Don’t just wing your sales calls. You need to ask good questions to have a positive sales call. It’s not just about breaking the ice and diving in, you need to really understand why the prospect decided to come to the call and what their real needs are. Once you’ve done that, you can present how you can help them.
The flow of a sales call is…
- Understand where they are
- Understand where they want to be
- Understand priorities and plans
- Summarise their position
- Make your offer
- Discuss and respond to questions
- Agree next steps
Here are 9 conversational questions you can use:
- What prompted to book / enquire, what was it that caught your interest?
- What challenges are you having in respect to that?
- What’s the impact of these challenges?
- What specific goals or outcomes are you looking to achieve?
- What’s the most important outcome you want to achieve in your timeline?
- Have you previously implemented a similar solution? If so, what worked well and what didn’t?
- On your to-do list right now, how big of a priority is this?
- What is your timeline to achieve it?
- Do you have a budget in mind for the right solution that fits what you need?
You always want to know what the client wants to achieve AND what is holding them back. It’s not good enough just to know what they want, you need to know the obstacles or frustrations they have had to achieve that already.
Often prospects come to calls saying their needs are X but when you have a good conversation and ask questions, they realise Y is more important for them.
Then you can tailor your offer and demonstrate how it can relieve the pain and get them the outcome they desire.
The insane thing is, if you help them understand their challenge and goals better, they will trust you more. If they see you have taken the time to understand their position, they will believe in your solution more.
I’ll add one final point on questions for sales calls, always ask what the next steps are and how and when is best to follow up.
If this is helpful, give it a share 😉