My entire sales career I’ve fit what Anthony describes as a commodity sales – this doesn’t mean there aren’t differentiators what it means is: “First, every client you call on already ahs a provider for what you sell. Second, most of your clients are not yet compelled to change.” (pg 159)
In fact I have been known to joke that selling IT hardware it would crack me up when a prospect would say “I already have a vendor” because duh they answered a phone so OBVIOUSLY they bought them from another vendor.
My book copy of Chapter 9: The One-Up Obligation to Proactively Compel Change is packed with highlights, underlies, and tabs.
I could go into the state of uncertainty in the sales sequence and dive deeply into the underlying idea that this is what stops people from changing… read the chapter, that is exactly what it’s about!
… if you’ve been putting it off (for some strange reason) order Elite Sales Strategies now!
I’m going to share 10 Critical Questions you need to figure out how to add to your sales discovery repertoire, of course tailor them to your voice and your prospects.
I also have a FIRM belief that you must ask a single question – listen to their answer – then ask relevant questions ABOUT their answer – then move on. Therefore I’ve taken the liberty of breaking Anthony’s questions down to fit that formula.
Understanding this is not a flow chart, but a list – intersperse the questions logically into your conversations:
- How much does this problem cost you in _______________? (choose the relevant lost revenue/profit/time/clients/extra work/etc)
- What impact is this having on your team?
- What has prevented you from making _____________ change in the past?
- What will we need to do to prepare your team to tackle this before it becomes a bigger problem?
- What concerns would you have if you were forced to change on someone else’s timeline?
- What problems would you expect?
- What would it mean to you and your team to reclaim the _________ being lost now?
- How different would your team’s day look without fighting __________ (insert problems)?
- Where would you want them to spend their time?
- Would it be worth _______ (insert time) of _______ (insert difficulty of the change) if at the end you would have eliminated ____________ (the problem)?