If there’s one mistake Colleen Stanley has seen salespeople make over and over again in her 20-year career as a sales trainer, it’s a failure to ask the simple questions.
A well-timed follow-up like, “Can you give me a recent example?” may not shock anyone with its originality, but it does open the door for the customer to share a story. When that happens, the salesperson can gather the insight they need to build a relationship and close a deal.
Every salesperson knows that the key to effective discovery is to ask open-ended questions, but Stanley, who’s the president of SalesLeadership, has found that most forget to do it because they’re so focused on closing. She often encourages salespeople to make a list of these simple questions that they know they should ask but fail to, and then think about what information they’re missing out on.
The missing information could have helped them gain a deeper understanding of the customer’s issue, learn what their budget priorities are or establish an emotional connection. Without those, a deal isn’t likely to get done. Continue reading “The Best Open-Ended Questions for Salespeople to Ask”