Sales Q&A: Asking the Right Stuff (excerpt from "Birth of a Salesman")

Once you manage to make your way in the door the least you can do is get to know the person. Finding a need and exposing a weakness in a current scheme is
critical. Asking the right questions is vital to finding those pressure points.
Without a master plan and method to the madness you will fail in building a
foundation to your desired outcome.
Put it in perspective. For all practical purposes, you are a prosecuting
attorney. It is your job to ask expertly crafted questions specifically designed to
elicit the responses you need to build and win your case. You cannot convince
judge, jury or customer that Colonel Mustard did it in the ballroom with the
candlestick unless you paint the perfect picture.
DO NOT ask a yes or no question. We have visited where the customer
can take these and, in addition, if you ask a question and the customer says,
“Yes,” what have you really learned? Find questions you can ask that will
broaden the horizon the most. You want to ask the question that causes the
customer to spring forth like a fountain.
DO NOT ask too many or ask useless questions that do not further
your case. The customer’s time is precious (yours should be, too) and you have
to envision they are allotting you just enough time to ask the top five questions
and move on. People do not block out an hour for you to give them a full report
on whatever you are peddling so strap in and get used to the fast pace. Even if
you are building relationships, cut to the chase. Spend the majority of your time
overcoming objections, not building up to the pitch, because if you do have to
settle for call #2, you will not have to start from scratch.
DO NOT ask a question for the sake of asking it. The exception to this
rule is if it is to stall as you calculate your next move. Let me explain: the
questions you ask are designed to pry a need or weakness from the customer’s
inner sanctum. Once you obtain that information it is time to fashion your pitch.
However, in many sales gigs, it is imperative to do some computer work to
brandish your weapon and you may need to throw in blowoff questions to keep
the customer talking.
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This is important because (1) any question you ask for determination of
needs or weaknesses must resurface later. You will use their words against them
in a court of law: your law. There is no greater ammunition than the customer’s
own words, which is why it is vital to pay attention during these proceedings and
write down key points. A lot of salespeople think they do not need to log
anything but that is foolishness. A waiter or waitress can only go so long before
they forget an order or two. That may impact their tip. A gaffe in sales of this
magnitude can impact your career.
You want to ask very pointed, focused questions to which you may
already know the answers. They are designed with the purpose of determining
the information you need in order to pin the “crime” of inadequacy on them so
you can show them where your product or service meets their needs. Once you
get the answers to these types of questions, you later “trap” your customer with
their own words and rationale when guiding them into the end result you desire.
Then, it is time to sentence them to life with your superior product.
Also, (2) once you get good at this rapport and fact-finding stuff,
customers say a lot of similar things or go off on tangents that are irrelevant to
the proceedings. You do not have to listen to or hear everything they say – you
only have to hear the things that are going to help you diagnose their dilemma.
When you go to a doctor’s office, you tell them everything that ails you,
make smalltalk, etc., but their job is to figure out what is wrong with you. At
least physically, right? They do a lot of smiling and nodding as you tell them
what they do not need to know. The information about your health will help
their diagnosis; a story about your cat will go in one ear and out the other. This
will buy your time as you prepare the next and delicate leg of your sales flow: the
pitch and presentation.
After years in the game, you will learn what works and does not through
trial and error. Often salespeople that are still struggling despite the fact I have
doled out advice to them is they try to take too many liberties with what we
discussed and wind up going too far outside of the box. I have listened to some
reps that do a fantastic job of sounding professional, they can talk your ear off
and while they sound like someone a romantic partner would want to introduce
to their parents, they cannot sell to save their lives. They talk in circles. They ask
questions to hear themselves talk. Stick to the flow and you will be a star.
Deviate and you will never get off the ground.
In building the sales call you have to use the customer’s words to bolster
your stance at every turn. They will balk at your pitch. This is a fact of life.
However, when you use their own words against them in pointing out their need
and weakness, you diminish the credibility of their objections. They cannot
ignore their own words; if you make your customer eat them you greatly enhance
your chance of success.
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If you are at all like me, you think about the job when you are not there
and dwell on what you could have or should have said. You think about new
ways to approach it. That’s a good thing. You want to analyze your trade if you
are going to master it.
A lot of times, people ask, “What could I have said to this objection?”
Decent question, but often not the one to ask. A common mistake is setting
yourself up to fail by getting up to the line of scrimmage without a play in mind.
If you do not unearth the right information in fact-finding, it does not matter
how good your recommendation, pitch, or potential overcome is. Your offering
could be the greatest thing since sliced bread and they will say no and it will
boggle your brain. Do you know why? Because you did not use their own
information, their own case scenario and their own words against them. You did
not ask the right questions, thereby setting yourself up to fail because you could
not overcome with powerful, specific logic designed to garner the proper
emotions.
Without strategy you lose more often than not. Unfortunately, like the
loose pickle jar, people luck into sales sometimes through no skill of their own
and defy these rules. If this happens early in a career it can spell disaster because
of the false sense of reality it can provide.
