Questioning Skills
What’s Your Prospect’s Story?
SALES PROFESSIONALS often use the phrase, “Find the prospect’s pain.” The idea is that if the salesperson can uncover the prospect’s business challenges, there is a much greater chance of the prospect writing them a check to resolve them.
Studies support that point of view. Neil Rackham, author of bestselling books such as SPIN Selling (McGraw-Hill, 1988) and Major Account Selling (McGraw-Hill, 1989), has done extensive research on why prospects buy. His investigation shows that close ratios increase as much as 50 percent when salespeople discover the prospect’s pain and then discuss its impact or implications with the prospect.
There are also hundreds of sales books, blogs, and articles that teach salespeople to ask questions and probe in order to find this thing called “pain.” So we go back to some age-old questions: Why do so many salespeople launch into presenting solutions too soon and too often before asking enough questions to diagnose the root cause of the prospect’s problem? Why are salespeople more interested in telling their story than in learning their prospect’s story?
Many of us have seen this preference in action, having either witnessed or been the victim of a “verbal assault” from a salesperson upon the first mention of a business challenge. This is when the salesperson moves into “sales attack” mode. She does little or no probing to learn the prospect’s story. She does not ask enough questions to understand how the problem is affecting the prospect. She does, however, do a lot of product dumping and pitching. The prospect—“the victim”—gets stuck hearing another canned and premature sales pitch that doesn’t address his real concerns.
When the prospect is unable to get any satisfaction from meeting with the salesperson, he moves on to try to conduct his due diligence with two other salespeople. Unfortunately, they have all graduated from the same school of selling: SAU, Sales Attack University. Everyone looks and sounds the same. Each salesperson adamantly asserts that his or her company offers the best quality, service, and expertise. And each salesperson assures the prospect that their company is all about relationships and customer care. How is a prospect supposed to choose? The only real differentiator seems to be price, so the prospect buys from the low-price provider.
The salesperson who loses then complains to her sales manager or CEO: “If we had better pricing, I could win more business.” Some companies accept this excuse and lower their prices, only to discover that cheaper pricing doesn’t help close more business. It only takes first place in the race to zero margins. Other companies focus only on selling skills. (Yes, you know where we are headed.) They review the importance of asking questions and throw out lots of tired rhetoric such as, “God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason.” Salespeople nod in agreement and commit to do what seems fairly simple: ask questions, talk less, and listen more.
The above approaches are well intended, but they are ineffective because they don’t get to the bottom of why salespeople aren’t asking enough questions and are offering solutions too soon.
Emotional intelligence skills such as impulse control, emotional self-awareness, problem solving, and empathy can play a huge role in conducting a consultative, value-driven sales meeting that will uncover a prospect’s true pain. Let’s take a closer look at how these skills help salespeople ask more questions, learn their prospect’s story, and eliminate premature solutions.
Impulse control is an emotional intelligence skill that affects a salesperson’s ability to ask questions and listen to the answers. It’s the ability to resist or delay an impulse or temptation to act. A successful salesperson possesses good impulse control. He patiently asks qualifying questions and tough questions. He’s not in a hurry to show the prospect how smart he is by offering up solutions too early in the sales process.
Together, he and the prospect identify the problem, discuss its implications, and commit to fixing the challenge. He is good at listening before he leaps. As a result, he is closing business at full margin because he has invested the time to uncover the key decision criteria.
Salespeople who don’t fit this description tend to leap before they listen. They are impatient. When a prospect shares a problem, the low-impulse-control salesperson puts on her solution cape and leaps into prescribing fixes. This isn’t her first time hearing this particular problem, and since her company helps clients solve the same or similar issues every day, she invests little time—and sometimes no time at all—in asking questions that can uncover the financial and strategic impact of the problem to the prospect and/or the organization.
The ability to control our impulse to present solutions is linked to our emotional self-awareness. Salespeople who take time to reflect and review their actions during a sales meeting may discover they are falling into the common trap of “buying the buying signal.” Many salespeople are coached to listen for buying signals. These signals are pains that a prospect shares with the salesperson during a meeting. The problem is that salespeople get excited. They “buy the buying signal” without any evidence that the prospect’s problem is real enough or big enough to fix. They aren’t ever sure if the prospect is committed to investing time and money in making necessary changes.
