Dig Deep to Uncover Unknowns

In our observation, many sales reps are hesitant and at times even afraid to dig deep when it comes to asking the right questions. As a result, they ask questions that only scratch the surface, thus running the risk of asking the same questions that every other sales rep asks and not differentiating themselves. This is a missed opportunity.

Top performers understand that asking the right questions requires them to go beyond the obvious. Discovering isn't about asking surface-level questions. Unfortunately, however, these are just the issues that most sales reps focus on, with simple questions such as:

• How many widgets do you need?
• What should the setup be?
• What are you looking for?
• What's your time frame or deadline?
• How can we help you with that?

Not only are these questions basic but they're nothing that will differentiate you from the competition. Every sales rep out there is asking these same questions. Your job as a top performer is to dig deeper.

To do that, you have to ask the follow-up questions. You have to listen to what your customer is saying—and to what he's not saying. You have to seek to uncover not only what the customer needs (or thinks he needs) but also the circumstances that are driving that need. What's really behind the need? Why does it exist? What factors are affecting the situation? Why is it important to meet this need right now? What's in it for the customer and his organization? What will happen if the need isn't met?

Beyond these follow-up questions, you can dig even deeper. For how long has this situation existed? What challenges has the customer faced in meeting this need? What other solutions have been tried? In what ways have other solutions failed or succeeded?

Explore, too, the decision-making factors involved in the situation. Ask your customer who is involved in the decision-making process. Ask what his expectations are—and whether they are in sync with those of the rest of his team.

If you're able to ask the right questions, you can get your customers to think differently. You can get them to think beyond the surface, beyond the details they are consciously aware of, to information that might be unknown even to them. This is the real nugget. If you can get your customer to think, to really open up, it's quite possible through targeted questioning that he'll come to a realization he hadn't thought of before—one that you can help him with.

Targeted questioning will enable you to gather necessary information that will help you understand your customer's unique situation. We understand that asking the right questions at the right time in the right way can be overwhelming. It takes practice. You might not know where to start. We can help with that. Our research has uncovered six critical areas of focus that all salespeople should explore with their customers, and these are an excellent place to start.

Customer Situation

Assessing the customer's current situation is usually the first issue to be addressed in the sales interaction. In this area of focus, you want to understand the customer's current state (i.e., what currently exists in the customer's environment) and the customer's level of satisfaction (i.e., how happy the customer is with the current state).

For many sales reps, assessing the customer's situation is typically the easiest part of the discovering stage. Asking questions such as, “What products or services are you currently using?” or “How satisfied are you with your current product or service?” is fundamental stuff. But top-performing sales professionals use open-ended questions and a conversational approach to dig a little deeper, asking questions or using statements such as, “Tell me more about the current product or service you are using,” and “What aspects of your current product are working best for you?” and “Where would you like to see improvements in the product you're currently using?” Questions such as these can help open the door to discover high-quality information from your customer that will allow you to better tailor a solution to his needs. Drawing out additional details helps provide more clues about the customer so that you can best discern his current situation.

It's important here not to rush the process. Don't speed through your list of questions as though you're merely on a time-sensitive fact-finding mission. It's not an interrogation; it's a conversation. So, ask open-ended questions. Listen to your customer's answers—not just what he says, but how he says it. Circle back with follow-up questions that not only show that you've been listening, but that you earnestly want to understand the customer and his needs.

Customer Needs and Challenges

Just as gauging the customer's situation has for many sales reps become second nature, so too is discerning needs and challenges fairly common in sales today. Although most sales professionals do this to some extent, it's easy to fall short on how deep you can delve into this area.

This critical area of focus is one of the most important because it is here where you begin to truly understand your customer's needs as well as what is of top importance in his mind. In identifying customer needs and challenges, you want to find out what the customer wants to achieve, what he wants to improve, what his current problems are, and what factors are contributing to those problems. In this critical area, you want to focus on:

• Needs and opportunities
• Problems and challenges
• The customer's motivation to act
• The customer's priorities

By asking the right questions, you provide the customer with an opportunity to explain his situation and perhaps air some grievances about his current situation. It's also an opportunity for you to gather more quality data that you can use to tailor a solution that meets his needs and priorities.

Here again, top-performing sales reps go a little deeper. Ask the customer what the ideal situation, product, or service would feature. Ask him what the perfect solution would entail.

Good sales reps frequently ask about needs, opportunities, problems, and challenges—that's often part of the customer-focused selling approach. But top-performing sales professionals can gather even more information by asking the customer why it's important to him to explore new options right now. Top performers ask questions such as, “What drove you to explore options with us today?” and “Could you give me a sense of why this is important to you and your team right now?” They also use the conversation to gain insight into priorities, asking open-ended questions such as, “Which of the concerns you've mentioned are most important to you?” and “Of everything we've discussed today, what is most important to you?”

