Category: Closing Sales

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.

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.

‘When will you close that deal?’ is one of the questions sales managers ask their team members frequently.

It is a logical, outcome focused question. They want to know when the deal is coming in and when revenues will start. Targets have to be achieved.

Yet, as a salesperson you probably do not know yet when the deal is coming in. Perhaps you were too optimistic talking about the deal as a real opportunity. The pressure is on…….

Many CRM applications add success percentages depending on stage, yet these are arbitrary and often set by CRM experts rather than sales people.

So how can you assess an opportunity objectively and predict (when) it is going to come in?

Here are the 4 high sales growth questions to apply for every opportunity

1. Am I talking to the person who has the power to make the purchase decision?
2. Have the customer and I agreed that my product fixes the customer’s issue?
3. Has the customer indicated that the price is acceptable?
4. Is there a clear time frame for a purchase decision?

Every “YES” catapults you 25% towards a deal.

So, two “YES” answers takes you to 50% , three to 75% and four to the top 100% certainty.

Here is a simple example:

Salesperson meets operations manager in a white goods factory. The operations manager is under pressure to reduce logistics costs.

The salesperson identifies an opportunity to sell a new packaging solution saving the customer £50,000 over two years.

The operations manager agrees to a demonstration of the solution and is very positive about the demonstration afterwards.

Sales Manager asks salesperson when the deal is coming in………….

Let’s ask the 4 high sales growth questions:

1. Is the Operation Manager the decision maker? Don t know. Therefore 0%
2. Does the solution fix the customer’s issues? Yes. Therefore 25%
3. Is the price acceptable to the customer? Don t know Therefore 0%
4. Is there a clear time frame Don’t know Therefore 0%

This deal is still early stage and has only reached prospect stage as we know there is a potential need for the product.

Now check this concept on 2 current opportunities and see how close you are to winning them. If not on the 100% yet, just home in on the missing elements. The deals will follow!

I love this concept. Its easy and gives total focus on any missing elements. Besides that I have seen companies growing their sales output by more than 100% by using this pipeline management method.

If you like high sales growth strategies like this and want to make more sales feel free to get in touch

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