COMMENTS
These are great questions. I also like to ask the opposite. Why wouldn't you buy? What would keep you from getting budget? Have you ever asked for budget in the past and been denied? What did you do then?
I believe that asking great questions is the single most important skill for a successful sales person, and having some prepared is always a great fall back. Thanks for the list!
Because my competition is so frequently "do nothing," I always ask questions like:
-What are the consequences of not moving forward with this initiative?
-How will you "skimp by" without our solution?
For the Forecasting question, we use a slight variation:
--On a scale of 1-5 (5 being the perfect solution), how you rate us?
--What can we do to become a "5"?
Hi, I like your blog!
My team is opening up the doors for our field team, calling a lot of cold contacts. We like to frame a situation we might help with and ask about their plans:
"We help inside sales bloggers who are struggling to get more of their audience engaged in order to attract more ad revenue” What are your plans in that area this year?
Of course, do do this you have to know a bit about who you are calling...
these are great questions and comments! One that I always ask is "who else is involved in the project / decision making / signature process?" (depending on where things stand in the sales cycle). Having multiple threads in the opportunity is key in case your primary contact goes silent or the prospect has an existing relationship with a competitor...
This is a great topic with some great questions. I like to use a questions like, "Help me understand,________." It is a good way to get the prospect talking about a number of topics relevent to your opportunity.
My company offers outsourcing IT services. A great forecasting question my team always asks is "Are you committed to outsourcing?" So often a sales person may think they are in a sales process when the reality is that the prospect is on a simple fact finding mission.
These are all GREAT questions and comments. A few more I keep in my bag are:
Introduction/Cold-Call stage:
"Let's pretend your costs were more than they had to be and you had more risk exposure than necessary, who would care about that? If I could do a free analysis to determine if that's the case, how would I go about starting that process?"
For decision process/budget stage:
"When was the last time you worked on implementing a solution of this scope that wasn't specifically budgeted for? Can you walk me through how you obtained the money and who else needed to be made happy with the solution?"
Hope that helps!
Good post and comments. My observations in the B2B world: nowadays, impatience with callers means the first question must be spot-on, not random. That mandates some pre-call research. I recommend a visit to their web site to find a "relevant event" to ask about. Doing so often clears their first objection, which is "Why should I want to have a conversation with you?"
Michael A. Brown
I qualify prospects to reduce my sales risk--that is, the risk that I will spend time and money pursuing an opportunity that is unlikely to close. There are four categories of questions I use, which I call the "Four Green Lights." There could be more "Green Lights,"--or fewer-- depending on your selling situation.
Green Light #1 Solution fit: Does my prospective customer have a strategic challenge or operational issue that can be solved using my product or service?
Green Light #2 Access: Can I get access to the person or people who have the authority to commit and spend the financial resources to procure my product or service?
Green Light #3 Resources: Will my prospective customer have the financial resources to pay me what I am likely to charge for my product or service?
Green Light #4 Timeframe: Will my prospective customer purchase from me within a timeframe that matches my planning horizon?
All of these questions can be answered with a "yes" or a "no." My qualification challenge is to uncover the answers to these questions as quickly as I can. In order to do that, I maintain a large list of other questions on an Excel spreadsheet.
How many "no" answers will disqualify a prospect? Generally, more than one.
Here are links to two articles I've written on related topics:
1. The Right Sales Questions Will Get the Right Answers
http://www.customerthink.com/article/right_sales_question_get_right_answers
2. Strategic Questions Will Uncover Strategic Opportunities
http://www.customerthink.com/blog/strategic_questions_strategic_opportunities
For some new ideas about how to qualify B2B leads, read "Asking to Send Literature is not Lead Qualification." Here's the link:
http://www.customerthink.com/blog/asking_send_literature_not_lead_qualification
Thanks very much for sharing the great questions. They are really helpful to let business owners to know their businesses better.