Stop telling and start selling. Ask questions and then listen carefully.

By Michael Caron, President, Northbound Sales Training

In my business, I’m often asked, “What’s the biggest mistake salespeople make?” Of course, I tend to term them “opportunity areas” rather than “mistakes”.  Whatever you want to call them, the most common is the area of questioning. The second area that goes hand-in-hand with number one is the inability of typical sales professionals to quit talking and listen after they’ve asked great questions!

The average salesperson is high in the “D & I” of the DiSC personality assessment, which means that they are “dominant” and “influential”, they like to control their environment and generally, they love to talk (to learn more about the DiSC profile, send me an e-mail for a sample). While these are critical personality traits for a sales professional to possess, they can also be their Achilles heel. In a meeting with the prospect, they think that selling is best done by being the one who talks the most. Their best definition of communication is “taking turns talking”!

How many times have you encountered a salesperson when you’re the buyer and they did the classic, “Show up and throw up!”?

The shortest course on selling is “ask questions and shut up”. Good use of open ended, closed and probing questions allows you to accurately determine your prospect’s priorities, challenges and needs. How can you truly provide a solution, which is an overused word in sales these days, without knowing precisely what the problems are and where the opportunities are?

You should never go into a sales interaction without a list of well thought out questions. At Northbound, we’re hesitant to use the term “presentation” as it implies that the salesperson is “presenting” while the prospect carefully listens while it should be just the opposite.

Except for very small and simple sales, I strongly recommend you use a two step meeting selling process.  The first meeting, whether live or virtual, is used to uncover needs and is named the “Goal Aligned Sales Interview” for good reason.  You should be essentially “interviewing” the buyer to uncover problems, challenges and issues.

Problems lead to needs and needs lead us to the next phase of the sale which is the “Goal Aligned Presentation” meeting.  This is where you’ll be able to demonstrate to the buyer how you can solve the specific challenges uncovered in the previous meeting.

If you’re a sales leader, Northbound’s “Questions Are The Answer” workshop includes a solid skills building segment in this area. For more information or pricing, contact Michael Caron at [email protected] or 416.456.1440.