The rules of asking questions in sales

Christhopher Czuprynski. Sales trainer. Author. 

About the author

Equally in private and professional life, we usually carefully approach all the rules. Ba, sometimes we like to break them, because that is our human nature. Nevertheless, I would like to treat the following five tips as a signpost, helpful in recognizing the customer's needs using question-asking techniques.

Rule 1

Have all questions stored in your notebook.

Rule 2

After each question, pause and let the customer speak.

Rule 3

If you see after the customer's reactions

that he did not understand the question,

reformulate its content.

Rule 4

IT IS BETTER TO ASK TWO EFFECTIVE

OPEN ENDED QUESTIONS T

HAN A FEW

NONFFECTIVE CLOSED ONES.

Rule 5

Always try

to keep your notes.

Rule 1 is a key to effectively identifying the needs of our customers. Based on my own experiences, I have repeatedly asked a different question than the one I had previously planned. The reason for this is often the fact that the beginning of the conversation itself can differ significantly from even the most arranged scenarios. In this case, we are always saved by returning to the notes. The natural feature of many customers is that they try to precipitate sellers out of a sense of confidence and disrupt their entire message. It's not uncommon for you to find a "bad day" of the customer you want to talk to by phone. His reactions may then be unfavorable, so you can get lost throughout your sales strategy. Moreover, when you start your adventure with writing notes before the meeting, you will certainly notice numerous positive effects. Based on your own mistakes  you will learn to ask the most effective questions. I also suggest that you use an application to record and listen to conversations with customers in phone calls. This method of work will give you the opportunity to observe which of the open questions have produced the best results. It is worth that you also segment clients into certain groups and prepare a variety of questions, tailored to the model of their business.

Rule 2 Applies very universal anti-trade competence of all those trying to ask open questions. The average seller does not wait for the customer's response for more than 3 seconds. Unfortunately, most traders tend to speak than listen. Know that this is also the affliction of many of us. Very often it seems to us that we know in advance what the customer will answer us before we ask a question at all. This meets us especially at times when we feel nervous about  for some reason. Sometimes it may seem to us that silence on the other side is a sign that the customer does not want to give us an answer, and so he really reflects on what to answer us. In such cases, as a rule, we start speak for the customer

Remember:

"God has given to You two ears and one mouth, because he wanted you to listen twice as much as You said"

The practice of applying a long pause after asking an open question requires practical exercises from us. However, this skill can be successfully trained.

Even the best designed and asked question we ask may be misunderstood by our interlocutors.

Rule 3 should be an incentive for us to respond to all verbal and non-verbal messages, indicating that the customer did not understand the content of the question. In interpersonal verbal communication, the quality of the communication transmitted is mainly influenced by:

- the pace of speaking, hence asking questions to notice whether you are not talking too quickly,

- a expression accent, that is, simply put, the rule of emphasizing certain syllables in words (in Polish usually penultimate). Two of the same questions asked by two different sellers can provoke different reactions,

- the tone and height of the voice. There are different tons of voices: high, low, medium, and: soprano, alt, tenor and bass. To a large extent, the sound of our voice depends on the construction of the larynx, but to some extent also on the way of breathing (air release at speaking time) and on our habits. When should we address our voice? When it is too irritating – too tall, squeaky or scouring. What voice is most liked? Well, most of us prefer low voices. Despite the fact that we do not change certain characteristics of the voice, it is worth experimenting. In fact, many retailers have never had the opportunity to listen to their trade talks.

- volume of voice. The most suitable is the average volume voice – not too quiet, but also not too loud. You could say "normal", but of course it is difficult to tell what voice we have, without the help of a kind listener. If you happen to ask others what you said, and ask for a repeat, perhaps you are talking too quietly. It is worth considering, because by this you can be seen as an insecure person who is not convinced of his reasons,

-what we mean when we speak,

-what we are actually saying (the content of the communication, that is, verbal counterparts), and as we say (quality of speaking),

- kindness in the voice.

Words have power. I would like to describe more broadly how our verbal messages can affect others, but it is impossible to do so in one chapter of this book. Ba, I would have to write another one. But let's see how we respond to criticism, and how we take away the ones that inspire us. In order to send positive messages, we should carefully select words to provoke the desired reactions in our interlocutor. That's why what we mean when we speak is important. Our message must come from our inner beliefs and attitudes, otherwise it will not be consistent. For example, a salesperson who reads the word by word of all script content from a piece of paper can be negatively received by the client. Similarly, when we say something that we do not believe in ourselves, we cause mixed feelings in our listeners. In turn, what is important is what we actually say (verbal form), and as we say. I think each of us have had experience in our lives speaking, which summed up like this: "I wanted to say something that actually sounded completely different. I meant something like that, and I said something different."

