It can be the difference between failure and success depending on the sales call questions that you ask. Initially, break down the first two different sales process stages to help in outlining what questions you should ask. The first conversation is the initial stage. Setting an appointment is the second stage. There are different questions that you should ask in each of the stages.
Sales Call Questions for the First Conversation
The initial time you speak with the prospect is the first conversation. This can be during a cold call, an inbound call from a prospect, or by meeting a prospect at a networking event. No matter the circumstance, when initially meeting or talking to a prospect, there are key sales questions that you’ll want to ask.
Initially, the primary goal when first conversing with a prospect is to perform some soft qualifying. An attempt to pre-qualify prospects to simply determine if it makes sense to keep talking is soft qualifying. Basically, you will want to ask questions to determine if there’s enough of a fit and need for both parties to invest more time talking.
You’ll want to focus on two different areas in order to soft qualify. Initially, we want to learn a little more about the details surrounding the prospect’s current state and environment. Specifically, these details are about how things are going in the particular area where your products impact the prospect. You will want to determine the following: Are things great, just ok, and/or have room for improvement? The answers to those questions will reveal whether it makes sense to keep talking with the prospect.
Now, you’ll want to ask the prospect some demographic questions to identify if they’re a good fit from size, location, industry, and role in the organization’s perspective. By asking very direct sales call questions, it will assist you in quickly identifying if the prospect fits well enough to keep conversing from a demographic standpoint.
Sales Call Questions for the First Meeting
If both parties are in agreement to continue conversing in more detail and schedule a first meeting, there is a separate set of sales questions that should be asked. The reason is, at this point, you’ll want to proceed with gathering more details to first determine if the deal is real, as well as gather details that you can use in generating a lead and creating real momentum.
In order to identify if the deal is real, perform harder qualifying than you did in the first conversation. The following are some sales call questions to assist with that:
- Why should the prospect purchase your product?
- What happens if the prospect does nothing?
- Has the budget been approved?
- What is the current decision-making process?
- What other options are they considering?
- What time frame constraints do they have?
The answers to the sales call questions will assist you in identifying if the deal is real, as well as if the prospect is qualified. Next, you’ll want to ask some discovery questions surrounding their current environment to gather pain details, which will assist you with building your business case as to why it’ll make sense for the prospect to purchase from you specifically.
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