As sales professionals, it’s our job to find out what our prospective buyer’s pain is. How? By asking the right questions, at the right time, in the right way. When we do this, our closing ratios improve. When we don’t, those same ratios get worse. Of course, we all want better closing ratios. That means we will want to start from the position that there is no room in our world for mind-reading.
The trouble is, we often do try to read minds without even realizing that that’s what we’re doing. If we’ve ever assumed that one buyer’s most important business goal was essentially the same as the situation of the last buyer we spoke to … if we’ve ever assumed that Buyer B had basically the same problem as Buyer A, with whom we spoke yesterday … if we have ever tried to “turn around” an objection we get often, even though the buyer did not give us that objection … we were trying to read minds. And that’s just not part of our job description.
Instead of trying to sharpen our telepathy skills, we want to sharpen our questioning skills. Fortunately, there are two simple, powerful Sandler selling rules that can help us to do just that.
David Sandler’s first simple rule helps us to avoid the trap of making assumptions or jumping to conclusions, even intelligently. Here it is: Never answer an unasked question!
Many salespeople love to hear themselves talk, and will instantly “fill in the blanks” when it comes to intuiting what they believe (with zero evidence) will help the buyer. This is not what professional selling is all about. If we answer a question that has not been asked, we are very likely to devalue, undermine, or sabotage the entire sale. For example: When someone asks, “How much is it?” – we don’t want to assume they just asked, “Can I get a discount?” They didn’t!
If we “fill in the blanks” by answering a question that has not been asked, we will have no way of knowing what is really on the other person’s mind, and we will be flying blind. We will be out of sync with our prospect.
We only respond to the actual questions on the table, and we only respond once we understand what motivates those questions. If we don’t understand the motivation for a prospect’s question (and we usually don’t), it is our job to get clarification.
So, if we don’t want to read the prospective buyer’s mind …
… and we don’t want to answer a question that the buyer hasn’t even asked …
… what do we do to uncover the pain the buyer’s world?
We follow the second simple Sandler selling rule: Answer every question with a question.
Do you mean literally every question? If someone I am meeting with asks me “How are you today,” do I have to respond by saying, “That’s a great question – why do you ask?”
Of course not. Understand: This rule is phrased in a way that’s impossible to forget … and a little provocative. What David Sandler really meant when he formulated this rule was that we should use a simple, powerful technique – known as “reversing” – as often as possible, especially in the early stages of the sales discussion. When a prospect asks you a question, reversing helps you uncover the intent behind that question … before you try to answer it!
For instance: Suppose someone asks if you can guarantee delivery within the next 30 days. That question may arise for several reasons. Is there an event on the calendar mandating that the delivery must happen within that timeframe? If so, what is it? Has a competitor promised a 30-day delivery standard as the normal turnaround time, and you must meet or exceed that to be considered as a vendor? Or is a key person about to leave the organization, meaning the purchasing process will have to begin all over from scratch with someone new thirty days from now?
All of these are possibilities -- and there dozens more. You won’t know what intent lies behind the question unless you say something like, “That’s obviously an important issue. I’m curious, why do you ask?”
It’s easy to see why Sandler emphasized this technique so relentlessly and phrased it as he did. More and better questions equals better information, which equals us doing our job as professionals: uncovering pain.
The two rules you’ve just read about are game-changers, but only if you implement them! Think for a moment of all the advantages of being truly engaged in the conversation by consistently following these rules.
When you are asking questions, the right person (the prospect) is doing most of the talking.
Questions shift the pressure from you to the prospect, where it belongs.
Questions flatter your prospect; they prove you are interested.
Questions help your prospect solve objections -- or at least see them more clearly.
Questions help you gather additional information on which you can base your responses.
Questions probe and illuminate, making it likelier over time that you are both addressing the "real" question.
The highest performers memorize, repeat aloud, and consistently follow these two simple rules. They ask better questions. They have great closing ratios. And you can do the same.