Here are the things you seek to accomplish when you ask questions of prospects or clients:

1.  You ask questions to gain and maintain control.

2.  You ask questions to indicate the broad areas they are interested in where you might be of service.  Then, you ask more questions to isolate the narrow area that is your best opportunity to serve them.  You follow that with more questions to pinpoint the exact item you can provide or the specific service you can render.

3.  You ask questions to get the minor yeses that will start the stream of minor agreements that will swell into the major river of acceptance of your proposition.

4.  You ask questions to arouse and direct their emotions toward the decision to own.

5.  You ask questions to isolate objections.  Only in rare cases will a qualified and properly handled prospect voice all the standard objections to your offering.  Only a few objections will occur to, or be important to an individual prospect.  Knowing that, the Champion seeks them out with eagerness instead of avoiding them with fear.

6.  You ask questions to answer objections.  Unquestionably, the finest way to answer an objection is to porcupine a question that, when the client answers it, affirms that the objection is in reality of no consequence--or even is an advantage to the client.

7.  You ask questions to determine the benefits that the prospect wants to own.  Benefits.  Yes, that's right, benefits.  People don't really buy products and services, they buy the benefits they expect to receive by owning those products or services.

8.  You ask questions to acknowledge a fact.  If you say it, they can doubt you.  If they say it, it's true.

9.  You ask questions that will confirm that they are going ahead and you should now go on to the next step in our selling sequence.

10.  You ask questions that involve them in ownership decisions and thoughts about your offering.

11.  You ask questions to help you clients rationalize decisions that they want to make.  You do that because you want them to make that decision, too.  Aren't we all looking for someone to tell us that we need that electronic marvel?

12.  You ask questions that close them on the sale.  All the closes depend on your question-asking ability for their potency.  Don't make the mistake of concentrating solely on what you're going to tell them.  Don't overlook the vital importance of asking the right questions, of varying our methods to fit their answers.

TIMELY TIP
Enlisting the Aid of the Receptionist

Using e-mail for prospecting and selling is one of the most powerful tools a professional salesperson can have.  Unlike the passive strategy of a web site where you have to wait until someone visits your site before your can present to them, e-mail is an active selling tool.  You can compose a selling message any time and send it out to a database of prospects or your list of clients.

But don't think you can send just any e-mail message out to whomever you please.  There are rules to this kind of contact and communication.  And if you break them, you can seriously harm your credibility and reputation.

What you do is get your client's and prospect's permission to send e-mails before your message shows up in the email box.

Remember that building trust with your client is job one for the professional salesperson.  And your client is your most precious resource.

CLOSE TIP OF THE MONTH

"I can get a cheaper commission somewhere else."

Don't you just love hearing that?  You should.  It tells you that they want your product or service.  They're not saying, "it's not right for me."  They're saying, "I've decided I want, need and have to have it, but just don't want to pay what you're asking for it."  As with most selling situations, the real stall is the money.  Your job is to eliminate money as the concern.

Here's how to do it:  You calmly agree with them at first.  Then, you help them rationalize the decision.  It's the bottom line of all closing attempts.

Here are the words to use:

That may very well be true, John. And, after all, in today's economy, we all want the most for our money.  A truth that I have learned over the years is that the cheapest price is not always what we really want.

Most people look for three things when making an investment:

1. the finest quality;
2. the best service; and
3. the lowest price.

I have never yet found a company that could provide the finest quality and the best service for the lowest price.

I'm curious, John, for your long-term happiness, which of those three would you be most willing to give up?  Quality?  Service?  Or, low price?

When you put it that way, they rationalize the message of "you get what you pay for." If they are truly concerned about the quality of your product, these words help lessen the strength of the money concern.

Just thought you should know.

Have a profitable day,

Steven