5 Sales Questions That Unlock Hidden Pain (And Close More Deals)

If you're a salesperson and you want you or your teams to start selling more, you want to pay attention to what I'm going to go over. So I'm going to teach you something today called precision probing. Okay? So we're going to give you some examples of precision probing and how you can use it for what you sell. Now the first thing I want to show you is right here. This is something that you have to understand. Okay? What are the two biggest emotional drivers that cause a human being to want to change? Number one is pain. Now your lay down sales that come to you, they might be in this situation where they already feel so much pain, so they feel more pain with their problems than they do with the pain of letting go of that money it takes to solve those problems. Those are lay down sales. But how many prospects you talk to are laid outs? 5% if that, maybe 10%, probably unlikely. It's probably 5% or less, maybe 1 or 2%. Okay. Now the second way a prospect wants to change emotional driver that caused them to change is that they have a fear and that this pain is going to keep happening or the pain could happen. Let's say they don't have much pain. Now, let's say if you sell life insurance, that's the biggest industry we train, they might not necessarily have a lot of pain around this. Now, unless a relative passed away or friend that didn't have a policy and they felt the pain of that family, right. Because they were not financially protected. Now they had to get into debt, they had to move out of their house, they might feel pain that way. But a lot of that is a fear of future pain that it could happen down the road if they don't do something now. So you want them to feel both. If you only have them then feeling pain right now, but not really a fear that it's going to keep happening, they're not going to feel that much need. Okay. And if you only get them to fear that, you know there could be a time where they need it, it's not likely. Well, you're still going to get some people, but you're going to lose a lot of people as well. So we want them to feel both. Okay. And I'm going to show you to do that. Okay. Now what causes a prospect to relive their pain are not surface level questions like can you tell me two challenges that you're having? Okay. That is a very surface level, vague question. Okay. That the prospect knows where that leads. So that's why you get A lot of surface level, vague generalized answers from your prospects because you've been taught how to ask vague generalized surface level questions. There's no doubt why they give you vague responses. Okay? So when you ask questions, you have to be able to know how to clarify and probe off those questions to get them to feel pain. Okay? Now why do we use precision probing and I'm going to show you some examples here in a second. Remember, we want to help them relive their pain of their current situation and even their past history, okay? That drives change, okay? And we want them to tell themselves why they want to change, which I'm going to show you to do that in a second. That is self persuasion, okay? Is it more persuasive if you tell the prospect why they should change? Or is it more persuasive if your questions allow them to tell themselves why they feel they need a change, which is going to be more persuasive. Of course, the second form where the prospect is telling themselves why they need to change. Now they're not just going to tell themselves they need to change without you knowing what questions to ask that trigger that and knowing how to use your tonality to trigger that emotional response. Those are learned skills you have to acquire. Prospects aren't just going to tell you all that unless like I said, they're a lay down sale. Okay? This also causes them to go below the surface. So like I always like, let's go back to the movie Titanic, okay? When they hit that iceberg, you really, you only see like a small portion of that iceberg, right? That's what they saw on the surface. But what was below it, you know, 300, 400 meters of iceberg. And that's where most prospects are. If you only ask surface level questions, you're only getting to see what's up on the surface. You're not seeing the 90% that's buried below the surface. They don't trust you enough yet to tell you or to open up to you about, okay? That can change once you learn what I'm about to show you. Let me give you a few examples. And this is all contextual. There are going to be tweaks depending on what you sell and depending on what they say and depending on what questions you ask. I'm just going to show you a few examples right now. Let's say if your prospects throughout that discovery part of the conversation, whether you sell B2C and you're in a one call close, or if you sell business to business and you're in a.

Multi close option, you could be an enterprise where it takes a year. So let's say in that conversation, the prospect says, I just. I feel stressed about. And they repeat the problem. I feel stressed about. Whatever the problem is, I feel stressed. Let's say if you're selling for a marketing agency, I just feel stressed with the leads. Like salespeople just, they're not, they're just not getting through to them. Like people aren't even picking up the phone. They just got a lot of stress around this. Now what you can do, rather than just going to the next surface level question is I can simply repeat back. So if a prospect ever gives you an emotional word like they like stressed or tension or pressure or frustrated or I'm annoyed by, you know, this situation, or.

I have a lot of anxiety around XYZ problem, all you have to do to get them to open up is simply repeat back the emotional word with a concerned tone. Like a concerned, confused tone. I'm going to teach you a little bit about tonality right here. This needs to be said in a concerned.

