The most effective consultative sales reps ask powerful questions that display their expertise and knowledge while providing the client with valuable insights.
Their questions are “real” because they are authentic, sincere, and focused on the customer’s, rather than their own, agenda and success. By asking the right questions in the right way, effective sales reps allow space for the client to make the insights their own.
Before your next sales call, challenge your sales force to:
- Be More Curious. Look for areas of intrigue and possibility. Be curious and ask questions for longer than usual to avoid the bad sales habit of jumping to a solution too soon or making incorrect assumptions about the client’s goals, problems, or needs.
- Challenge Themselves and the Client. Arrive at solutions and ideas from various (customer, competitor, leader, stakeholder, partner) points of view. Test the status quo to invite deeper and broader thinking. Call out any “elephants in the room” and raise provocative questions that are in the client’s best interests.
- Go Deeper. Do not be satisfied with surface-level discussions. Focus on deeper and more systemic consequences and implications based upon their experience.
