Here are ten sales questions that could immediately improve your sales results. These simple questions can help you extract key details to better qualify prospects, leading to a healthier pipeline of easier-to-close deals.
1. Why are you looking to make a change?
If you are talking to a prospect interested in purchasing your products and services, it is valuable to understand why they are seeking a change. You can likely tell them exactly why they should make a change, but getting them to explain it in their own words can reveal valuable insights.
And if they are not able to answer you or do not have a good answer, you might find out that you are not talking to a qualified prospect.
2. What happens if you do not do anything?
You may have great discussions going on with a prospect – you have a really great product, and the prospect is very excited about it and appears very interested. But what happens if the prospect does not buy this product from you?
The key thing here is that if there’s no big impact if the prospect does nothing, there could be some doubt about whether the deal is real and whether the prospect will pull the trigger.
You are asking to identify prospects where there is a noticeable impact if they do not purchase. This help will help create the justification to make the commitment when it is time to purchase.
3. What other options are you considering?
It’s common for salespeople to assume they are the only option the prospect is considering. Salespeople can often either forget to ask sales questions to identify the competition or feel it is not appropriate to ask.
However, the best practice is to always assume that the prospect is talking to other vendors. And with that, a very direct question of “Who else are you all looking at?” is very important and appropriate to ask, and the answer will provide very valuable information.
4. How do you feel about your other options?
Once you know what other options the prospect is considering, follow up by asking sales questions to gauge how they feel about those potential directions. They may be looking at your direct competitor. Find out what they think about them.
And if they are not looking at anyone else, the other option is to do nothing, and your competition is the status quo. This is a good time to see how they feel about the option of doing nothing.
5. How long have you been looking at them?
If the prospect is talking with other vendors, it is important to find out how long they have been talking with them. If they have been talking with the other vendors for months and you are just now getting involved, it is likely that strong relationships and rapport have been built on that side, and you may be more of an outsider.
If that is the case, it is not a game-stopper, but it is a valuable detail that can tell you where you stand and how much time you should invest, as you might be far from being the frontrunner in winning the deal. And if there is not a large time difference, then there may be an even playing field in relationships.
6. What do you want to do next?
It’s common for salespeople to ask questions that push prospects to move forward. And part of that is trying to get the prospect to do what the salesperson wants next, such as scheduling a meeting, seeing a demo, reviewing paperwork, etc.
But sometimes a more powerful approach is to ask the prospect what they want to do next. Of course, you can make suggestions about which direction to take, but checking in and getting the prospect to verbally state what they want to do, and having the forward direction come from them, can be a very healthy approach to building relationships and creating quality leads.
7. What is the decision-making process?
You will always want to know how much power the prospect has and who the ultimate decision maker is. This can sometimes be a tricky subject: either you might not want to ask the prospect how much power they have, or if you ask who the decision maker is, they may just say they are when they truly aren’t the ultimate decision maker.
An easy way around this and to get to the key information you need is to ask sales questions that probe into the decision-making process. Have them take you through the main steps, all the way to the purchase. Yes, they might be one of the decision-makers in the process, but if you try to map out the steps, you may identify if a committee is involved and what other parties will need to sign off.
8. What are the criteria that you will be basing your decision on?
The prospect might ask you many questions about your products and services. And you might be answering all of their questions. But in most cases, their questions are being driven by some set of criteria – a list of requirements that they are looking for, and they are asking you questions to determine how you align with their decision-making criteria. They will likely purchase from the vendor that aligns best.
You could just answer all of their questions, but if you really want to improve your odds of getting the business, ask sales questions that find out what the criteria are that they will be basing their decision on, and then work to communicate how you match up better than anyone else.
9. Is there a budget approved for this purchase?
An important factor in qualifying prospects is whether they have money to spend. This is also an area where a salesperson may begin to feel uncomfortable or feel like it is inappropriate to inquire about.
That is understandable, but if you ask this question very directly, “Is there a budget approved for this purchase?”, you will begin to get an idea if there is money to spend.
10. What is the budget range that you are trying to stay within?
And if the prospect has money to spend, it is helpful to know how much, or at least the amount they are open to spending, in the same ballpark as your product’s cost. This also falls into the tricky sales questions: not only do you not want to ask the prospect how much they want to spend, but they also do not want to answer that question.
Think of it like asking interview questions. If you ask the prospect what budget range they are trying to stay in, you can usually get some information about how much they have and are willing to spend, which will tell you whether you are even in the same ballpark. You can add some sample ranges to this question by saying, “Are you looking to stay within the area of $10K to $25K, or do you need to be in $50K to $100K?”
SalesScripter will provide you with powerful sales questions.
