Opening Budget Questions

On Monday Professor Sweet opened up class with the topic of “Opening Budget Questions.” Personally, I have never heard of opening budget questions and decided to pay a little more attention than I normally in class, I say that facetiously. Here is an example of an opening budget question that helps readers explain what it is and what this question is used for, “Sometimes cost is a big issue. On scale of 1-10, with 10 being a high degree of sensitivity, where would you rate your company in terms of how important cost is in this whole effort?”. This question recognizes a potential issue and tries to make the customer aware that you as the salesperson are caring and want to meet the customers needs. Here is a question that will tell the salesperson about other key money related decisions that need to be made. “What is your internal process for getting contracts approved?” Whether it is a small business or a business with an estimated value in the billions, a budget is always in place to make sure that the business will not go under. In class, we were given the example of the business who generated around 80 million per year who at the same time tried to negotiate over $2,000 dollars. While it may seem like a small amount to some people compared to the $80 million the company had just brought in, to the company itself it was a large sum of money. With that being said it is imperative that the salesman or saleswoman have this in the back of their head while talking to the customer. While there are several ways, such as bracketing, that the salesperson ultimately comes to a number with the company, having a handful of opening budget questions available to use is the first step in that process will make the sale go down easier as a result.