Sales questions that are well thought-out can help you obtain a better understanding of what is happening in your customer’s life. They can help you establish rapport with them, figure out what they need, comprehend what is important to them, and assist them in envisioning a brighter future.
They help you change the way buyers think and what they believe is possible. This allows you to make progress in the sale and avoid any issues that could cause problems.
Here are some powerful sales questions that will help you build rapport, understand what the buyer wants and needs, and close the sale.
Sales questions to develop rapport
What did you do last weekend?
Asking your buyer questions about their hobbies and activities outside of work shows that you are interested in them as a person, and not just as a customer. This can help build a rapport and create a more friendly relationship. Additionally, understanding your buyer’s hobbies and interests can give you insight into what matters to them, helping you to better tailor your sales pitch.
What’s going on in your business these days?
Asking buyers about their business in general is a good way to get ideas for cross-selling and up-selling later. It also shows buyers that you care about their business and want to learn more about it.
Since the [industry event], how have things changed in your business?
Questions that demonstrate your familiarity with the buyer’s business show that you are interested in more than just the work they do.
I was wondering if you could tell me more about your background? I only heard the short version at the meeting, and I’m interested in hearing the whole story?
Many people enjoy discussing themselves and their lives. If you’ve already given a broad overview of who you are, asking for more details shows that you’re truly interested in learning more about the person (but only if you ask sincerely).
Sales questions to discover aspirations and afflictions
If, at the end of this hour, you looked back and thought ‘that was an hour well spent’ what would we have covered?
One way to ensure that a meeting will be effective is to make sure that it covers what is important to the person you are meeting with. Additionally, focusing on what the person wants to achieve and what their challenges are will help to ensure that the meeting is focused on topics that are relevant.
What is preventing this technology/service/product/situation/issue from working for you at this time?
Many buyers are willing to talk to sellers because something they’re doing or using right now isn’t working for them. It’s important for sellers to know what they are up against.
How are A, B, and C affecting you? What are your thoughts on these areas?
Asking open-ended questions is a great way to show your expertise and industry credibility, as well as getting the buyer to think about their challenges in a different way. By asking specific questions, you can show that you know the area well.
Have you defined your ideal buyer profile?
The main thing that decreases sales efficiency for small businesses is when they try to please everyone. If every potential customer is very different, then every sales technique will be different as well. While it’s not bad to have various types of customers, it’s very hard to create a sales process and marketing campaign that would work for all of them simultaneously. It’s best to focus on one type of customer at a time.
Consider these questions as you define your personas:
- Do you have a document that describes your ideal buyer?
- Do you define characteristics of your ideal buyer like company size and industry?
- Does it include other firmographic information that might be unique to your typical buyer?
- If you sell larger deals to B2B companies and have multiple contacts you approach when selling your service, what are their typical titles and departments?
- What else is unique about them? Are they usually male or female, junior or senior, managers or individual contributors?
Do you have a sales process?
I’ve seen many companies not have a sales process and this is the second most common mistake. Having a sales process is important because it helps to outline the similar steps that need to happen in most sales pursuits. This makes it easier to manage and monitor the process overall.
Here are some questions to consider when you are building your process:
- Have you defined the different types of sales calls you normally have at different stages of a prospect’s buying process?
- Do you have a prospecting process for getting prospects on the phone that involves researching them using email, voicemail, and social?
- Do you have a process for identifying their goals and priorities?
- Do you have a process for ensuring you can help them and get their buy-in to do so?
- Do you have a standard method (such as a presentation, demonstration, or contract) that lays out a typical agreement?
- Do you have a process for getting buy-in on contract details?
- Do you have a process for helping your new clients or customers take advantage of your services?
- Do you have a process for managing your existing accounts?
Is your sales process documented?
If a process isn’t documented, it isn’t a process. To make your process scalable, you need to create documents that describe how to run each call in your sales process, as well as what happens before and afterwards. When selling to new accounts, have you defined the questions you usually ask, when to tell what stories, and the criteria that must be met to move a deal from one stage to the next?
If you want to keep track of your sales process and be able to change it as needed, using an internal wiki or Google Docs is a good option. Google Docs is especially helpful because others can log in, leave comments, suggest edits, and ask questions.
It is beneficial to have a sales process that is able to be updated in real time without losing track of any revisions. This is because your team will constantly be finding new ways to approach and acquire customers and your process should change to reflect these improvements. Additionally, your marketing campaigns, product and service capabilities, and competitive landscape are all likely to change over time as well.
Do you have an efficient way for identifying best-fit leads?
Find companies that match your ideal buyer profile and prioritize those leads. Attract the right contacts via inbound marketing. After inbound marketing, small businesses report networking, referrals, and word-of-mouth as their best sources of qualified leads. Lastly, use data sources to find companies that match your profile.
