Brian Tracy breaks down three types of sales questions: open-ended ones that start with what, where, when, why, which, who, or how to get full answers; closed-ended questions that get yes or no and move toward closing; and negative answer questions that reveal if someone is open to change. Planning and practicing these, especially closed questions, closes more sales.
Your ability to ask good questions in a sales conversation is the key to making more and better sales and of course, more money for yourself and for your customers. I'm sorry. And for your company. So how do you ask better questions? Well, over open ended questions, as you know, start with what, where, when, why, which, who and how. And you cannot answer an open ended question with a yes or no. But a closed end question is what you use to get resolution to bring about specific answers. For example, you would say, are you using this type of a product today? Is this what you're looking for? Would you be planning to make a decision in the short term? Do you plan to buy this product or service within 6 or 12 months? Whenever you ask a question that begins with a verb, the answer is always a yes or a no. Now you know the person who asks questions has control. So when you ask an open ended question, what sort of things are you thinking about doing in the future? How is this working for you? Are you. Would this be an improvement on what you're doing? When you ask open ended questions, you can get expanded answers. But when you want the customer to give you specific answers with regard to his or her intentions or plans or whether they like your product or service, is this the kind of thing you're looking for? Is this an improvement on what you're doing today? Would this be the sort of thing that your company would like? When you ask closed end questions starting with verbs, you impose a sense of control and you move the sales conversation toward a conclusion and toward a sale. Now, there's one other type of question. It's called a negative answer question. You can say, are you happy with your existing supplier? If the prospect says no, that means that they're interested in looking at a new supplier. You can say, is this giving you the kind of results that you want? If the prospect says no, it means that they're open to a new product or service. But in every case, your ability to think through, write down and then ask good questions, especially closed end questions that bring about a conclusion and an answer is the key to your selling more and faster and easier in the months.
Sa. Sam.
