Every day countless sales are lost because salespeople blurt out simple answers to what they mistakenly see as simple customer questions. The fact is that many customer questions, if answered immediately, will derail the sale. When answering questions, you can be throw your presentation out of your planned sequence. We talked a lot about this idea that answering a question with a question can help. Whenever you suspect that there may be more to a customer’s question than meets the eye (and you should suspect this often), probe for booby traps by answering the question with a question. You’ll rescue a whole lot of sales.
Here is an example of doing this sales technique properly
Buyer: “Now, if we go with you, how would you handle shipping to our plant?”
You: “You tell me, Carol. What’s your preferred method?”
Buyer: “We’re happy with the service we get now from Ameritruck. They’re a good outfit.”
You: “Have you ever used United Cartways?””
Buyer: “Oh, yeah. Never again! Their service was awful. They gave us fits.”
You: “What do you like best about Ameritruck?””
Buyer: “They’re always on time, and they’re excellent at tracking shipments. Dependable delivery is critical for us.”
You: “Well then, let’s plan to use Ameritruck. Okay?”
Buyer: “Okay!”
BoweryJE22
I do see the value in answering questions with questions. I keeps the power in your zone and allows you to extract more info from the person. However the what we did in class seemed way over the top.
This is a great example of how answering a question directly could unintentionally harm your sale. Had you answered directly, you could’ve lost the customer without even realizing it.
this rule is really hard. as people who generally care about our customer if they ask us a question it’s so natural to want to help them and answer it but that isn’t the best as you mentioned
This is something that I really need to work on. Especially because when I am not thinking about it, I can ramble on when someone asks me a question, and talk about stuff they never even asked. Answering a question with a question allows for controlling the tempo of the conversation.