The Age Old Question

The age old question, the first thing people want to know in this business, the search for Arthur’s Holy Grail: What is the secret to sales??

The answer? Question trees.

I do a lot of research and even more teaching, and the one thing everyone wants to know is what’s the biggest thing that will elevate their sales game.?

Last week we discussed what pushes you to keep going. Drive is needed for anyone who wants to succeed in anything, but it isn’t going to take you from good to great, it’s simply a requirement for success.?

The first thing that will allow that base to grow, the first secret formula for your sales career success is simple: question. Question everything.

I don’t mean life, I’m not talking about why we are here–I’m talking question trees. Question trees are the best way to get GREAT at sales. Question trees allow you to hone the basic aspects of sales to turn them into advanced strategies for closing more deals.?

Jordan didn’t become the GOAT without form shooting, Brady didn’t ignore essential footwork in the pocket (he’s too slow not to have perfect footwork, have you seen his combine tape?). I firmly believe question trees are the basics of sales that you need in order to become one of the Greats in sales.

So what’s a question tree? A question tree is essentially game theory repurposed for sales. They are flow charts you create to model how you expect a sales conversation to go. These models allow you to practice deep questioning to have quick and apt questions ready for any sales situation.

Question trees start with a question.?

Level one: What is an open ended question I need to ask in order to move my deal forward??

E.g: Who besides yourself will be making the decision? Who in the organization has the authority to prioritize this with legal? What feature will have the biggest influence on the decision? Who else are you looking at?

Level two: What are the possible responses they may make? At first that may seem like a big ask, but that’s how you get to the big leagues.

I always say you should come up with the two most likely responses, one or two outlier responses, and "I don't know.”

Level three: Focus on one of the responses. What questions does their answer introduce? Does their response reveal risk or opportunity? Both? If you’re not sure, that’s one of the many things you will learn by practicing.?

Then create questions you can ask to mitigate risks and redirect the conversation to your goal to close a deal.

Sounds like a lot to keep in your head? It is, and that’s why I don’t. I use a tool called gotensai where I write down all the questions I can think of and visualize them like a playbook, seeing how I can bring each response back to a game winning drive.

Below is the basic structure of a question tree.

Want an example with these filled in??

You need to find out when the decision committee is meeting.

Level one: When is the decision committee meeting?

Level two: Prospect can give the following answers:?

-A date that is close?

-A date that is very far out

-I don’t know

-We don’t have anything scheduled

??

Level three: Pick one of the answers and prepare the next question that will get you closer to the deal. In this example we will pick the first one, “A date certain that is close” i.e, tomorrow, a few days from now, next week. Let’s say they said, “tomorrow.”

As you work through your question tree, think about what you would ask next to mitigate risk and then anticipate the answers they can give you that question.?

In this scenario, I might ask, “What materials do you plan to present?” “What other projects are being reviewed tomorrow?” “How many proposals are they reviewing” “How much time on the agenda has been set aside to discuss” etc. etc. etc.?

Notice how each of these allows me to gain information about the meeting, letting me know how much risk is still involved, and the likelihood of us being selected. Then I pick one of my questions, make my 4-5 responses they can give again, and follow another one down the rabbit hole.

Seems like you could go on forever with any of these questions? That’s the point. Take one possible response, and run with it. It’s better to go deep down one route than stay shallow and answer a lot.

The goal is not to “finish” any tree. You can always find new reponses, and always ask better questions. The goal is to practice.

Think of great questions, go through common and uncommon conversations you may have, and learn to create better and faster questioning in real time. It’s the secret stuff and the one thing any salesperson NEEDS if they want to be great.

So the secret formula to success? Go grab a piece of paper, or head to gotensai.com. Pick a question you ask in most sales funnels. Then think of key responses you might get, pick one, identify the risks, and see how many follow up questions you can come up with. Even if you’ve asked this question a thousand times, do it. Then tomorrow, find a question you’re not as comfortable with, one that you’ve only asked a few times with varied success, and do it.

Work on your basics, then go for the hail mary. I promise, this simple practice is about to take you to the big leagues.

Summary

What: Question trees—A system of molding the art of questioning into a science.?

Why: To ask powerful questions to drive a deal and mitigate risks.

How:?Focus on a question in the sales process. Identify possible responses to the question. Identifying risks associated with responses, create questions to mitigate the risk.