By asking your customer what's driving his decision, you can gather additional information that will allow you to present your product or service in a uniquely tailored way that is specific to your customer.

People and Relationships

Selling is about building lasting relationships with your customers, who look to you as a trusted advisor. During the discovering phase, it's critical to find out everything you can about the people and the relationships involved in the buying decision. Research shows that one of the biggest changes in customer buying behavior is that more people are involved in the decision-making process. Therefore, focusing on people and relationships is more important now than ever before.

Top-performing sales reps find out key information about their contact and his team, such as who is involved in the sales process, what their roles are, and what individual needs must be considered. They do this by asking questions such as, “Who would you say is your strongest advocate in your organization? How does that individual affect the buying decision?” and “Who in the organization has the most influence on the buying decision?” and “Who do you think will need some additional time and attention in order to support the buying decision?”

How deeply you dive into the people and relationships that affect your customer will depend on a variety of factors, including the complexity of the sale, the structure of the customer's organization, the individuals involved in the buying decision, and so forth. The key here is to focus on the interactions and relationships that will have an impact on the sale.

Buying Process

As you think about the people and relationships that will affect the sale, so too must you consider the customer's buying process. Find out what you can about stages in the buying cycle along with the customer's decision-making process, budget, schedule, lead time, and so forth. Focus not only on the part of the process in which you're involved but also on the customer's entire process. Ask questions about how frequently the customer places orders, what his organization's decision-making process looks like, how often his organization typically replaces inventory, and how procurement might play a role in the decision. Questions along these lines can be simple and direct, such as, “How frequently do you replenish inventory?” and “At what point does procurement get involved in the process?” and “What additional steps do you need to take before a decision is made?”

By understanding how the customer and his organization typically operate, you'll be in a better position to ensure that you can best support the customer in his decision-making process by engaging in the right way at the right time.

Options and Alternatives

In a day and age when customers are both savvier and busier, you can count on the fact that your customer has done his research and that he likely is considering at least one other provider. Assume that he is looking at several options and alternatives, and ask some questions about what those might be. Don't be afraid to ask about the specific options the customer is considering and which he's leaning toward at this juncture. Ask about which other firms he's investigating and how he thinks the competition stacks up. Ask what he likes and dislikes about the options and alternatives that might fit his needs. Be sure to use open-ended questions such as “Which alternatives have you been investigating?” and “Which of the options that you've been exploring seem most attractive at this point?” and “What about the current options available to you do you find most compelling?”

Asking your customer some targeted questions about the options and alternatives he's considering will provide you keen insight into how you can best tailor a solution to meet his needs. It also will give you a window into how customers view your competition, which can be helpful intelligence when you look to present your solution in a way that is differentiated from your competition.

Impact

In addition to learning about your customer's needs, priorities, and options, it's important to find out what the impact of the buying decision will be for him and his organization. Buying a widget is never just about increasing the quantity of widgets—and selling a widget should never be just about getting more widgets into the hands of your customers.

Top-performing sales professionals understand that asking about the impact of the decision helps the customer consider what will or what could happen by taking action or leaving things as they are. They know to ask questions about both the benefits of change and the consequences of sticking with the status quo. They discuss with the customer what the impact would be if the new product improved efficiency or tightened up the supply chain. They ask the customer what kind of return on investment he's looking for and how his firm will measure that ROI.

Questioning and discovering in this critical area of focus might sound like “What will the impact on gross margins be if the product's fail rate is reduced by 3 percent in the manufacturing cycle?” or “If you were to lose your position as market leader for this technology, what impact might that have on meeting your quarterly targets?”

Gauging the impact of the buying decision on your customer and his organization is one of the critical skills that truly separate a top performer from the rest. There are many associated benefits in bringing up this topic with your customers. In asking questions in these areas—and by listening to the answers—you'll be better positioned to help your customers clearly see the value of your solution.

Asking the right questions at the right time and in the right way can take you far in terms of getting to know your customers and building long-term relationships with them. But you can't just ask the questions. You have to listen to the answers. You have to hear what your customers are saying.

Listen for Content, Meaning, and Feeling

Subtext and context are critical items when it comes to listening to your customers. That means you have to listen for content, meaning, and feeling. You have to pay attention to the literal or actual language stated by the customer, the meaning or intent of the message as well as the feeling or emotion behind what is being said. Sales professionals who do this find that they are able to more quickly and accurately understand customer needs.

