Five Principles to Crafting Better Questions
Aug 18, 2006 All About Selling, Books by Keith Rosen, Business Coaching, Cold Calling Tips, Executive Coaching, How To Close The Sale, How To Sell and Sales Tips, How to Manage Your Team, Insights in Business, Leadership Academy, Prospecting, Cold Calling and Networking, Sales Coaching, Sales Management, Selling Advice, Time Management Tips
Excerpt from The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Closing the Sale by Keith Rosen. Reprinted with permission by Alpha Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Release Date, January, 2007. Visit www.guidetoclosingthesale.com.
When asking a prospect questions, be sure that your questions succeed in achieving the following objectives.
1. Be direct and candid with your questioning and communication. Do not be vague or tiptoe around the subject or question. Make the question clear, focused, direct and concise.
2. Make sure that your questions open up new possibilities, ideas and opportunities in the mind of the prospect that they never considered. Do they enable the prospect to see a new and better solution and envision more measurable worthwhile results, based on the information that you have provided?
3. Have the prospect draw from previous purchasing experiences to determine their buying habits, wants, priorities, and needs.
4. Learn to question what is said and what is not said. Never prejudge a prospect until you have the evidence to support your assumptions. Utilize questions until you are satisfied with the response.
5. Use questions to achieve mindshare and agreement as well as to gracefully uncover and correct the inaccuracies and misperceptions which they my have about your product or service.
Stop Pre-Judging and Start Pre-Qualifying Your Prospects
Aug 18, 2006 All About Selling, Books by Keith Rosen, Business Coaching, Clients are fun. Case Studies in Sales and Leaders..., Cold Calling Tips, Executive Coaching, Experiences in Marketing, How To Close The Sale, How To Sell and Sales Tips, How to Manage Your Team, Insights in Business, Leadership Academy, Life Coaching and Career Coaching, Live Responsibly: Life Tips, Great Living, Prospecting, Cold Calling and Networking, Sales Coaching, Sales Management, Selling Advice, Time Management Tips
Excerpt from The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Closing the Sale by Keith Rosen. Reprinted with permission by Alpha Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Release Date, January, 2007. Visit www.guidetoclosingthesale.com.
To permanently eliminate any confusion, lets draw a distinction between what it means to pre-qualify and pre-judge someone such as a prospect. If you read my cold calling book, you know that I’m a strong advocate of pre-qualifying anyone before you invest your very limited and precious time in meeting with or speaking with them. Conversely, pre-judging someone is something you do that shows up in the filter or barrier you have in your listening.
Here’s another way to distinguish between the two. When you are pre-qualifying someone you are arriving at a conclusion that determines whether or not there’s a fit worth pursuing based on a defined set of criteria you uncover through the use of well crafted questions.
Pre-judging said simply, is all about you. Here, you are relying on your faulty and costly assumptions, thoughts and beliefs to determine their needs and whether or not this prospect will potentially buy from you.
When you pre-judge someone you’re making assumptions about them before you ask any questions or uncover any facts.
When you pre-qualify someone, you’re asking questions to uncover their unique and specific needs without making any assumptions so that you can determine very quickly if there is in fact, an authentic fit worth pursuing.
When On A Sales Call – People Do What Makes Them Comfortable
Aug 11, 2006 All About Selling, Books by Keith Rosen, Clients are fun. Case Studies in Sales and Leaders..., Insights in Business, Live Responsibly: Life Tips, Great Living, Prospecting, Cold Calling and Networking
People Do What Makes Them Comfortable
When it comes to making a purchase, people do what makes them comfortable, rather than what makes the salesperson comfortable. Now, that doesn’t mean they are comfortable with the solution or even want to spend the money and make the purchase. (Just ask anyone who had a flood in their basement and needed to spend thousands of dollars investing in a waterproofing system for their home.) However, it does mean they have a level of trust and comfort in the salesperson, the sales process and the solution.
I remember something that my daughter did one day when she was five years old. We were getting ready to leave the playground on a chilly fall afternoon. She stood next to me, as I opened the car door.
Suddenly, she said, “Dad, I don’t feel well. My tummy hurts.” A few seconds later, she put her head in the car and puked all over her car seat and the car floor. Of course, my first reaction was, “Honey, are you okay?” She responded, “Yes, dad, much better. I think it was something I ate.”
Once I knew she was fine, I then had to ask her, curiously, “Baby, why didn’t you just put your head down and puke right in the street outside the car rather than inside it? Her response; “Oh daddy, it’s too cold outside. It’s much warmer in the car.” Starting at a very early age, people do what makes them comfortable.
Site Launched for New Book; Guide to Closing The Sale
Aug 4, 2006 All About Selling, Books by Keith Rosen, Clients are fun. Case Studies in Sales and Leaders..., Experiences in Marketing, Insights in Business, Leadership Academy, Live Responsibly: Life Tips, Great Living, Prospecting, Cold Calling and Networking
Just put the final touches on the site for my next book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Closing the Sale.
Talk about taking one subject many people struggle with and levitating it with what always seems to be a controvertial title (the “Idiot’s” portion of the title, at least). Lighten up. Your customers and prospects are.
I hope you enjoy Chapter One as well as the Introduction, which I’ve currently posted on this site and will be available only for a limited time. Wait until you get your hands on some of the techniques in this book. It doesn’t matter if you’re a sales veteran, top producer, new salesperson, manager or business owner, this book is packed with step by step and line by line Permission Based Selling and Presentation Strategies which I guarantee will bring in more sales for you.
So, feel free to visit the site. I’d also love to hear your comments as well! And if you haven’t already make sure you get my monthly ezine which will also keep you posted on other resources available only to those who know.
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