Jeremy explains why understanding the engagement stage matters in sales. Asking situation questions helps prospects recognize their own problems instead of you telling them what's wrong.
Most salespeople never find this out. The second stage, this is called the engagement stage. The first part of that stage is we have to ask what are called situation questions. Now, there's two reasons why we have to ask situation questions. The first reason, you, the salesperson, have to understand the prospect's real situation. Because most salespeople never find this out. Most salespeople ask a few questions and the prospect gives them some vague answers. And the salesperson never really understands fully what the real situation is. So what they're saying at the very beginning is usually just the surface of what's really going on. Because if you don't find out the real situation, how are you ever going to build a gap to where they want to be if you don't really know where they're even at? The second reason why I'm asking them is I have to get the prospect to understand their real situation. More importantly than even you is getting the prospect to understand the real situation. Because when you first start talking to a prospect, do they really understand their problems, their situation, what's really going on? Unlikely. They might know that they have a problem. They might know a little bit about their situation, but they don't necessarily know how bad it really is. They don't really necessarily understand the consequences of what happens if they don't do anything about it. What I always say is the biggest problem in life, the problems that you don't know you have. I'm going to show you the next part of this. This is really important.