When prospects make statements like, “We need to fix this service problem” or “We’ve got to improve in order to stay ahead of our competitors,” they open the door for us to allow our emotions to take over. It’s easy to get sloppy executing our sales process. We don’t ask enough questions, the right questions, or the tough questions. In order to stop our clients from “buying the buying” signal, we teach them how to use the 3Ws formula. When a prospect shares a pain or problem, you can slow yourself down by asking the following questions.
The First W: WHY
The first question to ask is: Why is this a problem? You probably don’t know. You may be able to guess based on meetings with other prospects, but that’s all you are doing. You can make assumptions, but that is not an effective approach to closing business. For example, in our business, a prospect might share with us that she is having trouble finding good salespeople. That statement doesn’t tell us why selection and hiring is a problem. Is turnover costing her business? Does she need to grow the company to attract investors? Each prospect’s “why” is different even though the problem sounds the same.
The next question attempts to uncover the current impact of the problem. What is the impact to the organization? Is the company losing customers? Is this problem affecting the company’s reputation? Is the company spending too many hours paying staff overtime in an effort to address the problem? There are specific answers you want to uncover by asking specific impact questions such as: What is the financial impact to the prospect? (How much is this problem costing the customer?) What is the strategic impact to the prospect? (Are they unable to grow in a particular niche? Is the problem affecting global expansion?) And what is the personal impact? (Is your prospect under increasing scrutiny to perform? Is her job in jeopardy?)
When you uncover the answers to these questions, price-shopping conversations begin to go away because you help the prospect discover the cost of doing business as usual or doing nothing.
The Third W: WHAT?
The third question is also a what?—and it carries the previous “what?”s to a new (and possibly not-thought-about) level. An impact question with spin! What is the future impact for this prospect if they don’t solve this problem? Will it get bigger? How much bigger will it be a year from now? Will it become the problem that brings them down?
Here’s a short example of using the 3Ws sales approach.
PROSPECT: “We need to get more aggressive with our marketing strategy because we’re losing business to our competition.”
SALESPERSON: “That has to be frustrating. What’s not working with your current marketing? What’s not happening that you’d like to see happen?” (WHY is their marketing strategy a problem?)
PROSPECT: “Well, we’re generating plenty of opportunities. They’re just the wrong type of opportunities.”
SALESPERSON: “What is it costing your organization by not attracting the right type of prospects? Are you selling smaller deals? Are you being forced to lower your prices because you’re not attracting prospects that buy on value?” (WHAT is the financial impact of this problem?)
PROSPECT: “We’re actually selling large deals. The problem is that they are sold at low margin. We need at least a 30 percent margin and we’re closer to 15 percent.”
SALESPERSON: “What happens if you don’t address this issue?” (WHAT is the future impact to your company if you decide to live with the status quo?)
PROSPECT: “We’re going to have to lay off people and I don’t want to do that. I have some great people working here. Layoffs would also force me to work even longer hours than I already am.” (Personal impact is uncovered.)
The 3Ws formula helps you ask questions that define the real problem and the associated implications of not solving it. The process makes your prospects think through their unique needs and answer tough questions that don’t necessarily have easy answers. Control your impulse to tell and solve. Ask more and talk less.
Case Study
One of our IT consulting clients did a good job applying the 3Ws formula. When our client met with the CIO of a rapidly growing firm, they first discussed the various problems his IT department was facing, one of which was that highly paid personnel were buried handling the day-to-day minutia of employees’ complaints. It would have been easy for the sales team to assume to know why this was an issue. Instead of assuming, however, they asked the CIO to explain why this issue was a problem for him. He explained that his team wasn’t getting to the “whiteboard” projects, the strategic projects. Once they understood the CIO’s why, the team asked impact questions that helped the CIO recognize the financial impact of the problem. Together, they calculated the number of hours being spent each month on internal issues and the associated payroll costs. Finally, questions were asked around future pain. What will happen to his organization if strategic initiatives continue to be ignored because his team is always in firefighting mode? The prospect came to the realization that the company would lose clients and fall behind their competitors, seriously compromising their ability to attract and close new opportunities.
The 3Ws formula paid off as the CIO made the decision to outsource some of his IT functions to my client, landing them a $250,000 project.