I have seen a lot of people have early success in a career and be heralded
as great by managers and peers. Personally, I have always respected the
salesperson that took longer to get where they wanted to be and showed
constant improvement in their trajectory through solid effort. It is one thing to
luck into success; it is entirely another to work your tail off to become great at
what you do and know what it took to get you there. Those who luck into
success fade away quickly. Those who know what it takes to get there stand the
test of time. They worked hard to get there and are not willing to let it go.
It is likely some will walk away from this book and try something new
for a slew of opportunities and they may not find instant success. After that,
they may dismiss this book and go right back to old, comfortable ways of failing.
Neither I nor anyone could tell you a fool-proof method of making a sale on
every call. It’s consistency that wins the race. It’s playing the odds. If you do
the right things on your call throughout, you enhance your chances. In many
sales jobs, if something works 1% of the time it is a huge success. Where people
stumble and fall is when they skip steps to the sale.
When you put it all on the line and confront the customer’s weakness
with your specially crafted resolution, you have to have all your ducks in a row.
This is intimidating to some because a lot of people are scared to pitch, hence
their litany of questions that last up until the moment the customer has to go
back to work. But you cannot be afraid of taking the clutch shot, having the ball
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in the fourth quarter or taking your opponent down to the wire. And you will
not get better without real world experience of doing it.
This is where analysis of your job and determination of what questions
you need to ask comes into play.
Think about what you are selling. Are you selling a good or service?
Are you selling something intangible like an idea, concept or results? Is it
potentially an everyday item or something obscure?
That first question is the segue you are using to get from outsider to
inner sanctum. From the information you start to glean one of two things will
occur: the customer will go along with your line of questioning or they will try to
shoot you down. If they go with the latter you have to treat it like the “initial
shutdown” and flip the script to put them on the spot.
As pointed out when discussing the introduction, you have to quickly
get the customer engaged by getting them to talk about themselves, their
situation or their business. They will occasionally go off track and it’s your job to
take them back. The boxing analogy of this paragraph: you have them in the
corner, they try to get out; you have to get them back there. Keep them in their
place. Keep control.
Whatever your first question is should be designed to get a broad answer
that is going to open up a tree of future questioning. If you are talking to a
customer about their current cleaning needs, vacuuming needs, moving needs,
advertising needs, you have to ask first what they use right now. How are the
results? How do they track the results? What do they find most frustrating or
would they change about the product they use? You are literally scrambling to
find something to latch on to at this point. When you do, you want to find out
everything about that aspect because it will likely become the weakness you
expound upon when you start your pitch.
At the onset of fact-finding, you are fumbling in the dark for light
switches. As you find them, the room becomes a little less dim but you certainly
are not privy to all the sights in the room yet. Secondary and offshoot questions
are just as important if not more than the principal questions you utilize. Do not
graze the surface of what you are trying to accomplish; ask questions and find
out specifics about the things you uncover.
The mistake many people make here is they think sales is just about
having conversations. Sales is about latching on to facts and characteristics of
your target audience so you can show them what you have while taking care of
their insecurities and fears.
You did not call this customer to write a biography or interview them
for the school paper. You need to isolate the five or so questions that you most
need the answer to. Based on those, it is likely you will have to branch off and
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ask other questions on your own to complete your questioning. However, you
need a concise game plan to deliver consistent results.
Think back to A Few Good Men; Tom Cruise could never have
hammered Jack Nicholson on the stand like that if he had not asked all of the
supporting questions that proved his side to be true. But any false questions
here or there, a second of hesitation, and the General would take the opportunity
to attempt escape. Much akin to that, you have to ask questions that stick to the
book: what situation are they in? What are they using that is most similar to
what you have to offer? Ask about profits and benefits of what they are using.
Probe; the more you have the more you can use later when you are dismantling
their method and building up your own.
You always have to be ready to pounce. The more you know about
what they do, the more likely it is that you will find their need or weakness.
Once you have that, you have the tools for victory.
You are basically hacking away at their foundation from the word GO –
undermining what they do and performing a great game of “mine is better than
yours.” If you undermine what they are doing and make them doubt themselves,
you have a winner.
Remember that the questions you think of, the questions your company
recommends and the ones that seem most practical heading into a sale are just
the tip of the iceberg. It is aesthetically satisfying to check off questions on a
checklist but that does not help you in the grand scheme if you fail to uncover
the real treasure. Often the obvious questions will set the stage; you have to
infuse yourself into the rest. Actors in comedy shows are given scripts but the
funniest material is often ad-libbed. Where you branch off from the script can
be where you make the most impact.
A customer may tell you they advertise in the newspaper. If you leave it
at that, however, what have you really learned? Your whole argument come
pitch and overcome time will purely be based on speculation unless you glean
cold, hard facts. How much are they paying? What do they get for the
investment money? How often do they appear? What is the circulation of the
paper? What are the results? How are they tracking the results? Every answer
to those secondary questions could conceivably be used later when you are
“tearing down” what they do in an attempt to show them they need what you
have.
No, you do not have to ask them every one of those questions. You will
not have time nor will they all help your cause. However, this is another instance
of where your abilities, reflexes and intuition will be important to the process.