When we are influenced by negative emotions, we can use the wrong words.  Similarly, by asking questions without first thinking about where we do not try to select each word individually, we can get effects different from those intended. Kindness, on the other hand, is the result of our general attitude and mindset.  We like to buy from friendly sellers. The basic principle of customer service, after all, is that our smile and friendly approach increases sales.

In interpersonal verbal communication, the quality of the message transmitted also affects what another person hears, how and what she understands from what she heard.

In turn, among the common problems with the transmission of information can be distinguished:

- incorrect time of communication of information. The seller should ask the question at the best possible time. Of course, it is not recommended to interrupt speech,

- overloading of information,

- incomprehensible or too difficult vocabulary. Avoid words that are difficult to understand!

- a tendency to hear what is expected or what you want to hear,

- attitude (differences in perception).

How much information can you lose in the two-page communication process? Let's say this, we want to say, is the initial 100% content of our message. What we are actually saying contains only 80% of the content planned. The recipient of our message can hear 70% of the content. Understanding is worse, because it can only cover 50% of the message. In turn, what our recipient can accept already covers only 30%. What is astonishing, however, is that the recipient remembers barely 20% of the intentional content.

Let's look at the drawing showing the loss of information in the communication process:

Figure. Loss of information in the communication process

The chart above very generally shows the level of information loss in the communication process of two pages. Nevertheless, the proportions given can give us a lot to think about when choosing techniques for formulating questions. Similarly, many companies practice to regularly keep notes from business meetings, which in the light of the information presented in figure  is justified.

RULE 4 that it is better to ask two effective open questions, than a few ineffective closed ones, it is as if a summary of the content contained in the whole part of this book, dedicated to the ability to ask questions.

The best practical sales book "The art of selling in practice" written by Christopher Czuprynski

Based on my personal experience About the author, I conclude that even one good open question can contribute to success in direct sales. In principle, the course of the trade talks depends on the questions we ask at the beginning. If we only use closed questions, we will only lose time.

RULE 5 "Always try to keep notes" stems, among other things, from knowledge of the loss of information in the process of human communication (Figure ). In direct sales, the sender or recipient of the message can be alternately the seller and the customer.

Therefore, if our customer can remember only 20% of the information, we too may remember a similar amount. It is therefore necessary to keep notes during our personal and telephone conversations. To my surprise, this skill is not at all easy, as if we thought. In training, I try to develop this competence in a practical way. My experience has allowed me to see that one of the most common mistakes in this regard is the illegibility of the notes.

Many retailers note in the conversation so chaotically that it is difficult for them to read the content contained in the notebook. For example, during a meeting with a customer, the  seller wants to summarize the customer's needs and uses the statement: "You mentioned that the following factors were important to you..."  . At this point, he reaches for his notes, but can't find the information stored there. It is not uncommon that he can save other information (need) than the customer actually stated. As a result, we provoke a negative customer reaction like:  "No, you have misunderstood me, I said that something quite different was important to me." It is in practical exercises that our numerous imperfections in keeping notes are highlighted. Most often, this is due to the fact that the conversation itself requires a strong concentration and divisibility of attention. We ask questions that will cause a large volume of feedback. Then we need to filter out the most important ones in order to be able to reach the most important needs. The whole process can cause many difficulties. Therefore,  asking questions and taking notes at the same time requires training. You can do some practical exercise yourself by taking notes during a trade call. However, in order to be able to see the differences between what you remembered and what the customer actually told you, you should record the whole conversation. For this purpose, you can use any application or voice recorder equipped with a special handset, designed for recording.

That is why many companies and entrepreneurs have decided to introduce regular notes from business meetings on a permanent basis in their practices. This allows you to constantly return to the subject of the conversation and your own arrangements without the risk of skipping any relevant threads, as well as to systematically focus on another person. This increases customer respect for the seller.

I used to wonder how my quotation is received by customers. Sometimes I used to ask them outright: " Do You mind if I take a notes?" It has never happened to me to have a customer response different than "No, I don’t" The customer's reactions were also checked during many trainings, when in role-playing exercises, the salesperson has kept recording the statements of his clients. In turn, we had been asking the customer what had been his reactions to  systematic quotation. All the respondents had replied that in their opinion this had been  a professional approach to the customer. In comparison, when a classic merchant visits a few or a dozen sellers a day, and only one of them uses a notebook, the question immediately arises: "Which seller will make a better impression on the customer?". Of course, Someone who takes notes.

I hope that the above 5 tips will help you to conduct effective meetings and phone calls.

In this section, we were able to explore the needs recognition techniques together. Although the ability to diagnose needs is a kind of key to any sale, in order to be able to implement it effectively, it is necessary to master further techniques and methods. If we didn't, your notebook would include numerous saved customer needs during sales conversations, but the conversations wouldn’t end with getting an order.

Let's move on to another commercial competence, which is linked to the recognition of needs almost directly. I mean the ability to speak benefits language The language of benefits in sales