Make Your Prospect’s Brain Hurt
Several years ago, a client of mine called me and asked if I could facilitate an offsite retreat. I decided, based on the client’s retreat objectives, that a facilitator who specialized in strategic management consulting would be a better choice. I referred my client to one of my colleagues and followed up with her a few days later to ask how the appointment had gone. There was a long pause (which is never a good sign), after which she replied, “It was fine.” But upon further questioning, she shared her disappointment:
“Colleen, I don’t mind meeting with salespeople and consultants. However, I do mind wasting my time. When I meet with someone, I expect the person to ask good questions. The type of questions that make my brain hurt. Your colleague did neither.” Needless to say, my colleague wasn’t hired.
My client summed up nicely what busy prospects are looking for in salespeople and consultants. They want their thinking and the way they do business challenged. They have enough “yes” people in their lives and don’t want or need another run-of-the-mill, safe, howdy meeting.
Here are a few other questions, in addition to the 3Ws, that might help you conduct hurt-my-brain conversations:
Who loses their job if this problem doesn’t go away?
Are you looking for a quick fix or a game changer?
If you lose market share, how tough is it going to be to win it back from your competitor?
What is the cost of doing nothing? Is your biggest competitor sitting back doing nothing or are they getting more aggressive?
Who’s going to get in the way of the change that needs to happen?
How would you rate your organization on accountability and execution?
Good salespeople make their prospects think and look at their business issues in a different light. They don’t worry about asking the tough questions because they know good prospects appreciate salespeople that make their brains hurt.
The profession of sales involves a lot of psychology. Psychologists are trained to recognize that a problem presented by a patient is usually not the real problem. For example, a person sets an appointment with a psychologist because he is depressed. That is the presenting problem, but it’s not the real issue.
Once the psychologist starts asking questions, she and the patient discover that the depression is caused by the patient’s inability to deal with conflict. Now that the psychologist knows the real problem, she can work on the right solution: improving her patient’s conflict management skills.
The same scenario occurs in sales. The problem presented by your prospect is often not the real problem. Good salespeople recognize this and apply their problem-solving skills to uncover the real issue. Problem solving is the ability to find solutions to problems where emotions are involved. (And if you are calling on a prospect with a real challenge, there is emotion associated with the issue.) It requires being disciplined and methodical in asking good questions and smart questions instead of letting your emotions take over and start presenting solutions too soon. This disciplined approach of asking questions helps you look at the “presenting problem” from all angles in order to diagnose the real pain.
Then, when it does come time to make a recommendation, your solution is right on target because you took the time to uncover the real issues and challenges.
Here’s an example from our business. We often hear, “My sales team is not prospecting. We need help.” It would be very easy for us to ask a few questions and go into solution mode. Instead, we move beyond the presenting problem, apply our problem-solving skills, and ask three questions to uncover the real “pain”:
1. “Is your team not prospecting or are they not prospecting effectively?” The sales team might actually be working very hard. The real problem may be the lack of specific sales skills: they don’t know how to effectively ask for referrals. The solution isn’t about making the team work harder, it’s about helping them work smarter.
2. “Do you have the right people on your team?” No amount of sales training is going to help if you have a team of unmotivated salespeople. This prospect might have a hiring problem, not a prospecting problem. The better solution might be to help them install a more effective hiring and selection process.
3. “What accountability and tracking systems do you have in place?” If there isn’t any measurement happening, it might be better for this prospect to invest in sales management training instead of prospecting training for the team. Lack of accountability is a leadership issue, not a sales issue.
You can improve your ability to learn your prospect’s underlying problem. Apply the soft skill of problem solving. A systematic approach to asking effective questions helps you look at business challenges from all perspectives. Better questions produce better solutions.
Determine the Commitment to Change
It’s not enough to learn about a client’s pain. In order to save yourself valuable time, you also need to know how committed the client is to curing that pain. We teach our clients not to believe their prospects—nicely.
This doesn’t mean your prospects are lying. It simply means that salespeople must get better at gathering evidence to see how serious their prospects are about making a change. We have seen more than one salesperson “buy the buying signal” and write up a proposal, only to have the prospect say, “We’ve put this on the back burner.” That response happens because the salesperson didn’t ask the tough questions during the meeting to really determine whether or not the prospect was serious about changing or improving.
Have you ever told a friend that you want to lose weight, eat better, and get more sleep? And are you still thinking about but not using that treadmill in the basement? Are you still buying potato chips, hoping that somehow they are part of one of the four major food groups? And are you continuing to watch late-night shows and waking up tired to an early-morning alarm?
