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Impact Questions – Sales eXchange 1870

By Tibor Shanto – tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca

Back in the 80′s or maybe even earlier, the purveyors of Consultative Selling, put a lot of emphasis on Open Ended Questions, for all the right reasons. It took some effort and focus to get sales people to adopt this style of interaction, especially after years of pitching and doing things the traditional (old) way.

Many sales people had difficulty being comfortable and effective in the vast openness provided by this style of questions. It was difficult to fight the urge to regress to their previous comfort zones, many sellers had to be continuously managed to adopt the new more effective question based selling.

One practice was to paint closed ended questions as being inferior, substandard, in those days, even communist in nature; may sound extreme, but in reality, closed ended question were uniformly vilified. In fact the pendulum swung so far that closed ended question were just plain bad. Today, in many workshops, you still hear people demonizing closed ended questions.

Well I am here to tell you that there are no such things as bad questions. There are very few if any absolutes in sales. It’s more accurate to look at how appropriate a question is for a given circumstance. If you look at questions as tools of the trade, there is no such thing as one tool fits all; there may be tools that are appropriate to various tasks, others may be useful less often
Which is why I am here to say that the much maligned closed ended question does have a place in B2B selling in 2013; hell I’ll go further to say it has a place in Sales 2.0 and/or Social Selling. It is about the situation, what is the desired outcome, and what the next step needs to be from both parties perspectives.

Given the above there are regular occurrences in sales where closed ended question makes perfect sense. So I am on a mission to reintroduce this tool to your sales tool kit. A few years ago Timberlake made it his goal to being Sexy Back, so I am advocating the same for closed ended questions (although I am certain they will never be sexy, but the positive results delivered may be).

I am calling the updated version Impact Questions, a marketing friend told me that one needs to rebrand for re-launch; change the name and you change focus from potential negative connotations.

Let’s face it, there are times when you do want to focus things, narrow down the possibilities. Often you want close things off so you can move the process forward, or to realize that there is no forward to move to with a prospect and it may be time to move to the next opportunity.

During a cold call, oops, prospecting call, (need to be politically correct), open ended questions can take you off track; a question that works well in a sales call can be negative during a prospecting call. There are other times when you do want a clear one or the other, a yes or a no. It comes down to how the response serves the purpose. What is the impact of the answer, and how that answer impacts the outcome. For example, when I ask someone I called the first time if they “have ever worked with a third party trainer like Renbor?”, either answer serves to move the process forward, and could prove to be a benefit for both. Rather than using a series of open ended questions to arrive at the same point, a simple impact question focuses bith the prospect and I on the same critical turning point.

So know where you are trying to go, know how you can help a prospect or a customer, then ask the Impact Question, and deal with the impact, not whether it is open ended, closed ended, or some other ended, work to achieve positive impact for the buyer and yourself.

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

Many people involved in sales seem to be fixated with budget; they want to qualify for it way to early in the process. I know it is important, but you maybe disqualifying perfectly good buyers for the wrong reason.

Your job in sales is to well, sell, which means identifying requirements or gaps in the prospect’s current situation. But most, about 75% of potential buyers, don’t know, realize or admit they have requirements or gaps, remember – status quo is your biggest hurdle. So if they don’t perceive a need, they don’t see a need to allocate budget. This does not mean that they don’t in fact could benefit from your product, but they have lived with the pain long enough, or on the positive side they didn’t realize they could achieve their goals by taking advantage of your offering. Ask this type of person about budget too early, and you will end up disqualifying a perfectly good buyer.

If you are talking to the right people in the right way, budget is very much an issue that can be (at times easily) overcome. Consider these examples, have you ever walked into an electronics store looking to buy a flat screen, you know what you had in mind, you encountered a clerk who “qualified you”? They asked a bunch of questions, including budget, and then showed you two or three products that fit what you described. Contrast that with the time I walked into an electronics store, with a specific flat screen in mind, shopped it on line in advance so I had a budget in mind, but I encountered a different sales person. She asked me why I was buying the TV, had I had a flat screen before? What type of things would I be watching? She then continued to ask if I what kind of DVD player I had, telling me about Blue Ray, asked if stream from the web, and of course since I told her I watch music DVD’s, what was I using to maximize the sonic experience. When all was said and done, I had exceeded my flat screen budget by $250, or 20%; in addition I became the proud owner of an unbudgeted Blue ray player, decided to give my inadequate home theater system to the kids, how else was I going to make room for the new one.

