Are Your Sales Questions Losing You Deals?

Communication plays a huge role in making sales. Asking the right questions could be the one major factor that gets you the deal or not. Unfortunately, asking the right questions isn’t always as intuitive as it seems, like it should be.

If you’ve ever had a lead straight up refuse to answer your questions, only respond with one-word answers, or hedge their responses, it’s not because you have a problematic lead on your hands. It’s because you haven’t (yet) mastered the art of effective sales questions.

The good news is, it’s never too late to shift gears and begin framing the right questions. Here are a few tips to help you formulate those important sales questions:

1. Ask questions that build rapport: Instead of going straight for the kill, lay down some groundwork and build up to them. Ask your lead about their home, why they are buying/selling, or what their ideal home looks like. Get them to a place where they feel comfortable enough with you to discuss more sensitive areas of a deal such as financials etc.
2. Ask open-ended questions: In the discovery process, make sure you ask questions that encourage more than just yes or no answers and are more expansive in their inquiry. This way, you know how to steer the conversation as well as hear for yourself what issues your services can address and how to frame offering them.
3. Ask general questions before drilling down: To gauge how to narrow down your conversations, ask general questions that will help you get there in a more natural way. This gives you a way to be flexible while still drilling down to the details you want to get to.
4. Ask one question at a time: In conversations, we can get excited and throw out several questions at once, hardly giving our leads on the phone time to answer. Asking one question at a time will allow your lead to provide you with all the information you need without overwhelming them and giving them an out.
5. Avoid jumping to conclusions: Assuming you understand what your lead is trying to say without truly comprehending can cause setbacks. Be conscientious as this can be easy to fall into. If you feel that something your lead has said is ambiguous, ask questions to clarify or ask them to elaborate. Seek first to understand then to be understood. This way, you are clear about what they meant.
6. Take your time: The truth of the matter is that asking effective sales questions requires time. Do not rush your lead or your conversation as you may end-up missing crucial information or steps, and this may lead you to lose any chance of building a connection. You want your discussions to flow smoothly and naturally, even though you may be reading off a script, you never want it to feel that way.
7. Avoid dominating the conversation: What you want is an even back and forth between you and your lead. You do not want it to be one-sided as this will most likely cause disinterest. Talk less, listen more. Pepper your questions throughout the conversation and be prepared to listen.
8. Hire and train talented professionals: While call volume and call quality may not always work together, instead of making all your sales calls yourself, hiring someone, or even a team may be your best bet. You can have some people in your team pre-qualify your leads to get the ball rolling, and warm-up cold leads and close the deal yourself with a follow-up call or even hire someone to do that as well. This will give you the freedom to work on other aspects of your business and not be bogged down with phone calls.

Develop a winning team that asks all the right questions and gives you time and leverage to grow your business — and be empowered to work ON your business instead of IN it with virtual assistant services.

Schedule your Double My Business Strategy Session today and find out how a MyOutDesk real estate virtual assistant can be a valuable member of your team!

Original story: https://www.myoutdesk.com/therightsalesquestions/