The Art of Asking Open-Ended Questions

Why Are Open-Ended Questions So Important?

What kinds of questions are you asking your clients? How do you know which questions to ask and when to ask them? Some of the most successful salespeople are those who have learned the art of asking open-ended sales questions. Selling is game of questions. Successful sales professionals have developed a knack for tuning into nuances and details of their client’s responses. They listen with intensity and make adjustments to their questioning based on what the client is saying.

The majority of salespeople will listen to a story politely and then go into their sales pitch, but are they really listening to what the client is saying? Some people don’t listen and are really just waiting for their turn to deliver the sales pitch. The art of asking open-ended sales questions involves tuning into keywords, themes, and patterns within the customer’s story and developing a sense of curiosity around these factors of communication.

Related Reading: Successful Telephone Selling Techniques

Open-ended sales questions are questions that allow more information to come forward. Since open-ended questions don’t limit the scope of the client’s answers to “yes” or “no”, they are effective in that they allow clients to convey more detail with their specific needs and objectives.

Being Curious and Listen

Open-ended sales questions reveal additional information and insights regarding the product or service. Asking the right questions and probing client responses will allow you to address the specific needs of the customer. Understanding the potential buyers’ interests will help you to offer a product or service that is the most suitable for them.

For example, if a customer is concerned about being able to track production through a plant with better software than currently in use, some great open-ended questions to get more information would include:

What areas of tracking do you feel your current software is missing?

How would you see the ideal tracking software working in your facility?

What specific requirements do you have for tracking software?

Be Patient

Give your customer enough time to convey information and listen carefully to what they have to say. You will have a more complete picture of the problem, which allows you then to provide a more specific description of how your software or product can solve those gaps and issues. Patience is your friend. Take time to mentally think about the right questions.

Invest some of your time in crafting your own open-ended sales questions. It is an indispensable sales tool that allows sales professionals to effectively qualify sales opportunities, establish trust, build rapport, and gain credibility with customers. Mastering the art of asking open-ended sales questions will allow you to build more meaningful relationships with clients. They allow you to connect with your clients on a more personal level so that you can better understand their problems and develop real solutions.

May 24, 2018April 13, 2021

How To Be an Authentic Sales Professional

Authenticity is about Active Listening

authentic-sellers-change-mindset

Approaching a customer or a client with the mindset of meeting a sales quota or bettering a previous sale is already putting a sales professional at a disadvantage. This creates a focus or a sales agenda which will block out the information the customer is providing.

Sales professionals must be authentic in sales meetings. Learning how to be an authentic sales professional means learning to be open-minded and listen to customers. This creates an opportunity to see the problem or the challenge and create an innovative solution.

Utilize Storytelling to Persuade

authentic-selling-persuades-with-passion

Customers, particularly C-suite customers, need to see how a product or service addresses their unique needs in their business. Authenticity is about hearing their story and not trying to drive the bottom line sales numbers. Active listening provides undivided attention and boosts creativity. This allows the sales rep to provide a story about the benefits of the product or the service as it relates directly to the challenge for the customer.

To be able to match the product or service with the needs of the client, sales professionals need to stop memorizing the specifications and details of the products or services and focus on the value to the customer. The value and the benefits of the products and services will create the sale – not the specs and details. Storytelling captures the attention of the client by relating an interesting story or useful information on a product or service. Utilize storytelling to spark personal interest and to persuade cutomers.

Related Article: The One Percent Principle in Selling

Avoid Manipulation

authenticity-not-persuasion-or-manipulation

A lot of sales techniques and tools are, at best, ways to manipulate people into making a purchase. This may include playing on fears or concerns, creating a type of pressure around the sale, and driving for a close. Authentic sales professionals never pressure the prospect, they provide meaningful advice and creative, customized solutions.

Manipulate the potential buyer during sales meetings creates a palpable atmosphere of distrust and distance. While these tools may work for some buyers, they usually only work once. At the same time, manipulation may provide a one-time sale, but may also prevent even a second meeting if the buyer walks away feeling manipulated.

Persuasion is about Authenticity and Trust

branding-marketing-selling-authentically

Additionally, when playing mental games with the client, the sales professional is not being authentic, genuine, and effective as a co-creator of a solution to a problem. Effective persuasion is about providing information on value, benefits, and advantages of a product or service. However, it must be provided naturally in the conversation with the customer.

Being persuasive starts with understanding the specifics of how the product or service can help the customer. This knowledge is invaluable to a sales rep and provides a natural stepping stone in the dialog. Sales professionals must learn to effectively transition from hearing the customer’s story and challenge to providing a working solution for the products and services. t

Do you like what you just read? Visit our resource center and download any or all of our 17 Executive Sales White Papers to help improve your sales skills training and build a successful sales career.