Listening for content, meaning, and feeling often means you have to slow down. Don't rush the conversation. Don't assume that you know what your customer is going to say or what her next sentence is going to lead to. It can be easy to start filtering some of what you hear, listening for key terms and phrases that will help you prove your point. Don't do it. Exceptional listeners don't make assumptions about what their customers will say. Instead, they are able to slow down; listen to what's being said (and not said); and focus on content, meaning, and feeling.

Of course, listening isn't just about what your customer says; it's also about the meaning and feeling behind it. Words mean one thing, but the way in which she conveys the message speaks to what she's saying more completely. Words that she repeats again and again also carry weight.

In actively listening to your customer for content, meaning, and feeling, you can discern not only those overt needs that she discusses directly with you but also those issues that might provide you with opportunities to further differentiate yourself as someone who takes the time and makes the effort to really hear what is important to her.

Identify Vocal Qualities and Body Language

One of the key differentiators between good sales professionals and top performers is the ability to identify what the customer is thinking, feeling, or expressing through her vocal qualities and body language. Top-performing sales reps are attuned to the customer's verbal and nonverbal cues throughout each conversation, picking up on clues that provide further insight into her needs and priorities.

Vocal qualities include things such as her tone, emphasis, inflection, and pace. This also means more subtle clues such as sighs or extended pauses. Body language includes such things as gestures, facial expressions, and other nonverbals. Don't assume you know what these verbal and nonverbal cues mean. Rather, consider them as clues to further discovering more about your customer.

For instance, when your customer starts talking about her supply chain and the kinks that she needs to smooth out in it, you might notice that her tone and facial expression becomes much more serious. You might say, for example, “It seems that this is really important to you. Can you tell me more about what you need in order to smooth out your supply chain?”

It's never safe to assume you know what your customer is thinking or feeling. But it is always safe to ask her what she's thinking and feeling. Don't be afraid to follow up on vocal and body language cues; doing so provides further opportunity for you to discover more about her needs and priorities. For example, it can be easy to assume that a customer who displays crossed arms and crossed legs is closed-minded, annoyed, or frustrated. Or it might just be that she's cold and wishes you would turn up the heat (literally, not figuratively).

Eye contact, nods, shrugs, smiles, posture…body language can come in many forms. For instance, if your customer is relentlessly tapping her pen on her desk, take notice. During a break in the conversation, find a way to ask about it. A little nudge such as “How are we on time?” might address what appears to be impatience of some kind.

Remember Customer Words

Moving along in the process of actively listening, we come to the importance of remembering—and repeating—customer words. As you converse with your customer, listen for words, terms, and key phrases that she repeats. Pay attention to the lingo she uses when describing her needs and her organization. Take note of the jargon that pops up in her speech. She's using those words—those particular words—for a reason.

Customer words are those words, terms, and phrases that a customer continually uses to describe a need, problem, or challenge. In repeating them (likely in an unconscious manner), your customer is conveying to you their importance, and in doing that, she is telling you what her needs and priorities are.

An easy way to differentiate yourself from the competition is to take note of those words, remember them, and incorporate her words into the conversation. Doing so becomes a powerful way for you to frame your solution, proving to your customer that you have listened, that you have heard her, and that what she has said matters. Remembering and repeating customer words proves that you understand her situation, her needs, and her priorities. It goes a long way in building the kind of rapport that helps her see you as a trusted advisor.

So, for instance, if your customer tells you that she needs assurance from you that you can provide a flexible solution that will accelerate performance in the long term, be precise in how you answer her. Don't reframe the issue and tell her that you can offer a simple solution that will speed up performance. Use her phrasing to say, “I can assure you that, yes, we can provide a flexible solution that will accelerate performance in the long term.”

Don't use synonyms. Don't find a fancier or simpler way of repeating her request. Remember her words. Repeat her words. And in doing so you will prove that communicating with her in her terms is important to you.

Summarize and Validate

Another way to show that you are actively listening is to summarize and validate the issues you have discussed. Doing so will confirm in your customer's mind that you have heard her and that you have understood her needs and priorities.

At key junctures, quickly summarize what you've heard and confirm. For example, you might say, “So, as I understand it, you're looking for fulfillment details about Product X with a focus on timing. Is that correct?” In that exchange, you've summarized and validated—two critical items that are crucial for moving on to next steps in the sales process.

Our research has shown that this is a step too many sales professionals skip. Often it's because they want to avoid making the impression that they haven't been listening or paying attention or that they don't understand. Sometimes they don't summarize and validate because they think it's a waste of time. But this isn't true. While you don't want to sound like a parrot as you repeat the customer's words and confirm what she's been saying, it is important to make it clear that the conversation has been a two-way street with understanding on both sides.

