General Sales
Tapering Your Questions to Uncover Problems
By Eric Slife
Oct 14, 2003, 15:15

Any sales manager or sales trainer will tell you one of the most effective
skills top sales professionals possess is the ability to obtain
accurate and valuable information from their clients and prospects.
Being able to extract quality information results in the following:

• Fewer objections


• Better closing percentage


• More referrals


• Less headaches after the sale


• Etc.

The quality of information you obtain from a prospect
or customer depends on the quality of questions you ask. You know
to ask open-ended questions, but is this the magic formula to get
your prospect to spill their guts? While these questions are important,
most of us still have difficulties communicating what exactly we
need or want. Or, if we do communicate what we need or want, we
may not explain why we want that or need it. Understanding “why”
someone needs or wants our product or service is just as important
as understanding what they want. The following is an example of
the importance of understanding the need to understand why:

Customer, “I saw your advertisement, and I
need to order product xyz.”

Salesperson, “Great how many do you need?”

A week after delivery the customer calls the salesperson
steaming.

Customer, “I just purchased $10,000 of your
product xyz, and it isn’t even compliant with our software!
Come pick this piece of junk up.”

Salesperson, “We have product abc that is compliant…”


Customer, “Why didn’t you tell me that in the first
place?”

This is a very expensive way to uncover what the
prospect needs. If the salesperson would have simply asked, “That
is a good product, but can you share why you decided on this product?”
Everyone probably could have walked away a lot happier.

As previously stated, open-ended questions are good.
However, in order to effectively determine what your prospect or
client needs, you need to learn two critical skills:

1. Listen for specific key words

2. Taper you questions, so your prospect goes from general information
to specific information.

Much like a doctor that asks, “How I can help
you?” or “Tell me what brings you here today?”
salespeople need to first ask a prospect, “Can you share with
me why you might need my product or service?” Your first question
always should be very general, because you haven’t created
enough trust to ask personal questions. Second this is the open-ended
question that gives you a broad overview of the situation.

Once your prospect starts talking, start writing
down your prospect’s key words on your notepad. What are the
key words? Look at the following 3 sentences:

1. Our copier is always broken. Do you have something
more reliable?

2. Our computers are slow. We need something faster.

3. Our website is always down. I need better service.

In the first example, write down “always broken”
and “more reliable.” In sentence number two, write down
“slow” and “something faster.” Finally,
the key words in sentence three are “always down” and
“better service.” Before you move on, ask, “Is
their anything else?” and write down those key words.

Next, start with your first key words and start
to taper your questions. As you do this, keep listening for additional
key words. For example:

Salesperson: “What do you mean by your copier
is always broken?”

Prospect: “It continues to feed 2 pages at a time, and the
quality is poor.” (Note: “poor quality” another
key phrase that needs to be explained, so write it down.)

Salesperson: “Are you doing a specific job
that is causing it to feed 2 at a time?”

Prospect: “When we make our manuals, we use heavier paper
that our current vendor says is difficult on the feeder, and they
can’t fix it.”

Salesperson: “Tell more about the heavier
paper you are running, and the other jobs you do.”

Prospect: “Well we do…”

Salesperson: “When your feeder pulls in 2
pages, what happens to your business?”

Prospect: “We can’t do anything until they come and
fix it.”

Salesperson: “How long does that take?”

Prospect: “3 days.”

Salesperson: “How much does this cost you?”

Prospect: “It costs us $500 to have an outside printer make
our manuals.”

At this point, I may ask them more about the manuals
or better yet. I’m asking if they have ever had to have someone
else print their manuals and how much that costs. The point is,
by tapering down the key words “always broken,” you
have narrowed down specifically what they mean by always broken.
In addition, tapering has started to uncover the results of being
“always broken.”

Tapering has revealed potential problems with their
current vendor. Finally, tapering has given you more insight into
the exact nature of how they use the product or service. All of
this additional information is the result of listening for key words
and continuing to narrow down your questioning until you have been
given specific information.

To make your questioning even more effective, help
your prospect quantify their problem. You should uncover how much
it costs them to have their copier down. For example, do they have
to outsource that work, what about lost revenue, or labor costs
because of down time?

Finally, once your prospect has quantified the problem,
get them involved emotionally. Ask your prospect, “How does
that make you feel knowing this problem is costing you “x”
dollars every month?”

By listening for key words and filtering them down,
so they can be quantified with a dollar amount and an emotional
expenditure, you have created a very powerful case for your product
or service.

Salesperson: When you present your proposal state:
Mr. or Miss Customer you mentioned you are experiencing the following
problems… Are there any other problems?

Customer: No that’s it.

Salesperson: In order to make sure I understand
your situation let me summarize. You mentioned your copier is “always
broken.” As a result you are experiencing the following…
In addition, because your copier is broken, it is costing you…
Is this correct? Great! Here is how we can make your people more
productive and cut your costs…

By tapering every keyword you, you will create a
much stronger argument for your price. Second you will help your
prospect see how much they are spending on their current equipment
or service. Finally, your prospect will trust your proposal more,
because you better understand their situation compared to your competition.

About the Author:

Slife Sales Training, Inc.’s goal is to help sales people
become sales professionals. We don’t believe in the philosophy
that a good sales person is “born that way.” We believe
like other professions, sales professionals should be constantly
improving their skills through education and training. For this
reason, www.salestrainingcamp.com was created to provide sales people
a place to obtain quality training at an affordable price. If your
company is interested in talking with us about possible training,
please email us at support@salestrainingcamp.com.

Contact Information:

Eric Slife

Slife Sales Training, Inc.

4320 West Eaglerock Place

Wenatchee, WA 98801

(509) 665-6479

eric@salestrainingcamp.com

www.salestrainingcamp.com

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