May 14, 2018April 13, 2021

Agility Selling: How to Achieve It

Agility-Selling-Quote

Companies everywhere are evolving and changing so they can better meet customer needs. Agility selling has become a hot topic and crucial learning objective for elite sales organizations. Selling has changed significantly in recent years and continues to evolve rapidly. Speed has become the new currency in almost every business aspect, including sales.

Customers want things done faster, want products shipped immediately, and want it in their hands within a few days. Therefore, it’s up to your sales team to know what to do, which means quicker delivery and service. A large majority of customers prefer to handle business digitally. Sales teams must keep up with the pace and demands of their clients. To be more efficient, successful sales teams must focus all of their resources on selling, closing deals faster, and improved productivity. You can’t sell efficiently if you are disorganized.

Agility selling translates to improved management of customer data and management skills. In our digital age, sales teams must learn to adapt and learn new technologies that will allow them to provide added value to their prospects and customers.

What is Agility Selling?

how-to-achieve-sales-agility-infographic — **HOW TO ACHIEVE SALES AGILITY**

Agility in selling refers to an organization’s ability to optimize the workflow of their sales force. An agile salesforce is comprised of sales reps who can wear many hats. They conduct operations and negotiations with clients on all levels of the sales cycle. Agile sales reps are extremely knowledgeable regarding all aspects of their products and services. Having a knowledge understanding of your product will allow you to consult your prospects in a professional and superior manner. Agility selling allows you to answer specific questions or concerns from customers in a timely manner. Due to advancements in digital technology, sales reps can sell with more precision and efficiency. They can respond faster, through a much larger network of communication tough points and keep a close relationship with the client in multiple dimensions.

Selling in the Information Age

Customers and sales professionals alike are more informed more than ever. Intelligent digital technology gives us the advantage of making highly informed decisions. Sales professionals can interpret valuable customer data with in-depth analytics to measure customer feedback accurately and timely. Furthermore, sales reps can use technology to adjust marketing strategies and improve customer satisfaction.

bruce-lee-agility-quote — If Bruce Lee was a sales rep, he would be the master of agility selling.

Attributes of An Agile Seller

If you can’t communicate effectively with your customers to understand their needs and pain points then you can’t respond efficiently. Agile sellers are active listeners. They are able to digest messages from customers to find out their exact needs and wants. Agile sellers choose their language carefully and are flexible with verbal interactions, a crucial attribute when negotiating with customers. Agile sellers are self-aware, humble, and curious. They inspect everything to ensure operations are running like clockwork.

Related Reading: 5 Key Sales Lessons From Glengarry Glen Ross

Sales Agility Is Not An Option Today

In our competitive business landscape, sales teams can not afford to fall behind. If speed is the new currency in sales then sales professionals must learn to adapt to the new environment. Agility requires being responsive and constantly restructuring sales strategies in order to stay up to date with the persistent changes in the clients’ culture. Elite sales professionals constantly hone their sales skills and integrate them into the latest technology. Sales agility requires flexibility from sales professionals in all matters of selling. Sales professionals who lack fundamental sales skills, product knowledge, a curious mindset, critical thinking skills, and technological competence are limited by their inability to engage customers in meaningful ways. They will fall behind in their race to sales success.

May 9, 2018February 8, 2019

Digital Selling Skills Elite Sales Professionals Use Daily

Digital Selling Skills For Modern Sales Professionals

The modern business world has modern sellers. For every modern seller is a digitally savvy sales professional. Digital skills are non-negotiable in the modern business environment; digital selling skills are a necessity to maintain a competitive edge in our digitally driven sales environment.

Great sales reps are turning to digital media and technology to help them sell their products and services. Investing in digital skills as a sales professional matters more now than ever. They are taking advantage of what is available to them in order to provide a better customer buying experience.

Customers are significantly more informed which has leveled the playing field in terms of how they decide to buy. Luckily, the age of digital technology has allotted the modern sales professional to leverage new tactics and strategies for better negotiations and customer engagement.

It’s not enough to have a friendly disposition and winning smile in sales. If you want to be successful, you need to learn how to sell in a digital world. To sell in an ever-changing, competitive and fast-paced digital world, you need to fully understand some key concepts. How to be a salesperson and how to sell digitally are two of the concepts that must be understood.

Be a Lifetime Student And Strive To Learn New Skills

It’s not enough to learn the basics and never have any other education or formal training. You must evolve and learn as quickly as technology does, which can be tough for some. You must be ambitious and want to learn, but you also have to know how to sell and generate leads. Qualities that successful salespeople have include problem-solving skills, tenacity, technical understanding, and more. Plus, they must be prepared.

Related Reading: How Successful Salespeople Grow

Utilize Social Media For Improved Branding and Customer Engagement

Nurture relationships with customers and potential prospects by making use of relevant social media platforms. Social media can be used to promote products or services, remind customers of special events, or provide compelling multimedia content that followers and potential customers can view to stay updated with your organization’s brand. Social media platforms are a great way to create these long-lasting connections with clients.

