Qualifying = Asking the Right Questions

Put yourself in the buyer's shoes. You want a good quality product or service. You want to own it at a fair price, and you want as little hassle as possible in the buying process. This sounds fair, doesn't it?

Now ask yourself as a buyer, to achieve that goal, would you mind answering a few politely asked questions that would help you get there?

The answer should be easy.

If the delivery is right. If you are treated with respect. And if the questions have some point (meaning reasonable and  intelligent conclusions), you wouldn't mind answering them , would you?

To get permission from your prospects to ask qualifying questions, simply ask the following question in a professional, lamb-like manner: "Mr. and Mrs. Walker, would you be offended if I asked you a few questions that would help me to better serve your needs, and save you some time and possibly some money?"

Is that a question that would upset you if you were looking for a product or service? It's that easy to start the qualifying process, yet thousands of salespeople try to make sales each day with no idea if the customer is qualified to buy, or if they're talking to the final decision maker. So they usually end up showing the wrong product or discussing the wrong service with a person who may not be qualified to buy even if they were interested.

Some salespeople are afraid of asking questions. They fear losing control when the customer is talking. The truth is just the opposite. Questions help you to gain and maintain control of the sales process.

When you ask questions that will help you discover your customer’s needs , you not only save yourself time and energy, you help the customer get a vivid picture of what his or her needs and desires really are. Set a goal to master the skills of great qualifiers.

It is not uncommon for a strong qualifier to have a dosing ratio five times greater than that of a poor qualifier. It is unfortunate that the average salesperson attributes the professional's higher sales ratios to natural talent or their aggressive strategies when in many cases, it's their skill in asking inoffensive qualifying questions that has made the difference.

To the untrained salesperson, there definitely appears to be an advantage on the part of the professional. In reality, the poor salesperson just doesn't have the facts and "hot button s," learned through effective qualifying, to effectively consummate the sale. Every poor salesperson needs to understand, when it comes to consummating the sale -- what you don't know can kill you.

Copyright Tom Hopkins International, Inc.