tangible level, you can then proceed to propose a solution. Ensure that for each feature brought up, a clarifying question is asked to ensure that the customer is aware how your solution actually solves the problem brought up. This 1) helps cement that it is a solution to the problem, and 2) increases the likelihood that they'll be personally invested in seeing the solution implemented.

Another tip he raises is to anchor the benefit of your solution, to the actual problem being solved (versus other products or competitors). This helps demonstrate the actual value of your solution.

This can be a bit iffy as well - chances are, unless you have a very niche product intended to solve a very specific problem, there will be a whole gamut of solutions out there for almost every specific problem. In this chapter, the goal he raises is more about redirecting attention towards the cost-benefit analysis between your solution and the problem. It doesn't seem likely that any decision-maker worth their salt will not take a look at alternatives / comparisons out there. I definitely think that going in with a solid analysis on your competition is still the way to go.

The last suggestion on closing - is not actually to close, but to end with a more passive partnership agreement. This is shown in the example below:

Mr / Mrs customer, based on the conversation today, it's clear that solving these issues will be mutually beneficial. (More material about the conversation). Soo, what would you like to do?

The intent is to let the customer see you as a partner, and give them the choice to accept or reject the solution. It helps increase trust and reduce the chances of the customer feeling defensive.

That's it!

This was a surprisingly long article - a bit ambitious for a first plug. I'll try for something more lightweight in the future, or break this up for subsequent iterations.

If you want to check out the course yourself, the link is here: https://www.dhirubhai.net/learning/asking-great-sales-questions-5/overview-of-key-learning-objectives?u=2120532

All in all, it's a pretty great course that got me to re-examine my sales approach, as well as re-think how to approach sales. I'll probably make some edits in this article from time to time as I receive new insights.

Thanks, and let me know if that was useful!