101 Questions for Any Sales Situation – Consulting Tips from the Million Dollar Consultant – Alen Weiss, Ph.D.

(read complete article at http://www.summitconsulting.com/articles/bonus_25.php)

An overview

This material is intended to provide questions to ask in virtually any sales situation, thereby:

1. Maintaining a conversational and “non-sales” approach.
2. Keeping the other party talking in order to learn.
3. Avoiding “deselection” by volunteering very little yourself.
4. Finding the buyer, building a relationship, and closing business.
5. Accelerating the entire sales process.

The opposing page provides the opportunity for you to customize the questions to fit your particular type of sale, niche, specialty, or customer. I strongly advise that you personalize the generic questions so that they support your particular practice or business.

You might choose to take this manual on calls, to keep it by the phone, or to use it as the basis for printing out your own questions to keep in your briefcase or calendar. The copyright is intended to protect the work as it is presented, and to avoid resale or unethical use. However, you should feel free to incorporate the generic questions and the derivations that flow from them into your personal routine and support materials.

The questions are deliberately overlapping, and stop just short of duplicative. Essentially, you want to elicit the same information in as many diverse ways as possible.

A few guidelines for use 

• Don’t interrogate people. It’s seldom necessary to ask even the majority of questions in any one category.
• Employ follow-up questions. The questions contained herein are “triggers” which may engender a response that demands further clarification.
• Trust is essential for candor. The other party will be most honest and responsive when trust is established (e.g., they believe you have their best interests in mind).
• Never be content with a single question, no matter how satisfying the answer appears to be. Some people will attempt to deceive you to save their ego, and others will inadvertently deceive you because they misunderstood the question. I recommend that you use at least three questions per category if the answers are consistent, and six or more if the answers appear to be inconsistent.

These questions are rational, objective, and most of all, based on common sense and simple discourse. Try not to be distracted or to digress yourself until the answer you’re seeking in any given category is forthcoming. For example, it’s dysfunctional to ask questions about objectives if you haven’t asked the questions to satisfy you that you’re talking to an economic buyer. Discipline is best.

Ironically, the longer you take to find the right answers, the more you accelerate the business.

Good selling and good luck! 

1.  
   1. Why do you think we might be a good match?
   2. Is there budget allocated for this project?
   3. How important is this need (on a scale of 1-10)?
   4. What is your timing to accomplish this?
   5. Who, if anyone, is demanding that this be accomplished?
   6. How soon are you willing to begin?
   7. Have you made a commitment to proceed, or are you still analyzing?
   8. What are your key decision criteria in choosing a resource?
   9. Have you tried this before (will this be a continuing endeavor)?
   10. Is your organization seeking formal proposals for this work?

Qualifying the ProspectThis is the process of determining whether the inquiry is appropriate for your business in terms of size, relevance, seriousness, and related factors. In other words, you don’t want to pursue a lead which can’t result in legitimate-and worthwhile-business.

Questions: 

Key Point: You want to determine whether the potential work is large enough for your involvement, relevant to your expertise, and near enough on the horizon to merit rapid responsiveness.

Get the other 91 Sales Questions at http://www.summitconsulting.com/articles/bonus_25.php 

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