The answers to these questions will aid you in the long run because you will need
specifics to more clearly illustrate your points, combat the objections and ice the
deal.
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Were you one of the people who looked ahead in books to see glimpses
at the ending? The call does not bode well for you if your fact-finding is lacking.
In addition, you do not want to end up asking more questions after you have
half-heartedly attempted a pitch. Once you have made that pitch you have
crossed the point of no return. You have committed. Asking questions is
ridiculous at this point; you cannot slow down the train once it has pulled out of
the station and is full steam ahead to its next destination. Anything you ask
should have already been asked, the customer will see you flailing and wonder
why you pitched without knowing the answer you now seek.
The best advice I can give on fact-finding is have a plan. Don’t ask too
many, don’t ask too few, don’t ask the wrong ones and don’t forget to add some
more right ones. This aspect of the call flow is the one that will require you to
take the most liberties. For some, that is a scary concept but that fear will
dissipate after mass repetition.
Everything you do or say from this point forward is based on what you
learn during this session. The problem with scripted questions is that often
people will ask them only because they have to and not take it upon themselves
to make that next step. They fail to realize the impact or importance.
Let’s say I am a car salesman and you have wandered onto my lot. I
have approached you and engaged you in conversation.
“Good afternoon! I’m Vincent, and welcome to Scott Motors. How are
you?”
“Good.”
“And with whom do I have the pleasure of speaking?”
“John Doe.”
“Fantastic, John. I am here to meet all of your needs today in your quest
for a vehicle. What make and model are you looking for?”
There are a million different ways I could choose to begin this line of
questioning. The truth is, I do not want to ask about price range or anything that
will inhibit me but many users come to your dealership with a specific car in
mind. If they state they have one, you will then be looking into the one with the
most options. If they do not, sky’s the limit.
“I’m just looking for something sporty in my price range.”
“Perfect, John, we will definitely be able to find a fit for you today.”
Stay away from saying there are a lot of options – this is a common sales mistake.
In the culmination of this examination, you are going to make a personalized
recommendation based on what you have learned. You are also not going to take
the bait and ask about the customer’s perceived “price range.” “I know color is
important; what color are you looking for?”
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“Black.”
“Excellent choice, John.” Constant reinforcement of customer opinions
and answers is important. “What options are the most important on this car?”
Again, do not limit yourself. Do not ask questions like if they want a sunroof or
they want a CD changer or they want additional amenities. Remember you are
making a personalized recommendation and leaving yourself plenty of room to trade
down. Right now you stick to the things you are going to allow the customer to
have their say in initially.
“Well, I’m really just looking for durability and style. My last car
required a lot of repairs. I want something that will last ten years or so.”
This still leaves everything wide open, but the customer is getting more
skin in the game with every question. You can still offer this customer anything
on your lot, provided it is black, sporty and long-lasting. The questions you
choose to use should serve just such a purpose; leave yourself a lot of wiggle
room but give the customer what they want.
“I like your thought process, John. Let’s face it, these are important
factors in making a purchase and at Scott Motors we only carry top-of-the-line
merchandise. What will you be trading in today?” This is a subtle reference to a
one-call close and a way to give yourself frame of reference on what the
customer has been dealing with.
“A 2000 XYZ 123.”
“Yes, I have seen several of those in my day. Sounds like she gave you
some good mileage.” The customer has not committed to buy another XYZ, so
again, the sky is the limit. It is likely your dealership wants you marketing a
particular car and, in this case, you certainly can.
Let’s say the customer comes in and asks for specifics like a sunroof,
spoiler, etc. No worries – in your mind, you want to be formulating where you
take this customer. We will get to the pitch in a future segment but while you are
fact-finding, you simply want to find out what is important to them because you
will use it if and when they balk at your initial offering.
“So who will be riding in the vehicle?” This is where you start to circle
your prey; you want to know all variables because if there are children you can
utilize their safety as cause for your pitch. If the car is simply for them, you will
be targeting their vanity and desire for a flashy vehicle.
When you pitch a customer, you have to forge a bond with them
through what you learn at this critical piece of the call. Referencing this
information repeatedly while you make and draw conclusions about them, the
results they are getting in their current means of doing business and as you steer
them towards your camp is how you will most effectively wind up closing your
sale.
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Each customer enters your realm with some built-in fears. You cannot
disarm those fears and convince them to make a change they are apprehensive
about unless you put them at ease. In their mind, their opinions, thoughts and
beliefs are scripture and when you cite and quote it back to them they will be a
lot less resistant to your proposal.
All of that said, never gloss over the importance of a thorough but
targeted fact-finding game plan. In the selling game, the fact-finding is the
physical roll of the dice; it alone determines how far you will advance. It alone
puts the wheels in motion. And it alone will take you into the unknown that lies
ahead.

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Carson V. Heady posts for "Consult Carson" serving as the "Dear Abby" of sales and sales leadership.  You may post any question that puzzles you regarding sales and sales leadership careers: interviewing, the sales process, advancing and achieving.  You will also be directly contributing to his third book, "A Salesman Forever." 

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