You can say I was an impulse buyer, I would argue that I was maximizing my investment in my enhanced flat screen. Either way there is no arguing that rather than qualifying me for budget, she qualified me for what I was trying to achieve and how to best maximize that over the life of my new Smart TV.

Corporate buyers are no different, the higher you go in the organization, the truer this is. Executives are able to create budget, able to shift funds around, and make a buy based on a host of factors beyond budget. I have many clients who did not have budget for training when I cold called them, but after we engaged, and I demonstrated how their investment in what I do will deliver results and returns that will exceed their investment, and justify an unbudgeted expenditure.

Executives want, no need, to make a difference, show them how you can do that and you will find a person motivated to make things happen. Show them that you primary interest is their ability to spend, and even those with budget will self-disqualify. It’s about engagement and investment – not budget. Go ahead, qualify someone for a better competitor.

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

“Leveraging Value from Engaging the Buyer to Closing the Sale” – A Sales Association Webinar
Tuesday, October 30 – 2 p.m. EST / 1 p.m. CST / Noon MST / 11 a.m. PST (1 hour in length)

On Tuesday October 30, I have the privilege to deliver a webinar for The Sales Association – I will be talking to specific steps sellers can take to delivering and leveraging value throughout the sale.

Almost every conversation about selling starts or ends with the concept of value. At the same time, there are as many different understandings and definitions of value as there are sellers and buyers. Without a clear and actionable definition of value, many conversations between buyers and sellers are less than effective, and do not help create a buy.

Starting with a clear definition of value, participants will learn the five-step process to leveraging value throughout the sale, from the initial engagement to winning the client.

Steps include:

Identifying and validating buyer’s objectives
Understanding why buyers really buy
Why Buyers buy and don’t buy from you and your company
Converting the above to Impact Questions for quality conversations
A structured follow-through approach to maximize impact and progress

Participants will learn how to use this process to create alignment with the buyer, their objectives and buying process.

Click Her to Register Now!

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

All the pundits tell us that in “today’s economy”, buyers are just too busy to deal with anything unless they deem it to be critical to their success. This is why many sellers have difficulty getting through, they fail to penetrate the “prove value to me” wall erected by prospects, and in effect they fail the BS test. So if one does get through, it should not only be recognized, but should at the very least begin a real exchange about the buyers objectives and how the seller is in a position to advance or help the prospect achieve them. But as it turns out, this is not always the case.

It seems that in many instances, buyers and sellers enter a game of “Sales Hide and Seek”, rather than a real business discussion, taking an ambiguous and unproductive approach rather than a direct discussion of the issues and potential answers. Both parties are guilty, and both pay the price by extending the sales cycle, costing time, money and opportunity. The buyer takes longer to implement the solution, at times the wrong solution, taking longer to realize the benefits delivered. Sellers extend their cycle and limit their opportunity to sell and engage with more buyers or other real buyers. Even as the buyer becomes a customer, they are impacted by the company spending more money and resources to selling than to R&D and product improvement which directly impacts the customer base.

Sellers are told to go for relationships rather than dealing directly with issues, trying too hard to be genteel, rather than provoking, and getting to the root of the issue. Winning the buyer’s respect and trust by willing to deal with tough situations, not hiding from them. Rather than missing repeated opportunities to demonstrate their understanding, their expertise and ability to make a difference especially in though areas. Sellers talk about “finding the pain”, but only go for superficial pain which leads the buyer to hide their intent, as they lose confidence in the buyer due to their inability to deal with the buyer’s real challenges. Circling issues, only focusing on “pain” they can see and think they can solve. With this soft approach, rather than being provocative and relevant, makes these sellers look like kids playing hide and seek.

The buyers are no better, one can argue worse. They give up an hour of their valuable “crazy busy time”, only to make it unproductive for them, their companies, and the seller. They clam up when asked direct questions, as though the seller was the opposition, rather than a professional investing time and resources to help the buyer reach their objectives. Again one can’t blame them if they figure out early that they are meeting with a light weight sellers. But I have attended a number of sales calls where the rep had prepared well, asked the right questions, going to the root of the buyers objectives and barriers to reaching them, only to be met with an evasive buyer, incomplete in their answers, not sharing key data, or access to those who have answers. Again, looking more like a game of hide and seek rather than a process for improvement.

In the end, the goal is not to lay blame for the almost counterproductive time wasted by both sellers and buyers, but to encourage both parties to work towards a common goal, if one is plausible and/or possible, rather than playing a time consuming game of hide and seek. The game has no winner, just adds cost and time to the sale.