Be, Do, and Have

You’ve heard the age-old saying that some people are natural-born salespeople or can sell water to a drowning person. These jokes have been around for decades because some people just have a knack. While it’s helpful to already have the persuasive skills intact, it’s not enough for digital selling. You have to be a salesperson and do what they do, but you need the skills to do it, as well. The best advice is to know yourself thoroughly to determine if selling is the right career choice for you.

Discover Valuable Consumer Insights With Data and Analytic Software

Sales professionals keep track of a large amount of data. From organizing leads, making use of notes, phone numbers, and other valuable bits of data, sales professionals must juggle huge quantities of valuable customer insights that could get lost in the clutter of information.

Becoming proficient with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is an indispensable digital selling skill that the modern sales professional can utilize to track important customer data such as phone call interaction, organize emails, presentations, and dashboard-based analytics.

April 26, 2018February 8, 2019

Five Ways to Succeed in Sales

The sales industry is filled with people who never reach their true potential. Doug Dvorak discusses how sales professionals can take their sales game to the next level.

Successful sales professionals sometimes lose sight of the fact that there is always room for improvement. Those sales professionals who take the extra step and push themselves to the limit are known as the top 1 percent – they have found smart ways to succeed in sales by creatively thinking outside of the box and working hard.

Top performers in the sales industry aren’t just the ones bringing in the most revenue for their businesses; they are the ones setting the standards for everybody else. These top sales professionals are always hungry for more opportunities to succeed.

To reach the top of the ladder, sales professionals must embrace the idea of becoming trendsetters. Success is a lifestyle, not a destination, and if you follow the footsteps of others, you can reach a certain level of success; however, in this competitive business world it takes more than that to reach the highest level and following the safe path will not always take you to the top of the game.

Trends in business are always changing and the ones who are willing to innovate and adapt to the ever-changing landscape of business will separate themselves from the pack.

To find out how your business can set trends instead of following them, here are some smart ways to succeed in today’s complex and competitive world.

Make Time for Creativity

It’s hard to be creative when you don’t make enough time for yourself to let the good ideas flow. Be patient with the process and learn to play around with new ways of doing things. Don’t judge yourself too hard when you are brainstorming new ideas; trendsetters in business are willing to think outside of the box and patient enough to let new ideas grow.

The right work ethic and the willingness to explore new ways to tackle a problem will set you apart from the rest.

Study the Current Trends

You need to know the rules in order to break them. Learn what trends dominate the market and think of new ideas to change the way things are done – read about the latest jewelry industry news, styles and trends; learn as much as possible from the success and failures of competitors; attend webinars and conventions.

Trendsetters are always two steps ahead of the competition because they stay informed and can anticipate critical moves they need to make to stay in the game. Success in today’s demanding sales environment requires a thorough understanding of buying trends. There are countless resources to help businesses gather valuable insights regarding consumer behavior, buying psychology, and current technological trends that can assist sales professionals to develop winning, creative selling strategies.

Learn How Customers Think

Listen to your customer base and understand what works and what doesn’t. Knowing this will help you generate new ideas. Figure out what they need and capitalize on it. Understand what customers are saying and have an honest dialogue with what they have to say about your store. According to SalesForce.com,

[quote align=”center” color=”#999999″]It benefit’s sales coaching professionals and sales professionals to learn how their customers think, learn & buy. Learning from customers will help you to innovate and think clearly about what really needs to get done to improve their business and your own business.[/quote]

Learning from customers will help you to innovate and think clearly about what really needs to get done to improve their business and your own business.

Establish Your Brand

Separate yourself from competitors by learning how to brand your jewelry store effectively and often. Incorporate your brand into every facet of your business so that customers learn to recognize you. Learn your strengths and emphasize them. Establish a good reputation with your customers by developing valuable content. Quality content will communicate your organization’s unique characteristics that will help your brand stand out. Valuable content is not an advertisement; valuable content helps to solve a problem, answer a question or address an issue for the reader.

Build a Great Team

Strive to build a strong foundation by hiring innovative people who will go to bat when needed. Treat your team with respect and motivate them to keep up with new ideas. Inspire your team by holding brainstorming sessions where they can bounce ideas off each other and benefit from open lines of communication. You’re only as strong as your weakest link so it’s important that everyone is on the same page and running like clockwork. Learn to do more with your sales team.

Succeeding in sales today requires that you think outside the box, work like hell and call on a large pool of ideas for inspiration. Salespeople need to be creative, suit up and show up on time every day.

The top 1 percent of professionals forge their own path by exploring new ways to innovate and expand. Learn to stay motivated and hungry by executing goals in a timely and professional manner.

Author: salescoach