Unlock Your Sales Potential: Ask The Right Questions

Smiling professional man facing the lens.

The best sales information is securely locked in our customer’s head. They have their own reasons for buying. Our job is to discover these reasons. Unlock your sales potential by asking customer’s killer sales questions. It will improve win rates immediately. Asking great sales questions are key to successful selling.

Business customers may be unwilling to share their reasons for buying due to a variety of factors. They may want to protect their competitive advantage, maintain their privacy, or avoid disclosing confidential information. Additionally, they may fear that sharing the reasons for their purchase could lead to increased competition or higher prices.

In addition, building trust is a key component in any business relationship, and even more so in b2b sales questions. When a business is considering making a purchase from another business, trust is essential in order for the transaction to go through.

Without trust, the customer may be hesitant to move forward, as they may not be sure that the product or service will be delivered as promised. Trust enables the customer to have confidence that the vendor will honour the terms of the agreement and follow through on their commitments. Trust also helps to foster positive relationships between the customer and vendor, leading to repeat business and referrals.

Ultimately, trust is an important factor in the B2B sales process, as it allows the customer to feel secure in the knowledge that their purchase is in good hands.

Here are 52 questions that will build trust and uncover the real reasons why customers need and want a better solution. Some are open-ended whilst others are closed and probing.

  1. What triggered your enquiry?
  2. Why are you interested in solving the issue now?
  3. What do you see as the best possible outcome?
  4. Can you tell me more about your role at the company?
  5. Why do customers buy your products?
  6. What is different about your organisation compared to your competition?
  7. Where does our product/service fit with your role?
  8. What goals are you responsible for?
  9. What are the key business priorities this year?
  10. Why are these important ?
  11. Can you walk me through the current process?
  12. What is the most critical stage in that process?
  13. What specific problems are you trying to solve?
  14. What is causing the current challenges ?
  15. How are customers affected by the problem?
  16. How are the team affected by the challenge?
  17. How is the problem affecting profitability?
  18. Why has the business not been able to address this problem before now?
  19. What are the knock-on effects if you don’t solve this problem?
  20. How do these knock-on effects impact you personally?
  21. What would it mean for you personally if you managed to solve these problems?
  22. In an ideal world, what would you want to be doing?
  23. What other solutions or products have you looked at?
  24. What did you like about those other solutions?
  25. What is missing from the other proposed solutions?
  26. What is a ‘must-have’ in a solution?
  27. How will your team would respond to this solution?
  28. What does success look like in the first 6 months/years?
  29. If I could demonstrate how we could help you address this challenge, how much of a favourable position would that put us in?
  30. If you don’t go ahead with implementing a solution like ours, is ‘doing nothing’ a feasible solution?
  31. On a priority list, where would this be positioned ?
  32. What does the decision making process look like when buying solutions like this?
  33. Who else is this important to?
  34. Who would be the person who signs the PO?
  35. What concerns do you feel the person who signs the PO would have about this?
  36. Would it make sense to involve the person who signs the PO in our conversations?
  37. Who else would find it useful to be part of our conversations?
  38. How will this solution be funded?
  39. Is there a budget for this?
  40. Do you have the final say on spending that budget?
  41. Other than price, what will be the main criteria in making a decision?
  42. You mentioned you weren’t having a good experience with your current supplier. What do you hope we will do differently should we work together?
  43. If you didn’t feel we were the right solution for you, are you happy to be transparent and tell me?
  44. When would you want to make a decision by?
  45. When does the business need to have a solution in place?
  46. Would you see a proof of concept or a trial appropriate?
  47. What do you foresee as the potential blocks and hurdles we will face along the way in partnering with you?
  48. How can we anticipate these blocks from your perspective?
  49. Is this decision a local one or does it need a national approval?
  50. What do you see as the next steps?
  51. Would you mind if I  recapped our conversation so far?
  52. Do we need to include anyone else at this stage?

Asking a customer questions is an important part of B2B sales because it allows the salesperson to gain insight into the customer’s needs and objectives. Asking questions gives the salesperson an opportunity to learn more about the customer’s business, industry, and challenges, which can then be used to tailor a solution to meet the customer’s needs. Asking questions is also a way to build rapport and trust between the salesperson and the customer, which is essential for a successful sale.