Summarizing and validating are key steps in the active listening process. Listening for content, meaning, and feeling; identifying vocal qualities and body language; and remembering customer words prepare you for the kind of active listening that will put you in good stead with your customer as you discover more about her needs. By listening to your customer, you can discover much about what she needs and what her priorities are. If you get this right, you can accelerate the sales process and close more deals.

Don't Assume

One of the easiest traps sales professionals can fall into—especially for those who have been in sales for a while—is to assume they already know what the customer wants, what his needs are, what his priorities are, what he wants to discuss, and so on. We've already mentioned the dangers of making assumptions, but it bears repeating.

Oftentimes, sales professionals believe they know where a customer is headed with a particular line of conversation or that they know what a customer is thinking. But it's important to remember that every customer is unique and that every situation is as well. The worst thing you can do as a salesperson is assume. Once you start making assumptions, you close your mind to hearing important information. Even if a customer says what you thought he was going to say, it's still important to listen as you might very well glean important insight into his needs and priorities by hearing how he says what he says as well as what he doesn't say. It's important to keep an open mind and to keep listening, even if you think you're about to hear something you've heard countless times before from countless different customers.

Don't Get Too Far ahead of Your Customer

Asking the right questions and actively listening to your customer's responses while paying attention to her body language and remembering her key words and phrases while analyzing what she's saying and not saying and how she's saying it while thinking ahead about how to address her concerns—well, that's not always easy. There's a lot going on there, and it's easy to get distracted by trying to figure out what to say next.

Being fully engaged in a conversation with your customer while anticipating what will be said next is tricky. While your customer is giving you information, you're already analyzing and thinking about the meaning. The trick here is to slow down. Use your questioning skills and active listening skills to maintain focus on the customer and what she needs to discuss. Remember that if you listen to your customer, she'll tell you exactly what she needs.

Don't Interrupt the Customer

One thing we see among many sales professionals is a tendency to interrupt customers. It's a common thing to do when you think you already know what they are going to say next. As an example, in an effort to show a customer how knowledgeable you are, you might cut him off midsentence, saying, “Oh! I know exactly what you're talking about. You like Widget A because it's more efficient.”

Jumping the gun this way is a mistake. Although you might just be trying to show that you're in tune with the customer or that you really know your product, interrupting doesn't give the customer a chance to say what he wants to say, nor does it give you a chance to listen to your customer and discover more about his needs. The more you interrupt the customer, the less likely he is to open up and keep providing you with the information you need.

Sometimes the customer simply wants to verbalize for himself what he and his organization needs. There's a certain psychology behind providing your customer with a solution that he himself just verbalized. Letting your customer be heard, repeating his words, and validating what you've heard are critical steps in the sales process. Don't rush the process by interrupting.

Don't Abandon Discovering

Just as it can be easy to rush the process, sales reps too often want to move too quickly from discovering to presenting. They want to show the customer that they know what she wants and that they have exactly the product for her. This is a mistake. It not only leaves the customer with the impression that the thing foremost in your mind is selling her a widget but also makes it difficult to build the kind of rapport that will lead to long-lasting relationships that improve sales over the long haul.

Asking the right questions and actively listening to the answers allows you to get a full picture of your customer's needs and priorities. Don't be afraid to dig deep here in order to gather quality information. Doing so not only proves that you are interested in your customer but also helps you hone your presentation so that you can tailor your solution to her precise needs. Rushing through the discovering process so that you can launch into your presentation too often leads to holes in your presentation or—worse yet—presenting the wrong solution altogether.

Top performers spend more time in the planning and discovering phases of the sales process than in presenting and closing. In fact, solid planning and thorough discovering builds momentum that naturally leads to a successful presentation and a profitable close.

The importance of the discovering phase of the sales process cannot be overemphasized. Discovering your customer's needs is a critical step in the sales process, because his needs are what drive buying opportunities. It is those needs that spark the motivation to purchase and provide the impetus to ultimately make a purchasing decision. Top-performing sales professionals understand that it is during this phase that they have a tremendous opportunity to continue to build rapport, understand their customer's needs and priorities, and discover the quality information that will allow them to tailor solutions that fit. Asking the right questions and actively listening to the answers are critical when it comes to discovering what your customer needs. Doing so also goes a long way in helping you become a trusted advisor—one whose insights into your customer make for a compelling presentation that accelerates the sales process and allows you to close more deals. We'll talk about presenting next, in Chapter 6.