Discovery Questions: How to Ask Better Sales Questions?
It’s an outdated notion to think of salespeople as people who just give out facts and figures. Highly effective salespeople are like “detectives” and can learn as much as possible about their target audience through questions.
Sales leader Paul Cherry once said that questioning is like firing off truth-seeking missiles. It is uncommon for customers to divulge their innermost thoughts during professional interactions. They may only reveal 20%, according to some estimates. For the most part, it's up to the salesperson to uncover that other 80%.
In many sales meetings, we see salespeople ask poor-quality questions that can make it seem like they are making progress in sales when, in reality, they are not. Do many of these questions below sound familiar?
“What is your knowledge of our company?” “Are there any projects we can work on?” "Can I provide a quote for any projects?" "Would you like to see a demo?" Such questions may imply that you are more concerned with your own interests than those of the customer. They may seem less interested in providing helpful solutions and more interested in pushing their own products.
"What industries do you serve?" "How long have you been in business?" These questions can be a waste of your buyer's time because we could have found the answers to them elsewhere.
"Would you consider the price being an important factor for your decision making?" "Do you want to achieve your next quarter’s sales target?" "If I could show you a way to cut your costs in half, would you be interested?" Leading questions like these are crafted to elicit a certain response rather than the truth. We learn nothing and the customer feels manipulated.
The lack of preparation is a major factor in why salespeople don't ask better questions. If you have a plan or a set of tools ready ahead of time, you can prepare your discovery questions with confidence. There are a few general types of questions that can help you improve your skills at asking discovery questions:
Educational questions that are intended to expand the customer's knowledge. For example, “Early this morning, I saw the press release of one of your competitors signing a partnership deal with the city government. Can we chat about how we may work together to enhance your competitive advantage?” People who are good at selling put themselves in the position of an expert or advisor who can help their potential clients in some way. To craft a question that will educate your prospect, all you need to do is stay abreast of developments in your field and any other trends or issues that may have an impact on your prospect's business.
Expansion questions. For example, “You mentioned that the restructuring reduced the marketing team’s headcount in half. Has your company’s marketing strategy changed? How does that change affect your day-to-day work?” These inquiries follow up on the information provided by the buyers, allowing you to delve more deeply into the problems they are experiencing. By elaborating on a couple of key points that have been identified as emotional triggers, you can get your clients to relax and share more of their true feelings and motivation.
Questions about the past problems and future success. These inquiries are meant to delve deeper into the consequences of the problems the client is experiencing. After a client has described a problem and provided an example, you should direct their attention to the problem's consequences. You can juxtapose the questions about the better future when a solution is implemented. Comparing the past and future states allows you to paint a picture of what the future could hold if the client worked with you, and thus increase the likelihood that he will choose to do so. It’s important to note that “success” may mean different things depending on who your customers are. Some successes include bonus, recognition, competitive advantage, risk avoidance. We have laid out a typical internal stakeholder map for a client in this article.
During limited facetime with prospects, we should ask as many efficient discovery questions as possible to get to the truth and uncover needs. The fewer low-quality questions you ask, the more time you have for high-quality questions. Low-quality questions deliver value to you, but high-quality discovery questions are crafted to deliver solutions to your clients.
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