Try some of these 52 questions during your next sales meeting and experience the difference in rapport, trust and customer commitment to proceed.

VIDEO: MAKE MORE SALES FROM DIGITAL LEADS

You can make more sales by understanding how digital leads are generated.

Watch Ed Davidson, Marketing and Growth consultant,

He shares his insights and ideas so you can make more sales from digital leads. Watch the 8 minutes show now and find out how:

📜 B2B buyers’ research on the web creates huge sales opportunities.

📜 fast lead follow-up is critical for success.

📜 best practice sales and marketing collaboration includes having a beer!

📜 Ed’s 3 tips create more sales.

Watch the video

video: make more sales by taking a consultative approach

Taking a consultative approach increases lead to sale conversion and makes selling so much easier and fun.

I asked my brilliant guest Jacqui Shaw, Director at Coralline Health, about her motivation and sales journey.

Find out how Jacqui and her team:

📜 achieve a 70% sales conversion

📜 gain 70% of new clients from referrals and recommendations

📜 care for their clients’ well being

Watch the show here as Jacqui shares her insights and ideas how to become a trusted advisor so you can make more sales too.

video: make more sales together

When Sales and Marketing teams work together in Fintechs, market intelligence becomes the magic ingredient enabling more sales conversations and ultimately more closed deals.

Jeff Banks, CEO at Blue Train Marketing shares the secrets of Marketing and Sales success in this episode of ‘best practice for sales professionals’.

Learn how Marketing helps more sales to be won by:

  • leveraging reputation and own networks
  • enabling sales conversations
  • positioning sales professionals as brand advocates
  • maximising why customers should buy from you and nobody else
  • using emotions to buy

And much more! If you are in sales, this is a must view interview

Watch the video

video: selling strategies in 2020 and beyond

Selling has been pretty tough in 2020 so far.

Customers now want a relationship more than ever! They do not want a transactional relationship being push from SDR to AE to Customer success professionals within a matter of days. This video shows the skills and steps involved in being a full cycle sales person. It works and is great for job security too.

Watch the video here

Trust As Sales strategy .

In an uncertain world customers are looking for certainty. Trust between buyer and seller helps to create certainty and an environment where purchase decisions are made.

In this blog I recommend three proven tactics building trust between buyer and seller.

Intuitively we know that trust between buyer and seller creates the environment to do business in. After all, would any of us do business with people or businesses we do not trust? The opposite is true instead: people buy from people they trust.

In today’s rapidly changing world full of uncertainties, trust is even more relevant as a successful strategy for sales success. Once trust has been established, the opportunity to sell will come along whether it is in shape of a tender or a next conversation. Trying to sell before trust has been established, is a dead end track.

Here are three tactics to start creating and maintaining trust with prospects and existing customers.

Sales people should position themselves as experts.

B2B salespeople should position themselves as experts in order to build trust and credibility with their prospects and customers. When prospects and customers see a salesperson as an expert in their field, it is easier to build a strong and lasting business relationship. An expert salesperson is also better equipped to provide the best advice and solutions for their customers’ needs. Additionally, positioning oneself as an expert can help differentiate the salesperson from their competitors and increase the perceived value of their services. Today customers still expect to learn from sales people as well as buy from them. Although 27% of buyers do extensive online research before speaking to a vendor, they do expect additional valuable information from the sales person. In addition Gartner* found that buyers are 2.8 times more likely to buy from vendors who have helped them with useful information during the buying process. Sales people need to make certain they know their products and services inside out and so building trust.

Here are two examples:

1) In the payments industry we saw additional focus on transaction disputes between consumer and retailer due to the impact of COVID-19. Retailers will turn to their payments providers for insight and advice to navigate through refund rules while minimising refunds where possible.

Payments sales professionals will need to know about chargebacks and refunds and why payment schemes introduced these features in the first place. This will help merchants in their decision making and develop further trust with their provider. That in turn will open up more sales opportunities in due course.