Do you have an efficient system for researching your leads before you reach out?
Once you identify potential leads, begin research on the companies and contacts you wish to approach.
If someone came to your website as an inbound lead, look at what brought them there and what content they read. That content is an indicator of what they’re interested in, making it a good starting point for your first outreach. If they are not a warm lead, do some research before trying to sell to them.
Do you make up your voicemail script as you leave it?
If not, you should. When you’re reaching out to prospects by phone and get their voicemail, it is beneficial to have a script for leaving a voicemail that is tailored to the type of company and the contact you’re calling. This voicemail should incorporate your research and avoid talking about yourself. It is also helpful to practice this voicemail, record it and review it with others.
Do you write emails from scratch every time you pursue a new prospect?
Since it is unlikely that you will be able to connect with potential customers over the phone, you should have a few email templates created that you can quickly personalize and send. Make sure that you base your email templates on the research that you have gathered.
Do you have a system that reminds you when to follow up with a prospect who hasn’t returned your email or voicemail?
Can you create a task to follow up with a prospect once you’ve reached out to them? It’s important to follow up with prospects, since they may not respond to your first few emails or voicemails.
Have you created at least five email templates and voicemail scripts that you can use in a sequence?
Would you like to be able to send different messages to individual prospects, depending on what might resonate with them? It can be helpful to create a few different templates for yourself, which you can then schedule to send at different times.
Do you have multiple sets of email and voicemail sequences to use for target accounts?
Don’t give up on a company you think you can help just because you’ve been rejected a few times. Keep trying different approaches and doing your research until you find the right fit.
For these opportunities that are most likely bigger deals with bigger companies, make sure you have messaging tailored to different roles. If you haven’t been successful in reaching multiple contacts, devise another set of sequenced emails to use that are customized to the different interests most likely to grab their attention. If your first try didn’t work, don’t give up!
Do you have a plan for who you’re going to call each day or are you calling random contacts at random times?
Sales organizations’ use of call technology has not progressed as quickly as the technology itself has. Many salespeople still manually queue up their next call after each previous call, rather than using the available technology to automate the process.
Salespeople who are the most efficient block off time to make calls. They make a list of prospects to call so that they can use their phone time wisely. When you’re watching TV or sorting through emails, add prospects to a list for the next day’s calling.
Are you manually taking notes during phone calls?
While some salespeople still use a paper and pen during phone calls, it is not the most effective method. When selling face-to-face, taking notes with a paper and pen is the right way to go. However, when on the phone, it is only good for capturing a few highlights. It takes too much time and focus to handwrite notes, and it is also slower than other methods.
Do you have canonical documents you can use during multiple sales processes?
As you near the end of your sales process and begin demonstrating your capabilities, finalizing scope, and addressing any last-minute concerns, documents will become increasingly useful. Later stages of the sales process, when prospects request static information like product pricing or case studies, will be easier to manage if you have a stockpile of content to refer to.
Your team can access your content via HubSpot Sales and see when specific prospects read or share it.
Sales questions to demonstrate impact
If you could overcome these challenges, what would happen to your company’s financial situation?
If you want the buyer to see the impact of working with you, get them to quantify it themselves. Instead of telling them that you can save them $250,000 on average, let them do the math and see how it would affect their business.
If you were to make this happen, what would it mean for you on a personal level?
The more invested the buyer is in your project succeeding, the more likely they are to support you. Helping the buyer look good will also get you more buy-in. For example, if your project will help the buyer get promoted, they will be more likely to back you up.
If you implemented these changes, how would it affect your competitiveness in the market?
Your project might help the company to increase its market share, become more profitable than its competitors, or be more innovative in its market. Whatever the benefits of your project are, you need your buyer to be able to explain how working with you will give them an advantage over their competition.
Sales questions to define new reality
If you were to wave a magic wand to make it 3 years from now and this all works out, how will things be different?
If you are only a small part of an organization’s three-year plan, it is still beneficial to have an understanding of the entire plan. This way, you can not only get your buyer excited about the possibilities, but also see where else you might be able to work together.
You said that you’re not happy with your current provider. If we become your new provider, what do you hope will change?
You will want to know what is not currently working in order to be different/better than the incumbent, especially when trying to unseat them. This will also give you an indication of the buyer’s expectations.
Continuous sales process improvement crushes competition
Sometimes all you need to do is ask a question, and the buyer will share all the information you need to help them. However, more often you will need to ask several questions. Make sure not to ask too many questions, as this will make the buyer feel as if they are on the witness stand.
All businesses need a constant stream of new customers to stay afloat. Companies that are good at acquiring new customers don’t just luck into it– they’ve created a system on purpose, and they’re always measuring themselves against other similar companies and their competition. Their commitment to making improvements helps them get more clients efficiently and beat out their competition.