Get More Yes's

You don’t know what you’re selling until you know what I'm interested in buying.

How do you find out what I’m buying? Ask me!

What if I won’t tell you?  Then find out why I won’t tell you. Ask me why I’m hesitating.

What if I get defensive when you ask these questions? Check your tone. Ask me if you’re making me uncomfortable with your questions. If you need to create space for me, consider apologizing for making me uncomfortable. Something like, "Hey Karen, I apologize if I'm putting you on the spot. That's not my intention at all - I just want to find out if what we have is a good fit for you."

Make sure you maintain a friendly, conversational tone. Some people take a while to warm up.

Let me know that you’re looking to make sure there’s a fit between what I want or need and what you’re offering. Reassure me that if there’s not a fit you’ll make a recommendation for a better fit if I’m interested.

If you realize that there might be a disconnect between what I want & what I need, ask me questions to gently expose the disconnect instead of telling me. Educate me into a better solution.

Listen to what I say to you, how I express it and what I don’t say. Listen with your ears, your intellect, your heart and your body. Pay attention to how your body reacts.

Use your feelings to connect with my feelings. Empathize. Sales is not an intellectual exercise - people buy on emotion & justify with logic.

Check for understanding by paraphrasing, reframing and feeding what I said back to me.  Make sure you’re not making assumptions.

Ask me what other options/ solutions I’m considering and maybe even why I’m considering them.

Find out if I’m buying a short or long term solution.  Ask me what problem I’m looking to solve. Or what opportunity I’m looking to seize, or what I need to prevent from happening in the future.

Ask me enough questions to find out what need or opportunity I really need your product or service to solve. When you get to it, you’ll see or feel the emotional connection; I’ll smile, I’ll have a sigh of relief, I won’t hesitate, etc. Now you know what I’m buying and you can educate me about how your product or service delivers this to me.

If you take this approach, you’ll understand specifically how to present your product or service to anyone you speak with. And, you’ll be much less vulnerable to competition, you’ll build relationships and you will position yourself as a trusted resource when the next need arises. Whether you’re working with sales prospects, employees or family members, you will benefit from finding out what is important to them before you invite them to participate in your idea or solution. We build all of our trainings around this philosophy, and it’s beautifully transformative.

Does this click for you?