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The Sales Buzz Issue 133-Sales Questions to Discover Hidden Desires
August 02, 2011
Hi,

In this week's Sales Buzz:

Sales questions usually find the benefits that your prospects want from your goods or services. But if you look deeper you discover hidden desires that your prospect really wants.

If you can find these deeper level needs you will close more sales because you are giving the prospect what they really want...



Sales Questions to Discover Hidden Desires

Most sales questions only touch the surface of the prospect’s real needs. wants, and desires.

Imagine you are an insurance sales person and you ask your prospect the usual sales questions.

The prospect tells you that they want security for their family if anything was to happen to them.

They add that they are the main bread winner, they have a partner, and they have children.

That all sounds like good reasons to want insurance and you would then move on to ask more questions about their insurance needs.

This would give you enough information to present back a suitable insurance package.

You are then on the same level as all your competitors because they have probably followed the same process and the buying decision now comes down to the features and benefits of the insurance cover.

But there could be much more that they are not telling you. If you can discover these hidden needs you will be able to include features and benefits in your sales presentation that will give you an advantage over your competitors. And that means you will sell more than them.


Examples of hidden desires

What has motivated the insurance sales prospect to look at buying insurance cover now.

If you can discover the real answer to just this one question you can use that information to motivate the prospect to buy now.

This will prevent some of the common sales objections such as: let me think about it, or call me back next week.

Here’s a list of possible motivators that has made them contact you, and your competitors, now:

Their partner has been on at them for some time to get insurance cover.

Something has happened to a friend or relation that has made insurance cover suddenly important.

A change in how they see the world, such as worries about their health, their job, or some other area of life that can be made secure by insurance cover.

Many of the real reasons they have decided to look at making a purchase now will be personal and they will not want to discuss them or even let you know what they are.

Would you want to admit that your husband or wife has harassed you into seeing a sales person? And if the reasons are to do with how you are feeling or that your job is at risk you wouldn’t want to say anything that could jeopardise getting the cover.


If you had this information – How would you use it

Imagine knowing that your prospect was being pressured by their partner, or that they were worried about their health. As an insurance sales person you could add related benefits to your sales presentation.

You could present all the benefits of your service that will meet this hidden need. For example: How your company makes it easy for it’s customers in the event of a claim. You could even offer to explain all this to their partner and show what a great choice the prospect had made which must prove how much the prospect thinks of their partner.

This same sales questioning technique works well with B2B sales, Direct sales, retail and showroom, and even technical sales. Prospects have hidden desires that they want your product or service to help them to get.


Take for example a buyer in a manufacturing business.

In a B2B sale to a buyer looking to purchase manufacturing machinery, the conversation may be all about technical detail, cost saving, or increased output. The usual sales questions will gather information on the surface level needs that the buyer wants.

But, if you can look deeper you will find the real needs and desires that the buyer has.

Consider what personal desires the buyer may have related to this sale. Even though this is a Business Sale, making the right or wrong buying decision could have massive implications for the buyer. A wrong decision could have a negative impact on their credibility and their future career with the company.

If they make a good decision it could have real positive career implications. The benefits that the company receive will be linked to the buyer and this can be used for career progression and scoring points with the boss. These personal needs hidden below the surface will not be discovered easily by the salesperson.

A prospect is not going to openly admit that within their organisation it is better for your career to not make any decisions than to make poor ones. They may tell you about what they want your product to do for the company, but they will not tell you that they want to use these benefits to make themselves look good.


Go deeper and the hidden desires become more personal

We all have hidden desires, wants, and weaknesses. We also have beliefs that guide our decisions. Your prospects are human and they will be guided by their own beliefs and desires, even when making a buying decision for their employer.

The deeper you can see into a prospect the more you will see about what really guides them in their decision making process. Some of the reasons and influences behind a buying decision may not even be in the consciousness of the buyer. You may not see all their desires and beliefs directly, but with practice you can learn to read the signs.

How they communicate with you. What they say first is probably uppermost in their list of importance. Non-verbal signals, body language, and reactions. Their interaction with other people at the table.

If you study NLP you will be aware of eye movements and what they could mean. Facial expressions. There is so much more we can all learn to use when communicating with prospects in all types of sales environments.

My advice if you want to increase sales and earn more money or grow your business: learn as much as you can about people. And a really good place to start is by clicking to visit this page of free sales training on Sales scripts to discover hidden desires...




I'm Stephen Craine from the website Sales-Training-Sales-Tips.com

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