So, were you lying to your friend when you shared your goals for better health? No, you simply stated a want without any indicator or evidence of commitment to change.
Your prospects aren’t any different. Many share a want or desire and as a result, salespeople believe they have a qualified prospect. They get excited and don’t ask further questions to determine the prospect’s commitment level to achieving the want or eliminating the pain.
Again, psychologists understand this principle well. A good psychologist knows she cannot prescribe any solution to a problem until the patient shows a commitment to changing his behavior and actions. Let’s look at an example of what happens when a doctor gets impatient, doesn’t conduct a diagnostic meeting, and prescribes a solution too soon.
A patient sets up an appointment with the psychologist. The doctor asks, “What brings you in today?” The patient immediately launches into his problems. “Well, doctor, I have an anger management issue. I came home yesterday and kicked my dog because I had a bad day at work. Then, I sat down and drank a quart of Jack Daniels while eating a giant bag of chips. I fell asleep on the couch and woke up with a terrible crick in my neck and had another lousy day at work.”
The psychologist is eager to share her expertise. This is not the first time she has heard these issues. “Bob, let’s deal with one problem at a time. First, here is the number of a good vet. He can help you get your dog taken care of. Next, let me give you the number of the local AA group. They meet at 9 a.m. every Monday and Wednesday. And you’re in luck, because right after that meeting, Weight Watchers meets, so you can attend that right after the AA meeting. I think that should take care of your dog, binge drinking, and overeating. Any questions?”
Is Bob really going to make any long-term changes in his life? No, because the psychologist went into solution mode instead of asking questions. She didn’t ask the tough questions to determine how committed this patient is to changing behaviors.
Now, returning to the sales world, let’s say a prospect shares a problem with you, such as, “We are having quality issues from our existing vendor. We need to make a change.” The effective salesperson manages her emotions and recognizes that the prospect simply made a statement, not a commitment to change. She doesn’t believe, and—nicely—asks more questions to test whether or not she has a suspect or prospect.
“You’ve had a relationship with this vendor for ten years. Is this quality problem big enough to discontinue that relationship? How committed is the company to getting this issue fixed?” A good salesperson makes that prospect prove to her that there is a commitment to change prior to writing up any recommendations.
Get into the right mindset and don’t believe—nicely. It helps you manage your emotions and ask good qualifying questions that uncover the prospect’s commitment to change. As strange as it may sound, some prospects just like to meet with salespeople to vent and whine. Don’t confuse complaints with commitment to invest and improve.
Another reason salespeople don’t ask enough questions during a sales meeting is because the prospect evokes a flight-or-flight response by stating an objection. The salesperson starts reacting and questioning shuts down and information spewing starts up. Here are a few examples that can trigger fight-or-flight responses in salespeople.
PROSPECT: “I don’t know if one company has all the answers.”
SALESPERSON: “Well, our company has a deep bench of experts. We’ve been in business for over 50 years and blah, blah, blah.” (The salesperson is going into defend-and-justify mode and is “fighting” for the sale.)
PROSPECT: “We’re not sure the timing is right to move forward on this project.”
SALESPERSON: “Okay, I’ll give you a call back in a couple of weeks.” (The salesperson went into flight mode, putting the prospect in the pipeline for future follow-up. She didn’t ask a key qualifying question, “Is there ever going to be a good time?”)
The astute salesperson recognizes the potential trigger and manages her emotions by applying a skill we call “agree and align.” When a prospect states an objection, avoid the natural response, which is to push back. Instead, agree with the prospect and validate his position. When you agree and validate, there is nothing to trigger a fight-or-flight response.
Aligning and agreeing is a form of “pattern interrupt,” another communication tool from the world of neurolinguistic programming. It’s often used during sales meetings to disarm both you and the prospect’s knee-jerk defense mechanisms and programmed responses. It’s doing the opposite of what the prospect is expecting you to do. And it helps you change your response as well. Instead of slipping into fight-or-flight mode, you set the stage for further conversation and questions. Let’s see how this skill changes the dynamics of a sales conversation:
PROSPECT: “I don’t know if one company has all the answers.”
AGREE: “You know, I’ve got to agree with you. I don’t know if our company has all the answers either. Let’s talk about specific answers you’re looking for. Then we should be able to see if our organization has the right solutions or not.”
