When you are building rapport with your customers how are you answering these questions the customer has for you?
Do I like you?
Do I trust you?
How can you help me?
Lately I have been going deeper and understanding the psychology of people and understanding habits and motivational filters people have. This will be something I will share in the future. For Today I want to focus on developing questions as well as focus for you to use when engaging your customers.
The customer is asking themselves the questions above from the moment they meet you until you leave. By the time you leave they have forgotten much of what you have talked about. Want to make a larger impact with them?
Pull out a sheet of paper and take notes. I know it sounds simple, but people really feel like you are there for them when you are taking notes. You are showing interest in them. Ask them if they are okay with you taking notes for review. They are likely to say yes because you are focusing on them and paying attention, not just selling a product that might not fit their needs. I have an example of an Account Profile sheet in my book “The Sales Process Uncovered”, but will send you a copy if you email me at info@kevinsidebottom.com if you would like a free copy. Put in the subject “Account Profile Sheet” and I’ll send it out to you.
I have used an account profile sheet since I have started in sales to make sure I truly understand my customer. I want them to feel that I am their advocate and that I truly am there to help them. I also can not remember all the topics that came up in conversation and retain it mentally. Let’s face it I am getting older. Writing something down will imprint on your brain and stick with you longer. You will also be able to review all of your notes outside of the meeting to derive the best solution for your follow up meeting.
Now you are answering the first two questions Do I like you? and Do I trust you? Now let’s focus on How can you help me?
Let’s pull out some of the better questions to ask someone that will provoke them to be thoughtful past the cost impact and features. For this we want to ask very open questions that make the person think deep.
What would success look like for you in this decision?
Whether you are selling insurance, lawnmowers, cars, bathroom remodels, the customer has a vision of what they believe success looks like. Helping them articulate this into a mental picture is giving you the ability to understand the customer. You can follow up with specific questions about what they reply with such as why is this perfect for you? when would you want this to happen? What is your budget for this? (most of the time the budget does not align with the perfect picture, so don’t be shocked)
What does the perfect solution for you look like and what does this solution do for you?
By asking this question the person if focusing on the positive future for them and is going to tell you what they believe will help them. Try not to cut them off with better solutions. This is the phase where you are learning about them. If they are having trouble coming up with solutions you can use the “needs answered” questions road map in “The Sales Process Uncovered” to help you with deriving some questions.
Keep affirming them that what they give you is good and ask them if there are any more thoughts of how the solution works best for them. We’ll get into the delivery of how your product meets their needs, but for now keep asking them these and more questions to pull out all of their needs.
Using life insurance as an example you might ask the following questions as follow up questions:
1. How much insurance do you believe will cover the loss of your loved one for you and your family to survive without the extra income?
2. What do you want your future to look like?
3. Would you be able to survive today if your spouse passed away unexpectantly?
4. Do you have your budget filled out and know all of your expenses? (have an easy budget file for them to use if they do not have one)
Always be willing to help and educate people. Don’t talk down to them, instead focus on helping them. Be the customer’s advocate and help them for a better future. If you do this then you will answer the questions below. Do this and you will greatly up your chances for obtaining the sale.
Do I like you?
Do I trust you?
How can you help me?
Thoughts for yourself this week.
Think about how you are also enabling yourself to get better.
Whether it be managing finances, reading some new books on a particular topic that is relevant to you, or training to invest in your growth.
Next week we will keep the momentum going to develop more questions that will draw out your product benefits to meet their needs.
Have a great weekend!
Sincerely,
Kevin Sidebottom