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

Hanging Out with @GlobeSmallBiz: How to develop a Winning Sales strategy

Last week I had the opportunity to participate in The Globe and Mail’s Report on Business’ Small Business interview series on Google+ Hangout. As the title suggests, we discussed a number of topics relating to sales, and sales challenges important for small business owners.

This was not only a great use of the technology, but we covered a number of key issues potential pitfalls, and opportunities for small business owners.

Take a look, comment, enjoy, and profit.

httpvh://youtu.be/A3FEyN2B4dE

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

Hang on, before you get your pipeline in a knot, read on and discover. We’re talking about client profiling, not racial profiling. The reality is that all the things (some) people do not like about the type of profiling that takes place at airports, or in upscale shops at suburban malls, do indeed help sellers identify not just buyers, but the right buyers, and as a results buyers who buy faster. After all, if you could recognize the attributes of a buyer, and recognize them sooner, that would be good. The only thing better, is recognizing the attributes of a non-buyer so you can save time and resources.

Now unlike the other profiling, you probably can’t afford the type of heavy technology, algorithms and other applications used by some, but then again you don’t need to. What you do need is the discipline to invest the time to develop a simple profiling process, and the discipline to actually put it into practice.

This goes beyond the simple concept of analyzing your wins so you can hone your perception, and hope only engage with winners. Too much of a good thing can come back to bite, and without a balance discipline, selective perception can devolve into restricted perception, leaving good opportunities unpursued. Given the fact that most B2B sellers have less than a 50% close ratio, more like a 25% closing average, it is foolish to ignore your losses. By understanding why you both win and lose, you can sharpen your success filters, change things that are causing you to lose, and disqualify non-buyers sooner; some would call that a win – win – win.

Profiling can be done in a number of ways, all looking to gain insight based on different factors. There are those who try to do it based on personality traits, DISC would be an example. Although if you buy in to the notion that people buy from people they like, does this lead to people selling to people they like, and if so, how do I know if I’m going to like them before I pick up the phone? Ah, now I get why so many people have call reluctance, they don’t know if they’re going to like the prospect they are about to call. I digress.

I prefer doing it on a deal basis, this helps me categorize based on buyers objectives, most professionals and people running a business will tend to have objectives, and approached the right way, are interested in things that help them achieve objectives, or avoid things that may hamper their progress, and will act to remove those barriers. A lack of clear objectives is a sure clue to a less than committed buyer, a longer sales cycle if it happens at all, or usually not a good use of time.

As with most things in sales, it is less about the tools and more about the mindset and the discipline to do it, and do it consistently. So go ahead, profile, your buyers don’t care as long as it helps them in the end.

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

Don’t forget to Join us in Houston, October 18 for the Proactive Prospecting Workshop!

A reminder that there is a class this afternoon, 4:00 pm Eastern

GAP Selling – Leveraging Process and Execution

GAP Selling – Looks at how to deliver value to buyers across the entire sales cycle.
Almost every sales conversation starts or ends with the concept of value; at the same time there are as many different understandings and definitions of value as there are sellers and buyers.

This course delivers clear and actionable definition of value. Starting with that definition of value, participants will learn the five step platform to leveraging that value right through the sale, from the initial engagement to winning the client. The overarching goal of the platform is to focus on the buyer’s objectives, and delivering specific means of helping them achieve those objectives.

These include:

Identifying and validating buyer’s objectives
Understanding why buyers really buy
Why Buyers buy and don’t buy from you and your company
Converting the above to impact questions and quality conversation
A structured follow-through approach to maximize impact and progress Participants will learn how to use the above to create alignment with the buyer, their objectives and buying process

Join us at 4:00 pm Eastern today

Prerequisite – An open mind to learning and selling better

Test – Your weekly Pipeline Review

A couple of weeks back, I was asked about value, and provided a firm definition for value. The definition is step one, it provides the direction for the seller, next sellers need to learn how to surface it and leverage it for the mutual benefit of the buyer and the seller. As a follow up I was asked:

So working with that definition of value, that is removing obstacles that stand between the buyer and their objectives, how does a sales person know or determine the buyers’ objectives?

It takes a bit of practice but here we go:

httpvh://youtu.be/7FISRA6Wuxw

Next Step

Develop a process for capturing specific client attributes
Learn to key issues that have driven clients to engage and buy
Develop questions, after all, based on the above you know the answers

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

While curiosity may have killed the cat, a lack of curiosity will kill sales, every time. Yet with all the expectations placed on sellers these days, most don’t feel they have the luxury to be curios, or worse, the don’t have the need to be curious, they have their talk track, and they feel they have all they need to know.