PROSPECT: “We’re not sure the timing is right to move forward on this project.”
AGREE: “It may not be the right time. Why don’t we look further at the pros and cons of delaying the project? Then you and I can determine what’s best for your organization.”
Empathy and self-awareness are important in executing this powerful selling skill. First, you must recognize when you are going into fight-or-flight mode. Then you need to put on the empathy hat and step into your prospect’s shoes. When you put on the empathy hat, it is easy to agree with and validate the prospect’s position—because of your sincere desire to know where their thoughts and perceptions are coming from.
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman shared these words of wisdom with the graduating class of Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts:
You can get away with really disagreeing with people as long as you show them the respect of really listening to what they have to say and taking into account when and if it makes sense. It’s amazing how you can diffuse a whole roomful of angry people by just stating your answer to a question with the phrase, “You’re making a legitimate point” or “I hear what you say” and really mean it. Never underestimate how much people just want to feel that they have been heard, and once you have given them that chance they will hear you.
There is no need to do combat with prospects and customers. Do the opposite of what they expect and validate their position. When people feel heard, they respond by lowering their defenses and engaging in conversation. It helps you ask more questions, learn their story, and discover what’s really important to them.
Action Steps for Improving Your Questioning Skills
The inability to effectively ask questions and listen is probably the number one weakness of most sales professionals we work with. Due to these underdeveloped skills, salespeople often fail to uncover a prospect’s true pain, and as a result they talk too much, write unqualified proposals, or get beat on price. There are four steps you can take to elevate your questioning skills and increase your income:
1. Evaluate how you set up your sales meetings.
2. Ask, don’t tell.
3. Test the commitment to change.
4. Learn your prospect’s story.
Step #1: Evaluate How You Set Up Your Sales Meetings
Review Chapter 5 and make sure you are setting up your sales meetings for a consultation, not a product dump. If you don’t set clear expectations that you will be asking numerous questions in order to better understand the prospect’s situation, none of what you learned in this chapter can be applied. There is a good chance that the prospect will push you into that not-so-nice place of prescribing before you have had a chance to fully diagnose his problem.
Step #2: Ask, Don’t Tell
After each meeting, draw a circle and divide it into the time that you spent talking and the time the prospect talked. If you have a bigger piece of the pie, admit that you probably did more telling than asking, possibly boring the heck out of your prospects. And you didn’t learn the prospect’s story.
Analyze and determine what made you take over the meeting. What trigger caused your lips to start moving and your ears to quit listening:
Did you lack patience and just want to get to the solution?
Did you believe too quickly without gathering evidence for change?
Did you go into fight-or-flight mode?
Once you figure out the trigger, put a strategy in place to stop the natural response to that trigger and correct your course. Ask yourself the 3Ws: Do I really know WHY this was a problem for this prospect? Do I know WHAT the current impact of the problem is for this prospect? Do I know WHAT the future impact is if the prospect doesn’t get this problem fixed?
Manage your fight-or-flight reactions and realize that objections aren’t a bad thing. In fact, it’s better to have prospects who are willing to state concerns. It means they are trying to be open with you rather than hiding objections that you will never know about, and thus will never have a chance to thoroughly explore and discuss.
Step #3: Test the Commitment to Change
Good salespeople work only on the best-qualified opportunities. They are comfortable asking the prospect about their commitment level to solving an issue or challenge. Without such commitment, there isn’t a reason to move forward in the sales process.
Ask this qualifying question during your meeting: “Mr. Prospect, all companies have a lot of competing priorities. Where is getting this problem solved on your priority list, on a scale of one to ten?” If the prospect responds with a five, it might be time to stop the engagement because the problem might be a nice-to-solve issue rather than a need-to-solve issue. Business is a two-way street. You have the right to work only with prospects that are serious about changing and improving.
Step #4: Learn Your Prospect’s Story
Think how important it makes you feel when people want to learn more about you and your goals. Your prospects are just like you. Set up your next sales meeting with the sole intent of learning your prospect’s story. When you sit down with a prospect, pretend you are charged with writing her autobiography. Gather facts, data, and personal stories. Don’t be in a hurry to write the last chapter.
Former President Calvin Coolidge sums up this chapter nicely: “No man ever listened himself out of a job.”