Do not oversell

Customers want feature rich products and solutions that are future proof, available now and cost effective. It is all too easy for a sales person to not tell the truth at the point of clinching the deal. Overselling or over-promising has a huge and sometimes irrecoverable impact on company reputation, future earnings, and also individual reputation. Any trust built up will soon vanish and may irrecoverable losing the customer. B2B salespeople should not oversell because it can lead to customer dissatisfaction. When a customer is promised something that cannot be delivered, they will feel misled and may be less likely to continue doing business with the company. Overselling can also cause customers to lose trust in the salesperson and the company, making it difficult to build long-term relationships. Finally, overselling can lead to customer complaints, decreased customer loyalty, and negative reviews which can damage the company’s reputation.

On the other hand, customers will appreciate a vendor that is clear and upfront about their solutions suitability. Of course, salespeople should be encouraged to push the line without crossing it, but they need to know where the line is and how far it can be flexed. When training salespeople, product knowledge, internal processes and selling techniques are all equally important to prevent overselling and build trust.

Ask questions and collaborate .

Trust can be developed by finding out what challenges a customer has. Asking questions is a powerful technique often underutilised by sales people. Here are ‘trust creating’ questions:

  • What are the challenges?
  • How are these challenges impacting the business, employees and customers?
  • Why are they seen as challenges?
  • Where do the challenges originate?
  • What are the current workarounds?
  • What has been tried to address the challenges so far?
  • What should the ideal solution look like?

These questions expose pain or gain points during the selling process and also create trust. Sales people who ask questions like the ones above, allow customers to reflect on their situation or position. In addition, good questions ensure no money is left on the table during the selling process.

Working together on the challenges, options and agreeing next steps are signs of trust between buyer and seller.

conclusion

Certainty is in short supply in a rapidly changing world. Building and maintaining trust with customers is even more important now.

I work with sales professional developing and executing sales strategies with two objectives in mind: creating more sales opportunities and closing more deals. Get in touch to find out how I can help your sales team do the same.

sources used:

*Gartner ‘the new B2B buying journey’

Learn how to sell a commoditised product as a value proposition

n this revealing interview you’ll learn how monetisation transforms commodity type products become tangible value for prospects.

Simon Chandramani is an expert payments sales leader. Payments products are often highly commoditised where fractions of percentages can make the difference to win or lose a deal.

Find out how Simon and his team:

☝️ get ready before contacting new prospects

☝️ apply monetisation creating merchant value beyond price

☝️ use CRM effectively recording relevant prospect info

☝️ learnt what ‘good looks like’ when fact finding

The beauty of advanced sales techniques like this is they are simple to apply so you can create more opportunities and close more deals too.

Watch the interview here

Name your price and win more deals

Just like selling to the right type of prospect at the right time, your product’s or service’s price is a prime qualifier in sales. If you mention price without having thought about where it best fits in your sales process or playbook, you are missing a big trick. Here are 3 insights why and what you can do about it.

1) Perceived value

From a buying and selling perspective price is a sensible discussion point. It helps both parties to decide a next step. Pricing can fluctuate immensely based on the perceived value the buyer puts on the product. A buyer may be turned off by your low price by discrediting it automatically, especially if the product or service he or she believes is important to their business. My earlier post related to Stella Artois is a great reverse example. Sometimes, expensive is a positive element in purchase decisions. Salespeople who understand the concept of perceived value, use it throughout their sales process and win more bigger and better deals.

2) The power of 9

Prices ending in “9” ( charm pricing) can be more appealing than others, which can work better for both low- and high-end ticket items alike. Good example are petrol and new build houses pricing. Plenty of ‘9s’ there! Salespeople who understand the power of 9, use it and win more business that way.

3) Timing

Salespeople can either reveal price in the beginning or near the end – it depends on the industry and the company. By revealing price early on, they can disqualify a lead that would otherwise consume valuable time only to conclude it does not fit their budget, while they could focus on other pursuits. By revealing price later, salespeople could build value and uncover needs that the customer might not say directly and you would only find out by proper questioning. Salespeople who understand the power of stating price at the right timing the sales process, make more sales.

I work with individuals and teams helping them win more business. Feel free to get in touch or book me for an initial chat.