Confused tone. Now, when I say confused tone, I don't mean I'm 109 years old and I'm suffering from dementia. Like, I don't know what's going on. I'm confused by I don't know what they mean by stressed. Because do you know what they mean by stressed? It probably means something different to you and to another prospect than it does this prospect. It doesn't mean the same thing. Right. So I can simply say, hold on, stress. How do you mean by stressed? Stressed. Okay, notice my tone sounds like I'm concerned for this and I'm confused. I'm not understanding what you mean by that. Okay, so I'm stressed. Or I can say tension. I'm feeling so much tension with XYZ challenge rabbit tension. And notice when you just repeat back that word in that kind of concern slash I'm not understanding tone, that confused tone, your prospect will emotionally dump. They'll be like, oh, gosh, you have no idea. And they'll just start emotionally dumping. Okay, that is good for you. Now, when they emotionally dump, you've got to know how to steer that conversation. You can't just let them emotionally dump for seven minutes and it goes nowhere. You have to steer it with more clarifying and probing questions, which I'll show you a few here in a second. Okay, let's say I'm like stressed. Yeah. Just the other day, it happened again when. Okay. And now they start to Tell you about something? Yeah, just the other day it happened again. When? Now once I find out that, okay, and now they could say different things here. I'm just saying they say, yeah, just the other day it happened again. When. And they start explaining it. They could explain it differently. It just depends on what you sell and the context. Then I can come back and say, this is a NEPQ probing question right here. Okay, so, so write this down. Then I can say, oh, how long has that been going on for? Now why would I ask them how long this problem or problems has been going on for? Because it helps them realize how long they've had the problem without changing it for. So I'm getting them to internalize in their brain how long this issue or this stress they've had to deal with has been going on for. See how I'm getting them emotionally involved? Oh, it's been going on, let's say for six months. So that's been going on for the past six months. Has it had a, has it had a impact on you? Now notice how I slowed that down. So you've been having, I can repeat back the problem. So you've been having to manually dictate your notes the last six years at that hospital. Like has that had a, has that had an impact on you? Now I'm also. Why are these periods here? Because this is a verbal pause. Because if I say this too fast. So this has been going on for six months. Has that had an impact on you? Well, yeah, I mean, it's not that bad. A lot of times if you ask your questions to the, I would say the biggest reason why your prospects give you vague generalized surface level answers is because you ask the question so fast you give them no time to internalize and think deeper about what you're asking. So you're going to get a knee jerk response which is not going to cause them to feel much pain. It's not going to cause them to get that emotional state. Now this thing right here. So if you notice by their tonality or their body language, if you can see them that they're not, they are emotionally open, opening up to you already. So rather than me saying this has been going on for XYZ months or years, has that had an impact on you? If they've already emotionally opened up before that, like they have just shared everything, they emotionally open up, I simply lean and say, what's that doing to you? Now notice how my tone shifts down into that soft, concerned tone. Okay, if they've already opened up Emotionally, I don't necessarily need to say, has that had a. Has that had an impact on you? I can simply go into, what's that doing to you? What's this doing to you? See, boom, right there. And emotions fly. Okay, okay. Or yeah, we're having some problems with XYZ and abc. Okay, so this is a different example. So we're having some issues with XYZ and abc. Can you give me a specific example of when that's actually happened? See, now I'm taking them back to what the past, their past history about when these problems have happened. Okay, so now I'm taking them back to that. Now I'm getting them to say to themselves how it affects their company or their department. Then I'm going to go back around. How does it affect you personally, though? Then how do you affect you personally? I don't want to ask this question first. How does that affect you personally, though, to like a C level executive or an A type? Because that's a much more harder question for them to open up emotionally. This how does it affect your company or department when that happens is easier for them to open up about that than their personal selves. That's why I'm putting that. Second, this is more emotional here. Okay? So I'm framing that the right way. This is more logical. Now, sometimes they can give you emotional answers when you ask this type of question, but most of the time it's going to be more logical and that leads for me to be able to open them up emotionally with that second question. You with me on that? Okay, good. Now, if you have questions about what I just went over, the easiest way to get a hold of me is simply to text me at this number right here. Okay? So hopefully that helped you today with precision probing. I want you to, you know, be able to understand how to get your prospects to feel that pain of their current situation and then have a fear of continuous pain and a fear of future pain if they don't change your situation by purchasing what you're offering that would actually solve those problems or challenges or emotional needs. Maybe you sell $50,000 Birkin bags, as my girlfriend would say that she wants one. Okay, I'm just joking. You know what I mean by that? If you're a guy now. So easiest way to get a hold of me if you have questions about, hey, how do I apply this to my industry? Or what do I do if the prospect says this, how can I clarify and probe? Easiest way is just to simply text me at this number 480-6-37-2944 and me and usually about three or four sales trainers, sometimes more. We'll go into a conference room about an hour, hour and a half a day. We actually answer your questions. So hope that helped you enjoy that. Go use it and if you have questions, simply text us and we'll get back to you. Take care.