Looking at the latter first, unfortunately it is still very common to see sales people pitch and preach, spray and pray, or various 2.0 or social versions of these unsocial sales approaches. Rather engage in a dialogue, they deliver a monologue with a few preplanned spots for buyer input. This unilateral – know-it all method is not only ineffective, but excludes the buyer in the worst way, and they limit your ability in a number of ways. Being curious, starting with a blank canvas every time, gives you a number of advantages, in winning and growing clients. Let’s look at three:

Validate you as an expert and conduit to best practices
Brings out more information than know-it approach
Helps you close bigger and more

Let’s be clear, starting with a blank canvas, does not mean starting with nothing or lacking direction, far from it; think of an artist, when they stand in front of a blank canvas, it does not mean they lack ideas or vision, it just has been committed to paint yet. Same for a seller, by looking at each sale as a new opportunity to win and grow, requires that you have an idea of where the sale will go, how it may get there and why. But as an artist, the result is shaped by the subject, different model, different inspiration, different outcome. Think of each buyer as a new subject with their own attributes, that result in a unique outcome, you still manage the sale, but rather than throwing paint on the canvas, you work to create a unique outcome using you skills and abilities.

Validate you as an expert and conduit to best practices – It is not news that you can better demonstrate your expertise by leading a discussion though questions, much more effectively that by preaching. Using all the knowledge and experience you have, you can formulate questions that get the buyer to share their views, their needs, and what they may be willing to enter into. Use your expertise to formulate these questions, the quality and nature of the questions will help you not only be the “expert”, but as someone who understands the challenges of the buyer. If they see they are dealing with a conduit to best practices, they will share a lot more with you than they would with a walking talking box.

Brings out more information than “know-it-all” approach – If you “know-it-all”, then what’s left to say? That is the thought process of the buyer, there is no point in them sharing information with you when you know it already. On the other hand, being curious, comfortable in your ability to stay in the conversation regardless of how and where the customer decides to take your questions. You gain the ability to explore aspects of their business and the sale that are lost on and to the “know-it-all”; they will remain on the straight and narrow, while you can explore side streets and allies paved with opportunity.

The process is straight forward, you take your knowledge and experience, and much like a game of Jeopardy, then formulate the questions that will lead the conversation to the answers you were looking to discuss.

Helps you close bigger and more – Using the above, you can get much better engagement, which creates velocity, allowing you to close more deals. At the same time, because you are getting to the root cause for the needs that are driving the buyer, leading to a much bigger, deeper, and better picture of how you can help the buyer, now and moving forward, it will allow you to close bigger, improve penetration and retention.

Curiosity will make you look and sound interested in the buyer and their business; something they don’t often see or feel in their conventional buying experience.

Next Step

Embrace your role as a subject matter expert who sells
Start turning your knowledge to questions that put the right issues on the table
Make sure you include some “Land Mine Questions“

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

Sales like other groups have certain common words, reference points and symbols. They use them to communicate facts and concepts both to the tribe and to their buyers. The challenge is that often these words or symbols are often quiet subjective and open to broad interpretation, unless the seller defines the term. If they don’t which is usually the case, it opens the door to miscommunications, and missed sales.

Take the word value, I challenge you read one brochure or sit through a sales meeting where “value” is not a central theme. The problem is that unless you have a clear definition of value, clear to both you and the buyer, and more importantly means the same to both of you, you could end up talking about something other than what the buyer considers to be of value.

The solution, defining value, mutually agreeing to it, and moving you and the buyer towards attaining it.

Here is a clear and universally working definition of value:

httpvh://youtu.be/uS9SVrR0CHA

Next Step

Spend time understanding buyers’ objectives
Build the sale around those objectives
Demonstrate value, don’t just talk about it

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

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What's In Your Pipeline?

Impact Questions – Sales eXchange 1870

Are You Qualifying for Budget or Out Of A Sale?77

A Sales Association #Webinar31

Playing Sales Hide and Seek – Sales eXchange 16899

Hanging Out with @GlobeSmallBiz: How to develop a Winning Sales strategy45

I Support Profiling!41

Don’t forget to Join us in Houston, October 18 for the Proactive Prospecting Workshop!

School Is In53

Leveraging Value Once Defined58

3 Ways to Win With Curiosity – Sales eXchange – 14540

A Working Definition of Value28