Sales questioning techniques
How to Discover the Prospect's
Needs - Wants - Desires
Stage 2 of the Proven Sales Process
Sales questioning techniques that make it easy to discover the prospect's Needs - Wants - Desires with a relaxed, structured, interactive conversation.
And that means you have all the information you need to create a great sales offer customised for them.
This is Stage 2 of the 4 Stage sales process...
Slide from the sales training course Selling SuccessYou've given a great introduction in stage 1 of the 4 stage sales process, now you want to discover what your prospect needs, wants, or desires.
A good Questioning Stage will make the discovery process a pleasant discussion and prevent the common mistake of it becoming an interrogation.
Good questioning techniques get your prospects talking about what is important to them and what they want from your products and services.
On this page you'll learn proven sales questioning techniques of the Questioning Funnel to structure and organise the questions you ask.
Follow this sales training and your prospects will write your Sales Presentation for you.
The Questioning Stage is the 2nd of the 4 stages of the sales process I use to train sales teams. You can see the other stages of the process by following the connections on this page.
The Sales Questioning Funnel
The Funnel includes the best sales questioning techniques I have come across in my long sales career and they work in face to face meetings and on telesales calls,
This is a way to get prospects talking freely on a wide topic related to your sales meeting or call, and then take the topic down the funnel to get more specific information. At the end of the Questioning Funnel you have a nice neat package of information that you can use in your Sales Presentation, the next stage of the Sales Process.
You can start as many funnels as you need with Wide Open Questions on different topics. These sales questioning techniques will change your approach and dispel the old practice of using Open Questions starting with Who, What, Where, When & How to start a conversation.
'Whether you're asking a couple of quick questions for a simple sale,
or need a long list of information for a complex product or service,
I highly recommend you use this sales questioning funnel.'
Sales Questioning Techniques Used in the Funnel
Slide from the sales training course Selling SuccessThe sales questioning techniques used in the Funnel start with Wide Open Questions, conversation starters.
They give the prospect a wide scope within which to frame their responses and the freedom to answer openly.
They are great sales questioning techniques to start a conversation, even the low responders will give you the information you need.
When they have answered your Wide Open Questions you can keep the conversation going with an open question, which has a slightly narrower focus.
Then the questions get more specific as the Sales Questioning Funnel narrows and you use Alternative and Closed Questions. Learn more about the types of questions and how to use them...
Wide Open Questions
Wide Open Questions start with a phrase that encourages the prospect to respond with several sentences or more of information. They encourage longer and better responses than old fashioned Open Questions and make it difficult to answer with just one or a few words. Examples of openings for wide open sales questioning techniques:
Tell me about...
Explain the...
Describe the...
Give me your thoughts on...
And there are many more conversation starters you can add to the list that will get your prospects talking. You simply add the topic you want them to tell you about to the opening, conversation promoting phrase. The scope of the question and the answers are controlled by the topic you add.
Open Questions
The Wide Open Question has generated a response that has given you information that you want to explore further. Now you use Open Questions, the Who - What - Where - When - How questions, to gain more information.
The Open Questions slightly narrow the boundaries within which the responses from the prospect will sit, allowing you to focus on a particular part of the response they have given you. You can see how the sales questioning techniques of the funnel start to narrow and target parts of the responses to the previous tier of questions.
Specific Open Questions
A Specific Open Question is formed by starting with Who - What - Where - When - How and adding a phrase to make the open question focus on specific information on the topic you are questioning.
For example: What colour, Which type, How many. Then the topic of the question is added to clearly define what is being asked: What colours would you like on the interior upholstery?
These questions are sometimes called Leading Questions because they lead the prospect to a specific area of a topic.
Alternative and Closed Questions
At the narrow end of the Questioning funnel you ask Alternative Questions, requiring the prospect to choose usually one of two options, and Closed Questions that gain a Yes or No response.
Example of an Alternative Question: You said you would like a dark read upholstery, would that be crimson or maroon?
Example of a Closed Question: When you say dark red, are you thinking burgundy?
These narrow questions give you the specific, fine detail on the prospect's wants, needs, and desires. Now you have a clear picture of what you need to present to the prospect in the Presentation Stage. If there are further topics to explore, start another funnel with another Wide Open Question and use the same sales questioning techniques.
Increase Sales by Becoming an Expert on
Sales Questioning Techniques
The sales questioning funnel will give you many benefits. The accurate and comprehensive information it gives you lets you present to prospects the best solutions, proposals, products, and options. And that means you will close more sales and get more customers.
I recommend this technique in all the sales training I write and present to teams and businesses in a wide range of sectors.
Learn to use the Sales Questioning Techniques of the Funnel
The sales questioning techniques of the funnel are so important that there are over 50 pages on the Questioning Stage included in my sales training course Selling Success
20 of those pages are on how to create your sales funnel for your sales role.
Selling Success is the course I have written and developed while managing and training sales teams for large businesses throughout my 25 year career. Everything in the course, including the Questioning Stage, has been tested and proven by working sales professionals.
In the course you get a step by step guide on:
- Which questions to ask
- Common mistakes to avoid
- How to use a Sales Funnel
- Organising the information you discover
- And how to gain agreement to a summary of the information
The summary is a key element of the sales closing technique that is woven into the sales process presented in the course. This makes closing the sale simple as you have already gained so much agreement.
Whether you sell face to face or by telephone, and no matter how complex or simples your products and services are, you will want to see what this sales training course can give you at Selling Success
The Other Stages of the Sales Process
The Questioning Stage is the 2nd of the 4 sales stages.
You can see sales training on the other stages at:
The Closing Stage
To view an overview of how all the stages work together visit the page on the: Sales Process
- Homepage
- The Sales Process
- Sales Questioning Techniques
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